Batlle tops first controlled practice

As things start to get official at the 1:8 Offroad World Championship in Sicily defending Champion Robert Batlle topped the times for the opening round of controlled practice.  The 10-minute run of which the drivers’ 3-fastest consecutive laps over the final 5-minutes are counted saw the order of the Top 3 from yesterday’s open practice reversed with David Ronnefalk second fastest and Ty Tessmann third.

‘Very good’ was how Batlle summed up his performance in the first of the two controlled practices which will be used to determine the seeding of the heats for qualifying which gets underway tomorrow.  Making quite a big change to the set-up on his Novarossi powered Mugen, the Spaniard said this ‘worked out really well’.  Going for a stiffer suspension package he said while his MBX7R had similar traction to yesterday it was a lot more comfortable to drive making it easier for him to push harder. Continuing on Procircuit’ Hot Dice tyre, for the final practice of this extended event he said they will not make as big a change to the set-up as last night but he expects his team will make some fine adjustment.

Having made a big set-up change for the final open practice and found it improved his Kyosho a lot in certain areas of the track, Ronnefalk ran a combination of two set-ups from yesterday.  The Swede said his Orion powered MP9 ‘feels really good’ with him ‘able to drive it as I want too’.  A really consistent run, him unofficially running the fastest 5-minute time, he said he felt while he had ‘some small mistakes here & there’ he has a slight edge in terms of consistency. Running AKA’s Catapult tyre, he said other than fit a fresh set of tyres he will leave the car the same for his final run.

Setting the outright fastest time of open practice, Tessmann said his first controlled run ‘wasn’t overly good’.  The HB driver ran a set of Pro-Line Suburb tyres in X2 compound but said they were too soft.  Planning to go for a harder compound he will also switch pattern to the Fugitive but in terms of his OS speed powered D812 set-up he will leave it as is.

Setting the fourth fastest time Team Losi Racing’s Dakotah Phend was very upbeat about his run saying they are now ‘sitting pretty good’.  Making changes to the shocks on his Orion powered 8ight, the 17-year-old said the car was a lot better and he was able to ‘run a lot of good clean laps’.  Running Pro-Line’s X2 Suburb tyre, for the next they will possibly make a further change to the shocks.

‘Really happy’, that was the message coming out of the Lee Martin camp, the Mugen driver posting the 5th fastest time.  Rebuilding his Beat powered MBX7R last night in preparation for official proceeding including fitting a new chassis plate and plastics they were very happy with their 5-minute pace with mechanic Jon Dell recording his driver as being second fastest to Ronnefalk.  ‘All set to go’ for qualifying, for the final practice they will leave the car unchanged and switching just to a harder compound tyres having run X2 Suburbs.

Completing the Top 6, Ryan Maifield felt he put together a ‘solid run’ with ‘no mistakes over the 5-minutes’.  Running JConcepts Diamond Bars tyre on his Novarossi powered 8ight, the newly signed factory TLR driver is confident he has a competitive car for long runs, the qualifiers being 10-minutes long. Planning to make some minor adjustments before his next run, he is happy with where his package is at with qualifying now on the horizon.

Setting the 7th fastest time was 2010 Worlds Top Qualifier Jared Tebo.  The Kyosho driver made some small changes for the run allowing him to post his fastest three consecutive laps of the event with team manager Joe Pillars saying his drivers’ speed is coming good at the right time.  For the final practice, the reigning 2WD Buggy World Champion will go for changes that made his Orion powered MP9 just a little more aggressive which he hopes will result in faster lap times.

Behind Tebo it is the other one of America’s fast Ryan’s, with Cavalieri taking is new Team Associated to the 8th fastest time.  Another driver to run a different set-up to yesterday, the multiple 1:10 Offroad World Champion said while overall the changes didn’t feel much better his prototype RC8 was able to corner just a little quicker.  Describing his brakes as being a ‘little notchy’ adding good brakes were ‘really need(ed)’ around the Naxo World track, he said they hoped to sort this by scuffing in them better before the start of the next run.  In terms of set-up he has no plans to make any changes for now. Behind Cavalieri young Italian Mugen driver Davide Ongaro and Xray’s Renaud Savoya completed the top 10.

View our event image gallery here.

The Worlds according to Ruona – Sunday Practice

Of course I’m an excellent driver.  That’s the quote I keep replaying in my head while I’m driving around Italy with our little Fiat.  I’ve turned totally local, I’m not waiting on anybody and you better not try and moped by me because I might just decide to turn.   In the beginning I was getting the stare down from other drivers and now I’m doing the staring. I’ve almost rubbed mirrors with a van. I pulled out in front of a motorcycle. Walking people don’t faze me anymore.  Watch out for my Fiat bro!

Practice here today was a success for our massive team here in Messina.  Aerial photographs will be available tomorrow just after official practice.  Ryan Maifield stepped up his game today and he’s starting to really feel this Naxos track. After some early struggles with brakes and a bad traffic heat he was into form today and led the TLR team and ran an 8th in round 1, 4th in round 2 and 2nd in round 3.  Of course we are still takin bout practice and it doesn’t really mean anything. Or does it? Where would you rather be? On top or on the bottom?

I’ll tell you what, it’s not easy being at the top either. Ty Tessman has been posing for more photos than Kate Upton with all this practice success. Each round the photographers have to find a new pose to go with. #fastguyproblems

David Ronnefalk wasn’t as on-point as he was yesterday but still good enough for 2nd.  Rough day huh? He has great support in the pits and they look very professional trying to get their guy to the top. It’s amazing, this must be important or something…

The current WC Robert Batlle has his program in check as well. Each run he really shakes down that back chicane and angle double on the back stretch. His car has great corner speed and make no mistake about it.  This guy wants to repeat.  He sits 3rd after today’s championship open practice day.

We circle back to Maifield (cough, cough – JConcepts) who finished the day in 4th and is building in speed and confidence. The driver once known as too punched or too fast or wreck-less has a new style.   It’s called I drive however I need to in order to be successful. Oh, this week it’s short course, brap and oh crap I need to hold on to her.. Oh, this week it’s 2wd, smooth brap… This week it’s 4wd buggy… Fast forward brap… Back to 1/8th buggy, it’s concrete, I can only drive so hard….brap, brap.

Seriously though, this guy has a magic finger for throttle and gifted hands for steering. Watching him run the correct lines and driving the turns like a touring car today was impressive. He’s a long ways from where he wants to go this trip but he’s come a long way over the years to remain one of the best overall drivers in the world. #maifieldsoldier

The track conditions itself are staying very consistent. The only real hole is just before the blue table top and a high speed bump coming on the straight. There is a delamination of the concrete just after the double after the straight but it seems its no issue. It’s been a success so far and let’s hope it remains. Please, no one put in a concrete track back home because I said it’s been good.

We had some PA meltdowns today with some tremendous screeching sounds coming from the speakers for about 2-3 runs. I think Martin Bayer jumped clean off the track once because of the noise.  I was just watching and couldn’t take it. Next time I’ll ram the drivers stand with the Fiat.  Jim Carey has a new most annoying sound ever after today.

I started seeing some frustration from the drivers today who were either chasing the clock or trying to put in that practice run that saved the world.  A little yelling coming from the stand and pits today.  I like it!  I love when it’s passionate and it’s serious. I found myself yelling at a Kyosho car today who was jamming up Maifield in one of the heats.  It’s goes something like this….hey green Kyosho, how bout some space….!?!?! No disrespect to that driver but it gets passionate out there when cheering for your guy.

Did I mention it’s still practice? The JConcepts products have been working well and I enjoyed the day catching up and helping where needed. John McGinty put down his best run of practice so far and it’s exciting seeing the young guys have success. Thanks to RedRC for the great video of the new products and the coverage throughout the week. Check out the JC Facebook page for company news happening by the hour and blog.jconcepts.net for daily updates from around the world.

Open practice complete, Tessmann claims early bragging rights

An extended World Championship open practice, due to the fact there was no Warm-up Race, is finally complete with Ty Tessmann the fastest man in Sicily at the end of four hot days of practice.  Topping the final round of practice, it was the US National Champion’s time from the 2nd of the day’s three 10-minute runs that gives him the early bragging rights over European Champion David Ronnefalk and the defending World Champion Robert Batlle.  The highest placed improvement for the final practice came from Ryan Maifield, the US driver ending up fourth ahead of former team-mate Yannick Aigoin.

Running a 1:51.058 compared with his previous 1:50.743, Tessmann said he ‘maybe drove a little too hard’ in the final open practice but having reverted back to the stiffer chassis plate on his D812 he said changes to the buggy felt better.  Running Pro-Line’s Fugitive tyre, the 21-year-old said they felt good but for the first of tomorrow’s two controlled practice, the times from which will determine the seeding for qualifying, he will go to a harder compound of the tyre.  Overall the Canadian, who also posted the fastest lap of the day being one of only three drivers to break into the 36-seconds around the Naxos World track, declared himself happy with his pace heading into Day 5 of the event when things move up a notch and the event officially gets underway.

One of the drivers to run a 36-second lap, Ronnefalk said for the final practice he decided to try a completely different set-up which threw up a few surprises.  Making his Kyosho a lot better on some parts of the track, in particular the sweeper, he said it also made it more lazy through the chicane.  With the improvement in areas significant, the Swede said they now plan to start controlled practice with a mixture of both set-ups.

Batlle said he suffered a lot with traffic in his final practice but added he ‘feel(s) good’ with practice going a lot better than it traditionally works out. Describing the set-up he has reached on his Novarossi powered Mugen as ‘quite good’ he was also upbeat about his tyre options saying he had the opportunity to test all the various scenarios in terms of his Procircuit’s tyre wear. Asked if he planned any changes for controlled practice, the Spaniard said with the car going so well he would mostly leave it and just use the run to focus on going for a complete 10-minute run time.

Ending practice with his best three laps of the track Maifield described his final run as ‘a little better’.  The new Team Losi Racing signing said he know whats what he needs to do to go fast but could do with a little more help from the car.  Rated as one of world’s best offroad racers but having a World title so far elude him, the US ace said ‘its hard to set-up a car for asphalt and also get it to jump jumps’.

Former European Champion Aigoin said his all new prototype Team Associated RC8 was good the first time he put it on the track but since then he has used every run to try something new so as to build up knowledge of the new car.  Returning to the base set-up they came to for the car in pre-event testing for the final practice he said it was instantly competitive again.  For tomorrow the Frenchman said it was going to be just a case of making very fine adjustments.  Having run Pro-Line’s Surburb tyre he said he will run something else for the controlled practices as he needs to save his sets of Suburbs for qualifying.

Yannick’s twin brother Jerome also found a big improvement in the final practice to complete the overall Top 6 for the day.  The Kyosho driver and reigning 3-time French National Champion said going up in the diff oils for the last run gave him a much quicker car.  Still feeling he needs to find a little more from his Novarossi powered MP9 he said he is not yet sure what to change to find it.

Mugen’s Lee Martin would end up 7th, the British driver improving his time in the final practice.  Going up in the front diff oil, the British ace said the change made his MBX7R less twitchy allowing him to drive a little harder.  Saying he is ‘somewhere close now’ in terms of being in the mix for tomorrow he will just freshen up his car including fitting a new chassis plate and plastics with the first controlled practice set to be a system check of all the new parts.

Top Qualifier in Argentina, Kyosho’s Elliott Boots finally appeared towards the top of the time sheets as he set the 6th fastest time of the final round to end the day the day 8th overall.  Behind Boots was fellow country and newly crowned British National champion Darren Bloomfield, the Agama driver’s opening run of the day proving his best.  Flying the home nations flag, 13-year-old emerging Italian talent Davide Ongaro completed the Top 10.

Setting the fastest lap of the final practice round and the third driver to run a 36 second-lap, Dakotah Phend ended day 11th.  The TLR driver said a change to heavier diffs made his Orion powered 8ight a lot more stable with him able to drive harder and still be comfortable with the car.  The 17-year-old plans to make a shock change for the morning declaring himself confident for tomorrow.

View our event image gallery here.