Coelho tops first seeding round

Bruno Coelho has topped the opening round of seeding practice at the 2WD Offroad Worlds, the Xray driver fastest over 3-consecutive laps from Broc Champlin.  The Portuguese driver improved on his free practice pace by over 1.5-seconds being the only one to run 56-seconds and having half a second on Champlin’s effort.  TLR’s Brennan Schimmel put in a strong run to set the third fastest time just ahead of team-mate Cole Tollard.  Defending Champion Spencer Rivkin led the Team Associated challenge, posting the 5th fastest time.  Having set the pace in the four rounds of Free Practice, team-mate Davide Ongaro would have a problem with a broken rear tyre insert that meant he could only go 12th fastest and now finds himself down a set of tyres.

Commenting on his run, Coelho said, ‘the car is working very good.  I believe we made some good changes and now we will try to improve it more’.  Asked about what he felt his XB2 was lacking, the Electric Touring Car World Champion replied, ‘we want to make it more stable so we can run more laps without mistakes to prepare for qualifying’.

‘I stuck to my tyre strategy and it looks like Bruno did the same’, said Champlin of his opening seeding run.  The American Schumacher driver continued, ‘I set my car back to how I normally run it at big events and I will focus on being comfortable with the car rather than try find that extra notch’.  Asked about the body & wing change he tried in Free Practice, he said he would, ‘stick with the JConcepts P2’.

Crediting TLR engineer Frank Roots with his P3 run, Schimmel said a shock change on his buggy made it easier to drive.  The 21-year-old added the improvement ‘made it easier to put the car in the right spot of the track every lap’ which in turn makes for a more consistent 5-minute time.  Asked if he planned any further changes for the second seeding round, which brings Day 1 of the 2WD action to a close, he said he would ‘work more on his driving’.

Cole said his run was ‘pretty good’ adding ‘the track is definitely better.  He continued, ‘the tyres are better warmed up which takes a minute or two but my car felt pretty good’.  For the second seeding round, the Wisconsin driver said with the car to his liking the plan was to ‘just keep going around making consistent laps’.

‘I thought that was OK.  We’ve been making small gains’, was Rivkin feeling on his P5 run.  He continued, ‘there is a lot of stuff changing in the Top 10 but on overall time I think I ran a Top 3 so I’m pretty confident’.  He added, ‘There are a few different tyre strategies going on so it’s hard to gauge where everyone is actually at right now’.

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Ongaro tops free practice at 2WD World Championship

Newly crowned 4WD World Champion Davide Ongaro has got his 2WD campaign off to a promising start by topping the times in free practice on Day 1 of the 2WD Offroad World Championship in Arizona.  The Italian recorded the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the fourth & final free practice being the only one to record a 57-second time. His Associated was 2/10ths faster than Team Losi Racing’s Tater Sontag, whose team-mate Cole Tollard completed the Top 3.  Bruno Coelho would end practice fourth fastest ahead of Broc Champlin, who unlike the rest of the front runners, didn’t improve in FP4 having set his time during his third run.

Asked how he felt practice had gone, Ongaro said, ‘we made a few changes this round and it was definitely better’.  Using the final free practice to break in new front tyres, he said it took about 3 laps for them to come in but after that he was able to feel the benefits of running a front wing on his buggy for the first time.  He said, ‘the front wing was better for my driving style at least’.  Asked about the first round of controlled practice, driver’s best time from the two rounds deciding the heat the will line-up in for tomorrow’s qualifying, he said, ‘we will leave the car the same and just break in rear tyres for tomorrow.’

Sontag summed up his performance as ‘pretty good’, explaining they made a spring change that improved the car a lot’.  Having had a lot of grip he said he did not have enough steering but after the change of spring it had ‘more overall balance’.  Planning to use controlled practice to break in tyres, the 16-year-old is enjoying the track saying, ‘I like this one.  The left side has a nice flow and it all connects well together’.

‘I’m not trying to set the world on fire but the car feels pretty stable and easy to drive for 5-minutes’, was how Collard summed up his performance.  Still in his first season as a TLR driver, he continued, ‘we been making some minor changes but I don’t think we will change anything for the first round and see where that puts us’.  A driver who TQ Q5 of 4WD from the second fastest heat, the American said, ‘I’m not to worried about making the A sort as the Top 3 (groups) are all pretty close’.

Reacting to his P4 time, Coelho said, ‘it’s getting better and better. The layout is really nice and has a good flow so it’s all about set-up’.  The Xray driver added, ‘with the high speeds the landings are challenging when trying to get power down without losing the rear.  We are working on that but I think now we are on a good way with the car’.

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Phend sets early 2WD practice pace

Team Losi Racing’s Dakotah Phend has set the early pace in 2WD practice at the 1:10 Offroad World Championship in Arizona.  With a new layout at Hobby Action RC Raceway for 2WD, the first of the four scheduled rounds of practice was very much about learning the track in the low traction conditions.  With drivers giving the new layout a resounding thumbs up, the times tumbled in the second free practice with Phend fastest from the prototype Schumacher of Broc Champlin and newly crowned 4WD Champion Davide Ongaro.  Cole Tollard was the only other driver to run 3-consecutive laps in under a 1-minute as he set the fourth fastest time while defending Champion Spencer Rivkin was P16 on the time sheets.

Summing up his first two practice runs, Phend said, ‘my car feels pretty good.  I’ve just been making small changes to see if we can get it better but it’s pretty comfortable to drive’.  Having successfully defended his ROAR 2WD National title a month ago, the 26-year-old added he is enjoying the new track saying, ‘the layout is really fun, I really like it and it works well for 2WD cars’.

A very update Champlin said, ‘my car is awesome and I’m just breaking in tyres for races’.  Describing the track as ‘super fun and flowing’,  the Las Vegas driver plans to leave his car unchanged for Q3 however will run a different body and rear wing saying it was ‘more for comparison’ than necessity.

After FP2 Ongaro said, ‘it was better than the first one but that was the case for everyone’.  The Italian continued, ‘we now have the right base set-up but we will try to change something to go faster’.  On the new track layout, the Team Associated driver said, ‘I like it, it is more fun.  Maybe if we used this for 4WD it would have been better’.

‘Just making laps out there and not really pushing it’, was Tollard’s response when ask how practice was going.  Posting a TQ run in the final round of 4WD Qualifying, the TLR driver said they are making ‘small changes’ but waiting to see where the pace is at as the track comes in. ‘Really enjoying the layout’, he added, ‘I think it will be more technical for 2WD than what we had for 4WD’.  He concluded, ‘it’s still practice’ but the big thing is going to be ‘when and where to run your tyres’.

Describing the traction as ‘a bit low’, Rivkin said ‘We are getting into the rhythm’ and ‘collectively as a team we are looking for clues and making small improvements each round’.  Having put on a thrilling race in A3 of 4WD as he tried to hunt down team-mate Ongaro for the title win, the Arizona driver said, ‘the (new) track is awesome.  It’s super cool.  I think it will make for great racing’.

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