Tyre gamble pays dividend for TRF in Q3
The gamble to use the second of their two allocated sets of tyres in the third round of qualifying for the ETS in Gran Canaria paid dividends for two of the three Tamiya Racing Factory drivers as Marc Rheinard topped the time sheets ahead of team-mate Elliot Harper with Hot Bodies’ Andy Moore best of the drivers still running on their first set of Ride tyres.
Managing to post only the 8th & 5th fastest times in his opening two heats, World Champion Rheinard said using fresh tyres was the only chance he had at a TQ run this weekend and even with the fresh rubber his car did not feel good to drive. Harper found his TRF417 felt worse on new tyres for the first half of the run but by the middle of the run really came good and in the end the performance balanced out for a good overall result which the 18-year-old hopes should now ensure he lines-up on the grid for tomorrow’s A-Main. Viktor Wilck failed to capitalise on his fresh tyres after he caught a bump coming onto the main straight which sent his Tamiya TRF417 into a roll on lap 3 after which the Swede pulled up to save his tyres for Q4.
Moore, who was second fastest in Q2, said he made a couple of mistakes but even without them he would not have had the pace to match either Rheinard or Harper. The third of the six scheduled qualifiers was to be a good round for British drivers with Stefan Chodzynski taking his HPI Flux Pro powered Hot Bodies TCX to an impressive sixth fastest time while Schumacher’s Chris Grainger made it four Brits in the Top 10 taking his Mi4CX to the 8th fastest time.
For the pace setters from the opening two qualifiers, Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp were content with fourth and fifth respectively for the third run as they still both have a fresh set of tyres to use. For Champion Ronald Volker his day continued to go downhill. The Yokomo driver was on a Top 3 pace on old tyres when his BD5-WX looked to have shutdown on the main straight before taking off again at full speed ending up under the race control platform. The German thinks the incident was caused by a radio glitch.
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