The Worlds according to Ruona – Monday Practice

We headed out the door early today so we could make the first heat at 9am. Ty, Maifield and others were locked and loaded for great opening official practice. A little back and forth put Ty up front with his 3 best placing him well and Maifield just behind. The first 5 races have the fastest drivers from open practice so right out the gate you can see all the heros. Ronnefalk, Batlle, Lee Martin and others all ran very well too with Robert Batlle taking the first round with a great 3-lap time.

The 2nd round saw David Ronnefalk come out of the gate with his first 3 laps killing it. He busted out quick time of practice and took proverbial “TQ of practice.” It was amazing to watch and was nice to see the competitive response to Ty’s driving the day before. Between the 2, it’s a toss up on who can bring more thunder run to run. Lee Martin once again ran strong with his best time of practice and Elliott Boots finally put 3 laps together at his pace. I think Lee will put in great runs in qualifying for 10 minutes. The guy is legit in my opinion.

Robert Batlle slammed through another run and I’m impressed. I thought he might be pushing a touch extra but in the end he’s a proven World Champ driver and who am I to doubt the push? Dakotah got his last 3 laps to count during round 1 today and Drew Moller busted out of a mini slump and got his runs together to get into the elite.

Jared Tebo, remember him? The Neobuggy race killer, current 2wd World Champion and the media king of the 2010 Thailand worlds… He ran well today and bumped ahead of a few including Maifield. There are so many guys with 1 minute 52 seconds in 3 laps. The elite is 1 lap 50 and 1 lap 51.

Where is the 2008 champ Hara? I don’t know. He says he’s still sleeping until the Semi… Don’t sleep too long good friend. :)

Where is the 2010 champ Cody King? His cars look awesome but he just hasn’t gotten those magical 3 to go down. In 2012 Cody struggled and then bumped into the final to be amazingly quick. He’ll be there in the end and I think they will call on that tomorrow.

After about race 6 it’s a little tough to watch but hey, that’s where I would be too. I’m one of those guys that people don’t want to watch anymore at this kind of level…..great. It’s lonely in the back half of the tournament. Your pit guys don’t even watch you and might even be reading RedRC on their phone while you are racing.

It’s amazing how the fast guys have difficulty believing the slower drivers on setup, tire selection or really anything. At races like this everyone thinks the fast guys are geniuses and the slow guys are squirrels on and off the track. It’s hard to get that respect from the upper echelon unless you can put it down on the race track. You can know everything in the world about aerodynamics, suspension dynamics and engineering but if you can’t hit a lick on the track the fast guys won’t believe you. When you are fast you can tell people you feel 2gms of weight on the track and they believe you. When you are slow nobody believes you can feel anything.

Speed is everything. When you can drive, you are funnier, better looking, down to earth, everyone’s buddy, setup god, aerodynamic genius and part time engineer and life of the party. When you speak people listen, when you are having a party everyone attends and when you go to eat everyone wants to be at your table. “You are the man” You roll with a deep entourage and plenty of people trying to snag a piece of your success. This is what you see at the worlds and everyone rides these guys coat tails until they no longer have the magic. Enjoy the short ride.

It’s ok to be slow. It’s ok to be ugly, not funny or eating alone at the resteraunt. As long as you are having a good time, that’s what it’s all about. You don’t need to search out the support of the heros. Do your own thing, learn things for yourself, find a good group to hang with and get better. When the heros decide you know what you are talking about, you are improving. Congrats! Enjoy this as the longer ride.

R/C is strange, we really have very little technical track data at an event like this and all we can go on is driver feel, lap times and what they say. We have multiple sets of eyes on the vehicles and sometimes guys like me trying to get a grasp on the situation. It’s been my experience that drivers gravitate toward the product / setups they have their best runs with not necessarily what functioned better. They believe in luck, confidence and what keeps their heads from falling off or what prevents them from the ill fated…blow out run.

I’m here to tell you that the fast guys don’t know everything. They have practical experience, a massive load of driving talent and at some point or another conquered the mental game. Once you have those things, you are a fast guy and what you says matters. The next level is building a support structure around you that you can trust or rely on. Parents, spouse, mechanics, minions, sugar daddy’s and cheerleaders. Once you sell them on your ability and confidence, you have your support team.

More than anything, this is a sport that challenges you mentally. The mentally strong get the job done on a continued basis. To be the best or even decent you need to conquer the mental game first. Before the car settings, before the tires and before the engine you need to be able to log consistency from yourself. Mental power….

But does 3 laps make you the best? Does 10 minutes make you the best? Does 30 minutes make you the best? Does 60 minutes make you the best? I saw some guys today trying their hardest to fit in with the 3 lap heros. I saw pit guys so energized over hanging on for 3 laps that it was actually fun to watch. I saw guys at the bottom of scoring shoot to the top because they pulled off the 3 laps on their last 3 laps. Zero to hero! It was exciting to watch from the pits as crew and drivers hit high-fives afterwards to celebrate. But, there is really no pressure here right?

Are they the real deal or are they impostors? What will separate the men from the boys? More time required.

Video – Controlled Practice Rd2

Photos of the day – Monday

Ronnefalk top seed for qualifying

Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk will be the top seed when qualifying for the 1:8 Offroad World Championships gets underway in Sicily tomorrow.  Second fastest in the opening controlled practice, the European Champion upped the pace in the final practice to top the time sheets ahead of Ty Tessmann who also improved on his morning time.  Having set the pace in the first of the two practices defending champion Robert Batlle failed to improve but based on a points system over the two rounds rather than outright fastest time he ends the practice classified second overall.   Although he set the second fastest time of the day, Tessmann completes the Top 3, the names of which have been very consistent over the last four days of practice at the Naxos World track.

Continuing a Kyosho trend at the World Championships, Elliot Boots the top seed in 2012 and Jared Tebo top seed in 2010, Ronnefalk said despite some traffic issues he was able to put together three good laps and it was nice to be going into qualifying as the top seed.  Going up in the diff oils on his Orion powered MP9, the Swede said the change made the car feel more safe with him able to carry more corner speed.  Feeling the track had more traction than in the morning run he said while almost everyone was a little faster he was able to run more 36-second laps, posting 4 such laps with his 36.718 the fastest lap of the day.  Looking to tomorrow when the first two rounds of qualifying make up the schedule he plans to leave everything as is for Q1 and ‘go from there’.

‘On time not so good but actually not bad’, that was how Batlle summed up his final practice in which he was 9th fastest.  The Mugen driver used the track time to test the tyres he expects to use in the final, running a set of Procircuit’s Marathon tyres on his Novarossi powered MBX7R.  Suffering ‘a few mistakes’ on the double before the straight, a corner which all drivers are finding challenging, he said in terms of the tyres he was happy with how they ran.  ‘Ready for qualifying’, the Spaniard said setting a 10-minute time is a totally different game to the 3-laps which has so far been used to gauge where everyone is at.

Having went with a wrong tyre compound for the opening run, Tessmann said his HB was ‘better this time’.  Describing it as a good run and being the only other driver to match Ronnefalk with 36-second laps, the Canadian said he tried to drive it like a qualifier. Happy with the performance of his D812/OS Speed/Pro-Line package he will leave it as is for tomorrow including running the same set of tyres he used in the final practice and ‘just drive it’ with the focus for Q1 being on putting in ‘a clean run’.

Behind Tessmann was Mugen’s Lee Martin.  The British driver was third fastest for the round, his improved time moving him ahead of Dakotah Phend for fourth overall.  ‘Another solid run’, Martin said the important thing was that his time was again very good over the full timed 5-minutes.  Describing ‘everything (as) looking good’ for qualifying he said one area he would need to improve on was his entry & exit of the pit lane. With the entry proving a difficult due to the bar at the top of the ramp he said the high grip surface of the exit made it very twitchy and he needs to find the right balance between being too hasty and over careful.

Top Qualifier in Argentina but having been off the pace for much of qualifying here in Italy, a diff change put Boots right into the picture.  Changing to an LSD  in the front of his Reds Racing powered MP9 and going up in diff oil the British was able to put together three good laps to claim the fifth fastest time overall.  Also improving the car by adding 10-gram wheel weights to the front he is much happier now going into qualifying.

Making a shock absorber change on his TLR 8ight, Phend said together with changing to a harder compound tyre it was ‘not very good’ with the car ‘not very easy to drive’.  Unable to improve on his morning time the American teenager dropped two places to sixth overall both in outright time and the final ranking.  Set to change back to the set-up he ran previously he said he knows what the car is capable of and everything is good going into qualifying.

Tebo topped off his practice with his fastest run of the event to end up 7th overall.  The 2010 Worlds Top Qualifier and podium finisher was pleased to continue to improve the speed and consistency of his Orion powered MP9 recording the 5th fastest 3-laps in CP2.  Trying a different tyre for the run, switching to AKA’s Grid Iron, he said they were good but he preferred the Catapult and will go back for the opening qualifier.

Only a tenth slower than his morning time, Tebo’s sparring partner Maifield ended up 8th overall.  Admitting he can’t run 36-second laps, the quietly confident looking new Team Losi Racing signing feels he has a really good car for long runs.  Saying the three consecutive laps don’t count for much he declared himself to be in good shape once he ‘can keep (his) head on’ adding he has a lot of JConcepts Diamond Bars scrubbed in ready for qualifying.

Changing tyre compound and making a shock set-up adjustment allowed Italian National Champion Alex Zanchettin to end practice in the Top 10.  Switching from Pro-Line’s X2 compound Fugitive to X1 along with going up in the front shock oil on his Novarossi powered TLR, the 19-year-old posted the sixth fastest time for the round to claim 9th overall.  With more traction and able to carry more corner speed as his 8ight was less edgy he will carry that set-up into the first qualifier targetting a ‘safe run’.

Completing the Top 10 for controlled practice was Drew Moller.  The first time the American has travelled outside his home country the 18-year-old said the final run was a combination of his driving and set-up all coming together allowing him to post the seventh fastest time of the second practice.  A very different type of layout to what he would be used to racing on he said limiting the droop and lowering the front ride height on his LRP powered MBX7R gave him more corner speed. For the opening qualifier he plans to ‘go with what (he’s) got’ and continue to work on adapting his driving to the track.

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