‘From Race Control’ – Day 2 of 4WD Buggy

It is Day 2 of the 4WD Electric Buggy World Championships and things get a lot more serious today in Chico, California, as qualifying gets underway.  A cloudy morning at the Silver Dollar R/C Raceway, the schedule starts with a round of controlled practice with drivers running in the new seeded order following yesterday evening’s 10th & first controlled round of practice. As with in 2WD the heats have been reduced from the 15 car runs in practice, something which many drivers complained about, to 10 cars.  Following the practice round it will be on to qualifying with the first of today’s four rounds, drivers counting 3 of 5 qualifiers, which is due to start at 10:10 local time.

Neumann top seed for 4WD Qualifying

Joern Neumann is the top seed for qualifying at the 4WD Electric Buggy World Championship in Chico, the Durango driver posting the fastest two consecutive lap times in the first controlled practice with team-mate Ryan Lutz making it a 1-2 for the DEX410.  Such was Neumann’s new found pace the German was a full second faster than Ty Tessman who set the third fastest time.  For reigning champion Ryan Cavalieri it was a disastrous controlled practice as he completed just two laps before breaking a front arm on his Associated.  This left the American 24th fastest.  Although he put in some surprisingly fast Top 10 lap times in free practice with his Xray, the surprise of CP1 was A-Main Hobbies team driver Tyler Vik who ended up 4th quickest ahead of Lee Martin, Ryan Maifield and three time touring car World champion Marc Rheinard.

Having started to feature on the lap charts in the final free practice after motoring down his Orion powered prototype DEX410, said that he drove a lot better and smoother in CP1 and this was contributed to his two blistering laps.  Having used full size rear foams in his front tyres for the full 5-minute run he said this improved the car a little adding that the biggest single improvement over the day came from his motor change.  Happy with how Day 1 of 4WD has worked out and with how his buggy is now working he said he will leave everything as is for tomorrow as the track conditions means that its ‘more about the driving than the car now.’

Better than expected, lets hope we can keep it that way for the rest of the week, was Lutz’s response to his pace in controlled practice.  Having started the day with Durango’s standard production DEX410, he found good form when he switched the the prototype car but in FP8 he managed to break the car.  Bending the aluminum chassis, of which the team only have one per car, he had to revert back to his standard car for the final free practice giving him just 5-minutes to get it dialed in for the controlled run.  Happy with the speed of the standard car Lutz said the key difference is that it doesn’t land as good as the prototype, joking that he can be trusted to break something when there is only one available.

Controlled Practice 1 – Top 10 times
1. Joern Neumann – Durango – 54.434
2. Ryan Lutz – Durango – 54.883
3. Ty Tessman – HB – 55.448
4. Tyler Vik – Xray – 55.452
5. Lee Martin – Tamiya – 55.574
6. Ryan Maifield – Assocaited – 55.716
7. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 55.836
8. Neil Cragg – Associated – 55.895
9. Mike Truhe – TLR – 55.956
10.Kody Numedahl – Associated – 56.021

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Maifield sets pace in final free practice

Team Associated’s Ryan Maifield set the pace in the final free practice at the IFMAR 4WD Electric Buggy World Championships in California posting a 27.318 with team-mate Steven Hartson the closest to him on a best lap of 27.401.  Behind the two American’s Team Durango’s Joern Neumann enjoyed his most competitive run top setting the third fastest lap with a 27.435.

Despite not going the full distance in the final practice, breaking a rear arm on his B44.2 when he caught a ‘crazy hole’ at the end of the main straight, Maifield said he is happy with where he is at heading in to first timed controlled practice.  Set to bring the first day of 4WD action at Silver Dollar R/C Raceway to an end, the round will play a part in the seeding the 10 car heats  for tomorrow’s qualifying.  Describing his buggy as ‘fast & comfortable (to drive)’, Maifield plans to run everything as is for what will be the 10th round of practice the only difference being drivers will get to run a full 5-minute race time.

Hartson said he has finally got to where he is comfortable with his car.  Having changed to geardiffs early in practice he said he then went for a front sway bar and for the final run changed to a stiffer front shock adding he is now ‘pretty much done with set-up changes’.  Pleased with his performance in the final free practice having strung together a number of consecutive 27 second laps on the tricky high traction track, the 21-year-old said his aim to try an repeat that driving in the controlled practice.

Neumann said FP9 was by far the best he has ran all day.  The Euro Offroad Series Champion said having felt he was under powered this morning he motored up from a 6.5 motor to a 5.5 but for the last one reverted back to the slower Orion motor which made his prototype DEX410 easier to drive.  Planning to leave his set-up as in the controlled practice he said he will prep his front tyres differently to make them a little hard.  With all drivers having to run Proline Suburb tyres front & rear, the official handout tyre of the event, he said he will use a full rear insert in the front rather than cut it to size as he has done so far in the controlled tyre preparation area.

Fourth fastest having topped a number of the practice rounds Naoto Matsukura said his Yokomo is good and he will leave it the same for today’s final practice.  The multiple Japanese Champion, and world class onroad racer, said he has come to a point now where he has realised the key to the track is all about ‘patience’.

Ty Tessman posted the fifth fastest time, the HB driver describing his new HB D4-13 as the best it has been.  The US National Champion has switched from carbon to plastic inserts in the front arms as well as switching to a lighter swaybar.  Liking the feeling of the softer front end he said he will ‘go with what we have for now’ for the controlled practice.

Completing the Top 6 in terms of laps times, defending Champion Ryan Cavalieri said things are looking good adding he has been ‘happy with (his) car all day’.  Having only made minor changes over the 9 practice runs he said in the later part of the day he mostly worked on rotating tyres between runs.  For the controlled practice the 3 time 4WD World Champion said he will go with his Orion powered B44.2 as is adding he doesn’t expect to change the car much more over the remainder of the event.

Elsewhere Jared Tebo broke a rear shock tower on his prototype Kyosho.  Crowned the new 2WD Champion on Wednesday, the 2007 Champion is struggling a little with finding a way to get more steering from the new buggy.  The man who finished runner up to him in 2WD, Lee Martin has after a good start to the day lost some of his pace. The Tamiya Racing Factory driver said since breaking his prototype TRF511 in FP6, when he land badly in the path of another buggy, he has been struggling and he is ‘not sure why’.

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