Wilck and Stocker cruise to Leg 1 victory
Top Qualifiers Viktor Wilck and Alexander Stocker both cruised to easy victories in Leg 1 of their respective A-Mains here in Germany at the opening round of the 2009/10 ETS. In Modified Wilck said the race was a little easier than expected as the challenge from Tamiya team-mate Marc Rheinard failed to materialise. The Swede said it was more difficult than it looked to the large crowd of onlookers and he expects Marc to be back to the pace he showed in Q5 for Leg 2. Both drivers ran the same set-up, however Rheinard said his TRF416X was just too slow. Only changing the rear diff since qualifying the German said the car lacked corner speed and he is unsure what to do as the diff feels good.
‘Driving for third place now’ was how Juho Levanen summed up the race after he held off the challenge of Ronald Volker to take third. The Finnish ace was unable to stick with the Tamiyas and a few mistake meant he fell back into the clutches of the chasing pack. The former two time European Champion feels his pace is in between the Tamiya team and the rest of the field and only mistakes by Wilck or Rheinard will allow him to finish higher. Volker was very pleased with 4th having started 7th but said he needs to find a better set-up on his LRP powered Yokomo BD5. Having started 4th, Yannic Prumper’s race got off to a terrible start as he tangled at the first corner and dropped to the back but the youngster made a good recovery to finish 5th.
Changes to the set-up on his new Xray T3 chassis got rid of the traction roll but left Elliot Harper with severe understeer. This meant the young Englishman, who was at one stage challenging for third, couldn’t race with the pack and he dropped back down the order to finish where he started in 6th spot. Alexander Hagberg was the fastest man on the track setting a lap time of 11.377 but he only managed a disappointing 8th. The only retirement of the race was Teemu Leino who went out with a broken front drive shaft.
While Stocker headed off into the sunset with his Hot Bodies, the big battle in Pro Stock was for second with Martin Hofer coming out on top from Daniel Wohlgemuth. In what has to be one of the all time greatest excuses for his lack of pace compared with Stocker, Hofer blamed an ’empty stomach’. The Yokomo driver is currently tucking into a big lunch which means we should expect a closer Leg 2!
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