Welcome back, the Hudy World Championships have moved on from drive train challenged cars to fully 4 wheel drive. Some say winning 2wd is like winning at the special olympics, even if you win, you are still.... Anyway, 4wd arrived, and here is what has happened so far.
Looking at the track, it is all new. Juraj Hudy went back to the drawing board, and put in a new layout. We had a word with a representative of the Hudy family, and he mentioned that there was no longer any room for error, and a layout was put in from a few months ago. "The team have enough laps on this one for a guaranteed top result." he said.
"The team have enough laps on this one for a guaranteed top result."
NEWS IN THE PITS
Before we get into qualifying, let's look at what is new in the pits. Since this is a World Championships (Hudy) there is bound to be something new, and this year, TLR was the company with the biggest news. Our investigative reporters were able to get a spy shot, along with some details from head engineer Frank Drumpf. ”Well, our previous car was designed back in 1994, so we decided to start from a blank sheet” he told us. After studying the car, it is evident, that in fact that blank sheet appears to have had the Xray XB4 on it. But respect where it is due, unlike Sworkz and Tekno, who are happy to simply put their logos on Team Associated cars, TLR invested in moulds, and went ahead and produced their own replicas.
We wanted to know more, so we tracked down TLR's team manger Kenneth Ghayman for his take on this new development. ”Well we struggled a bit at the start, but after we put Coelho's setup on we figured it out. The Team Xray website is actually really good, they list all their setups, it is very organised and easy.” Ghayman went on to explain.
”Well we struggled a bit at the start, but after we put Coelho's setup on we figured it out. The Team Xray website is actually really good, they list all their setups, it is very organised and easy.”
RCNews UnLtd will of course be following the new TLR vehicle's performance closely.
ROUND 1
The first round of qualifying, and a lot of questions up in the air, would Associated continue their domination? Would TLR's new vehicle perform? Would the Xray team find their mojo? Would we have another reason to party with our new friend Suzuki Kawasaki? Time to find out.
We got some answers, Rivkin was very good, 2nd best in fact, by just a fraction of a second. Team Xray got some redemption with Bruno Coelho TQing the round. And what about TLR?
Well, they were getting in the mix. In fact, the replica turned out to benefit Phend in Q1, as an already disoriented Ty Tessmann mistook Phend for a fellow Xray team mate, and let him by in an overly polite fashion. Ty's attempt to gain recognition within the team, backfired, as he ended up aiding the enemy, and digging deeper into his hole. If he was not out at Xray after 2wd, now he definitely is, and probably banned from Slovakia too.
We are also happy to note, that Yusuke Sugiura posted a 4th place, and looked to carry on his 2wd success, and we were excited.
ROUND 2
More of the same really, CoELHO, or CoHELO as RC Racing TV puts it, TQed again. This time Polish driver Michal Orlowski got second out of nowhere. He really deserves a Nobel RC driving prize for that performance, with a carpet set up Schumacher buggy. Ryan Maifield was 3rd, and we cannot believe this is the first time we mention the current WC either.
ROUND 3
At this point, some drivers needed to get their act together. Drivers like for example Ryan Cavalieri. It was 3/3 for him now. This time Kenneth Ghayman had downloaded the correct pdf Xray setup sheet, and Phend managed to take the TQ. In Q2 he had pulled off, most likely due to some seafood from the night before. An unfortunate incident. Second place went to Cohelo, and third to Swedish David Ronnefalk. As for Ryan Cavalieri, instead of pulling it together, he suffered a major blowout, and actually had his worst run of the event. This solidified his position not in the main.
At this point Ty had a 19th, 9th, and a 12th from round 3. We caught the tail end of an incident within the Xray compound. Gord Tessmann was involved, and we could not figure out exactly what was going on, until we were able to catch this conversation between Coeloha and Marrrrcccoooooo Baruffolo.
Q3 also saw the unbelievably sad retirement of Sugiura, who ground to a halt on the very last lap. He lost a solid top 10 run, and Suzuki Kawasaki was in tears. It was an emotional moment.
ROUND 4
The last round of the day, and all we cared about at this point, was if TQ would go to the Slovakian Xray, or the other American one.
Early on it looked like Jorn Neumann was going for a Nobel prize, but it was not to be. The final heat was just too fast. Cholemo self destructed, and blow the front end off his Xray (original). This left Phend with an open track. Keep it rubber to the track, and make Q5 exciting. That's exactly what happened. Phend phinished 1st, and the race for pole position is on in round 5!
As for Tessmann, figuring out a real setup, without any more lies, helped Ty to 3rd.
SO WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE US?
Looking at the qualifying results after 4 rounds, this is how it is looking, counting 3, because that is what matters:
1. Bruno Coheho 2pts
2. Dakotah Phend 7pts
3. Michal Orlowski 12pts (Nobel Prize)
4. David Ronnefalk 12pts
5. Daniel Kobbevik 15pts
6. Ryan Maifield 17pts
7. Marccccccccooooooooo Baruffolo 18pts
The above drivers are safely in the main. This means that so far there are 4 Xrays already in the main. Sorry 3. That's a really good comeback. The following drivers can't sleep.
8. Spencer Rivkin 20pts (probably in, but not guaranteed)
9. Ty Tessmann 24pts (Could be in, but most likely needs a good run tomorrow. More than likely though missing the main would probably be best, just so further sanctions can't be placed on the Tessmann family by Slovakia.)
10. Joona Haatanen 28pts (One slippery run away from another A final.)
11. Broc Champlin 29pts (Probably wishes they resurfaced the track with carpet for tomorrow)
12. Davide Ongaro 29pts (Needs to remove his front driveshafts for tomorrow)
13. Jared Tebo 30pts (He picked an Associated for 2wd and put Tekno stickers on it. He should have picked an Xray for 4wd, and put Tekno stickers on it.)
14. Elliot Boots 30pts (Much like our surprise at Joao Figurilolo... Figmentiralio..... Figmariano.... Figerelicohelho attending, we were surprised to see Boots here.
15. Yusuke Sugiura 37pts (Failure is not an option, Orange wheel man is going to top 5 tomorrow and make the main.)
16. Lee Martin 37pts (We just added Lee here because he is a very nice young man)
Join us tomorrow for the last day of this epic event! Please like and share, because our field reporters are now asking us for money or they won't report about the finals. This is a problem because we weren't planning on paying them anything. If we get enough likes and shares we may be able to convince our journalists to put in one more day of work for all of you.
*And Cavalieri? Looks like the baby made a difference. We contacted Ryan's father and he simply stated "diapers over tires".