Volker sees off Rheinard in Q1
Ronald Volker TQ’d the opening qualifier of Season #9 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series, the Yokomo driver seeing off arch rival Marc Rheinard, the pair having swapped the top spot on the time screens throughout the encounter. Separated by just 2/10ths, the German’s pace left them well clear of Alexander Hagberg, a clean run leaving the Swede third fastest as many of the drivers in the top heat made mistakes. One driver to benefit from these mistakes was pre-race favourite Viljami Kutvonen, who running in the second fastest heat, would get a fourth for the first of the four scheduled rounds of qualifying.
Declaring Q1 as the ‘important one’, Volker was happy to kick off the defence of his unbroken 5-season reign as ETS Champion with a TQ run saying ‘basically I drove the whole run with Marc’. Surprised by the gap he and Rheinard had over the others at the end, he said while his new BD7 2016 felt fast he struggled a little with consistency through the chicane section which leads onto the straight. Despite this he was still able to match Rheinard adding with a grin that it was nice to beat him by 2/10ths. Having changed his tyre prep for Q1 to try and get more comfortable with the feeling of his car he said for Q2 tomorrow they need to consider a set-up change. Team-mate Yannic Prumper was looking on target for a P3 but coming onto the straight to finish his qualifier an error meant he needed to be marshalled 1.5 metres from the loop. As a result he would end up 13th. Yokomo’s other star of the top heat Meen Vejrak made a good start to the qualifier running in the Top 3 until a mistake on his 4th lap which cost him 5-seconds.
‘A good start but I’m disappointed to be 2nd by only 2/10ths’ was how Rheinard summed his performance. The Tamiya driver said at the start he ‘didn’t drive so good’ due to having a different position on the drivers stand for qualifying. Having expressed concerns over whether his TRF419 would maintain the pace it showed in practice over a full 5-minutes he said it ended up being ‘very good’. Looking to Q2, he said a ‘suprisingly strong Day 1’ was something to build on for tomorrow. Joining Rheinard in the top heat, it was not be a good start for team-mate Christopher Krapp as mistakes would leave him 14th.
While most drivers would be happy to open qualifying with a Top 3 time, Hagberg was clearly frustrated by a lack of traction. ‘I just drove around cautiously while others crashed and got third’ said the Xray driver adding ‘there is no traction out there, it was like ice skating’. With only the 9th fastest lap time he said his ‘car was not fast’. Team-mate Bruno Coelho would post the fifth fastest time despite two mistakes. Unlike Hagberg, the Portuguese star was very happy with his car saying ‘I need to drive a little more easy and not mess up’. Young Dionys Stadler would make it three Xray’s in the Top 10 as he ended up P7.
Having won the Mibo Cup race in Hrotovice 2-weeks ago and then struggled in practice this morning, Kutvonen said his P4 was ‘more than expected’. Awesomatix’ star driver, the Finn said they are slowly improving the set-up on his new A800 but added ‘we are 6-seconds off so its still not good’. Confident they have now found the right direction in which to go with the set-up, he will first discuss their options for Q2 with the car’s design Oleg Babich who is here to support the ETS debut of the Russian belt driven car.
Despite putting his Schumacher in the Top 5 overnight, Elliott Harper described his P5 as a ‘shit run’. The World Championship podium finisher continued ‘I was third but had a stupid crash in the chicane’. Having felt his Mi5 Evo was rolling too much in the timed practice, the reigning British Champion went to a harder shock set-up for qualifying but said he went too much. With the car now ‘a little edgy to drive’, he said he needs to go back a little with the level of change made.
Getting an 8th from the opening round, Viktor Wilck said while his new Serpent S411 ERYX 4.0 was ‘maybe a little better’ the result was only down to ‘a really safe run’. The former ETS race winner said the car is ‘floating too much’ as they ‘can’t find grip’. Needing the car to be more aggressive for it to have steering, the Swede said ‘we need to improve for tomorrow to have any chance’.
Behind Wilck with the 9th fastest time despite a spin out, Jilles Groskamp is another driver to say he is struggling. The HPI Racing/HB driver said his PRO5 ‘feels like (it has) no rear traction’. Having tested with his team-mates in China to prepare for his first ETS race on carpet in 5-years, he said the car was good but here the traction is different. Having to drive the car perfect to get a good lap he said its not easy. The 2012 World Champion and recently crowned Euro Nitro Series Champion also believes another part of the problem is that his feeling for & experience of racing on carpet is gone. Behind Groskamp, French Champion Loic Jasmin completed the Top 10 ahead of Vejrak and Marc Fischer.
In the Xray Pro Stock class, Jan Ratheisky, who at this same track two years ago became the first driver to win two ETS classes on the same weekend, would TQ the first qualifier. The German headed an Xray 1-2-3 from defending Champion Marek Cerny and Mike Gosvig while last year’s winner of the event Lars Hoppe, running in the second fastest heat, got fourth. In the first round of Serpent Formula qualifying, Dutch Xray driver Jitse Miedema posted a popular TQ run ahead of the Tamiya of Christian Donath and former Pro Stock Champion Alexander Stocker.
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