Volker takes Q1 at ETS Gran Canaria
Ronald Volker has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Gran Canaria, the defending champion setting the fastest time ahead of last year’s top 2 finishers on the holiday island with Alexander Hagberg just 2/10th off the German’s pace with last year’s winner Christopher Krapp completing the Top 3. Having set the pace in practice Team Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper pulled up after three laps to save tyres after he lost time when got out of shape through the sweeper leading on to the main straight.
Enduring a tough event on the Gran Canaria’s debut in the series 12-months ago ultimately having to withdraw from the event before the finals, Volker said it was great to start off qualifying with a TQ run especially when everyone was running on fresh tyres. Chasing his third consecutive win of this the 6th season of the ETS, the factory Yokomo driver said in the beginning of the 5-minute run his LRP powered BD7 was not the fastest car on track but knowing it was very consistent he just stayed patient and that was to pay off by the end of the run. With only 2 of the 5 scheduled qualifiers to count and just two sets of tyres available Volker said with a big difference between new & used tyres tomorrow was going to be all about strategy as seen in Q1 when Tamiya’s Viktor Wilck & Team Associated’s Juho Levanen pulled up immediately after they crossed the start line to save tyres for tomorrow.
Having set the early pace only eventually losing the chance of a TQ run when he got his Xray T4 up on two wheels on lap 11 of 16, Hagberg was happy with what he called an ‘almost TQ’ run. Leaving his car the same as he ran it in the final practice, the Swede said it felt really good this time round allowing him to post the fastest lap of the opening qualifier with a time of 18.726. Looking to tomorrow Hagberg said it was going to be an interesting day due to the impending tyre tactics which he added was not good for the atmosphere of the series. Xray team-mate Adrien Berntsen briefly set the pace but having not properly tightened the screw on the servo mounting it came loose half way through the run making the car very difficult to drive. Despite this the Norwegian was able to set the 6th fastest time.
Happy to be back on asphalt and back in the Top 5 was how Krapp summed up his run to the third fastest time. The Kyosho driver said his Orion powered TF6 was good enough for a TQ run at the start of the run, the German running a number of laps at the top of the timing screens, but as the run went on it started to develop understeer. Running a Protoform Speed 6 body he plans to switch to an LTC-R body for Q2 leaving the set-up as is in the hope that his will give him the extra 5% of steering he needs in the second half of the run.
Setting the fourth fastest time, Andy Moore described his opening qualifier as a ‘solid, clean run’. Still lacking overall traction and steering even on new tyres, the former World Champion said he believes tyre preparation is the key to success at this track and with open practice available to all drivers this evening he is going to test some additive options with team-mate Stefan Chodzynski.
Fellow former World Champion Marc Rheinard had a similar complaint. Setting the 6th fastest time, the Tamiya driver said his car is just sliding around on the track too much no matter what changes he makes to his set-up so he will also try a different tyre management for tomorrow.
Elsewhere Thailand’s Meen Vejrak and Charlee Phutiyotin put in a solid first qualifier on their ETS debut the Yokomo drivers setting the 7th and 9th fastest times respectively separated by French driver Lucas Urbain. The Top 10 was completed by Schumacher’s Chris Grainger who is debuting the all new Mi5 from the British manufacturer this weekend. Runner up at the preceding round of the series in the Czech Republic Serpent’s Marc Fischer could only manage the 11th fastest time.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Marek Cerny was the class of the field, the Xray driver almost 3 seconds faster than defending champion Zdenko Kunak who is making his ETS debut with Yokomo this weekend. A good run from Belgium’s Olivier Bultynck saw him complete the Top 3. In the Speed Passion Formula class championship leader Jan Asmer TQ’d the opening round from fellow German Thomas Oehler.
Ride Modified Q1 times
1. Ronald Volker – Yokomo/LRP – 16/5:05.526
2. Alexander Hagberg – Xray/ORCA – 16/5:05.776
3. Christopher Krapp – Kyosho/Orion – 16/5:06.737
4. Andy Moore – HB/Hobbywing – 16/5:07.138
5. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya/Muchmore – 16/5:07.288
6. Adrien Berntsen – Xray/ORCA – 16/5:09.695
7. Meen Vejrak – Yokomo/DualSky – 16/5:10.264
8. Lucas Urbain – Yokomo/Speed Passion - 16/5:12.437
9. Charlee Phutiyotin – Yokomo/Muchmore – 16/5:12.645
10.Chris Grainger – Schumacher/GM Racing – 16/5:12.774
View the event image gallery here.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Prumper fastest in final practice
Team Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper is the top seed for qualifying at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series 3rd round taking place in Gran Canaria, the German driver setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the final round of practice which saw the top 25 drivers improve their times. With clouds covering the sun and the wind that effected the first practice gone, Prumper improved on Alexander Hagberg’s earlier lead pace by over 1-second to top the the final timing sheet by 6/100th from the Kyosho of last year’s winner Christopher Krapp and his Yokomo team-mate Ronald Volker with Hagberg posting the 4th fastest time.
The winner the last ETS race to be held on asphalt when he won the season finale in Austria, Prumper said conditions for the second practice were better but changing from double jointed rear drive shafts to the single joint version his BD7 had better forward traction. Happy with the overall feeling of his car, the 19-year-old said he will leave everything as is for the opening qualifier which will take place this evening and bring the first official day of the event to a close.
Krapp was happy with his pace saying that like last year when conditions are cooler his car works better. Running a new set of tyres and trying a different additive and management of how it was applied, he said in combination with the track conditions it helped improve how the car felt. Topping the opening qualifier last year, the German said with the cloud cover set to stay around for Q1 he will run everything as is for Q1.
‘Pretty good’ was how defending champion Volker summed up his final practice. Satisfied with his average pace over the run, the German said he will copy Prumper in changing his rear drive shafts which he said should give him the little extra he is looking for from his BD7.
Hagberg said his Xray T4 developed understeer as the cooler conditions caused the traction to come up. Still able to improve his time from the previous practice by 7/10, the Swede said he will decide on whether to change his set-up depending on what the cloud cover is like near the time of his first qualifier. Team-mate Adrien Bernsten improved his time by 1.5 seconds to go 7th fastest putting him in the top heat.
Marc Rheinard said while the track was faster he also felt small changes to his Tamiya had helped improve the car. Setting the fifth fastest time, the 3-time World Champion said the biggest thing is now the preparation of the tyres and having them right for the conditions at the time of each run. Second fastest in the opening timed practice, team-mate Viktor Wilck could only manage the 11th fastest time after he made a shock change on his TRF417. Set to run in the B-qualifying group, the Swede said he will go back to the same shocks he ran at the start of the day for Q1.
Completing the Top 6 was Andy Moore. Running a thinner shock oil on his Hobby Wing powered HB TCXX, the British driver said it felt better overall and very consistent over the duration of the run so he plans to leave it as is and see how he fairs in the first qualifier.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Team Xray driver Marek Cerny was again the pace setter this time from the Awesomatix of Finnish talent Viljami Kutvonen. Unable to improve his opening time Bart Wubben completed the Top 3 while Martin Hofer, who also could not improve on his pace, dropped to fifth behind Dominic Vogl.
View the event image gallery here.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Hagberg tops first timed practice in Gran Canaria
Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg set the pace in the first timed practice for the 3rd Round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Gran Canaria where it was a Swedish 1-2 with Viktor Wilck taking his Tamiya to the second fastest time over 3-consecutive laps just 15/1000th ahead of Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper. Last year’s winner Christopher Krapp posted the 7th fastest time while defending champion Ronald Volker was 5th.
Runner-up on the Spanish holiday island last year, Hagberg said his ORCA powered T4 feels pretty good and once the wind died down he was able to run some good consistent laps. A rise in wind as the first round of timed practice reached the top heats, caused problems for a number of drivers with Hagberg having difficulty early in his run at the end of the back straight where the tail wind was pushing his car on into the corner. Overall happy with how his car is working on new tyres, the Snowbirds Champion said he needs to make some very small adjustments for when he is running on used tyres when he starts to suffer from a little understeer.
Echoing the sentiments of many of the top drivers that the track has a lower level of grip than yesterday’s open practice, Wilck said that while his 3-laps may look good he is not confident that over a full 5-minute run he is not yet competitive. Looking to make the A-Main for the first time this season after two difficult opening ETS races, he will run a different shock set-up for the final practice. Team-mate Marc Rheinard, who is having one of his longest runs without any wins, set the 6th fastest time with the German saying he needs to find a better set-up for his Much More powered TRF417 for the low grip conditions.
Prumper was content with his pace in the first timed practice as was team-mate Volker, for whom this event was nothing less than a disaster 12 months ago. 3/10ths off Hagberg over 3-laps, the winner of the opening two races of the season ran a different additive for his first timed run which he said was not as good as the one he used in the morning but overall he added his LRP powered BD7 feels good and is allowing him to run very consistent laps.
Setting the 4th fastest time, HB’s Andy Moore described the feeling of his TCXX as ‘not too bad but nothing special’. Suffering the effects of jetlag today, the former world Champion one of a number of top drivers here this weekend who raced at the TITC in Thailand last weekend, he said the balance of the car which features a new shocks and shock towers is pretty good but due to the lower traction he ran too hard a shock set-up. Also running a new motor from Hobby Wing, Moore will run a softer shock oil for the 2nd timed practice.
Doing his run on used tyres, Krapp said his time was actually OK considering how the conditions have changed, the Kyosho driver having particular issues with the wind. Happy with how his Orion powered TF6 is working on new tyres he said he needs to find a small set-up improvement for when he is running used tyres. With only two sets of controlled Ride tyres available for the five scheduled rounds of qualifying it is important to have a good set-up also for used tyres.
Behind Krapp, Nitro Touring Car World Champion Meen Vejrak set the 8th fastest time. Making his ETS debut this weekend, the Yokomo team driver who in nitro races for KM Racing said he did the run without using tyre warmers but it left his BD7 suffering with understeer. Happy with his pace in the two untimed morning practice runs the Thai driver will go back to heating his tyres for the last round of practice. Behind Vejrak, Serpent’s Marc Fischer posted the 9th fastest time with French Yokomo driver Loic Jasmin completing the Top 10.
In the Xray Pro Stock class, last year’s Gran Canaria winner Marek Cerny set the pace with his Xray ahead of series returnee & fellow T4 driver Bart Wubben. The venue of his first ETS win, Cerny was 9/10ths faster than his rivals despite suffering a problem with his speedo which ended his run early. The Czech driver, who claimed his second ETS win at Round 2 in Januray, said his chassis set-up was perfect with the car really easy to drive. Debuting Schumacher’s all new Mi-5, which as it is still in prototype phase we have been asked not to photograph, former Champion Martin Hofer set the 3rd fastest time followed closely by Toni Mateo, who is one of the people responsible for bringing the ETS to Gran Canaria.
View the event image gallery here.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Volker fends off Fischer for ‘very special’ ETS win
Yokomo’s Ronald Volker held off an intense challenge from Serpent’s Marc Fischer in the 3rd & deciding A-Main at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in the Czech Republic this afternoon to claim his ninth ETS win, one which the defending Champion afterwards described as being ‘very special’. Having made mistakes in the opening 2 legs of the A-main which allowed Awesomatix’ Freddy Sudhoff to win the first and Fischer the second, all the pressure was on the German ace in the third leg as not only did he have to win but he also had to make sure did so at a fast enough pace. In the end he did just that bettering Fischer’s Leg 2 winning time by 3 seconds to take the win on tie break with his fellow German. Struggling with his set-up in the final race of the day finishing fourth Sudhoff completed the podium at Hrotovice.
Volker summed up the pressure applied by a very confident Fischer by saying he was ‘exhausted’ after the 5-minute encounter, something that was very clear to see on the faces of both drivers at the end of the race. Having struggled with his BD7 being twitchy through the long right hand sweepers, he said the win had more meaning than another other race as despite not having the best car this weekend they still managed to secure the TQ and take the win. Admitting that the pressure he felt before the 3rd leg was immense he said a pep talk from his race engineer Yukijiro Umino helped a lot and he wanted to publicly thank him and the rest of the Yokomo team for that support. With Fischer getting the jump on Sudhoff to pass the Awesomatix driver at the start for second, Volker said this lessened the pressure slightly as Sudhoff’s race time was 4-seconds faster than that of Fischer.
Fischer said he couldn’t have applied any more pressure on Volker and for that he complimented his rival on a ‘great job’. Coming to the event with Serpent’s new 411 ERYX, the German said their target was a Top 5 finish so to claim his first ever ETS podium finish was better than they could have expected. Finishing third last weekend at the DHI Cup and now second at what is widely recognized as the most competitive touring car series in the world, Fischer said they have shown that the new car is very competitive on carpet.
Sudhoff said a change of tyre prep for Leg 3 was the wrong way to go as it made his A700 EX too aggressive but overall he was delighted to make the podium which he said among the World class field was a great result for him and the team. Praising how well the Awesomatix team gelled together this weekend, saying they found a lot of new things in terms of set-up, they are really looking forward to building on today’s result. Running a harder damper in leg 3, team-mate Viljami Kutvonen said his car was the best it had been all weekend allowing him to finish third to tie on points with Sudhoff in the overall result. Losing out on the tie break he said he is really looking forward to getting on to asphalt now at the third round of the ETS which takes place in Gran Canaria. Winning the final leg of the Xray Pro Stock final to claim second overall the Finn said that result was OK but winning would have been better.
The Pro Stock podium was completed by the Xray of Denmark’s Martin Lissau who after a coming together with defending champion Zdenko Kunak, who ended up 8th as a result, beat the Slovak to 3rd overall on tie break. In the Speed Passion Formula class Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard, who endured a difficult weekend in Touring Car, claimed the win in Leg 3 to join overall winner Jan Asmer, who wrapped things up in Leg 2, on the podium. Dai Sakaguchi completed the overall Top 3.
Ride Modified A-Main Overall Result
1. Ronald Volker (DE) – Yokomo – 3 pts
2. Marc Fischer (DE) – Serpent – 3
3. Freddy Sudhoff (DE) – Awesomatix – 5
4. Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – 5
5. Yannic Prumper (DE) – Yokomo – 9
6. Dominik Fleischmann (DE) – Yokomo – 13
7. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya – 13
8. Eric Dankel (DE) – Yokomo – 14
9. Marco Kaufmann (DE) – Xray – 14
10.Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 17
Ride Modified A-Main Leg 3 Result
1.(1) Ronald Volker (DE) – Yokomo – 25/5:05.466
2.(3) Marc Fischer (DE) – Serpent – 25/5:05.744
3.(6) Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – 25/5:06.093
4.(2) Freddy Sudhoff (DE) – Awesomatix – 25/5:10.885
5.(5) Yannic Prumper (DE) – Yokomo – 25/5:12.342
6.(7) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya – 24/5:01.260
7.(9) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 24/5:01.863
8.(8) Marco Kaufmann (DE) – Xray – 24/5:03.262
9.(10)Eric Dankel (DE) – Yokomo – 24/5:07.309
10.(4)Dominik Fleischmann (DE) – Yokomo – 24/5:07.940
Xray Pro Stock Overall 3 Result
1. Marek Cerny (CZ) – Xray – 2 pts
2. Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – 3
3. Martin Lissau (DK) – Xray – 6
4. Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray – 6
5. Dominic Vogl (AT) – Awesomatix – 8
6. Steffen Leinburger (DE) – HB – 8
7. Oliver Franke (DE) – HB – 10
8. Jan Asmer (DE) – Serpent – 13
9. Morten Iversen (DK) – Awesomatix – 14
10.Philipp Neudinger (AT) – 18
Xray Pro Stock A-Main Leg 3 Result
1.(2) Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – 23/5:02.675
2.(4) Martin Lissau (DK) – Xray – 23/5:07.547
3.(5) Dominic Vogl (AT) – Awesomatix – 23/5:09.768
4.(6) Steffen Leinburger (DE) – HB – 23/5:11.938
5.(8) Oliver Franke (DE) – HB – 23/5:12.617
6.(10)Jan Asmer (DE) – Serpent – 23/5:14.344
7.(9) Morten Iversen (DK) – Awesomatix – 23/5:15.412
8.(3) Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray – 22/5:04.003
9.(7) Philipp Neudinger (AT) – 22/5:04.899
10.(1)Marek Cerny (CZ) – Xray – DNS
View complete event results here.
View our event image gallery here.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
