March 4, 2023

On form Brunet takes Q2 & 3 at MIBO International

France’s Antoine Brunet is the man on form at the MIBO International Race this afternoon, the Xray driver posting TQ runs in the second and third rounds of qualifying at the Czech event.  Having opening the day with P2 behind Ronald Volker, Brunet went one better in Q2 as Volker struggled with a set-up change before crashing out.  Oliver Havranek would make it an Xray 1-2 with ahead of the Yokomo of Christopher Krapp and Eric Dankel who had given Mugen a 1-2 in Q1.  Finding his form even better was to come from Brunet in Q3 as he set a new fastest time bettering that of Volker by over a second.  Again it was Havranek who was second fastest as he got to within 1/10th of  a second of his team-mate.  Back after his Q2 crash but struggling with his new body shell, Volker would complete the Top 3 ahead the IRIS One of Dionys Stadler.

While struggling with how nervous his car was at the start of the second qualifier, Brunet said a change to his tyre prep had overall given him a much more consistent car over the 5-minutes and he was delighted to take Q2.  Going with the same tyre prep for Round 3, he found the track conditions ‘more oily’ and that resulted in his car feeling ‘sticky mid corner’, something he plans to make a small adjustment for in his car set-up ahead of the penultimate qualifier.  Despite the track conditions he was able to bag his second maximum points of the day describing it as a ‘clean run without mistakes’.

Setting the fastest lap so far in Q3, Havranek said he again made a very fast start to the second heat to lead early on just as he had done in the opener.  A few mistakes ‘hitting dot here and there’ dropped him from the lead with the Slovak driver complimenting his team-mate Brunet for being the more consistent driver.  Feeling he was ‘calmer over the 5-minutes’ of Q3, he said this was ‘a really good qualifier’ and with no mistakes he could get closer to Brunet with just 1/10 separating them in the end.  Motivated for the fourth of the five scheduled qualifiers he said, ‘we will see what we can do in 4’.

Asked about his Q3 exit, Volker replied, ‘I told you about changing my diff, well it was the wrong choice’.  Suffering a fast crash and contact with the boards this broke his car with just 1:30 run.  Also breaking his body, he said having fixed the chassis, the fit of the new shell was slightly different leading him to suffer understeer.  Despite this the Mugen driver managed a P3 and is hopeful with a different body he can get back in the mix for Q4 which will bring Day 2 of the inaugural MIBO International Race to a close.

Sixth fastest in Q3 after his third in the previous round, Krapp said, ‘we are going a little backwards set-up wise’.  Happy with the points of P3 in Q2 he said it was 1 to 2 seconds off where they needed to be.  He said Q3 started better but then he had a ‘big mistake’ but admitted even without this they are still not there.  The World Championship Runner-up concluded, ‘the driver and the set-up are still not on point’.

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March 4, 2023

Chassis Focus – Antoine Brunet (Xray)

Chassis – Xray X4 23
Motor – Hobbywing V10
ESC – Hobbywing G2S
Battery – Sunpadow 4000mAh
Tires (handout) – Rush
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/BR1 BC-X4
Body – Xtreme Speciale

Image Gallery

March 4, 2023

Coelho doubles Q1, Zalewski doubles Q2

There were double TQ runs in each of the opening two rounds of Offroad Qualifying at the MIBO International, Q1 being ruled by Bruno Coelho, and Bartosz Zalewski making his mark in Q2.  Opening the action with 2WD, top seed Coelho took a very convincing TQ run from Xray team-mates Martin Bayer and Max Gotzl before topping the 4WD times from Zalewski for the perfect start to qualifying.  Retiring from Q1 in 2WD, Zalewski made amends second time round capitalising on many mistakes from Coelho to secure the TQ.  With his confidence running high, the Polish driver then added a 4WD TQ run again taking advantage of mistakes by Coelho who finished well down the order, as Bayer claimed P2 ahead of Gotzl.

Summing up the opening round Coelho said both cars were very good and everything went as expected.  For Round 2 however he decided to ‘try something totally different in the geometry’ and which wasn’t good and with the car difficult to drive this lead to many mistakes.  Leaving his 4WD unchanged for Q2 he said his result was simple down to his driving which he described with a smile as ‘mucking around’.  Planning to go back to the previous set-up on his 2WD and just make some small adjustments to that, he said with his 4WD he just needs to drive it better.

Describing both cars as ‘perfect’, Zalewski was quick to put his 2WD DNF behind him and said despite having to start Q2 9th he had a clean track and put together a nice run that was enough to top the round.  The No.2 seed in 4WD, he said Q1 was a good run ‘but Bruno was faster’.  With his XB4 ‘stable & fast’, he said it was nice to go one better in Q2 and the only thing he needs to work on for the rest of today’s qualifying is to drive them well.

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March 4, 2023

Volker takes Q1 from Dankel at MIBO International

Ronald Volker has taken the opening round of qualifying at the MIBO International Race, the German topping the times from fellow Mugen driver Eric Dankel.  Behind, No.2 seed Antoine Brunet would set the third fastest time from Xray team-mate Oliver Havranek, the latter having been at the top the timing screen for the early part of the heat.  Third fastest in seeding Christopher Krapp suffered with his driving in Q1, report his Yokomo as working fine he made three mistakes that left him only 15th fastest.  Summarising his run, Volker said, ‘it started off slow, I’m not sure why, but then I had a nice clean run’.  Topping the first of the five qualification rounds by 1.1 seconds from Dankel, the former World Champion plans to try a different tyre prep for his second attempt in the hope of getting his car to to speed quicker than in Q1.  He said, ‘Unlike other races the additive and cleaner here is open so I will slightly change my tyre prep plus I will also switch to a harder diff.’

‘A solid run’ was how Dankel summed up Q1 adding, ‘I had almost no mistakes,  I just overshot twice’.   Pleased that the ‘gap to Ronald is not too much’, he will run his car unchanged for Q2.  ‘I can run super consistent laps and the car is the same from the start to the finish so I just need to drive it’.

Setting the fastest lap of Q1, Brunet said he ‘lost a lot of traction in the last minute’.  The French driver said as a result of the lack of grip he pushed harder leading to make a mistake that cost him close to 1-second.  For Q2, he will change his tyre prep in the hope of preventing the drop over in traction towards the end of the run.

Havranek was pleased with his efforts but was at loss to explain a spin that cost him the TQ.  ‘It start quite good, I started fast even though I had an overshoot on the first lap.  I was leading but then I had a mistake, I did hit a dot but must have been a bump and it caused me to spin’.  The 18-year-old continued, ‘4th place is OK but the car is perfect so I will just check over it and try again’.  Behind the Slovak driver IRIS Racing’s Dionys Stadler completed the Top 5.

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March 4, 2023

Coelho leads way in Offroad at MIBO International

Bruno Coelho leads the way at the MIBO International Race, the Xray driver the top seed for both 2WD & 4WD Buggy in Hrotovice.   The World Champion’s first race on indoor carpet in more than 3-years, he has quickly found his rhythm on the 30 metre wide and 19 metre deep track topping 2WD from Martin Bayer and 4WD from young Polish talent Bartosz Zalewski.  Commenting on his morning’s work he said, ‘We have been making a lot of changes, testing & testing to make it faster and faster. Everything works good both in 2WD and 4WD’.  Asked if they had made any significant key changes he explained all the changes have been big to see if this is the right direction to go and if it is then the rest of the rest test it adding ‘this is a god race for this (approach)’.

Second fastest in 4WD and P4 in 2WD, Zalewski said his XB4 is ‘really smooth to drive and fast’.  The 16-year-old from Warsaw said he is pleased with the car set-up and has been more focused on his driving.  Describing his 2WD, in which his was 4th fastest, as a little unstable he said this feeling is probably more about how he is driving it then a set-up issue and so he will ‘work more on the driving’ for the opening qualifier.

Third fastest in 2WD, Max Gotzl summed up practice with ‘so far it’s good’.  The Czech driver continued, ‘both cars are good and most of my work has been on my hands (driving)’.  For 2WD he said the focus has been on a consistent 5-minutes while 4WD started off not so well a change to the car has since put in ‘back in the game’ with him seeding 4th behind his Xray/Elceram team-mate Martin Bayer.  Using the new Nitride speedo from Czech company Elceram, he said they have been doing some work on this also and he believes they have a good base set-up now for qualifying.  Overall Gotzl believes tyre management is going to be the biggest factor  to the outcome of qualifying.

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