Deja vu as Kaerup tops 4WD Seeding in Sydney
The opening day of 4WD action has ended at the 1:10 Offroad World Championships and in a somewhat deja vu outcome of what we witness in 2WD in Australia on Monday, it was Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup who concluded proceedings by topping seeding. While the Dane ended the day fastest, unlike 2WD he didn’t have it completely to himself in practice. After the opening two free practice rounds it was the defending World Champion Davide Ongaro who sat at the top of the times before two more rounds promoted Schumacher’s Daniel Kobbevik to pace setter on the reversed Hills RC Off Road track layout. Seeding would open with Kobbevik carrying his form as he went fastest in CP1 ahead of the Xray of American Brennan Schimmel, the Slovakian manufacturer very much in the hunt after their 2WD woes. With Kobbevik unable to improve on his best 3-laps in the second seeding round, Kaerup, who was only 6th after the first one, would go a tenth quicker than Kobbevik to goe into qualifying tomorrow as the Top Seed. With Kobbevik carrying the number no.2 for qualifying, it would be Dakotah Phend who ended up being closest to the Scandinavian duo, the American 3/10ths of a second off the pace. Also bettering his time in CP2, David Ronnefalk set the fourth fastest time with Schimmel’s CP1 time giving him P5, Xray looking strong with 3 cars in the Top 5. Failing to make the Top 10 in any of the four free practice rounds, Michal Orlowski ended the day with a run that sees the Schumacher driver complete the Top 6 ahead of Ongaro while his team-mate & newly crowned 2WD World Champion Broc Champlin finds himself in the second fastest heat. As history shows however this isn’t such a bad thing, the American having also started out in the second fastest qualifying group in 2WD.