Another TQ run for Wilck at Hudy Arena
Viktor Wilck claimed a second TQ run at the season finale of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series, a result that means Tamiya is guaranteed to claim its first overall TQ honour of Season #7 at the Hudy Racing Arena in Slovakia. Following a 3-hour delay to proceeding due to rain in Trencin, on the resumption of the Ride Modified class it was again new tyres that determined the top of the timing sheets with Wilck heading a Swedish 1-2 finishing 9/10ths ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg with Awesomatix’s Viljami Kutvonen third, with the best of those on used tyre being Marc Rheinard who ended up 4th quickest. Fastest in Q1 Rheinard, the last TRF driver to claim an ETS TQ & win over a season ago in Austria, is the only driver going into the fourth & final qualifier who can deny Wilck his 5th TQ.
Part of a team that is much rejuvenated this weekend, Wilck was very happy at being able to back up his Q2 run having seen off a strong challenge from in particular Atsushi Hara. The two time race winner said for the first lap of the 5-minute qualifier his Speed Passion powered TRF418 ‘felt really strange’ with one of the new tyres very unbalanced. Causing him to almost go off at the end of the straight as he struggled to get the car to turn in, he said from then on the problem seemed to sort itself and the rest of the run was ok. Running a new car this weekend, which features ‘a lot of chassis changes’ and a new rear gear diff design, he said the team have made a lot of progress and that is reflected in their new found pace.
Hagberg said the track ‘felt completely different after the rain’, and his second set of tyres were not as good as he expected. Overall pleased with second, the winner of Round 2 of this season’s championship said he drove to his maximum and the result was all he could do. Feeling they still don’t have the perfect set-up as he could do with just a little more traction, he believes that the final qualifier will be an interesting one as ‘we will get to see what everyone can do on used tyres’.
Winner of the Pro-Stock class at the Arena last year, Kutvonen said while he had the benefit of new tyres some changes to his A700 EVO transformed the car. Having been struggling with a lack of steering, a change to a harder diff and making the car overall stiffer gave him both good steering & speed. Encouraged by his Q3 run, the Finn said things looked good for a chance of making the A-Main line-up and he hoped with a few adjustments to his new set-up he can get some more traction for Q4.
‘All I can do on old tyres’ was how Rheinard summed up his 4th for the round. Hoping to be able to deny Wilck the TQ as he looks for the bonus championship point in his quest to beat Hagberg for the runners-up spot in the overall standings, he said it all depended on who had new tyres left. In a ‘used against used’ battle he said he has a good chance but he believes Hara could be a danger as his fellow former World Champion has one set of tyres that has only half a run on them.
Hara was on for his best run, moving to the top of the timing screens on lap 10 but three laps later he would roll his Yokomo in front of the drivers standing. Costing him 5 seconds, after a DNF in Q1 & 2 he had to continue eventually posting the 17th fastest time meaning he needs a TQ to make the A-Main. The Japanese ace said while his BD7 is getting better every run its steering is still a little too aggressive but ultimately the roll was his own mistake.
Choosing to run a matched set of fronts from his used sets of tyres due to earlier rain and hoping the final run will be dry, Yannic Prumper was very happy with his 5th. Only 1.1 seconds off Wilck’s new tyres pace, the Yokomo driver said this showed his BD7 was working ‘really good’ and he is very positive for Q4. Unfortunately for his team-mate Ronald Volker the round resulted in a DNF (his pace still leaving him classified 11th for the round). In contention to get a second from the round, with three laps to go he suffered a body tuck at the end of the straight which cost him 3/10ths but ultimately this would make little difference as on the final lap his motor suffered a magnet failure.
Completing the Top 6 was French Champion Loic Jasmin. Running on a new set of tyres, the Yokomo driver said his car felt ‘so so for the first minute’. Having matched his two sets of tyres by weight, he said this was the heavier set and this was most likely the reason for the slow start but after that he said his LRP powerd BD7 was ‘ok’. With an A-Main start secured, he said for the final qualifier he will make a shock oil change.
‘Again so close, 7/10ths of a second and I end up 7th’, that was World Champion Jilles Groskamp’s reaction to his Q3 run. Setting the early TQ pace, the Dutch ace said while his Orion powered Tamiya was good at the beginning his set-up was too aggressive resulting in it ‘eating the front tyres too much’ with his pace dropping off significantly towards the end of the 5-minutes. Saying the set-up was fine for the 3-laps practice format, it left the car pushing too much in the qualifiers. Knowing he had to get a good result from Q3, he said that pressure led to a couple of mistakes but he got the job done. For the final qualifier he will switch to a similar set-up to that being used by Rheinard. Having run a pretty standard car so far he will also run some prototype parts which he said Wilck & Rheinard have shown to improve the car.
Making it three out of three in the Xray Pro-Stock class, Marek Cerny successfully completed the first part of his weekend mission by claiming the overall TQ and more importantly earning the bonus championship point that goes with in. The factory Xray driver again topped the times from Slovakia’s David Nemcek with the ARC of Germany’s Kevin Homburg completing the Top 3. While it was a tough round for title challenge Jan Ratheisky, posting only the 9th fastest time, the German did have a good run in Formula TQing the round from David Ehrbar.
Ride Modified Round 3 Qualifying – Top 10
1. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:14.908
2. Alexander Hagberg – Xray Racing Team – 17/5:15.822
3. Viljami Kutvonen – Awesomatix – 17/5:15.828
4. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:15.955
5. Yannic Prumper – Team Yokomo – 17/5:16.080
6. Loic Jasmin – Team Yokomo – 17/5:16.433
7. Jilles Groskamp – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:16.536
8. Marco Kaufmann – Xray Racing Team – 17/5:17.257
9. Meen Vejrak – Team Yokomo – 17/5:17.797
10.Andy Moore – HB – 17/5:18.783
Xray Pro-Stock Round 3 Qualifying – Top 10
1. Marek Cerny – Xray – 15/5:12.992
2. David Nemcek – Xray – 15/5:16.258
3. Kevin Homburg – ARC – 15/5:17.282
4. Philip Tschupp – Serpent – 15/5:17.480
5. Mike Gosvig – Awesomatix – 15/5:17.587
6. Kuba Simurda – Xray – 15/5:17.688
7. Tobias Vogel – Xray – 15/5:17.711
8. Nico Catelani – Yokomo – 15/5:18.796
9. Jan Ratheisky – Xray – 15/5:19.059
10.Mateusz Ogonowski – Yokomo – 15/5:19.279
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