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November 16, 2017

Neumann top seed in China as CP2 proves slower

Joern Neumann is the top seed at the 1:10 4WD Offroad World Championships in China. Having topped the opening round of controlled practice held in the middle of the day under natural daylight, the German’s time stood as drivers failed to go quicker under flood lights in CP2. With the 2013 Worlds Top Qualifier setting a best time of 1:13.601 first time round, the best time for the second run would be a 1:14.945 which was set by HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk. With Neumann breaking after 3-minutes, the German would end up 6th fastest for CP2 with the only improvement in the Top 17 times coming from Ryan Maifield. After a rough CP1 the Yokomo driver set the second fastest time to Ronnefalk to secure a spot in the top heat for qualifying as the 7th fastest driver. Naoto Matsukura backed up his opening P2 pace with a P3 for the second round remaining the second seed although the actual Q1 starting order for each reseeded heat grouping will be determined in CP3 tomorrow morning.

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November 16, 2017

Neumann goes quickest in opening controlled practice

Joern Neumann has gone quickest in China with the 2013 World Championship 4WD Top Qualifier setting the fastest time in the first round of controlled practice. Third fastest in free practice, the German non factory supported driver put in a blistering 3-consecutive laps in CP1 to top the times from Naoto Matsukura, another driver with no official chassis backer for the event. Having set the early pace in Xiamen, HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk would complete the Top 3 ahead of top American Dakotah Phend, Ty Tessmann and Michal Orlowski. Having ended the four rounds of free practice as the fastest driver, Ryan Maifield would struggle to put together 3 good laps. Although fourth quickest in terms of his outright pace over a lap, the newly crowned World champion sits 28th in the seeding. Second quickest to Maifield after free practice, reigning champion Bruno Coelho would end up 8th quickest in the first of the two counting controlled practice, the second of which will bring Day 1 of the 4WD action to a close following the opening ceremony.

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November 16, 2017

Maifield tops free practice in China

Ryan Maifield has topped free practice at the 1:10 4WD Offroad World Championships in China. The newly crowned 2WD World Champion set the fastest time in the fourth & final round of free practice at Xiamen ARC International Raceway with just over a tenth of a second advantage over Bruno Coelho, the reigning 4WD Champion also registering his quickest time in FP4. Having found himself at the top of the time sheets after three rounds, Joern Neumann would end up third overall after failing to better his FP3 time. The early place setter after the first two practices, David Ronnefalk would have issues in the final practice, completing just 5-laps. Second fastest in FP3, that time would leave him 5th fastest behind Ty Tessmann and ahead of Naoto Matsukura who completed the Top 6.

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November 16, 2017

Ronnefalk sets early 4WD pace at World Championships

David Ronnefalk has set the early pace at the 1:10 Offroad World Championships in China as the 17th running of the event switches to 4WD. With a day off following the crowning of Ryan Maifield as the 2WD Champion, today’s action sees 4 rounds of free practice followed by two rounds of controlled practice in between which there will be a 2-hour break for the official opening ceremony. Having secured 5th overall in 2WD despite taking the win in A3, Ronnefalk would set the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second of the free practices with the track now running in the opposite, clockwise direction to that used in 2WD. Behind the HB Racing driver, Xray’s Ty Tessmann was second fastest being just over 1/10th of a second slower with Maifield kicking off his 4WD campaign much stronger than 2WD with the third fastest time. TLR’s Dakotah Phend made it four different cars at the top of the times sheets with Bruno Coelho and Renaud Savoya completing the Top 6 with Ryan Cavalieri the fastest Associated driver in 7th.

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November 15, 2017

Maifield finally gets his World title

Having held a title of being one of the greatest offroad drivers to never have been crowned World Champion, Ryan Maifield today finally revoked that status when he joined R/C racing’s most elite club by becoming the 2WD World Champion in China. With form over the first day & a half of the event making the American an unlikely title challenger, that all changed in the third qualifier as together with his Yokomo team he turned things around and go on to become Top Qualifier. Taking an easy win in A1 despite a last lap tumble, A2 would see a first lap mistake set up the world famous ‘Ryan & Ryan’ show as he and Ryan Cavalieri went into battle. Having lost out to Cavalieri in the past, Maifield this time kept his composure with the mistake coming from Cavalieri. Getting stuck up in a corner pipe it handed Maifield a huge lead allowing him to cruise to the win and with it the World title. Admitting afterwards that he had begun to accept he might never be a World Champion, the meaning of finally achieving his dream was clear to see as he became overcome with emotion on the drivers stand as track announcer Scotty Ernst asked him how it feels to finally be World Champion.

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November 14, 2017

Tobias Seidl joins Team Powers

Team Powers have announced the signing of Germany’s Tobias Seidl to their factory team. While racing at national and international level events, Tobias will also help with the development of future products and he had the following to say:

I would like to thank Andy and everyone at Team Powers to let me join their factory Team for the rest of the 2017 season and beyond. After my first tests this decision was very easy to make as their products perform just awesome on track. I really looking forward to a great future together and hope we can achieve some nice results. My first big race will be the Essex international race in the UK.

Source: Team Powers [team-powers.com]

November 14, 2017

Maifield takes easy A1 win even with last lap tumble

Ryan Maifield has won the first A-Main at the 2WD Offroad World Championship in China, the Yokomo driver having such a lead that he could still take the win despite needing to be marshalled in the jumps section on the last lap. Top Qualifier for the 17th running of the event, Maifield was able to quickly build up an advantage at the front, ahead of team-mate Lee Martin who came under pressure from Ryan Cavalieri, the Associated driver briefly getting ahead of the British driver. In the end however the Top 3 would finish in the same order as they started with Dakotah Phend getting 4th from 6th on the grid ahead of Jared Tebo.

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November 14, 2017

Maifield Top Qualifier as Yokomo qualify 1-2 in China

Ryan Maifield is the Top Qualifier for the 2WD Offroad World Championships in Xiamen, China. The Yokomo driver claimed his first 2WD Worlds’ pole position when he TQ’d the fifth & final round of qualifying ahead of team-mate Lee Martin who will line up second. Having initially struggled with the challenging Xiamen ARC International Raceway track, Maifield finally turned things around at the close of the second day of the event when under the floodlights he topped Q3. Kicking off finals day with a P3 in the penultimate qualifier, the American delivered his second TQ run in the final qualifier but with the running order reversed for Q5 he had to wait to see what Martin could do in the second fastest heat. For a time it looked like Martin would secure his first Worlds TQ as he ran more than 1-second up on Maifield’s pace but with just under 2-minutes on the clock he would crash coming onto the straight handing to overall TQ to his new for 2017 team-mate. Behind the Yokomos it is Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri who will start third, the Q2 pace setter’s unable to challenge for the TQ in the final qualifier as he managed only P14. The only other driver to TQ a round, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski saw his challenge for the TQ end with a mistake in the jumps section that knocked a front shock of his car so he starts fourth with Bruno Coelho completing the top half of the grid ahead of Dakotah Phend, David Ronnefalk, Jared Tebo, Joern Neumann and Kyle McBride.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.