Levanen goes top in German
Juho Levanen has moved into the provisional Top Qualifiers position in Kastellaun, German, after taking his Associated TC5 to a new fastest time in the second round of qualifying at Round 1 of the Xenon Racing Euro Touring Series. After a disappointing first heat, the two time European Champion recorded 26 laps in 5:06.491 to top the round from Xray pairing of Elliot Harper and Alexander Hagberg. The Finnish ace said he was much happier with the run but admitted his car is not the fastest but he is managing to keep the wheels on the ground while others are traction rolling.
16-year-old Harper said that grip levels continue to increase making it more and more difficult with each run to keep the car on four wheels. Suffering a roll himself during Q2, the British driver said he is not sure what to try next to cure a problem that is plaguing all the front runners. Hagberg is one driver who seems to have found something that works but the Swede’s second run was hampered by traffic.
Finishing fifth, behind Ronald Volker’s Yokomo, Viktor Wilck managed a new outright fastest lap of 11.404 despite his Tamiya suffering chronic traction roll. With team-mates Marc Rheinard and Q1 Top Qualifier Yannick Prumper both experiencing the same difficulty, the Tamiya team appear to be most affected by the super high grip. Wilck said they have some small ideas they will try for the third round of qualifying to try and get them back in the hunt for TQ honours. Former World Champion Andy Moore had such bad traction roll he pulled his Hot Bodies in after 3 minutes.
In Pro Stock Yokomo’s Martin Hofer set a new fastest time to top the second qualifier ahead of Q1 top qualifier Alexander Stocker. The German, who had a poor opening qualifier, lowered his BD5 and glued up the tyre walls resulting which he said transformed the car allowing him to record 25 laps in 5:06.454. Hofer also switched to a new preproduction GM Racing speedo which he said gave him better top speed. Delighted to set a very impressive new fastest lap for Pro Stock with a 11.755, Stocker wasn’t so happy with himself in the run saying, ‘Car was pretty good, driver was pretty bad. Setting the third fastest time was Daniel Wohlgemuth. Runner up in last season’s ETS, the German described the run as good but said his Xray T2 ‘009 was on the edge. He will make changes to reduce the steering and also plans to run heavier shock oil.
View our image gallery here.
