Jérôme Aigoin takes Q2

Kyosho’s Jérôme Aigoin has TQ’d the second round of qualifying for the 1:8 Offroad Euros, the French driver topping the time sheets ahead of Mugen pairing Robert Batlle and Daniel Reckward. After the wet conditions of the opening qualifier this morning the sun made a welcomed return over Sand-am-Main in Germany just in time to dry out the track for Q2 as the fastest drivers hit the track.

Taking the round by over 5 seconds, Aigoin said a clean run with no mistakes gave him the ‘perfect’ result but overall the set-up of his MP9 was only ‘OK’. With the track getting a lot more bumpy following the earlier rain he said his buggy was now very nervous in certain areas of the track and he needs to work on finding a better set-up.  Running AKA’s soft Grid Iron tyres, Aigoin said the key to qualifying was now all about keeping the run free of errors.

Having had a non finish in the opening qualifier, Batlle said he was happy with second in terms of getting good points on the board but overall it was a difficult run.  With lots of stones appearing on the track the Spaniard said his shock set-up did not feel right with his Mugen bouncing around a lot.  Running Pro Circuits new tyre, which is expected to be called Hot Dice when it goes on sale, the Warm-up race winner will fit new shocks for Q3.

Failing to start Q1 after suffering a steering servo failure after just two warm-up laps, Reckward said he ran a ‘very safe’ second round.  Making no mistakes he was surprised by his pace at the end of the five minutes.  Deciding to continue with RB’s new tyre range for the rest of the event having used the Scorpion to good effect on the opening day when he topped practice.  Running the Dragon pattern in Q2, the three time European Champion will run a lighter shock oil in the third run of the day to try and improve his MBX-6 over the developing bumps.

Best known for racing on flat carpet, current 1:12 European Champion Simo Ahoniemi put in a very competitive second qualifier taking his Mugen to the fourth fastest time.  Less than a second off Batlle’s time, the Finn said his AKA City Block shod MBX-6 felt really good and he knew from his warm-up laps that he would be able to push for a good result.

Completing the Top 6 just behind Yannick Aigoin, who was fastest TLR driver in Q2, Elliot Boots was pleased with his qualifier.  Making one mistake the former European Junior Champion said he backed off his driving a little and this suited the conditions.  Running JConcepts’ Sub Culture tyres in blue compound, the Team Durango driver said there is a lot of time to be gained in how you drive the track with the right tyre choice also being more critical.  For Boots’ Durango team Renaud Savoya, who is chasing a fourth consecutive European title here this week, the wrong tyre choice left him 27th fastest.  Opting for Proline’s Block Head M3 compound he said he had no traction.

Round 2 Qualifying – Top 12
1. Jérôme Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi – 10/5:06.476
2. Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi – 10/5:11.850
3. Daniel Reckward – Mugen/RB – 10/5:12.602
4. Simo Ahoniemi – Mugen/Ninja – 10/5:12.801
5. Yannick Aigoin – Losi/nVision – 10/5:13.036
6. Elliot Boots – Durango/RB – 10/5:14.267
7. Marcel Guske – Mugen/RB – 10/5:14.367
8. Martin Bayer – Losi/nVision – 10/5:14.553
9. Darren Bloomfield – Losi/Nitrotec- 10 5:14.575
10.Carsten Keller – Losi/nVision – 10/5:16.175
11.Reece Sawyer – Xray/OS – 10/5:16.560
12.Ignacio Candel – Mugen/S-Workz – 10/5.17.454

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