Video – Modified Qualifying Rd1
No surprises in Luxembourg as Volker takes Q1
The top of the time sheets for the opening qualifier of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Luxembourg contained no surprises as Ronald Volker capped off a perfect opening day to Round 5 of the championship with a TQ run. The Yokomo driver, who is very much on target to secure a fourth consecutive ETS title this weekend, outpaced his rivals by over 2-seconds, the second fastest time being set by Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard with the only remaining title challenger Alexander Hagberg managing only 7th in the first of the four qualifiers. Completing the top 3, only just, was VBC Racing’s Lucas Urbain who was 0.002 faster than fellow Frenchman Loic Jasmin. The qualifier saw a number of key non-finishers with Jilles Groskamp, Yannic Prumper, Marc Fischer and Andy Moore all having issues.
‘A good finish to the day’ was how Volker summed up his dominant performance. With his car feeling a ‘little more stable’ due to the cooler conditions of the late evening run, the 10 time ETS race winner said he was able to focus more on running clean lines over the 5-minutes. Unable to gauge how close his rivals were for the first two minutes of the run, the size of the track making it hard to keep drivers behind him in view, even when he did know the gap he still kept pushing. Aware that with tomorrow expected to be an even hotter day at Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”, of the four qualifiers this would most likely be the fastest due to the temperature so he went for a time so that should qualifying go to a tie break he would have the fastest TQ time in hand.
Only 7th fastest in practice, Rheinard said his TRF418 was easy to drive but it was ‘missing some steering’. Much happier with the self glued tyres Modified drivers got to run for qualifying, he said second was an ok start but he hoped to be able to find some speed for tomorrow. Over a 10th off the fastest lap set by Volker, he said he needs to chat with his engineer Kiyo Suzuki to discuss what plan of attack they will take for tomorrow morning’s Q2. Having been the leading Tamiya in practice team-mate Wilck set the fifth fastest time. The Swede said while his car suffered from a little understeer through right hand corners his main issue was two mistakes over the run. Following behind Yannic Prumper at the start he said when the German made a mistake it lead him to make a mistake also and on the last lap he had a ‘not so good line through the chicane’.
Urbain, who made his international name here at the Luxembourg track at the 2009 European Championship, was clearly delighted with his opening qualifier. Having shown himself to be competitive in practice, he said he changed nothing on his Wildfire D06 and from start to finish it worked perfectly. Posting the second fastest lap of the round he said he was ‘super happy’ with his run the only moment being when he got the car up on two wheels. He said for now he just wants to enjoy the moment, helped by the fact he beat his good friend Jasmin by such a narrow margin, but looking to tomorrow he believes there is so much more in the car as he didn’t drive it at near 100%.
With his LRP powered Yokomo BD7 being transformed for the final practice after a shock rebuild, reigning multiple French National Champion Jasmin was delighted with his ‘super close’ opening qualifier. Describing his car as OK in the beginning, it struggled a little on fresh tyres, he said from the middle to the finish it was really good. Running on the second fastest pace for a time behind Volker he said nerves kicked in a little towards the end but overall his car was ‘super fast’ and he plans to stick with the same set-up for Q2.
Making his return to the ETS having not raced in the championship since a tough season opener last November, Team Durango’s Elliott Harper completed the Top 6. The British driver described his qualifier as steady saying his DETC410, which is a standard kit car that he only built on Wednesday before coming out to Luxembourg, had ‘too conservative a set-up.’ Having changed the car for the final practice to get more rear grip for the hotter conditions he said he left it the same for Q1 but in the colder conditions this resulted in him being in a position where he ‘could have done with more steering’. Pleased to get Day 1 under him with a good first run, his main goal for the weekend to make the A-Main for the first time since joining Team Durango from Tamiya, he said he hopes to be able to build on that tomorrow.
The only driver left with a chance, albeit very slender, of denying Volker from taking the overall title this weekend, Hagberg summed up his Q1 performance as ‘slow & steady’. With his ORCA powered Xray T4 ‘too stable’, the Swede will revert to his final controlled practice set-up and go from there as he looks to make the handling ‘a bit more aggressive’. Behind Hagberg, newly signed French Team Magic driver Leo Arnold posted the 8th fastest time with Awesomatix’s Freddy Sudhoff and Capricorn’s Kyle Branson rounding out the Top 10.
Return to the ETS this weekend, the first qualifier didn’t go well for World Champion Jilles Groskamp. The former 2-time ETS Champion who doesn’t have a mechanic preferring to do all the work on his own car, lasted just 2-laps after forgetting to tighten the suspension blocks on his Orion powered TRF418. The Dutch ace who has flown in from Thailand for the race, said leaving his car prep to go glue his qualifying tyres in the controlled area on his return he just forgot to tighten the screws fully. After he ‘drove like shit’ Fischer decided to call time on his run after his second mistake to save his tyres. Moore lasted only 2-more laps after the inside of a front tyre came unglued on his Hobby Wing powered HB TCXX causing the car to pull badly to the right on the main straight from the second lap. Second fastest in practice Prumper said his Yokomo had ‘no forward traction’ as well as ‘pushing like hell’ and having made only slight adjustments to the car he said he can only put it down to a bad set of tyres.
In the Xray Pro Stock class, leading German 1:8 Onroad driver Lars Hoppe took the opening qualifier with his ARC chassis over the Xray of defending Champion Marek Cerny with the Schumacher of former Champion Martin Hofer third. In Formula Oliver Bultynck took the first qualifier but only after class debutant David Ehrbar made a late mistake with his Serpent.
Ride Modified Round 1 Qualifying – Top 10
1. Ronald Volker – Yokomo – 16/5:03.575
2. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 16/5:05.809
3. Lucas Urbain – VBC Racing – 16/5:06.375
4. Loic Jasmin – Yokomo – 16/5:06.377
5. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 16/5:06.386
6. Elliot Harper – Team Durango – 16/5:07.418
7. Alexander Hagberg – Xray – 16/5:08.092
8. Leo Arnold – Team Magic – 16/5:08.270
9. Freddy Sudhoff – Awesomatix – 16/5:09.085
10.Kyle Branson – Capricorn – 16/5:09.314
View the complete event results here.
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Chassis Focus – Marek Cerny
Chassis – Xray T4 ’14
Motor – MuchMore (handout)
ESC – MuchMore (handout)
Batteries – LRP 6000 110C
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Savox
Bodyshell – Protoform Mazda Speed6
Remarks – Czech ace Cerny is running a pretty standard version of the T4’14, even though he has made several changes from the last race in Mattsee in terms of setup. The biggest changes are lower roll centres in the front end and a narrower track width meant to make the car more aggressive and confer more steering and therefore corner speed. A noticeable equipment choice is the 6000 LRP LiPo pack which Marek prefers over the heavier 7200 versions.
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Euro Touring Series Rd5 – Friday Action
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Yokomo 1-2 in final practice
Team Yokomo claimed a 1-2 in practice at Round 5 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series, with Yannic Prumper moving up to second fastest in the final practice in Luxembourg behind Ronald Volker. Having completely outclassed his rivals in TP1, Volker would again be fastest in the second & final seeding practice albeit in a slow time, his advantage only 4/10ths rather than the over 1-second advantage he had over 3-laps in the previous run. Improving his time by a 10th of a second, Prumper would move ahead of Tamiya’s Viktor Wilck who again ran a 57.5 pace the second time being just fractionally slower. On the timing sheets the second best improvement came from French driver Loic Jasmin, who jumped from 10th to 4th fastest demoting fellow countryman Lucas Urbain to fifth.
Volker said while he didn’t have the same ‘crazy pace’ as he had at the start of TP1, his LRP powered BD7 was overall pretty much the same with it feeling very consistent over the 4-minutes. The only driver to run an 18-second lap in TP2, he said he is happy to leave the car as is for the opening qualifier, for which he will be the top seed, even though the track conditions should be a lot cooler than those of both rounds of timed practice.
Despite improving his time, Prumper said he is still struggling at the start of the run with his best time coming from his final three laps. Lost for ideas on what to change for TP2, he copied a set-up from Volker’s car reducing the spacer under the rear bulk head by 1mm. Making the car roll more his mechanic Toni Rheinard said it didn’t suit his driving style and for Q1 they will revert back changing instead to a softer shock oil and droop adjustment with the aim just to get in a solid first qualifier.
Having changed the shock set-up on his TRF418, Wilck said while it gave the car a slightly different feel in terms of lap times it was almost identical to earlier. The Swede plans to play safe for Q1 saying he will leave the car as is for now. The third quickest driver to improve in the final practice, team-mate Marc Rheinard said reverting back to his free practice set-up improved his MuchMore powered TRF418 but tyre quality was an issue. Cutting open his pre-glued tyres after the run in which he posted the 7th fastest overall time, the German, who has come in for criticism over complaining about tyres, found that parts of the inserts had become glued to the rim something which Wilck described as causing a similar feeling to driving a real car with a puncture. The 3-time World Champion said hopefully the gluing of the tyres for qualifying themselves will cure the issue pointing out that the gluing issues had cost Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp both of his timed runs, the former race winner managing only the 20th fastest time.
Getting outpaced by the Yokomo of multiple French Champion and good friend Jasmin, Urbain said his problem was that he overdrove for the conditions. Expecting the track to have more grip due to the cooler temperature he said he drove too aggressively. Looking forward to Q1 he said he will leave his VBC as is as it should be fine for the ‘happy hour’ conditions. Behind Urbain, Marc Fischer completed the Top 6 with the Serpent driver unable to improve his time. Making changes to his car he said they had little or no effect on the handling and he has no idea how this is possible. For Q1 he will revert back to the set-up he ran in the first timed practice and just try to end day 1 with a solid qualifier.
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Volker stuns rivals in opening Luxembourg practice
Ronald Volker left his rivals stunned in the opening round of timed practice for Round 5 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Luxembourg. The Yokomo driver, who could secure his fourth consequence title in the world famous championship this weekend, was over 3-laps more than 1-second faster than his closest rival who was Viktor Wilck. From Wilck back the field was very closely matched around the spectacular Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg” with 2nd to 10th covered by just half a second. Completing the Top 3 was Volker’s team-mate Yannic Prumper with French driver Lucas Urbain an impressive fourth with his VBC chassis.
Having found ‘an issue’ in the second untimed practice which they were able to ‘figure out’ for the first of the two timed practices that will determine the seeding for qualifying, Volker joked his pace was ‘too good’. Making two mistakes on his run he said other than that his car and its power were perfect. Hinting that his issue was tyre related, the German said the move to drivers gluing their own tyres in a controlled area for qualifying was a good decision by the championship as it makes things the same for everyone. A glorious day, with the weather set to get even hotter tomorrow, the newly crowned Reedy Race Champion said the hotter conditions make driving in the already low traction conditions tougher. With the opening round of qualifying set to bring Day 1 of the event to a close he said the colder conditions should make it very interesting. For the final practice, which should be slightly cooler, he said he will make just some slight changes to account for the conditions.
Despite setting the second fastest time while his team-mates were only 9th and 11th fastest, Wilck said his TRF418 is all over the track. Describing the track as ‘for sure more difficult’ than when he raced here at the European Championship in 2009 the feeling he has with the car is not completely down to the track, having no stability on power. At a loss as to how Volker can be so much faster over just 3-laps, the Swede plans to try a different shock set-up for the final practice in the hope he can make the car easier to drive. Only 9th fastest, Marc Rheinard said his car was ‘really bad’ after he ‘tried a few things’. Happy with how he ran in untimed practice, the 3-time World Champion will revert back to the set-up he used then for the final practice of the event.
Making a return to the championship and to the location of his 2009 European Championship win, Jilles Groskamp admitted that he is a ‘little lost with set-up’. Changing car for the first timed practice and managing only the 11th fastest time he will change to his other car for the next practice adding ‘at least now I know which car to run’. Struggling with a lack of overall traction the Dutch driver said the nature of the track makes it not so easy to find a good set-up as to get stability means losing corner speed and vice versa. As he searches for a final set-up he said he is going to be forced to work on finding it through qualifying which is never perfect. Echoing Volker’s comments, the World Champion also likes the change to the procedure for the hand-out Ride control tyre with drivers now having to glue up their own sets in a controlled area. This weekend also sees the introduction of a controlled tyre preparing area with Muchmore providing the tyre warmers but Groskamp feels having tested here previously both with and without additive that the difference once the tyre get three warm-up laps on them is almost unnoticeable and just having a tyre impound with no preparing would be a much simpler option.
Prumper was also struggling with his own team-mates huge advantage over the field. The 20-year-old who had a thrilling battle with Volker at Round 4 in Austria last month said his car is ‘ok’ but on new tyres for the first 2-minutes it ‘pushes like hell’. Good after that he said the loss of time in those two minutes is a lot and could prove costly once qualifying starts. Having ‘already changed a lot’ on his BD7, the German said he doesn’t know what he can change to try and alleviate the problem.
A driver who made a huge name for himself at the 2009 European Championships when using an ageing Losi JRSX-R he qualified 5th for the A-Main, Urbain was very happy with his run to the fourth fastest time. Living just 30-minutes from the track which while in a different country he calls his local track, he said his VBC Wildfire D06 is getting better and better every run but added that he got lucky too with the set of tyres he got for the the run. On the subject of tyres he said that an issue he is facing for qualifying is that he suffers greater tyre drop off over the run than his rivals something he said is down to himself and how he is working the tyres. Changing to a different shock bladder for the run which he expected would make the car harder to driver he said it actually made it ‘super easy’ and with a cooler, faster track he will leave everything as is for the final practice.
Serpent’s Marc Fischer posted the 5th fastest time but the German said his car ‘feels shit to drive’. Struggling with a lack of traction he said for last practice he will change to a harder shock as well as adjusting the front roll centres just to see what difference that makes. Having tested here 2-weeks ago alongside Volker, describing the Yokomo driver’s advantage as a ‘crazy difference’, he said the track had more traction and he was able to run 18.5 lap times something which today is a struggle.
Completing the Top 6 was Alexander Hagberg, the Xray driver saying it was ‘not perfect so far’. ‘Close to everyone except Ronald’ he said as they did not do pre-event testing like their rivals it was not bad considering their lack of track time. Looking for more high speed steering, the Swede plans to make a roll centre change on his ORCA powered T4 for his next run.
‘Difficult’ was how HB’s Andy Moore summed up his run to the 7th fastest time. Describing it as a ‘great track’, the former World Champion said the traction is ‘very low’ and he is struggling to get the power down his prototype parts filled TCXX. Asked what he planned to change to try cure this he said he would discuss it to his mechanic and team boss Hiroyuki Kasuya who said their first goal was to make the car more stable and they would then work from there.
Making his ETS debut this weekend, having arrived in from the UK in the early hours of this morning, David Spashett said he came here not expecting much and he is pretty much living up to that. Driving an ARC chassis, for which he is the UK distributor through ZEN Racing, he said he is having great fun on what he said is a fantastic track. The 4-time World Champion has raced here before when he ran 2004 1:8 Onroad European Championships but the track has since had its famous Laguna Seca corkscrew added. Delighted to finally being racing at an ETS event he said he is just here for fun and said ‘don’t expect me to be put any moves on anyone only maybe a move to the bar later’.
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Chassis Focus – David Spashett
Chassis – ARC R10 2013
Motor – G-Force 4.5
ESC – LRP Flow
Batteries – Trinity
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servo – Spektrum
Bodyshell – Blitz TSX
Remarks – The 4 time World & 13 time European Champion is at his first big race with his ARC chassis with the event also marking his debut in the ETS, one of the sport’s all time greats having stopped racing touring cars just the season before the series took life back in 2008. His R10 features a brand new chassis that is still at a prototype stage. Sporting a different outer shape, the design of the new graphite platform is meant to drastically change the flex, taking it away from the front and rear end and bringing it to the centre of the car. This solution also provides a single flex instead of two different movements, and it’s meant to make the car handle more precisely especially in the sweepers.
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Track Focus – Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”
Track Name – Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”
Country – Luxembourg
Location – Luxembourg City
Host – Luxembourg Model Car Club (LMCC)
Surface – Asphalt
Direction – Anti-clockwise
No. of ETS Races hosted – 0
It might be a country with a population of only half a million people but Luxembourg can claim to be the home to one of the best tracks in Europe – Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”. Run by the Luxembourg Model Car Club, which started out on a nearby ‘Park & Ride’ car park, the track was built in 1999 after the club reached a long term agreement to rent a plot of land from the City of Luxembourg. Funding the building of the track themselves, the club hosted its first race in May 2000. Since then LMCC, which has a membership of 50, has hosted European Championships for 1:5 (2003), 1:10 Electric Touring (2009) and twice for 1:8 Onroad (2004 & 10). Playing host to Uwe Rheinard’s 24 Hour race for the first time last year, which it will do again later this year, this is the first time the ETS has travelled to Luxembourg with the decision to add it to the calendar for Season #7 hugely popular with racers.
With a 310 meter long lap, the track is most famed for its Laguna Seca corkscrew style corner which was added in 2007 when part of the infield was also modified. The drop of the corkscrew is in the region of 2 metres and is only truly appreciated when one physically walks back up it. At the end of the straight the track also features a 10 degree banked corner and its a track that modified cars can really come into their own. Last year the surface underwent a polishing using 1mm steel balls after chemicals used to spray the track during 2010 EFRA 1:8 Euros left the track with generally lower traction in particular for the clubs large percentage of 1:5 scale drivers.
Winner of the 2009 1:10 EP European Championship here, World Champion Jilles Groskamp describes the track as ‘exciting to drive’ adding the up & down elevations make it really interesting and different. Although the cars now have more power than in 2009, the Tamiya driver said they are now lapping slower as the polishing had reduced the overall grip. Loving the Laguna Seca section, he said while the sweeper at the end of the straight is good you need to be careful not to carry too much speed through it as a bump just after you come off it can unsettle the car. The Dutch ace said the fast chicane in the middle of the track is also a key point as you carry a lot of speed and it’s easy to lose time if you don’t get the curbing right. Reigning ETS Champion Ronald Volker called the track ‘one of the best in the world’ again because of its ‘unique up & down layout’. The German, who finished 3rd here in 2009, said the run out ot the Leguna Seca corner so as to get the best line onto the main straight is key with the fast chicane also a place where time can easily be lost. Like Groskamp, the Yokomo ace said the traction is not as good as before due to the polishing. A good lap time in the Ride Modified class is expected to be in the lap 18-second bracket.
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