Volker sets practice pace
Yokomo’s Ronald Volker is the early pace setter at the opening round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series taking his LRP powered Yokomo BD5 around the Kastellaun track in the three fastest consecutive laps by a considerable margin over defending champion Marc Rheinard. Recording a time of 10.060 compared with Rheinard’s 10.188, the European Indoor Champion has made little changes to his car in the opening three practice runs and plans to run the same set-up for the fourth and final run.
Rheinard described his Speed Passion powered TRF416, he will get the new TRF417 next month when he attends the Tamiya Fair event in Japan, as very inconsistent and said he is having to drive with great caution because if he steers to much the back end of the car steps out. In an attempt to cure the problem he plans to increase the toe in along with moving the rear shocks to a more upright position for the final practice.
Putting in an impressive performance setting the third fastest time is 17-year-old Adrian Berntsen. The current Norwegian and Indoor European Junior Champion is driving the new Xray T3 ’11 powered by LRP and has not touched the set-up from the opening practice run, waiting instead for the track to come to him and that plan is working well as he has outpaced the entire Xray factory line up of which Teemu Leino is the fastest in 10th.
Team Associated’s Juho Levanen described his new TC6 as very good as he set the fourth fastest time. The Finnish ace is another who has waited for the track to come to his car and believes that over a full five minutes his pace is even better and he is looking forward already to the opening round of qualifiers which will bring Day 1 of the event to a close. Last year’s winner Viktor Wilck is next up just ahead of team-mate Elliot Harper. The Swede’s Tamiya is easy to drive but at the cost of outright speed so a number of set-up changes are planned. Having found a large chunk of time in P3, Harper plans a number of changes to his TFR416 as he plays around with getting the car to his liking.
Having build up a bit of following with Losi owners around the world, France’s Lucas Urbain once again continues to perform wonders with his aging JRX-S. Posting the 7th best 3-lap time in the high quality field he has had to do little in terms of set-up and the car is just getting better with each outing as the traction comes up. Having a lot of experience with the car on carpet he believes better is to come the higher the grip levels get. Just behind him by 1/1000th of a second is Andy Moore. The factory Hot Bodies driver is struggling with high speed rear stability on his Moore Speed powered TCX and is having to back off at through the sweeper at the end of the straight which is costing him time.
In the Xray Pro Stock class it is leading nitro racer Eric Dankel that heads the times with his Xray. The German said his new T3 ’11 was better than this morning’s opening two practices but plans to switch to a softer rear anti-roll bar as the car is loose for the opening part of the run. Just behind him is defending champion champion Alexander Stocker. The Hot Bodies driver also said his TCX is better than this morning but he is still ‘not satisfied’ with his set-up. Chasing his fourth consecutive Kastellaun win his TCX gets very loose when he pushes hard. Pitting next to him and next to him in the times is Martin Hofer. The German tried two different cars this morning and has opted for the car fitted with the new chassis plate which was used by Volker to win the outdoor Euros. Compared with the harder, original BD5 chassis plate, the new version gives the car better steering response. Making it four different cars at the top of the early Pro Stock time sheets it is Corally’s Rob Janssen. Despite his pace over three laps the Dutch racer is not happy with the consistency of the car and being his first big race on carpet he is unsure what changes to make.
Xenon Modified (Top 10 after P3)
1. Ronald Völker – Yokomo – 10.060
2. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 10.188
3. Adrian Berntsen – Xray – 10.268
4. Juho Levanen – Associated – 10.280
5. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 10.280
6. Elliot Harper – Tamiya – 10.305
7. Lucas Urbain – Losi – 10.311
8. Andy Moore – Hot Bodies – 10.312
9. Loic Jasmin – Tamiya – 10.360
10.Teemu Leino – XRAY – 10.360
Xray Pro-Stock (Top 10 after P3)
1. Eric Dankel – Xray – 10.710
2. Alexander Stocker – Hot Bodies – 10.752
3. Martin Hofer – Yokomo – 10.868
4. Rob Janssen – Corally – 10.908
5. René Klöckner – Tamiya – 10.944
6. Carsten Madsen – Tamiya – 10.958
7. Yukijiro Umino – Yokomo – 11.016
8. Tony Streit – Tamiya – 11.058
9. Daniel Wohlgemuth – Xray – 11.138
10.Felix Wiessmann – Tamiya – 11.162
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