Day 1 belongs to Hagberg
The opening day of the Polish ETS encounter was very much an Alexander Hagberg affair with the Swedish ace ending the day at the top of the time sheets. The factory Xray driver improved with every outing and setting the fastest lap of the day in the fifth & final practice and will now carry No.1 on his LRP powered T3’11 in the top heat for the four rounds of qualifying that make up tomorrow’s schedule at Arena Legionowo. Making little or no set-up changes, he said it has worked well all day and while his rivals reduced the gap by the end of practice he is very confident with the car.
Setting the second fastest time in the final qualifier and running a lap time that was just 6/1000ths slower than Hagberg’s, Team Yokomo’s Ronald Volker said as he had expected his BD5WX worked better on fresh tyres. The first time this season that the German ace has not been top of the pile at the end of the day at an ETS event, Volker admitted that he is still not 100% happy with his set-up.
Elliot Harper’s pre-event test day looks to be paying off so far with the Tamiya Racing Factory driver ending the day 3rd fastest. Running a new set of tyres on his TRF417 in P5, the English teenager said it brought on understeer and while his average over three consecutive laps was fastest in the run the car was not as nice to drive and that was reflected in his fastest lap being slower than that set in P4.
A pretty big blunder by Juho Levanen turned out to be a good thing for the Team Associated driver. The Finn set his fastest three lap average despite running the same unchanged battery pack in his TC6. The battery dumped with 30 seconds to go but just after he produced his best three laps. The former European Champion said he will now run a lower power setting on his LRP speedo for qualifying as the car felt better just before his battery went flat.
A change of rear shock position did not improve Yannic Prumper’s Yokomo and he failed to better his P4 time. A former winning of the ETS in Poland, he said his BD5WX is too easy to drive but he still ends the day 5th fastest just ahead of Andy Moore. Moore’s Hot Bodies TCX was better after another spring change but the former World Champion said he still has too much chassis roll.
The line-up for top heat of the Xenon Modified class is completed by Magnus Vassmar, Martin Lissau, Martin Hudy and Mario Sowka.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Oliver Franke is top seed for qualifying ahead of Martin Hofer. Although Hofer outpaced Franke in the final practice both drivers failed to improve on their earlier times and so Franke will carry No.1 tomorrow. Setting the third fastest time was German Tamiya driver Rene Klockner. The 16-year-old said his car was good but he focused today on his driving and that has paid dividend.
View the complete results here.
View our event image gallery here.
