Yokomo 1-2 in first Italian ETS qualifier
Team Yokomo got their weekend in Italy off to very positive start as their drivers Ronald Volker and Yannic Prumper claimed the top 2 times in the opening qualifier for the second round of the 2011/12 Euro Touring Series. Running 23 laps in 5:05.408 compared with Prumper’s time of 5:08.301, Volker said other than having to avoid a stranded car on the straight the run was near perfect with some small set-up changes to his LRP powered BD5 ahead of the run making it a lot more consistent than in practice. Prumper was also happy with his run saying he played it safe but the German teenager did have a moment when he got his car up on two wheels.
Closest to the Yokomo’s with the third fastest time was Tamiya’s Viktor Wilck but the Swede had a far from perfect run. Starting the heat second on the track, he made a mistakes as he suffered with understeer. This allowed team-mate Marc Rheinard, who started 3rd, to find a way passed but coming on to the main straight on his 8th lap the German got out of shape resulting in Wilck clipping the side of the World Champion’s car making contact with the power switch and turning it off. Afterwards Rheinard, who was running second fastest at the time, said ‘its a stupid place for a switch but now that Viktor has modified it by breaking the top of the switch off he can force it into the on position and leave it where it is as it cant be switched off again.
Following the same rear diff set-up as Xray team-mate Martin Hudy used in the final practice, Alexander Hagberg was much more comfortable with his T3 2012 for Q1. The only other driver along with Volker, Prumper and Wilck to record 23 laps he set the fourth fastest time. Hudy opted to try a different set-up for his first heat but setting the 12th fastest time the Slovak driver said he should have left it as it was at the end of practice. The surprise of the first qualifier was that of 18-year-old Xray driver Marco Kaufmann who surprised himself with the 8th fastest time just behind Yokomo’s Eric Dankel and ahead of the Hot Bodies of Dominic Fleischmann. Only racing three years, Kaufmann said was sruggling to carry any corner speed and so plans to make some set-up changes for Q2 tomorrow morning.
Fastest of the drivers on 22 laps Hot Bodies’ Andy Moore set the fifth fastest time ahead of French National Champion Loic Jasmin. Running in the second fastest heat grouping along with British Champion Moore, Jasmin was clearly delighted to kick start his weekend with the sixth fastest time saying his Yokomo was very easy to drive allowing hin to drive a clean and safe round. Suffering from a little understeer he said he will make changes for Q2 but is not sure what that will be yet until he has talked it over with Yokomo engineer Yukijiro Umino.
Completing the Top 10 and supporting a huge entry of Serpent 411 chassis’ here in Scandiano was Serpent factory driver Marc Fisher. The German National Champion said his car is not so easy to drive but improves over the run. Having to push super hard to get the car to work, which is less than ideal on the track here this weekend, he hopes a change of rear sway bar for tomorrow might bring some improvement.
In the Xray Pro Stock class it was Round 1 race winner Zdenko Kunák that topped the first of the four scheduled rounds of qualifying. The Team Xray driver said his car felt really good as he outpaced DHI Cup winner Steffen Leinburger by a considerable 4.5 seconds despite the German Hot Bodies driver setting the fastest lap of Q1. Young Yokomo driver Felix Wiessmann completed the opening Top 3 ahead of Alessio Menicucci who is the fastest Italian driver in both classes setting the 11th fastest time in Modified.
Defending Pro Stock Champion Martin Hofer arrived at the track just in time to contest his first qualifying heat. Having had to sit a University exam this morning in Germany before driving to Italy, the Schumacher team driver missed out on practice and got his first taste of the track in Q1. Running a fresh, out of the packet, set of the controlled Ride tyres on his Mi4CXL the German could only manage the 44th fastest time but happy with his first impression of the track can be expected to be right up there battling for a spot at the front of the A-Main grid.
View the complete results here.
View the event image gallery here.
