WORLDS: Tessmann tops opening round of qualifying [VIDEO]

0 Sept. 23, 2014, 3 a.m.

9/23/2014
By Aaron Waldron

LiveRC.com

The first round of any race is exciting, because the track is still a bit green (even after four days of practice) and the drivers are nervous. The first round at an IFMAR Worlds is even more crazy, and this year's race was no exception. Some of the fastest drivers in practice suffered from bad luck and poor driving, while some of the sleepers jumped up to grab valuable points in this best-4-of-6 endeavor.

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Stating the most obvious thing ever after winning the round by nearly 7.5 seconds, Ty Tessmann said, “It was good that time, really good.” After starting off his quest for his first world championship with a mistake-free run, Ty will again run X1 compound Fugitives this afternoon and already thickened up his shock oil, but he’s unsure if he’ll maintain that choice before heading out to the track.

“Safe” was how Ryan Lutz described his sixth-place run, despite a bobble each through the double-single and again before the staircase. Ryan narrowed his DNX8 after practice in order to clear technical inspection, and said, “I didn’t want to deal with it.” He’ll go to heavier front diff oil, and lay both the front and rear shocks down on the tower by one hole.

Adam Drake said, “It was a conservative run with a couple of little mistakes. I watched the first couple of heats and people had really bad crashes, so I just cried around and tried to get some decent points.” When asked if he had planned on trying to run the heat without a pit stop Adam said, “that’s always the plan - who wants to stop?” After planning on running the ten minutes, Adam told his mechanic Casey Peck he planned on a pit stop to be safe in the first round, but felt he was driving smooth and that he could make the run time with no problem. When asked about the prototype wider chassis that the TLR team brought to Italy, Adam said they felt it would be more stable and easier to drive on the high-grip track, but after running it throughout practice he switched back to the standard chassis to be able to compare setup notes more accurately with the rest of the team drivers.

Robert Batlle said his qualifying run was “not bad - quite good” and that he had “some mistakes, and a little bit of traffic.” The defending champ plans some small changes in setup, namely softer shock oil and a little bit more camber to make the car easier to drive.

“It was okay - nothing special,” said Neil Cragg. After watching lots of drivers crashing in the first couple of races, the Brit “just tried to put in a ‘banker’” and made no mistakes. “I wasn’t setting no records out there, just kept going around and around.” His prototype RC8B2 was nearly completely rebuilt after practice and thinner diff oil was used. For the second round, Team Associated engineer Kody Numedahl will install heavier springs front and rear.

After topping seeding practice, David Ronnefalk had worse luck in the first round. “It started out pretty bad, and I crashed on the first three laps.” His mechanics, father Pierre and Orion engine guru Adrien Bertin, called David in for an early pit stop so that he could calm down. “At the end it was all right, and eleventh is still okay.” He’ll make no changes to his MP9 TKI3 for the second round, and simply focus on his driving and staying clean.

Ty Tessmann - Canada (Hot Bodies/O.S./Pro-Line/Nitrotane) - 16/10:03.396
Ryan Maifield - USA (TLR/Novarossi/JConcepts/Sidewinder) - 16/10:10.804
Jared Tebo - USA (Kyosho/Orion/AKA/Maxima) - 16/10:11/196
Lee Martin - England (Mugen Seiki/Novarossi/Pro-Line/Nitrolux) - 16/10:11.716
Kyle McBride - Australia (Kyosho/Novarossi/Pro-Line/LRP) - 16/10:16.221
Ryan Lutz - USA (Durango/Alpha/AKA/Byron) - 16/10:18.556
Adam Drake - USA (TLR/Novarossi/Pro-Line/Nitrotane) - 16/10:18.976
Carson Wernimont - USA (Mugen Seiki/O.S./AKA/Flash Point) - 16/10:19.081
Robert Batlle - Spain (Mugen Seiki/Novarossi/Procircuit/Nitrolux) - 16/10:19.179
Neil Cragg - England (Team Associated/LRP/Pro-Line/LRP) - 16/10:19.525
David Ronnefalk - Sweden (Kyosho/Orion/AKA/Runner Time) - 16/10:21.466
Ryan Cavalieri - USA (Team Associated/Orion/AKA/Sidewinder) - 16/10:22.526
Davide Tortorici - Italy (Mugen Seiki/Bliss/VP-Pro/Meccamo) - 16/10:24.096
Drew Moller - USA (Mugen Seiki/LRP/Pro-Line/Flash Point) - 16/10:24.222
Alex Zanchettin - Italy (TLR/Novarossi/Pro-Line/MLC) - 16/10:25.414
Borja Hernandez - Spain (Mugen Seiki/Alpha/Procircuit/Nitrolux) - 16/10:26.304