Pietsch & Groskamp set pace in Turkey

Official timed practice has ended on the second day of the Bumod Grand Prix with Robert Pietsch and Jilles Groskamp topping the time sheets here in Turkey. Over the seven 30 minutes session each driver had today Mugen’s Pietsch showed he has the edge over his rivals setting a best lap time of 17.216 which is .185 up on second fastest man Patrick Schaefer who in turn is just 4/1000ths up on Michael Salven. In 1:10 things are closer with only 7/100th separating Groskamp, who posted a 19.617, from Dirk Wischewski.

Pietsch declared himself as ‘pretty happy’ with his days work and has decided to call it a day as others continue to run here at Bumod in untimed practice. The German is instead giving his MRX4-X a full rebuild ahead of tomorrow when drivers will run four 10 minute qualifiers.  His closet rival Schaefer was also satisfied with his day.  Having run the same shock set-up as used in Lostallo the German will change shock oil and springs on his Velox which should suit the lower traction levels here and allow him to close the gap to his former team-mate.  Early practice pace setter Michael Salven said he lost his way in the later part of the day. Having to oversee the two prototype 7XXs running in 1:10 here, the multiple European Champion feels he missed out on track time and this has resulted in him being almost 2/10th off Pietsch.  Salven will revert to his usual base set-up and fine tune it from there. DJ Apolaro who is running closely on the pace of Schaefer and Salven was full of praise for the Serpent designer who helped him finally get the clutch, gearing and gearbox right on his 966. ‘Michael helped me out and in 5 minutes he had the thing running perfectly. I’m happy with my pace however Pietsch does have the edge but I have been watching him and I’m going to try change my driving style.’ Asked about his touring car the American replied ‘Awesome’.

Having added an extra shim to the head of her new Max engine for the evening sessions, Serpent backed driver Sabrina Lechner was very happy with her pace. With the engine stabilised and a good balance on her 966 the 19-year-old was able to record the fifth fastest lap of the day.

Showing the potential of Serpent’s latest touring car creation Groskamp was really positive about his pace and how consistent he can run the Max powered prototype. After further investigation of the two high speed offs he had earlier today the Serpent team found the problem to be the new body shell which due to its forward mounting position was flexing at the front lifting the front tyres off the ground at the fastest part of the track.  Modifications to support the front of the body have now been made and Groskamp will continue to put mileage on the new car this evening but has taken out his good Max XXL3 to save it for qualifying.

For Wischnewski he suffered a massive off at the end of the straight resulting in both the front and rear shock towers breaking on his Xray. The German’s NT1 was launched it into the air before crashing heavily into the track’s perimeter fence after catching debris. Despite the incident the Team Xray driver said it was a productive day and he was pleased with his pace. Making it two Xray’s in the top three Surikarn C. posted a 19.818 lap.  The 2002 Electric Touring car World Champion said everything on the car was working fine but in terms of engines he planned to continue in untimed practice so as to put more mileage on his Max.

Heading the local challenge with the fourth fastest time is Serdar Sakallioglu at the controls of a Serpent 720.  One of the two men responsible for building the superb Bumod facility, the other being Yusuf Ekinci who is racing in 1:8, Sakallioglu is the 2008 Turkish National Champion and is keen to prove his abilities here this weekend among the international field. While the track is still live here it is in the morning when things really start to count as we have the opening qualifier for Turkey’s first ever international nitro race.  The first heat gets underway at 10:00 local time.

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