Groskamp is Top Qualifier at Apeldoorn
Former two time ETS champion Jilles Groskamp will start his first appearance in the 2010/11 Yokomo Euro Touring Series from pole position tomorrow in Apeldoorn. The Tamiya driver tied on points with team-mate Marc Rheinard and Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper but having produced the fastest 5-minute time of qualifying when he topped Q1 yesterday, the Dutch ace was declared Top Qualifier.
In the fourth & final round of qualifying Groskamp looked well on target to claim his second TQ run of the event until he ran wide at the end of the straight on lap 9 causing his Orion powered TRF417 to spin out onto the grass under braking. The incident cost him over 7-seconds allowing Prumper and the Top Qualifier of every other race this season Ronald Volker to battle for the fastest time. In the end Volker topped the time sheets for the first time this weekend becoming only the third driver to record 20 laps which secures him fourth on the grid behind team-mate Prumper.
Groskamp admitted he was lucky that Volker denied Prumper the round but said despite his off he is really confident for tomorrow’s triple leg finals when he will be looking to repeat the result from 2-years-ago when he won this event. Having switched back to a spool on his TRF417 for Q4 the former European Champion said the car was better and he believes he has the fastest car which he now just has to keep in the middle of the track.
Starting second on the grid Rheinard, who has still to win a race in a year that he is the reigning champion, failed to finish the last heat. Suffering with a very loose car that kept spinning out he pulled up early. Finding nothing wrong with the car he hopes it was just down to running used tyres.
Volker who ran a set-up which he described as a combination of both Prumper’s and Cyril N’diaye was much happier with his LRP powered BD5. More confident with the car in Q4 he is looking forward to tomorrow’s finals as is Prumper. 3-time French Champion N’diaye failed to finish the round after he broke a rear belt but still lines up behind his Yokomo team-mates in fifth and will be one to watch tomorrow.
In a desperate attempt to make the Top 10 and secure a place in the A-Main former ETS Top Qualifier Steen Graversen ran one of his fresh sets of allocated race tyres in Q4 and it paid off. Taking his Russian designed Awesomatix to the third fastest time the Danish driver will start 8th on the grid between the Kyosho of Christopher Krapp and the Hot Bodies of Freddy Sudhoff. Polish race winner Juho Levanen who ran in the second highest group of drivers had to sweat out the last qualifier of the day but thanks to his Q1 & 3 times just made it onto the back of the grid in 10th.
In Pro Stock John Bruins made it a TQ double for the Dutch and Tamiya as he topped Q4 from Daniel Wohlgemuth to secure pole ahead of standings leader Martin Hofer who had an off in Q4. Super pleased with his day, 27-year-old Bruins said his TRF417 felt really good and he is looking forward to tomorrow. A winner of a club race here two weeks ago he said the racing should be really interesting. Hofer was not too worried about starting second saying he won from that spot at the last round to notch up his second consecutive ETS win.
Xenon Modified A-Final Grid
1. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Tamiya/Orion – 308 pts
2. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 308
3. Yannic Prümper (DE) – Yokomo/Speed Passion – 308
4. Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 307
5. Cyril N’diaye (FR) – Yokomo/LRP – 303
6. Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya/Thunder Power – 302
7. Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho/Orion – 302
8. Steen Graversen (DK) – Awesomatix/Speed Passion – 301
9. Frederik Südhoff (DE) – Hot Bodies/LRP – 299
10.Juho Levanen (FI) – Associated/Reedy – 297
Xray Pro-Stock A-Final Grid
1. John Bruins (NL) – Tamiya – 310 pts
2. Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 310
3. Daniel Wohlgemuth (DE) – Hot Bodies – 305
4. Oliver Franke (DE) – Hot Bodies – 304
5. Sandro Kuriger (CH) – Tamiya – 303
6. Jens Kröger (DE) – Kyosho – 300
7. Tony Streit (DE) – Xray – 299
8. Steffen Leinburger (DE) – Xray – 298
9. Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 297
10.Michael Spiering (DE) – TOP – 296
View our event image gallery here.
