Rheinard heads Tamiya 1-2 at Apeldoorn in Q1
Marc Rheinard headed a Tamiya 1-2 in the opening round of qualifying for Round 4 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series, last year’s winner of the Dutch event setting the fastest pace around the Apeldoorn track from team-mate & Round 3 winner Viktor Wilck with reigning champion Ronald Volker completing the Top 3. Having had yesterday’s open practice washed out by heavy rain and the forecast for Saturday not looking favourable, organisers last night made the call to reduce this morning’s controlled practice to just two rounds so as qualifying could get underway early and as many rounds as possible could be completed. Despite the weather’s best efforts to disrupt Q1, the round having to be halted for a time due to light rain just as the top heats hit the track, thankfully a full round of qualifying was able to be completed. Getting Q2 underway unfortunately a light drizzle set in and despite waiting to see if it would pass the organisers ultimately had to cancel the round. Thankfully the latest online weather is showing that after a wet start to the day the rain should pass giving the opportunity for getting in two more rounds of qualifying in the evening giving a much fairer grid for the finals, the weather for Sunday giving a dry day.
Rheinard, who has won two of the three previous ETS encounters at Apeldoorn, said after he was ‘shocked really’ at how good his car was for Q1. Struggling in the first practice describing his car as ‘really bad’, the German ran two different cars in the second practice. Fitted with different flex chassis plates from Raceberry, the 3-time World Champion opted for the stiffer of the two posting a time that was 1.4 seconds faster than Wilck who also opted for the same chassis having also tested them back to back. The most positive Rheinard has been about the performance of his TRF417 for quite some time, he plans to run the same set-up ‘should they get to run any more qualifiers’.
Wilck, who ended a long winless streak in the ETS at the previous round in Gran Canaria, said his TRF417 started off well but his set-up was ‘eating up the front tyres’ causing him to battle with understeer later by the end of the 5-minutes. Happy with the overall feeling of his car, the Swede plans to make a number of small changes to try and get more consistency from the front tyres.
After the qualifying he experienced here 12 months ago, qualifying down in the E-Main, Volker said he was pleased to start off with a Top 3 run. Suffering from a little understeer, the factory Yokomo driver said due to the limited practice runs they are still working on tyre preparation but added that despite the break to allow the track to dry after the short shower the track had really good traction. Volker complimented the organisers for running 15-minutes of open practice after the rain delay saying the track was as good as it would have been had the round run uninterrupted.
Setting the fourth fastest time, HB’s Andy Moore said his run was as good as he could have hoped for. Describing his first lap as ‘not the best’, the former World Champion said while his drop off in performance by the end of the run was not as bad as what he experienced in practice he thinks had the Q1 not been delayed he could had been closer to the Top 3 pace. Changing his tyre prep for the first qualifier the delaying of his run meant he did not get to carry out the original plan. Happy with the set-up on his TCXX, the British ace said he will just focus on his tyre preparation for tomorrow when hopefully dry qualifying can resume.
‘Never expected it’ was how Eric Dankel described his run to 5th. The Yokomo team driver said in practice he was ‘super slow’ compared to his team-mate Volker but copying his fellow German’s set-up for Q1 he said his BD7 was hugely improved. His first time to run Volker’s set-up he plans to fine tune it to suit his driving style with a shorter wheelbase one of the changes he plans to make. Runner-up at Gran Canaria, Yannic Prumper could only manage an opening run of 7th fastest with his BD7. A ‘clean run’ he just didn’t have the pace with his car suffering from a lack of forward traction and for tomorrow he plans to radically change his set-up.
TQing a round of qualifying at this event last year, Serpent’s Marc Fischer took his S411 to the 6th fastest time. The German had an unfortunate incident as he tried to pass Xray’s Adrian Bernsten half way into the run. The Norwegian tried to move out of the way of Fischer’s faster car but clipped the curb rolling into the path of the Serpent causing it to to end up on its roof costing him over 3.5 seconds. Aside from the incident Fischer said his car was a little loose at the start of the run but added this was most likely due to taking his tyre warmers off too early on what is a very cold day at Apeldoorn but overall the car has good pace and he plans to leave as is for his next qualifier.
Top Xray in Q1 was Tim Wahl the German setting the 8th fastest time just 24/1000th ahead of the VBC of top Belgian driver Olivier Bultynck with the factory Xray driver Magnus Vassmar completing the Top 10. For Xray’s lead driver Alexander Hagberg Q1 got off to a bad start as he spun his ORCA powered T4 at the first corner. Ending up 14th fastest, the Swede said his car lacks steering and he just doesn’t have the right feeling with it and he will make a number of set-up changes for Q2 which he hopes will give him more confidence with it.
Making the international debut of Team Durango’s first ever touring car, Elliott Harper posted the 13th fastest time. The winner of the opening round of the British Nationals with the car, he said the pace is there for the first three minutes but then understeer causes him to drop back. Running a similar pace to Dankel for the first half of the run, he said he just has to sort out what is causing the car to go off. Having done quite a bit of testing with the development DETC410 he said a race like this is a completely different level and running a number of new parts on the car for the first time today he has still a lot of learning to do. Told by his new team to treat this event more as a test rather than focusing on trying to get a strong result, the Brit said he is relishing his role as a team-leader.
Elsewhere former ETS race winner and Kyosho team leader Christopher Krapp had a disastrous first Q1. Using glue giving to him by his team-mate, and last year’s winner of this event in Pro Stock Vasco Christiaanse, to glue his first set of controlled Ride tyres his tyres all came undone on the warm-up lap forcing the German to miss Q1. At first Krapp thought he had fitted the wrong, unglued, set of tyres on his TF6 but on checking the tyres it was discovered that the problem was with the glue which had failed to bond.
In the Xray Pro Stock class championship leader Marek Cerny took his Xray to the only 18 lap run ahead of the Schumacher of former Champion Martin Hofer and Bultynck. Last year’s race winner Christiaanse, the handout tyres in Pro-Stock being pre-glued, set the fourth fastest time with his Kyosho. Making a very welcomed return to the ETS, two time former class champion Alexander Stocker set the 7th fastest time ahead of Round 1 winner Oliver Franke. In the Speed Passion Formula class Roman Pichler TQ’d the opening qualifier ahead of fellow Swiss racer Beni Stutz and Germany’s Dai Sakaguchi completing the Top 3 in this growing category.
Ride Modified Q1 times
1. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 20/5:06.113
2. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 20/5:07.584
3. Ronald Volker – Yokomo – 20/5:07.908
4. Andy Moore – HB – 20/5:10.415
5. Eric Dankel – Yokomo – 20/5:11.990
6. Marc Fischer – Serpent – 20/5:12.047
7. Yannic Prumper – Yokomo – 20/5:12.803
8. Tim Wahl – Xray – 20/5:13.104
9. Oliver Bultynck – VBC – 20/5:13.128
10.Magnus Vassmar – Xray 20/5:13.576
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