Volker tops free practice as rain haults proceedings
Rain haulted proceedings at Round 5 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Luxembourg just as controlled practice was due to get underway at Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”. Having started off a dry day, allowing two rounds of free practice to be completed, the heavy rain left race organisers with no choice but to stop the event with the free practice times now expected to determine the reseeding of the qualifying heats. The free practice times would produce no surprises with last year’s race winner Ronald Volker fastest from team-mate Yannic Prumper. Behind them Xray’s Bruno Coelho completed the Top 3 in front of Marc Rheinard.
With drivers having completed 5-rounds of free practice yesterday Volker, having used two cars in each of those runs, today said he focused on running a single car to get into a good rhythm for 5-minutes. Feeling his LRP powered BD7 was working ‘quite well’, the German said while it was ‘good’ to be at the top the times sheets it was only free practice and not a true picture of where his rivals are really at.
Running Hitec’s new Lynx radio for the first time this weekend, finding the switch from Sanwa to take a bit of time to adjust to, Prumper said his Much More powered BD7 was really good yesterday. Adjusting the rear droop, adding more for today, the 21-year-old said the change had left it a little slow to start off and for when proceedings do get back underway he will go back to the same as he ran yesterday.
Coelho said his T4 was ‘super fast but not consistent’. Although he raced 1:8 nitro here aged 11, the track then not having its feature Laguna Seca corner, the Portuguese ace said he was still trying to learn what he described as a ‘super fun but difficult’ layout. Changing to a painted signature colour scheme bodyshell for the last free practice round in preparation for using it the rest of the event he said it mounts slightly further back on the car and this has caused him to lose a little steering. As a result he will have to revert back to his white practice bodyshell.
Runner-up to Volker here last year, Rheinard said while his Tamiya was ‘OK’ in the last practice overall things had not started off so good. Fresh from winning a record 5th Reedy Race of Champions title last weekend in California, he said while the car is safe to drive it is understeering in the fast corners. Looking to further change his set-up once action resumes, when asked about the rain changing the track he said a much little shower yesterday had little effect on the traction levels him predicting it ‘should be fine’.
Fifth fastest, Alexander Hagberg reported the opposite issues to team-mate Coelho. The Swede said, ‘I think my car is pretty consistent but not super fast’. He continued, ‘the car is good but I need to find more steering for the fast stuff as it is just a little too slow’.
Serpent’s Viktor Wilck would complete the Top 6, the Swede saying it’s ‘all going well’. Running the same set-up he ran at the ETS in Mattsee and at the Reedy Race, he said even though the track here is totally different his S411 feels really good. Running both of the morning’s free practices on used tyres, he is confident that on new rubber he has the pace to run close to Top 3 pace.
Behind Yokomo’s Loic Jasmin, Jilles Groskamp would post the 8th fastest time. A driver who has great memories of the track as it was where he won his first European Championship 6-years ago, the HB driver said things were already going a bit better than the previous two ETS outings. Happy with his first run of the day, the Dutchman changed to a heavier diff oil for the second but while his PRo5 was faster over a single lap it was less consistent and he will go back. New to the team, who have also recruited Freddy Sudhoff this year, the 2012 World Champion said the team has really started to gel now. With all the drivers running off the same ‘good base set-up’ he said having lost their way in Mattsee they are now making smaller ‘fine tuning’ adjustments between rounds and that is paying dividends.
Sudhoff would record the ninth fastest time describing his early performance as ‘not so bad’. Having tried a number of shock set-up changes on his PRO5 he said ‘some worked good, some worked bad’ but they had helped the team to find a good direction in which to go with set-up. One of a number of drivers coming directly to Luxembourg from the Reedy Race, he said going from the small tight Tamiya Raceway to here couldn’t be more contrasting and he was still trying to fine tune his driving style to the huge track.
First time Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg” visitor Meen Vejrak rounded out the Top 10. The Yokomo driver said his BD7 improved a lot after many set-up changes over the 7 rounds of free practice. Having struggled with no traction he said it while he was still working to find more compared to yesterday it was now a lot better. Still learning the track he said its right side is proving quite difficult to master.
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