Wilck takes Q4, Rheinard Top Qualifier
In one of the most interesting qualifying battles seen at a round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series for some time, Serpent’s new signing Viktor Wilck became the fourth different driver in as many qualifiers to top the times but it was Marc Rheinard who claimed the overall TQ honours for the German event. The Tamiya driver went into the deciding qualifier up against the Yokomo pairing of Yannic Prumper and Ronald Volker with both drivers needing a second TQ run to better Rheinard’s faster TQ time of Q3, while Wilck took them all by surprise with his pace to top Q4 by 6/10ths of a second. Behind Rheinard, Volker will start second followed by Prumper, Wilck and last year’s event winner Alexander Hagberg.
Claiming his second overall TQ of Season #8 having claimed pole position for the season opener in the Czech Republic, Rheinard said ‘Four different TQ guys has to be a first for the championship’. Pleased to again claim the bonus point for the TQ he said ‘hopefully this time round I wont mess it up in the final’, the German referring to his 4th place finish in Hrotovice. With ‘not so much tyre wear’ he said he should be good as he can keep the same set of tyres on his TRF419 for the finals. Commenting on the finals, the first of which takes place tonight, he said ‘I should be ok especially as Ronald looks to be struggling but I’m taking nothing for granted as they might find something between now & the first final’.
Only 5th fastest in Q4, Volker said ‘I’m more disappointed about my pace than my position on the grid’. The 4-time back to back ETS champion said he is still lacking pace at the beginning of the run and as it stands now they have no chance so they have no choice but to make a ‘big change’ for A1.
Pulling a shock off his BD7, Prumper said he ‘just pushed over the limit and messed it up’. The runner-up in Muelheim-Kaerlich last year, the 21-year-old said his car is good for racing and his approach for the final was pretty simple, ‘maximum attack’.
Having had little or no testing with his new Serpent due to waiting on the go ahead to get early release from his Tamiya contract, Wilck said ‘finally I have TQ’d one round on carpet, its been a very long time’. Going up in his rear diff oil on his S411 he said this helped the car carry more corner speed and a droop adjustment also made the car faster through the chicane. Starting from fourth on the grid, the Swede said he can only wait and see what happens with the three ahead of him during the finals but added the car is fast enough to challenge for the win.
The driver who started on pole last year from where he took a very convincing win, Hagberg is not enjoying the same form this time round. Struggling with the rear end of his Xray, the clearly frustrated Swede said he still hasn’t been able to cure the poor handling. Behind Hagberg, enjoying his best run in Q4 when he took his Kyosho to the third fastest time, Christopher Krapp will start third. The German started in that same position when the race was first hosted at the current venue and came away with a podium finish.
In the Xray Pro Stock class it is defending champion Marek Cerny who is Top Qualifier ahead of Xray team-mates Mike Gosvig and Jan Rathiesky who posted his first TQ run in the final qualifier. Changing to harder oil in the rear shocks for the final qualifier so as to get more steering, Cerny said he got caught out by the change as his T4 had more steering than expected. Causing him to hit the boards and lose time he said once he adjusted his driving he was very happy with the change adding that having steering in reserve is a nice thing to have in a final. Gosvig said he tried for the TQ but over did it and made a mistake coming onto the straight that cost him over a second, the gap at the end of the 5-minutes to Rathiesky being 3/10ths. Rathiesky, who capped off the Formula TQ he secured in Q3 with a clean sweep of qualifying by topping all four qualifiers, said starting from 3rd on the Pro Stock grid was ‘no problem’ and while passing would be ‘not so easy’ he had some good tactics to try and get passed his team-mates.
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