Hagberg sets practice pace at Hudy Arena
Alexander Hagberg set the pace in the opening timed practice for the season finale of the Yokomo Euro Tourig Series at Hudy Racing Arena in Slovakia. On a track the Team Xray driver knows better than most, the Swede set the fastest 3-consective laps to top the times from the Yokomos of Yannic Prumper and Atsushi Hara. In contention for taking the runner-up position in the championship behind already crowned champion Ronald Volker, Hagberg was exactly half a second ahead of his only rival in the points fight with Marc Rheinard posting the fifth fastest time.
Chasing his second win of the season this weekend, Hagberg said due to hot conditions at the time of the practice the track was slow and over the 4-minutes his Xray T4 didn’t feel so fast but added this seemed to effect his rivals more. Describing his car as ‘pretty good’ when the track is hot he said when its cooler the other teams seem to be a little quicker adding luckily most of the qualifiers will be run when the track is hottest. For the second & final controlled practice he plans to use the time to try a slightly harder shock set-up.
‘Now better’ was how Prumper summed up his run. Having had a disastorious outing at Round 5 in Luxembourg, where he failed to make the A-Main and dropped out of contention for making it a Yokomo 1-2 in the championship, a switch from a 5K to 3K rear diff on his BD7 gave him a much more stable car. Running in free practice the rear shocks spaced further back on the car, having seen Xray try this with good effect, he also reverted back to the standard mounting. His mechanic Tony Rheinard said they plan to play around with the idea more but just ran out of time to test it fully here and for the final practice session they will leave the car the same so as his driver can get more used to the set-up in preparation for this evening’s opening qualifier.
Having requested a car built by Yokomo’s famed race engineer Yukijiro Umino, who has master minded Volker’s four in a row ETS titles, Hara said his BD7 was ‘not too bad’ and it now just needed some small tweaks. Starting out with Umino’s ‘more stable set-up’ he said in yesterday’s free practice they moved towards his ‘more aggressive set-up’ but maybe it was now maybe a little too aggressive. Feeling his shocks are a little too soft for the final practice he will make a very small change in oil weight adding that a spring change would be too much. After some ‘really bad results’ since joining the Yokomo touring car team the former World Champion said he was encouraged by his time adding he hopes now he can race for a good position.
Setting the fourth fastest time was HB’s Andy Moore. One of 5 World Champions racing in Trencin this weekend, the British ace said his car, which they have been trying many World Championship prototype parts on in free practice, felt not too bad. In free practice he said the set-up was ‘hit and miss’ depending on what they were trying but now they have a good based car to work from with the plan for the rest of the event now just small tweaks.
Rheinard said his Tamiya was not as good as it had been in free practice and he has no idea why other than maybe the hotter conditions. Describing his Much More powered TRF418, which like a lot of team cars this weekend features development parts being tested ahead of the Worlds, as feeling good in free practice he said it was still OK and consistent, while in the timed practice was ‘only just not as fast’. As he has no explanation for the loss of pace the German said he is not sure whether to change the set-up or not and instead wait to see if the track conditions change further.
‘Free practice was better’ was how Volker summed up his first timed run as he set only the 6th fastest time. The German said he had less overall traction than before and they needed to check why but added the extra heat and a heavy wind, which they didn’t experience yesterday, probably had a bit to do with it. Winner here last year, he said while he really likes the track it’s already actually quite challenging without the addition of the wind, the strength of which could be seen when it blew off a section of crowd control barriers being used to hang sponsors banners.
Echoing the same views of his Xray as Hagberg, 20-year-old Marco Kaufmann set the 7th fastest time. The German said while in cooler conditions he had to content with some understeer, on hot track his T4 was great. Planning to leave his set-up the same for the final practice, he will make a power adjustment by changing the rotor in his 4.5 motor. In the track’s infield section he said he had too much power which led to the car being a little difficult to drive.
Making his debut at the track, reigning World Champion Jilles Groskamp would end up 8th fastest. The Tamiya driver said practice has been really ‘up & down’. 3/10th faster than his rivals in the morning’s free practice he said now he was 8/10th off the fastest and he had no explanation why. Saying that the wind was for sure adding to his Orion powered TRF418 being loose he said the small set-up changes he made should not have resulted in such a huge difference in his pace. For the final practice he said he will switch to a set-up for loose conditions, the biggest change involved being changing to a lighter rear diff.
Returning to the ETS having missed Round 5, Team Associated’s Juho Levanen was 9th fastest. The Finn was pleased with the run saying he ‘kept it together and didn’t crash’. Describing his Reedy powered TC6.2 as ‘pretty good’, the former race winner said most of the improvement needs to come from the driver as he was a ‘bit inconsistent’.
Reigning nitro touring car World Champion Meen Vejrak, another first time visitor to the Hudy Racing Arena, completed the Top 10. The Thai driver said having struggled with his Yokomo being ‘very loose’ in free practice, a softer rear diff really helped. Describing the track as looking easy to drive he said it’s not, with the left hand kink in the main straight being its biggest challenge. With Yokomo team manager Robert Itoh as his mechanic this weekend, he said for the final timed practice they will make some small tweaks to try and improve the cars forward traction.
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