Hagberg sets early practice pace in Poland
The Yokomo Euro Touring Series has arrived in Poland for round 4 of the 2010/11 Series and setting the early pace in the impressive new Arena Legionwo building is Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg. With three rounds of free practice complete, the 21-year-old Swede heads championship leader Ronald Volker by an impressive margin of over 1/10th of a second while the next three drivers are separated by just 2/1000ths.
Hagberg was upbeat about his LRP powered T3’11 and is confident that as the traction on the fresh carpet comes up his car will work even better. Happy with his base set-up he plans to make a small roll centre change for P4 which together with final practice run of the day will determine the heat seeding for tomorrow’s four qualifiers.
The man who has dominated the opening three rounds of the ETS, Volker said he has not yet got his Yokomo to his liking. Changes made ahead of the third practice improved his BD5WX but the German is having to back off slightly as the car wants to traction roll. With the same set-up on the car he plans to just glue up the tyre walls for P4 which he feels should help him get on the pace with Hagberg.
TITC winner Moore was just one thousandth of a second off Volker with fellow countryman Elliot Harper a further 1000th behind him. The Hot Bodies driver said he was surprise by his own pace as his TCX did not feel very good to drive. Finding the car very loose he said he was ‘hanging on to it to get a good lap’. Putting it down to his set-up being too soft he will stiffen up the car for his next run. In contrast to Moore, Team Associated’s Juho Levanen said his TC6 felt good and he was surprised by his lack of pace on the time sheets.
The only member of the Tamiya Racing Factory squad here in Poland due to the Cactus Classic off road race in the US where Marc Rheinard and Viktor Wilck are competing, Elliot Harper was pleased with his morning. Having endured a tough ETS encounter in Austria where he and Wilck both ended up in the B-Main, the British teenager says he has a good base setting for the track. Having done a days testing back home in preparation for this weekend he said his TRF417 has good corner speed and he just needs to make some small changes to improve the balance.
Setting the sixth fastest time behind Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper was Martin Lissau. The Danish driver made his ETS debut in the Czech Republic and finished on the Pro Stock podium with a Tamiya but here in Legionwo he is running an Awesomatix, the Russian designed car hitting the headlines at last the ETS race when Ivan Laptev made the A-Main in both Pro Stock & Modified. Former 1:5 World Champion Lissau has already enjoyed success with the A700 having won first time out with it two weeks ago at a Danish National. On a deal to race in the remainder of the ETS, he said the car is working well but hopes the fitting of new prototype parts for P4, which he only received today from the car’s designer, will see further improvements.
In Pro Stock Martin Hofer set the pace from Oliver Franke. Hofer, who claimed his first ETS win last time out, said luckily his Schumacher was easy to drive as he got no sleep last night. Unable to get out of University til 7 last night the German had to drive to the race and drove through the night covering 1148km to arrive at the track just in time this morning for practice. Franke said while his Hot Bodies felt good he thinks there is still more to come from improving the set-up. Xray driver Zdenko Kunak set the third fastest time.
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