With raindrops eventually arriving towards the end of the second semi final, it continued to shower during the buildup to the main final, and with only a few minutes left, the decision was taken via consulting the main finalists not to run the final due to the wet track and potential hazards to marshals as well as ruining of equipment / transmitters. A couple of drivers looked like they might fancy a race of attrition however with several days of practice looming the prospect of a total rebuild wasn’t high on many drivers’ agendas, afterall they are all here to learn and gather data – not really to race… but prepare for the Worlds in October.

The end result based on the starting lineup sees victory handed to Ty Tessmann, ultimately a justified victory albeit by default, the raindrops coming 10mins too early for Ronnefalk in the 2nd semi, nevertheless, HB complete their showing at the event with a dominant 1,2 of qualifying and the main final, Ryan Maifield handed 3rd overall after a great battle with Tessmann in the first semi.

The final qualifier at the Worlds warm up ran on Saturday morning and David Ronnefalk ensured it was a HB whitewash of qualifying as he TQ’d infront of Ryan Cavalieri with already-crowned TQ man Ty Tessmann in 8th. Spencer Rivkin found some pace in 3rd whilst Jared Tebo put in another consistent run in 4th.

Q5 Results

1)David Ronnefalk16/10:04.030 (R5)
2)Ryan Cavalieri16/10:09.959 (R5)
3)Spencer Rivkin16/10:10.392 (R5)
4)Jared Tebo16/10:10.604 (R5)
5)Ryan Maifield16/10:10.969 (R5)
6)Elliott Boots16/10:11.901 (R5)
7)Dakotah Phend16/10:12.647 (R5)
8)Ty Tessmann16/10:15.414 (R5)
9)Kyle McBride16/10:15.887 (R5)
10)Mike Truhe16/10:15.903 (R5)
11)Darren Bloomfield16/10:16.912 (R5)
12)Robert Batlle16/10:19.461 (R5)
13)Adam Drake16/10:19.954 (R5)
14)Yannick Aigoin16/10:21.453 (R5)
15)Wataru Takashiro16/10:22.663 (R5)

The penultimate round of qualifying witnessed a predictable final result, but the track here at the 2016 Worlds warm up is anything but predictable, the World’s best drivers struggling with the bumps, ruts and tricky constant evolution of the track over the course of a 10 min run as it starts out damp and drys over the course of 16+ laps.

Friday’s photo gallery

Whilst the top heat saw Tessmann speed away, Ronnefalk threatened but far too many mistakes crept into his run, Jared Tebo rightfully had a huge smile on his face as he headed to watch Arena cross tonight, disappointingly seeding into the ‘B’ qualifier (by his standards), Tebo upped his game overnight and put in very consistent runs, Ryan Cavalieri had a rough start to qualifying but put any woes behind him netting 2nd in Q4, however deja vu as Alex Zanchettin yet again continues to climb – from 13th in Q2, to 7th in Q3 to 4th in Q4.

Q4 Result