Orlowski tops 2wd seeding at wet Arena33
Practice has been completed at the Arena33 for the 2wd class, with both rounds of seeding taking place on a damp track while drivers continued to use the silver compound Mini Darts. It was defending champion Michal Orlowski who was quickest over 3 laps, like most, the Schumacher driver’s first round time quicker than his 2nd round time as the track began to dry and get more slippery. Bruno Coelho was 2nd, some 3 tenths behind, with Wesley van Helmond in 3rd, one of only 2 drivers in the top 10 to improve in the 2nd heat. Joona Haatanen, lead Yokomo driver this weekend Paul Crompton and Hupo Honigl, complete the top 6 after practice. Talking with Orlowski he said ‘now it feels slippy’, further explaining that ‘when there is standing water on the track it has more grip’. Continuing to run the laydown gearbox in his Schumacher he says while it might not suit the current conditions he doesn’t want to change it to the stand up version so that he will be ready when the grip does eventually come up.
Taking the second spot after 2 rounds of practice, Bruno Coelho would go 2 seconds slower over 3 laps in his second round and so counted his 1st round time. Continuing to try different things to make his Xray XB2 more stable and to generate some more traction in the difficult changing conditions he felt that the track was getting less traction but that they would ‘keep working for qualifying’.
Ending with 3rd spot in the 2nd round, Dutch driver Wesley van Helmond used the stand up gearbox in his Schumacher, which proved to be the right choice for the tricky half wet half dry conditions currently at the Arena33. Team mate Jorn Neumann was the only other driver in the top 10 to improve in the 2nd round of practice, the German putting his relative pace down to trying a number of things but joked that seeing the pace of his team mate, may choose to change to the stand gearbox also.
Joona Haatanen, who ended seeding as 4th fastest, described his 2 rounds of practice as ‘not too bad’. The Finnish driver, like most others, was continuing his search for ever elusive rear traction but was pleased with the overall balance of his car. Feeling he is too hard on the throttle the Associated driver was seen changing the rotor in his Reedy motor in an attempt to reduce the punch, something that is not desired in these slippy conditions. Leading the Yokomo challenge Paul Crompton took 5th, both his team mate Lee Martin and that of Haatanen, Neil Cragg, both unable to attend due to clashing dates with the British Nitro Offroad Nationals. Drivers now have 4 rounds of qualifying and it is planned to run racing late into the evening to make up for the delayed start before running the finals tomorrow morning.
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