Volker wraps up pole position in Czech Republic
Ronald Volker will start tomorrow’s Xenon Modified A Final from pole position after putting the overall TQ honours beyond the reach of his rivals. Making it four out of four, the Team Yokomo driver topped the penultimate round of qualifying here in Hrotovice despite a valiant effort from defending ETS champion Marc Rheinard who missed out by just 3/100ths on knocking the Kastellaun winner off the top for the first time this weekend.
Rheinard said while he did not beat his arch rival he was encouraged by the run as its the closest he has been to the European Champion in this season’s Yokomo Euro Touring Series. Suffering a broken rear diff at the end of the run, the World Champion said he is starting to get to grips with the new Tamiya TRF417 and plans to use the final qualifier to run in a fresh set of the Xenon controlled tyres for tomorrow’s finals.
Putting a below par Kastellaun performance behind him, Alexander Hagberg is enjoying a very competitive weekend in the Czech Republic so far, with him producing another Top 3 run. A number of small changes to his new Xray T3’11 have made him more confident with the car. Loosing a little time with traffic and a mistake of his own making, the Swede now plans to go all out for a TQ run in the final run of the day.
Fourth fastest for the round was Freddy Sudhoff despite his Hot Bodies not being perfect followed by Team Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper. The German teenager has struggled with traction roll and too many driver errors but managed a clean Q4 to post his best qualifier. Despite clashing with TRF driver Viktor Wilck for the second heat in succession Steven Weiss was happy with his 7th fastest time just behind Dominik Fleischmann. Running a TOP chassis he said he is very happy with how it has been running and hopes with another good round he can claim himself a place in the A Final.
In the Xray Pro-Stock class Q1 Top Qualifier Eric Dankel took the round from Q2 & 3 pace setter Martin Hofer. Having run a gear diff in the front of his Xray T3’11 this morning, the German reverted to a spool which gave the car a better feeling allowing him to return to the top of the time sheets. Asked about the slightly shortened track layout, the ETS Kastellaun winner said he preferred it as it had a better rythm to it. Hofer said he made an error with his tyre additive for the round and this resulted in his Yokomo going off at the end of the run. He said once he does not make the ‘stupid’ mistake again he is confident he can outpace Dankel in the final qualifier to wrap up overall TQ honours for tomorrow’s finals. ‘Heading in the right direction’ was how Alexander Stocker described his run to third. The Pro-Stock Champion set the fastest lap for the round and could have place higher but a mistake on his final lap cost the Hot Bodies driver almost 2 seconds.
Full results can be found here.
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