Groskamps heads Hara at the end of Practice
As predicted defending ETS Champion Jilles Groskamp is setting the pace at the MACH, the factory Tamiya driver topping the practice time sheets from former World Champion Atsushi Hara. Despite failing to improve on his time in the final round of practice Groskamp was the only driver to break below a 16 second average for three consecutive laps putting him top seed for qualifying here at his home track. Running a 3mm chassis plate on his TRF416 in the final practice the Dutch driver said that track conditions where slower but overall his car felt better with the thicker chassis and he plans to run it in the opening qualifier this evening. Commenting on the gap between him and his rivals the reigning European Champion said his track knowledge has a lot to do with it but tomorrow Hara & Co will close in as they perfect their racing lines.
This is Hara’s first visit to MACH which he described as ‘crazy big’. Having parted company with Team Orion, the factory Hot Bodies driver is trying GM electrics this weekend which he said has ‘Huge power’. This is causing him to find it hard to get a good balance on his TCX chassis and having run a 4.5 turn motor he now plans to switch to a 5.5 for the first of five rounds of qualifying.
The biggest mover in the final practice round was Germany’s Martin Hofer. The Yokomo team driver, who is also running GM electrics, said switching to heavier shock oil and adding shims to the camber links had greatly improved the feeling of his BD5. Happy now with his set-up he plans to leave the car as is and focus instead on putting in a clean opening qualifier.
Fastest of this year’s ETS title contenders was Viktor Wilck in fourth. The Swede is struggling to find a good balance on his Tamiya and plans to build a fresh diff for the first heat. Finishing just behind his team-mate and standings leader Marc Rheinard, the World Champion said the nature of the large track causes you to get carried away with pulling full power and his focus for the first heat is to slow up earlier and run tighter, faster, lines.
Steen Graversen, Andy Moore, local driver John Bruins, Yannic Prumper and David Ehrbar complete the top 10.
In Pro Stock 2008 Dutch ETS Top Qualifier Vasco Christiaanse was convincingly the fastest of the largest class taking his Kyosho TF6 to an 18.592 average. Young German Rene Klockner was second fastest on an 18.941 ahead of fellow countryman Patrick Jongenelis, Slovak ace Zdenko Kunak and early practice pace setter Geoffrey Vekemans who failed to improve in the final practice.
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