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September 12, 2023

Big surprise as Tollard takes final qualifier

The final round of qualifying at the IFMAR 1:10 4WD Offroad World Championship threw up a huge surprise this morning as TLR driver Cole Tollard topped Q5 in Arizona. An event in which US driver were expected to lead the way, yesterday it was a European domination on Day 1 of qualifying with Top Qualifier Davide Ongaro who took the opening three rounds and Michal Orlowski closed the day with the fastest time in Q4. Then, when a US TQ run finally materialised it wasn’t from an expected title contender. With the final round of qualifying running in reserve order, Heat 14 was first to lay down their final attempt at improving their grip positions. Marcus Kaerup delivered the fastest time ahead of Orlowski, the European Champions separated by 6/10ths of a second but over half a lap off yesterday’s fastest TQ pace. Running in Heat 13 together with defending Champion Bruno Coelho, Tollard bettered Kaerup’s time by 3 seconds as all the drivers from the top heat watch on anxiously as their times tumbled. Heat 13 would see Aydin Horne go to P2 for the round with Kaerup’s time finally giving him a P13 for the round.

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September 12, 2023

Volker wins inaugural eSIC – Report

The inaugural eSIC (Electric Singapore International Challenge) race took place over the weekend in Singapore at the RCMC race track. Attracting a number of high profile professional racers around the globe, the race was made more special with Scotty Ernest on the mic. The sold out event was challenged by poor weather forecast. The organieers adjusted the rain disrupted schedule on Saturday, and cut qualifying short to 4 minutes for modified and 13.5t Open brushless touring cars, FWD class and 6 minutes for the 5th scale Superbike to keep as many qualifyings as possible without needing to remove qualifyings. In Modified Mugen Seiki’s Ronald Volker would set the TQ pace in Q1, followed closely by Yokomo’s Nicholas Lee in 2nd, Infinity’s Viktor Wilck in 3rd, Jilles Groskamp in 4th, and Chavit in 5th. In Q2, Lee would take TQ using his second set of new tires along with Wilck, Groskamp, Volker and Naoto. In Q3, Volker would set a new fastest time with a TQ run using his second set of new tires. Naoto coming in 2nd, followed by Lee, Groskamp and Wilck. In Q4, Volker takes another round, to take the overall TQ ahead of Lee and Naoto. Unfortunately, Mother Nature would disrupt the finals. The final results would be based on qualifying.

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September 12, 2023

Orlowski fastest in Q4

Having impressed with a P2 behind already confirmed Top Qualifier Davide Ongaro in Q3, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski went one better in the penultimate round of qualifying to post his first TQ run of the 1:10 Offroad World Championships. The reigning European Champion joined Ongaro as the only driver to run 17-laps being just 3/10th off the Italian’s Q3 time. With Ongaro having a mistake in the centre triple which cost him 3-seconds, Orlowski took control of the fourth qualifier with Dustin Evans and Dakotah Phend in tow but the Polish driver was never really challenged by the Americas. His team-mate Broc Champlin would post the fourth fastest time backing up the same result registered in the previous round. Having recorded his best run of P3 in the third round, pre race favourite Spencer Rivkin would set the fifth fastest time 4/10ths up on on reigning Champion Bruno Coelho who completed the Top 6.

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September 12, 2023

Ongaro Top Qualifier at 4WD World Championship

Davide Ongaro is the Top Qualifier for the 2023 Offroad Worlds, the Italian securing the pole position for tomorrow’s 4WD finals with his third TQ run in as many rounds at Hobby Action RC Raceway. Having had a good battle with Dakotah Phend for the fastest time in Q2, Ongaro made Q3 his own being the first & only driver to run 17-laps over the 5-minutes. On a track that many expected would strongly favour the US drivers and challenge the Europeans, the round would see a European 1-2 as Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski set the second fastest time ahead of Spencer Rivkin and Broc Champlin. Having shown promise with a P3 in the second round, defending Champion Bruno Coelho had a rough round finishing well down the order and it was a similar case for Top seed Phend, the TLR driver classified 21st for the round.

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September 12, 2023

Ongaro again in Q2 after back & forth battle with Phend

Davide Ongaro has made it 2 from 2 in qualifying at the 4WD Offroad World Championship. The Italian had a back and forth battle with top seed Dakotah Phend for the TQ as the round saw a huge improvement in form from defending champion Bruno Coelho. With an early mistake putting Phend on the back foot in Q1, the TLR driver was a mission to get the job done in Q2 but exiting the whoops he would roll promoting Ongaro to the top of the timing screen. A mistake however from the Team Associated driver on the triple before entering the main straight evened things out until a bad penultimate lap from Phend handed the advantage back to Ongaro. Having topped the second fastest heat, Coelho looked like he might have done enough to TQ the round but in the end he was over a second shy of the time laid down by Ongaro.

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September 11, 2023

Phend tops final practice from Ongaro

Practice is complete at the IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championships with Dakotah Phend capping off controlled practice with the fastest time from 1:8 Buggy World Champion Davide Ongaro. After yesterday’s two controlled practice rounds determined the heat groupings for qualifying, with drivers in their new groups this morning the third & final controlled practice round determined the starting order for Q1. Based off drivers total 5-minute run time, Phend would run 16 laps in 5:01.524 which was over 3-seconds up on Ongaro while Michal Orlowski competed the Top 3 a further 3-seconds off just ahead of Spencer Rivkin. Finding himself demoted to Heat 13 of 14 after yesterday’s performance, defending champion Bruno Coelho did not have a good 5-minutes run this morning but the Xray driver would post the 4th fastest for 3-consecutive laps, lacking half a second over the quickest time set by Ongaro.

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September 11, 2023

Phend heads seeding at 4WD World Championship

Dakotah Phend heads seeding at the 4WD Offroad World Championship at the end of the opening day of action in Arizona. The TLR driver’s opening time remaining the quickest as 1:8 Buggy World Champion David Ongaro set the pace in the second seeding to move up to P2 with one more seeding round in the morning. Despite improving on his second fastest time set in the opening round, Broc Champlin dropped to P3 while Dustin Evans enjoyed a good run to jump up to fourth. Another to make a big improvement was Joern Neumann whose Sworkz means four different manufacturers in the current Top 5 seeding. For defending Champion Bruno Coelho it was a tough first day at Hobby Action with the Xray driver currently set to line up in the second fastest heat for qualifying and in need a good final practice in the morning.

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September 11, 2023

Champlin fastest in 3rd practice

The third round of practice at the 4wD Electric Offroad World Championship saw Broc Champlin set the pace, the Schumacher driver fastest over 3-consecutive laps ahead of Spencer Rivkin. As expected US drivers are featuring strongly. Ryan Maifield completed the Top 3 ahead of Dakotah Phend and Dustin Evans with defending Champion Bruno Coelho the best of the overseas visitors to Hobby Action RC Raceway with the 6th fastest time ahead of newly crowned European 2WD Champion Marcus Kaerup, David Ongaro and Michal Orlowski. Commenting on his latest run Champlin said, ‘We made a lot of improvements that round. I changed back to my testing set-up after making a few changes earlier than were not very good’. Asked how he is getting to grips with the track, he replied, ‘you definitely need to be patient on entry into some of the corners. It will be better with new tyres but I’ll make a small change to get a bit more bite on throttle and go from there’.

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