Volker Top Qualifier in Gran Canaria
Ronald Volker is Top Qualifier for the third round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series taking place in Gran Canaria. The Team Yokomo driver’s 13th ETS TQ, Volker secured his first pole position on the island when he topped the time sheets for a fourth time in the fifth & final qualifier. The only driver who could challenge the defending series champion for the top spot on the grid, Adrian Berntsen was able to match the pace of the German finishing second 2-second off. Having TQ’d the opening qualifier, the Norwegian will start second on the grid his best starting position at the ETS. Winner of Round 2 of the championship and despite having a bad last qualifier, posting only the 6th fastest time, Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg will start tomorrow’s finals from third.
The driver with the greatest tally of ETS TQs, Volker said ‘considering the tricky conditions this week’ he was ‘very pleased with how the day went’. Changing nothing on his LRP powered BD7 since the second qualifier, he said ‘as good as the car is now’ he hopes conditions are similar for tomorrow. Compared to Q1 & 2, he said they improved the car quite a bit and over the final three qualifiers he was able to increase the gap by which he outpaced his rivals. Saying ‘it is difficult to know what the track will do for tomorrow’, Volker said he doesn’t plan on making an changes to his car with his main focus being to try to make a clean start feeling if he can get a good opening lap he should be ‘ok’.
‘I tried as hard as I could but no chance, Ronald was too fast’, that was how Berntsen summed up his Q5 performance. Running a new set of Ride tyres for the qualifier, he said his first lap was ‘super slow’ with him loosing a second to Volker as be battled for traction. Although he posted the fastest qualifying time of the day in Q1 making the most of the day’s best conditions, Berntsen said he thinks taking the battle to Volker tomorrow is a tall order but he will discuss set-up with his father tonight to see if they think there is anything they can chance to get them somewhat closer to the 3-time champion.
Hagberg said Q5 ‘wasn’t very good for me’. Making a set-up change the Xray team leader said it resulted in his ORCA powered T4 ’14 lacking high speed steering. Planning to switch back to his Q4 set-up for tomorrow, he said he expects the finals to be difficult. Due to the low traction of the newly laid surface, the Swede said its hard to just drive on the racing line each lap so its going to be even harder to race adding that ‘no one is really in control of their car’.
Posting his best run in the final qualifier to snatch 4th on the grid on tie break from Andy Moore, Naoto Matsukura said a change to a set-up he ran yesterday in open practice gave him a much better car. Looking to tomorrow’s finals the Japanese ace said a win was impossible due to track conditions and his team-mate Volker’s pace. Hoping for a podium, he said that to was going to be hard work and probably require a mistake from the drivers starting ahead of him. The 1:12 World champion showed he has the speed as against the other nine A-Main finalists he won the ‘Dash for Cash’ that took place after qualifying pocketing himself €200.
Starting from 5th on the grid Moore said he was disappointed to loose out to Matsukura. The HB’s driver said he has ‘such a lack of traction at the start’ of the run but by the end it feels ‘ok’ andhe needs to find a way to balance it out over the 5-minutes. Aiming to push for a podium he said with the first corner so tight combined with the lack of traction anything is possible joking that if there is a messy start he probably be the one to come out of it worst.
Completing the Top 6 on the grid is 2012 event winner Christopher Krapp. The Kyosho driver used his second set of tyres in Q5 to set the 4th fastest time saying the gave his Orion powered TF6 more grip and traction. While he said the winner is pretty much locked up with the tricky conditions the ‘rest is up for grabs’ and he is confident he can ‘gain some positions’.
For the Tamiya team the event marks one of their worst events in the series with Marc Rheinard starting 8th behind the Xray of Magnus Vässmar and Viktor Wilck lining up ninth just ahead of Marc Fischer.
A-Main Grids/Qualifying times Q5
Ride Modified A-Main Grid
1. Ronald Volker – Yokomo – 310 pts
2. Adrian Berntsen – Xray – 308
3. Alexander Hagberg – Xray – 305
4. Naoto Matukura – Yokomo – 302
5. Andy Moore – HB – 302
6. Christopher Krapp – Kyosho – 301
7. Magnus Vässmar – Xray – 301
8. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 300
9. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 297
10.Marc Fischer – Serpent – 296
Ride Modified Q5 times
1. Ronald Volker – Yokomo – 15/5:09.371
2. Adrian Berntsen – Xray – 15/5:11.310
3. Naoto Matukura – Yokomo – 15/5:12.409
4. Christopher Krapp – Kyosho – 15/5:13.574
5. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 15/5:13.781
6. Alexander Hagberg – Xray – 15/5:13.885
7. Andy Moore – HB – 15/5:13.990
8. David Perez – 15/5:14.676
9. Marc Fischer – Serpent – 15/5:15.170
10.Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 15/5:15.170
Xray Pro Stock A-Main Grid
1. Marek Cerny – Xray – 310 pts
2. Lars Hoppe – ARC – 306
3. Jan Ratheisky – Xray – 306
4. Henrik Heitsch – ARC – 303
5. Toni Mateo – Yokomo – 303
6.Eugenio Antimo Valiente – VBC – 302
7. David Nemcek – Xray – 300
8.Michael Kiesewetter – VBC – 297
9.Pawel Staszewski – Tamiya – 293
10.Beni Stutz – Tamiya – 292
View the complete event results here.
View our event image gallery here.
