Anderson goes top in qualifying at Montech NYGP

Kemp Anderson has gone to the top of qualifying at the Montech New York Grand Prix, the Awesomatix driver laying down a new fastest time for the AbsoluteHobbyz 1:12 Modified class this morning in Q2 as he became the first driver to do 54 laps of the 360v2 track.  Behind Xray’s Keven Hebert set the second fastest time improving on his time from last night’s opening qualifier but the Canadian still remains third overall.  Opening qualifying with a TQ run, Max Mächler struggled with his Awesomatix this morning but still completed the Top 3 ahead of the CRC of Andrew Knapp, the American suffering a late mistakes that meant he also did not improve on his Q1 time.

Asked about his Q2 TQ run, Kemp said, ‘the car was good.  I made a side spring change for that run.  I think the set-up is still on the conservative side so we’ll go a little more aggressive for the next one.’  Asked how he would make the car more aggressive 2023 World Championship finalist replied, ‘I need to check my battery voltage, I think I need some more power in it and I need to find a lot more overall steering.’  Anderson would also TQ the second round of the Speedzone Modified Touring Car class bettering his time from Q1 with Hebert once again his closest challenger for the top spot.

Reacting to his opening effort on Day 2 of qualifier here in New York, Mächler said, ‘I didn’t get my saucing right.  It was really hard to keep it on the lines.  I crashed out a few times, the track fells a bit more gripped up than yesterday and it made it too hard to drive for me.’  He explained, ‘I ran the same sauce as yesterday but I didn’t do a practice run this morning to know the track has more grip I should have gone with the track evolution and I went the same as yesterday so basically my mistake.’  Asked if he went with the drag brake adjustment he planned after his Q1 TQ run, he said, ‘I went two clicks, it helped, but the car was so aggressive it was hard to know how good the change was’.

‘No improvement, the car was difficult to drive yet it still pushed so I am going to try find another direction for Q3’, was how Hebert summed up Q2.  The reigning ROAR National Champion said, ‘I am probably going to soften the car.  Just understanding the car a little bit is what I need so I need to find the direction to go, I haven’t found the right direction yet.’

Knapp summed up his run with, ‘you know my car was a lot better round 2 but I had one little mistake at the end, I hit a curb, so it kind of cost me my run but overall I am within 2/10ths of a second a lap of the rest of the drivers so I think the rest of qualifying should go really good.’   The Michigan added, ‘Yesterday my car was a little bit pushy, I was just working on getting some rotation and today I definitely got it rotating a little bit better.  I haven’t run Mod in a couple of months so getting it all back together.’  Ask his plans for Q3, he said, ‘Couple more changes, we are going to make it a little more aggressive, little more rotation ands hopefully should have a good qualifier’.

In the eXcelerate 13.5 1:12 class it was Donny Lia who laid down a new TQ pace ahead of Q1 pace setter Mächler and Eric Anderson. Organiser of the NYGP, Lia had problems in Q1 and was lucky to make it out in time for Q2, and he put together a TQ run. The reigning Snowbirds Champion explained, ‘My goal that run after my troubles in the first run was just to get a run in so I wouldn’t re-sort down to the lower heat.  The fact that I was able to TQ was even better.  I was thrashing with scoring issues so I didn’t think I was going to be ready and I just barely made it out there on rerun tires and some other stuff wasn’t really how it should be.  I was just trying to get a run in but the car came in pretty well, so that was a win win, I was happy to just make it out there.’  Asked about Q3 he said, ‘I think we can go faster.  Tires is the big improvement we can make.  These tires were just to get out there.  The rears were tires I never ran yesterday but were sauced yesterday, the fronts were reruns that I practiced on yesterday so a hodgepodge of tires so first 3-4minute car was real difficult. The bottom line is just to be ready!’

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Mächler takes opening qualifier in New York

Max Mächler has capped off the first day of competitive action at the Montech New York Grand Prix by taking the opening round of AbsoluteHobbyz 1:12 Modified qualifying.  Third fastest in seeding, the 1:12 Spec World Champion took his Awesomatix to the fastest time around at the 360V2 track ahead of Xray’s Keven Hebert and top seed Kemp Anderson, the German’s advantage at the end of the 8-minute run 2.2-seconds.  Owner of the track and the man behind the Montech NYGP, which is now in its sixth edition, Donny Lia would post a P4 run for the round ahead of the CRC of Andrew Knapp and Prodigy of Josh Cyrul.  Mächler would complete a TQ double by also taking the eXcelerate 13.5 1:12 class first round ahead of Steven McNichols.

Admitting the being out front for 8-minutes felt like an eternity, Mächler summed up his 1:12 Mod TQ run with, ‘It was crazy and totally expected’.  He continued, ‘Thanks to Kemp for the whole set-up and everything because as you know I normally do Stock and just Modified for fun sometimes so I came here and he gave me the full set-up before and I copy when he sauces his tyres because it is quite different to Stock so I am following his lead and it worked out this run.  I think he got his car a bit too edgy this time and mine was easy to drive from my side at least.’  On the run he said, ‘After 6-minutes it felt like OK we could stop now, cause 2 more minutes is hard to manage but it worked out somehow.’  Looking to tomorrow second qualifier he said, ‘I will not change anything, I will try to stick with the same program, just reset and double check everything.  There is still room to improve because I have some lap times in between that are like shotgun so I try to get this more consistent.  Maybe will do a small change on the speedo and do a bit more drag brake which will help me because the Stock driver always overshot the corners so with a bit more drag brake it should help me to stop a bit earlier.  That is the only thing I plan to do, car wise no change’.

Summing up his run the second fastest time Hebert said, ‘I drove a really good race but the car just didn’t have the pace.  The car was too hard to drive, I went too soft with the front spring and the car was just not super easy to drive.  I just drove the best I could with what I had and it was a good run but just not enough.’  Looking to tomorrow’s second of four qualifiers, the ROAR National Champion said, ‘I will go back to the front stiffer spring and I’ll have to think about other changes to make trying to learn the car a little bit more.  It didn’t keep corner speed in the sweepers where I was struggling the most so I need to fix that and think about some other changes to do for the morning.’

Asked about his Q1 effort, Anderson said, ‘the car was good after but the first 15-laps it was hooking in the sweeper and I think it was because the body was ticking.’  Asked if he changed bodyshell he replied, ‘No same body, I went softer springs so maybe the car was rolling more in the sweeper that run than before and it was just hitting on the tyres.  After I got sorted out I caught up to Keven but just could get passed him to improve my position.’  Also the Top Seed in the Speedzone Modified Touring Car class, Anderson would maintain his form and TQ the opening round with Hebert again his closest challenger.

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Anderson top seed at Montech NYGP

Kemp Anderson is the Top Seed at the Montech NYGP, the Awesomatix driver fastest in both Modified 1:12 and Touring Car after the two seeding rounds.  The 6th running of the event at 360v2 in New Rochelle, New York, the US driver topped the AbsoluteHobbyz Modified 1:12 class from the Xray of Keven Hebert, the Canadian having set the pace in the first seeding round and unable to improve in SP2.  Making a return trip to the NYGP having missed last year’s edition, Max Mächler would complete the Top 3.  Based off drivers’ fastest 3-consecutive laps, New Yorker John Themelis would take his Excelerate RC Prodigy 12 to the fourth fastest time ahead of Josh Cyrul, the veteran US racer also at the controls of his newest design project.  In the Speedzone Modified Touring Car class it was a similar story with Hebert taking the first round before Anderson upped the pace in the second one, the gap between the two rivals 2/10ths of a second.

Commenting on his 1:12 car’s performance in seeding, Anderson said, ‘It was good, I made a couple of changes for the second seeding round and it was good but I stripped a spur (gear) so I’ll have to replace that.’  He continued, ‘I am still trying to find more steering but overall it feels pretty balanced and not too hard to drive’.  Asked about changes for Q1, four rounds of rocket round qualify on the schedule, he said, ‘I’ll change something else and replace the spur and see what we can do.’  On his Touring Car performance he said, ‘I made another change that time to get more steering in the 180s and it helped quite a bit there, the car overall feels pretty good.’  Asked about track consistency between runs, the 22-year-old said, ‘It pretty good.  This morning after the track sat overnight it got a little tacky but now it’s back to feeling how it did at the end of the day yesterday.’

Reacting to his seeding performance, Hebert said, ‘It was a good first seeding.  I was able to top the run by surprise because I haven’t had much time on the car yet.  It was a good start for sure as we only came out with this car 2-weeks ago.  I tested a little bit over the summer but I still need to fine-tune the set-up so every run I am trying something new to find what I like.’  Aiming to get a little more rear traction for SP2 as half way through the first run he lost a lot of rear grip, asked if he achieved that he replied, ‘Not quite, car didn’t have enough steering.  (The set-up change) wasn’t the right direction so I need to back it down and go back to the set-up I had in Seeding 1 and also make another change to get better steering’.  On his touring car, he said, ‘I just needed a little more steering still.  I left the car the same as I didn’t have time to change it so now I am going to make some other change for Q1, I am going to make a shock oil change.’

Summing up his seeding attempt Mächler said, ‘It was pretty interesting.  It’s big fun out there but hard to manage for a Stock guy but it’s fun with 3.5 turn over here and boost & turbo.  I’m enjoying it.’  Asked if he has been doing much to the car in terms of set-up the German replied, ‘Actually no, I had a start set-up from Kemp and it feels pretty decent.  I am right there with hot laps but it’s hard to manage consistent laps because it is very easy to overshoot and then you are directly losing 3, 4 tenths.  The car is plenty fine, the driver needs more experience and practice’.  Opting not to race Touring Car due to the upcoming World Championship, the 1:12 Spec World Champion is also racing in the eXcelerate 13.5 1:12 class in which he is seeded second fastest behind the similar car of NYGP host Donny Lia.  He said, ‘It’s going fine.  I am testing something different every run with the car just to get more knowledge with the new car on this carpet.’

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