Volker fastest in first controlled practice
In very hot and humid conditions at Traiskirchen, Austria, Ronald Volker set the pace in the first of the two controlled practice runs that will determine the seeding for qualifying at the title deciding round of the 2011/12 Yokomo Euro Touring Series. The defending champion, who is one of four drivers in the battle for the overall title, set a pace of 44.667 over three laps ahead of new Yokomo team-mate Hayato Matsuzaki on 44.826 with Tamiya’s Viktor Wilck third on 45.017.
Having had a weekend he would rather forget at the penultimate round in Apeldoorn, where he ended up qualifying down in the E final, Volker was pleased with his early pace at the roof covered asphalt venue but added that the high traction could made running a clean five minutes very difficult. Feeling the track has much more traction than when the unique venue hosted the European Championships, the German said this had made the track very tricky with there being a very fine line between having the amount of steering you want or ending up on your roof.
Having made his ETS debut at the previous round where he finished 14th, former 2WD Offroad World Champion Matsuzaki was happy with his early practice on what he described as a ‘difficult’ track due to its wide variety of corners. Pleased with the feeling of his Reedy powered BD5, the Japanese racer said his focus for the moment is on improving his driving which could be better. Yokomo’s other star driver Yannic Prumper, who changed chassis between the morning’s two free practice runs and the first controlled practice was much happier with his pace, the German saying the second car had much more steering than the first chassis he ran. Setting the fourth fastest time just 3/1000ths faster than Alexander Hagberg, the German plans to switch shock caps for CP2 to the plastic version with the hole which he said should made the car a little easier to drive.
The second fastest of the title contenders with 5th in CP1, Team Xray’s Hagberg who like Volker had a disastrous weekend at the preceding round of the ETS said his ORCA powered T3 2012 was a lot better suited to the Thomas Pumpler designed track and felt ‘not so bad’. The Swede, who described the layout as being more like what you would normally have at an indoor carpet event, said getting the car ready for qualifying was going to be all about the small details.
Completing the Top 6 former World Champion Atsushi Hara switched from a Protoform Speed 6 bodyshell to an LTC-R which he said while it gave his HB TCX more steering and the feeling of better corners speed it was slower in laps times. The Japanese ace, who has been spending a lot of time in Europe recently as part of his World Championship preparations, said he must decide whether to run the Speed 6 with a more aggressive setting or continue with the LTC-R but with a slightly less aggressive set-up having maybe changed the set-up too much for CP1 in his search for better corner speed. Team-mate Andy Moore only managed 2 laps after he traction rolled his Hobbywing TCX which slid into the track barrier resulting in a broken servo horn.
The other two Ride Modified title contenders Marc Rheinard and Christopher Krapp set the 7th and 10th fastest times respectively. The current standings leader, Rheinard said he ran used tyres and there was a ‘huge’ difference compared to fresh rubber. The winner of Round 5, the reigning World Champion said his Tamiya feels good and so when everyone is on the same tyres he is confident he has the pace to match Volker.
Kyosho’s Krapp said he is struggling a little for pace and is not really sure why. While his Orion powered TF6 is very consistent he said it lacks overall speed. Having tried softer shocks to try improve it, which would normally work in theses conditions, he said having walked around the pits and talk to some of his rivals a harder shock seems to be the way to go and so he will try this for CP2.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Gran Canaria winner Marek Cerny was fastest for Team Yokomo ahead the title contending HB of Oliver Franke while standings leader Zdenko Kunak posted only the 7th fastest time behind the Schumacher of out going champion Martin Hofer.
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