Rheinard TQs opening qualifier at ETS finale
Sporting the jersey of his home nation Germany and taking motivation from their 1-0 victory over France in the World Cup, Marc Rheinard TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the season finale of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series. Describing the first day’s action at the Hudy Racing Arena in Slovakia as ‘a perfect day’, the Tamiya Racing Factory driver took Q1 by a very slender 19/1000ths of a second from Team Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper. One of three drivers to go top of the timing screens over the 5-minutes, Ronald Volker completed the Top 3 only 2/10ths shy of the his fellow country men.
Having struggled this year and so far failed for the first time to register a win in the championship he has twice been a champion, Rheinard was clearly pleased to finally open an ETS weekend with a TQ run, the recent increase in the efforts of the Tamiya Racing Factory look to be starting to pay dividends. With Rheinard ‘just driving the car this weekend’ and engineer Kiyo Suzuki doing all the work on the 3-time World Champion’s TRF418, he said at the beginning of the qualifier it was all very close but by mid way he knew his car was good enough and for the rest of the run he just focused on ‘keeping it on the track’. Rheinard said having ‘finally’ got a TQ run on merit, it was a good boost for his confidence and he looks forward to carrying that through to tomorrow.
‘Just so close’ was Prumper’s reaction to the first of the four scheduled qualifiers. Describing his Much More powered BD7 as ‘really good’, the 20-year-old said in the cooler conditions the car felt perfect and he planned to keep everything the same for Q2 in the morning.
Volker, while setting the fastest lap of the top heat, the fastest lap overall going to his team-mate Meen Vejrak, said his LRP powered BD7 had ‘too much understeer’. ‘Always on full lock’, the four time back to back champion said he couldn’t push any harder and overall that left him just a little too slow to challenge for a TQ run. Planning to change the car for Q2 he said what changes they make would all depend on the weather but having topped the final practice in hot conditions he added ‘if its hot all should be good’.
Xray’s Alexander Hagberg would post the fourth fastest time, the Swede not overly happy with his driving. Expecting his ORCA powered T4 to be a little more difficult in the cooler conditions he said at the start of the run it was loose leading him to ‘then drive like shit’. Unsure as to why the car was so loose at the beginning of the qualifier, he hopes, having shown he has good pace when the track is hot, for a better performance tomorrow.
Describing the run as ‘Super close’, Jilles Groskamp was pleased with his pace despite rolling his Tamiya late in the run. Having changed to a set-up for loose conditions, the World Champion said the track cooled more than he expected and his set-up was ‘just a little too safe’ but still over the opening laps the Dutch ace laid down the early TQ pace. Really happy that the Tamiya team are now so close to the pace, he said his team-mate’s TQ run was perfect.
‘Surprised’ was Loic Jasmin’s reaction to claiming 6th for the round. The French driver, who said he was still trying to digest France’s World Cup defeat, was much happier with his Yokomo after making a droop change for qualifying. Asked if he planned further changes for tomorrow, he replied with it hard to know how the track will be in the morning he will just continue with the car as is for Q2.
Only 20th fastest in practice Serpent’s Marc Fischer was pleased to post the 7th fastest time saying it was ‘way better than practice’ but the German is struggling to find a set-up. Having switched back and forth between graphite and alumininm chassis in practice he said no mater what they change his Viper powered S411 ERYX 3.0 is ‘super hard to drive’. At the beginning of the qualifier he said the rear of the car was loose and then after 2-minutes it ‘started to push big time’. Asked what he planned to try for tomorrow he said right now they were ‘planless’.
Elsewhere a number of driver played tyre strategy with both Tamiya’s Viktor Wilck and Team Associated’s Juho Levanen pulling off immediately after the start of their heats. Starting his qualifier but rolling after 5-laps Atsushi Hara opted to pull off to save his tyres. The Yokomo driver said he had ‘so much steering’ due to the colder conditions but he is confident his car will be good for the warmer qualifiers tomorrow.
In the Xray Pro-Stock class, which has this weekend attracted a field of 124 cars, defending champion Marek Cerny got his title hopes off to the best start possible as he took the opening qualifier. In a battle with Xray team-mate Jan Ratheisky for the championship, Cerny needs the bonus point for the overall TQ if he is to go into the A-Main on Sunday with a chance of retaining his crown. Setting the fastest lap of the round as he recovered from a roll coming onto the straight on his first lap, Cerny would top Q1 by just 46/1000ths from practice pace setter and fellow Czech driver Kuba Simurda. Flying the local flag Slovak driver David Nemcek completed the Top 3 finishing 1.5 seconds clear of Ratheisky with Henrik Heitsck the best none Xray driver taking his ARC to the fifth fastest time.
Ride Modified Round 1 Qualifying – Top 10
1. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:09.076
2. Yannic Prumper – Team Yokomo – 17/5:09.095
3. Ronald Volker – Team Yokomo – 17/5:09.316
4. Alexander Hagberg – Xray Racing Team – 17/5:11.531
5. Jilles Groskamp – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:11.944
6. Loic Jasmin – Team Yokomo – 17/5:12.669
7. Mark Fischer – Team Serpent – 17/5:13.210
8. Magnus Vassmar – Xray Racing Team -17/5:13.585
9.Lucas Urbain – VBC Racing – 17/5:13.615
10.Viljami Kutvonen – Awesomatix – 17/5:13.645
Xray Pro-Stock Round 1 Qualifying – Top 10
1. Marek Cerny – Xray – 15/5:09.880
2. Kuba Simurda – Xray – 15/5:09.926
3. David Nemcek – Xray – 15/5:10.658
4. Jan Ratheisky – Xray – 15/5:12.168
5. Henrik Heitsch – ARC – 15/5:14.052
6. Thorsten Zorn – Schumacher – 15/5:14.165
7. Barnabas Toth – Yokomo – 15/5:14.285
8. Mustafa Alp – VBC Racing- 15/5:14.735
9. Tobias Seidl – Team C – 15/5:14.911
10.Mike Gosvig – Awesomatix – 15/5:14.961
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