Volker TQ’s opening qualifier at ETS finale
Team Yokomo’s Ronald Volker got the finale of the 2012/13 Yokomo Euro Touring Series off to the best start possible as he TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the Hudy Racing Arena in Slovakia. The title protagonist took the first of the five rounds of qualifying by 2.2 seconds from Tamiya’s Viktor Wilck who for a time was setting the early pace. Marc Rheinard completed the Top 3, the German’s hopes that a binding CVD in practice was the reason for his lack of pace not turning out to be the case.
Volker said the run was what he had ‘hoped for’. Looking to put in a ‘clean & fast’ opening round he said that worked out although the defending champion said he struggled a little with his driving in the closing laps, clipping the curbs a number of times. Hoping he can repeat the result in Q2 he said tyre strategy could play a big part as he expects some drivers to run the second qualifier on the second set of their two allocated sets of qualifying tyres.
‘Lucky to get away with second’ was how Wilck summed up his opening qualifier after the inside of his left rear tyre came unglued on the last lap. The Swede said his Tamiya starts off really good but mid way through his tyres go off and the car starts to understeer. Winner of round 3 of the series, he said he doesn’t think the problem is with the set-up of his TRF417 but rather to do with his driving and he will try to drive his next qualifier slightly different.
Rheinard said he is ‘just too slow’ and he is ‘not sure why’. A driver who is at his best racing on asphalt, the winner of the last two ETS encounters on the surface said overall his Much More powered TRF417 feels like it has no traction with it suffering a lot with understeer.
Setting the fourth fastest time, Yannic Prumper said his first heat was ‘not good’. Suffering from a front shock tower that came loose over the 5-minute run he said he also had a problem with a bad front right tyre. With the shock tower hopefully well screwed in place for Q2, the 19-year-old said he doesn’t plan to change his set-up for Q2 as he is happy with how his BD7 is running when everything stays in place. Despite the loose tower Prumper was only 1.1 seconds off Rheinard.
Making a series of small set-up changes to his Xray, Alexander Hagberg described his run to the 5th fastest time as ‘not too bad’. The former ETS race winner said the changes made his T4 turn in better and while he feels he drove a little too safe he is optimistic that he can improve in Q2. The best placed Xray in timed practice setting the 6th fastest time, Magnus Vassmar took his T4 to the 9th fastest time in Q1 just ahead of team-mate Marco Kaufmann who completed the Top 10.
Taking his Awesomatix to the sixth fastest time, Freddy Sudhoff said it was a ‘solid run’ with his Russian designed chassis ‘maximium easy to drive’. The said he is really happy with the new parts they have on the car. Now with a floating front spool, that prevents torque steer, he said on power steering particularly through left hand corners due to the position of the motor is much better now. Having seen a number of driver’s speedos shut down in some of the heats before his run, including Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp, he said he took it a little easy with his throttle to be safe which probably cost him some time. For Q2 this should not be an issue and in terms of set-up he plans to leave everything as is.
HB’s Andy Moore took his Hobbywing powered TCXX to seventh in front of Euro Nitro Series Champion Eric Dankel. The Yokomo driver was pretty pleased with his run saying he hopes he can repeat the run two more times. Comfortable with his BD7 he said the biggest problem for him on the track which he describes as ‘awesome’ is his driving style which he will try to adjust for Q2.
In the Xray Pro Stock class current champion Zdenko Kunak TQ’d the opening qualifier. A making a lot of small changes to his Yokomo ahead of Q1, the Slovak driver said the car was much better than practice and while he is getting it to where he wants it it is still a bit away from what it can be. Chasing his fourth win of the season and the overall championship title, Marek Cerny was second fastest. The factory Xray driver said his T4 worked perfectly but a motor problem meant he lacked top speed and this cost him a TQ run. With a different handout Speed Passion motor for Q2 he said he hopes this will resolve the problem. Completing the Top 3 was Awesomatix’ flying Finn Viljami Kutvonen. Running a standard car in Pro Stock, he said in the beginning of the run his A700 was OK but by the end it had gotten very nervous to drive. Feeling the problem is that he is overheating his tyres he will make some small suspension adjustments for tonight’s second qualifier.
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