Volker momentum continues at Rd3
Team Yokomo’s Ronald Volker continues his impeccable title defense, kicking off Round 3 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series at the top of the time sheets in controlled practice. His third consecutive event to control the opening day’s proceeding, the German ace topped the official practice ranking from Awesomatix’s Steen Graversen and Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg.
Clocked by a radar gun doing the fastest top speed down the long straight of the Gran Canaria track, his BD5 WX reaching 104kph, Volker played down his practice pace believing that as not everyone ran fresh sets of the controlled Ride tyre today he will not get a true indication to his pace until tomorrow morning’s opening qualifier. Switching from a Protoform Speed 6 to a LTC-R bodyshell for the final two timed practice runs it improved his steering in the tight corners albeit at the expense of making the car more aggressive and difficult to drive. Still not comfortable with the feeling of the car on a surface which he failed to enjoy success last season on his way to the ETS title, he plans to make use of open practice at the track this evening.
Behind a very contented Graversen, Hagberg said his T3 2012 was working really well and the only problem was he was ‘driving it like shit’. The Swede is confident if he can drive a clean 5-minutes then a podium finish is on the cards this weekend.
Completing an impressive backflip on the main straight in CP6 after his Tamiya caught air under the bodyshell, Marc Rheinard ended practice a frustrated fourth. Following his aerobatics, the World Champion said he was hesitating getting on full power but this issue aside he was still struggling for grip and struggling to come up with a solution. The German plans to try his spare car in the open practice to see if he has a hidden problem with his race car.
Classified 6th at the end of practice, team-mate Viktor Wilck was happy with changes made to the roll centres on his TRF417x. The Swede, who also geared up his Thunder Power motor, is confident he has found the right direction to go with his set-up and plans to try out some further small changes in the open practice. The third of the TRF drivers Elliot Harper, who ended the day 9th, tried a different set-up for the final practice but said his car didn’t feel so good and so he will revert back to his earlier setting for Qualifying.
Splitting Rheinard and Wilck at the end of practice Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp said he was more focused on doing his own thing today rather than chasing the times of others. Putting on a new set of tyres in CP5 he said his TF6-SP was really good helped by the sun breaking through clouds that had overshadowed the track for much of the day. Confident about his chances for tomorrow, the Worlds Finalist is hopeful for clear blue skies in the morning as the hotter the track the better the cars seems to work.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Toni Mateo got his home event off to the best possible start as his Tamiya topped the practice ranking from current champion Martin Hofer. Hofer, who had a disastrous event in Italy after an university exam meant he missed practice, said he is confident he can get his title defence back on track this weekend with his Schumacher working really well on a track he said ‘he likes a lot’.
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