Volker TQs another close qualifier in Austria
Ronald Volker posted a second TQ run at Round 4 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Austria, the German coming out on top of a very closely contested Q3 that saw the Top 3 covered by less than half a second. Posting a new overall fastest TQ time Volker would outpace Bruno Coelho by 0.258 of a second up who in turn was 0.216 fastest than his Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg. A number of mistakes while on a TQ pace would leave Q2 pace setter Akio Sobue 7th fastest.
‘Another super close qualifier’ was Volker’s description of the the penultimate round of qualifying at the temporary Mattsee track. After the frustration of Q2, when he got blocked on the last lap costing him a TQ run, the Yokomo driver said he was ‘very happy’ to lock up at worst a Top 2 start position with Sobue the only one who can deny him from adding to his tally as the ETS’ most successful Top Qualifier. Tweaking the set-up on his LRP powered BD7 the reigning champion said this ‘improved the overall a bit’ but they still need to do more to find that ‘extra bit of steering’. Happier with how the car started out he said it still developed understeer towards the end of the 5-minutes and that’s something he hopes they can work on for the final run so he can in particular see off Sobue’s Tamiya.
For Coelho Q3 was almost a repeat of Q2 when he rolled his T4. Luckily this time round his car came back down on fours as he clipped the same curbing. Recovering from his moment to finish under 3/10ths behind Volker he said it shows the speed is there and he just needs to run a clean round. Switching to a heavier rear diff for the round, the 21-year-old said this ‘was not a good choice’ and he will go back for the last one.
Setting the fastest lap of Q3, Hagberg said a downstop adjustment to his ORCA powered T4 had made the ‘car much better than the last one (Q2)’. The Swede was happy to have been ‘closer to the TQ’ than before. Laying down the TQ pace for a number of laps, the Nitro Touring Car World Champion said he had two small mistakes, a back marker helping him out to make one of them, and if it wasn’t for this his car had the pace to TQ. Much happier with the car he will leave it unchanged for the final qualifier.
Fourth fastest Yannic Prumper said there’s obviously something wrong with the set of tyres he has been running. Changing from 10k to 5k oil in his DB7’s diff, a change that normally makes a big difference, the 3-time ETS race winner said he couldn’t feel any difference. With the 21-year-old’s second set of allocated tyres brand new and used tyres proving the best option for the low traction conditions he said he had no choice than to risk the new tyres adding ‘there is no point in continuing with it as it is now’.
Marc Fischer said he was lucky to post the 6th fastest time as he suffered a centre pulley bearing failure. Having tried a front roll centre change, the Serpent driver said it wasn’t a significant improve and they need to try something more so for the final qualifier they’ll go with a completely different set-up. Making big changes to the shock set-up, the toe in and roll centres he said he had ‘nothing to lose’ and hopefully it would help his team-mate Viktor Wilck make the A-Main. Ninth fastest, the Swede said he had no steering. Starting last on such a short track he also needed to let both Volker and Sobue to pass him but ultimately he was ‘going too slow anyway’. Currently sitting in the BQ position in the qualifying ranking he will copy the set-up Fischer is going to run in Q4.
Completing the Top 6, Michal Orlowski said it was a ‘pretty good run with no mistakes’. sporting a new blue based colour scheme this weekend, moving away from the red the 13-year-old has been running for the past 6-years, he is very happy with his Schumacher having run it the same throughout qualifying. Like everyone he said more steering would be nice and for the last qualifier he plans to go up in the rear diff in the hope it will give him a little more on-power steering exiting the corners.
Sobue said his tyres reached their limit in the third qualifier and with his TRF419 loose he ended up making a few mistakes including getting away with launching the car on two wheels the first time through the chicane. Only 0.001 of second of Hagberg’s fastest lap, when passing Wilck the World Championship finalist would suffer a spin loosing him 2-seconds. He will fit his second set of tyres for Q4. Making a tyre change for Q3 team-mate Marc Rheinard said while everyone went faster he went slower ending up on 12th quickest.
Andy Moore posted the 8th fastest time but the HB driver said a 12.9 second lap as a result of having to let Volker by cost him a possible Top 4 for the round as everyone is ‘super tight’ on pace. Describing the run as ‘alright with no mistakes’, the British driver said he is still searching for more steering especially at the end of the straight.
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