Volker No.1 for Qualifying at Czech ETS
Ronald Volker backed up his early free practice form by topping the two rounds of controlled practice at the ETS season opener in the Czech Republic to secure himself the top seeding for qualifying. The Team Yokomo driver set the fastest time over 3-consecutive laps in the final practice by a convincing 3/10ths of a second from team-mate Naoto Matsukura. Behind the two Yokomos, Alexander Hagberg took his Xray to the third fastest time ahead of Freddy Sudhoff while Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard ended up only 9th fastest.
Widely recognised as the world’s best driver on carpet, Volker was pleased with his pace in the controlled practice runs. Managing to post is three fastest laps within just four laps of CP2 posting two 11 second laps, the German on the advice of his mechanic Yukijiro Umino pulled up 2-laps later to save tyres. Looking ahead to the opening qualifier, the winner of the last three ETS season openers said the plan is to go for a clean save run but with the traction increasing ever run he said he hopes he can keep his LRP powered BD7 on the ground for the full 5-minutes.
Still finding the high traction conditions ‘very difficult’, Naoto described his practice runs as OK. Struggling a little with his BD7 wanting to traction roll, the Japanese racer will change the front of the car to try and make it a little easier to drive for the 5-minutes duration of the qualifiers. Team-mate Yannic Prumper, who was second fastest to Volker in free practice, didn’t have a good controlled practice. Changing his set-up ‘a lot’ his BD7 was ‘not good’ leaving him to post only the 19th fastest time over the two 4-minute runs. Planning to go back to the set-up he ran in the morning, the German said he hopes this will allow him to run competitively in tonight’s opening qualifier and they can build on things from there.
Hagberg was very happy with his T4 once again describing it as ‘very easy to drive’. Planning to keep the set-up as is for Q1, the former ETS race winner said his aim for the moment is to just try & drive a clean 5-minutes and see where that takes time. Team-mate Tim Wahl took his T4 to the 7th fastest time, the 19-year-old also very happy with how easy his car is to drive. A finalist at last season’s opening race in Germany, Wahl said through a series of small changes he has improved the car every run and while it had a very slight amount of understeer it is nothing major and he can work around it. Adrian Berntsen made it three Xray’s in the Top 10 in the reseeding. After struggling in free practice, the Norwegian said a shock set-up adjustment improved the car a lot. Unfortunately in CP1 he didn’t get to see how the changes worked as he stripped a spur gear in the warm-up but doing the full 4-minutes in CP2 he was pleased with the changes that allowed him to post the 10th fastest time just behind Rheinard.
Running a new prototype diff in their cars, which only arrived at the Sport V Hotel after free practice, Sudhoff was the only driver along with Volker to run an 11-second lap in controlled practice. One of the contenders for the race win here last season, the lead Awesomatix driver said overall all the cars are working really well and they are very positive about the rest of the weekend. Highlighting this was the performance of 17-year-old Dionys Stadler. Very happy with the new diff, the German said fitting a top deck to his new A700L EVO has made the car really well balanced and he is happy to run it as is for the first qualifier. Viljami Kutvonen said changes to his A700L EVO made it a little too easy to drive for the 3-consecutive laps but over 5-minutes he feels he should have good pace. Ending up 12th fastest, the Finn tried two bodyshells comparing the Protoform Speed 6 to Bitty Designs’ new Nardo. He said in terms of lap times there was little difference but they both felt very different to drive and he is undecided which to choose for Q1.
Setting the sixth fastest time, Serpent’s Marc Fischer said his S411 was now easier to drive than in free practice. While the set-up has a little understeer the runner-up here last season said it feels OK and should be good for the full 5-minutes. Planning to go for a safe opening qualifier he plans to run the Hobbywing powered Serpent as is, adding that if that goes well they may look at some small adjustments for tomorrow’s second qualifier to try and improve the steering.
Team Associated’s Juho Levanen described his 8th fastest time as ‘not bad’. Running a pre-production TC6.2, the Finn said he was not really happy with the car on his faster run as he feels it can go faster. Suffering from understeer on corner entry he will fit a harder front spring for Q1.
‘Not so bad’ was how former champion Marc Rheinard summed up his controlled practice. The Tamiya Racing Factory driver lasted just two & a half minutes in the first run after he stripped a spur gear due to him losing a screw in his TRF418’s bulkhead. In the second run he had further gear issues when his pinion came loose. Luckily fast work by Muchmore’s Mr. Jang, who is the 3-time World Champions pitman this weekend, would mean he would get to rejoin the run after losing a minute & a half to set his 3-fastest consecutive laps.
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