Volker tops seeding at ETS Finale
Newly crowned Yokomo Euro Touring Series champion Ronald Volker showed no signs of resting on his laurels as he topped seeding for qualifying in a super close final practice at the Hudy Racing Arena in Slovakia. The Yokomo driver just pipped reigning World Champion Jilles Groskamp by 2/1000th of a second over three consecutive laps with the stage set for some exciting qualifying action as the Top 7 drivers where covered by just 2/10th. Having set the pace in the first timed practice Xray’s Alexander Hagberg completed the Top 3 for practice thanks to his opening time.
Only 6th fastest in the opening run having struggled for overall traction, Volker said a change to the geardiff in the rear of his LRP powered BD7 was a big step forward. Describing his car as a little difficult for the first minute, the German said after that it steadily improved and setting his best 3-laps towards the end of the run he was very encouraged as traditionally the start of a run is the time when everything is at its best for quick laps. Looking to make the car a little easier to drive for Q1 he said they will make some small tweaks to the set-up but was coy about the exact details. Commenting on how closely matched the Top 7 drivers ended practice, he said going into qualifying this evening things are ‘totally open’.
‘Can’t complain about that’ was Groskamp’s response to his run, the Dutch ace posting the fastest outright lap time of the final practice as he got ‘more confidence’ on his first visit to the Arena. The Tamiya Racing Factory driver said he hasn’t been this close to Volker for quite a few races adding overall the weekend was starting off pretty good for the Tamiya team. Changing to a lighter rear diff oil, this gave him better rear grip making the car easier to drive but without loosing any speed. Running in the second highest practice group, he said his only concern is the wind with one gust leading to all the drivers in that heat having a slower lap, Groskamp’s own times dropping by a full second.
Changing the shock position on his ORCA powered T4, Hagberg said he ‘lost a lot of steering’ as a result and for Q1 he will revert back to his previous set-up. Predicting it will be very close at the top of the time sheets, the Swede is ‘hop(ing) for the best’ in the opening qualifier, which is set to see the top heat on track just after 19.30, this statement making reference to the fact his car is best when track conditions are hot.
Fourth fastest Marc Rheinard, who is battling for second in the overall championship with Hagberg, said his Tamiya was ‘consistent but not crazy fast’. Expecting the track to be both quicker and totally different for Q1, due to the cooler evening conditions, the 3-time World Champion said they will make some small tweaks for the expected condition changes.
Managing only half a run after pulling a corner off his Yokomo, Atsushi Hara ended practice 5th fastest despite improving his time. Changing his shock oil for the run the Japanese star said his BD7 ‘feels almost as I want it to’ but at the expense of bringing on a litte understeer. After rebuilding the car, which he said luckily didn’t suffer any chassis damage, he would revert back to the oil he ran in the first timed practice and instead change the rebound. Also changing his speedo profile, this made the car ‘more comfortable’ to drive.
Former team-mate Andy Moore completed the Top 6. The factory HB driver said changes to his heavily prototyped TCXX made it a little better in spots but unless he hit the perfect line ever lap it didn’t have any consistancy. Going even slightly offline he said the car struggled with understeer so for Q1 they had little choice but to make some changes.
The only other driver along with Hagberg who failed to improve, Yannic Prumper ended practice 7th fastest. The Yokomo driver had one of his tyres come partly unglued but said overall he was very happy with his BD7. Planning on not making any changes to the car for Q1, he said he was ‘confident for qualifying’.
Having suffered a gluing issue with his tyres in the first timed practice after heavy contact with the curbing, managing only 2-laps, Viktor Wilck posted the 8th quickest time. Adding extra glue to his tyres for the second run, the Swede said he might have overdone it on the sidewall but overall the car felt ‘OK’. With the times very close, the former race winner said he was ‘not so worried’ for qualifying adding if he gets a good set of race tyres everything should be fine for Q1. Behind Wilck, Xray’s Marco Kaufmann and Tamiya Akio Sobue completed the Top 10 with Awesomatix’ Freddy Sudhoff, who is playing catch up having missed yesterday’s open practice, 11th followed by American factory HB driver JJ Wang.
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