Groskamp heads Tamiya 1-2-3 in Q1
The opening round of qualifying at the Dutch round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series produced a Tamiya 1-2-3 with Jilles Groskamp setting the pace ahead of Marc Rheinard and Viktor Wilck. Making a one off return to the series this weekend at Apeldoorn, the two time ETS champion said afterwards that he thinks he can go faster as he was only driving at 95%. Opening up an early lead at the start the Dutch ace said he just tried to maintain that gap over Rheinard, eventually taking the round by half a second despite having to avoid a number of incidents.
Current Champion Rheinard said his Speedpassion motored TRF417 felt ‘pretty good’ but for the first two laps, which is where he is losing out to team-mate Groskamp whose car is good right from the start. Fresh from winning the Reedy Race of Champions in California two weeks ago the German thinks the difference is down to tyre prep and will change for Q2. Wilck had the opposite problem with his car losing grip at the end of the run causing him to miss out on a 20 lap run as he made a few mistakes as he attempted to keep pace with his team-mates.
Yannic Prumper was the best non Tamiya in fourth ahead of Yokomo team-mate Cyril N’diaye. Prumper said the run was ‘just Ok’ and something was just missing but he is not sure what it is. Former French Champion N’diaye was very happy with his fifth position. Switching to a mixture of Xexon and Rheinard additives he said it improved the car a lot from the final practice. Also making the Top 10 for Yokomo was Lucas Urbain and Loic Jasmin. Eighth fastest, Urbain said he is starting to get his BD5 to his liking while ninth fastest Jasmin, who run an almost identical set-up to N’diaye, was annoyed with himself for making a mistake on his last lap which cost him 2.5 seconds.
Yokomo team leader Ronald Volker failed to complete the run as the electrics in his BD5 shut down. The winner of three from four of the opening ETS events, the German said he took a risk with his speedo settings and it didn’t pay off but he added even if this had of worked he is still struggling with chassis set-up.
Splitting the four Yokomos were Steen Graversen’s Awesomatix and Juho Levanen’s Associated TC6 with the sixth & seventh fastest times. Levanen said having got his power problems sorted his chassis set-up now needed working on. David Ehrbar completed the Top 10 as the fastest Xray. Elsewhere Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp said his Kyosho felt really good until he was forced out when the rear belt stripped. Other non finishers included Corally’s Marc Fisher, Austrian Thomas Prumper who broke a front drift shaft and Awesomatix team driver Martin Lissau.
In Pro Stock Martin Hofer took the opening qualifier ahead of practice topping John Bruins and Daniel Wohlgemuth. Setting the fastest lap for the round, the championship standings leader said ‘new tyres did the magic’ for his Mi4CX and he now just needs to focus on ensuring he puts in clean runs in the remaining heats.
Bruins said his Tamiya suffered a little understeer at the start of the run due to the fresh tyres but by the end it felt good and he is confident he can top Q2 tomorrow. Driving a Hot Bodies TCX Wohlgemuth said his run was looking strong until he lost time behind Ivan Laptev five laps from home as the Russian recovered from an off. Vasco Christiaanse failed to complete the run as he suffered motor glitches. The Top Qualifier at last year’s Dutch ETS encounter he said he already changed the receiver and then the motor in practice but the intermittent problem is still there and so for Q2 he will run a new speedo.
As all the drivers retire to their hotel at the end of the first day in Apeldoorn, as predicted the heavens have opened over the track with rain forecast to continue tomorrow however Sunday is showing to be a dry sunny day.
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