Ronnefalk on pole
Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk will start the Main final which will decode the 33rd 1:8 Offroad European Champion from pole position after the Top Qualifier won his semi final in the fastest time with the other Semi Final winner Joern Neumann starting second on the grid for this evening’s 45-minute encounter at Reims in France. A great drive by reigning champion Darren Bloomfield, who had a difficult qualifying, will see the TLR driver try and defend his title from 3rd on the 12 car grid.
Ronnefalk, who has been portraying a new level of maturity and confidence this weekend, took the first of the semi finals from Bloomfield after an early battle with Renaud Savoya until the 3-time champion crashed. The Swede said following his early but ‘clean battle’ with Savoya he was able to pull away and focus on running the fastest time for the 20-minute race saying he wanted to ensure he would start the final from pole. Running his race 11-seconds faster than Neumann’s winning time of a very exciting encounter, Ronnefalk said everything worked perfectly as it has all week and other than freshen up his Orion powered MP9 he will go into the main with the buggy as is.
Having only qualified 13th, Bloomfield appears to have found his rhythm, the British driver saying he doesn’t exactly know what it is but its working. Having had a toothache early in the event he said that has now gone and for sure this is helping him to drive better and he is ‘now ready to rock’. Very happy with his AKA shod 8ight 3.0 he said he other than fitting a fresh clutch to his Novarossi engine he will leave the buggy as is. While most drivers stopped twice for fuel in the Semis, Bloomfield only stopped once and this could be his trump card in the Main.
Third in the first Semi was Mugen’s Lee Martin. The British driver said the run was ‘alright’ adding that he is still looking for more steering and so for the final he will change the anti squat and roll-bars on his Proline Big Block shod MBX-7.
Savoya said his XB9 was ‘perfect’ for the first 10-minutes but for the second half of the race it was not so good. Planning to change to a heavier shock oil for the main event he is confident this will give him a more consistent buggy and all will be ‘OK’.
The semi B final which saw a great battle between Neumann, Battle and Martin Bayer. Neumann described his race as ‘good’ saying they have been working to a plan with his prototype Durango and it is now starting to come good. The German said his Picco powered buggy is easy to drive but said the field is very close with ‘all the top guys very similar in speed’ and he expects a very close final.
Bayer was just 7/10ths off the winner. The Xray driver said the race was ‘proper preparation for the final’ and he was pleased at making it through. Having changed his LRP powered XB9 after qualifying the Czech ace said his buggy was not very good in the Semi Warm-up session and so they changed for the actual Semi and he is very happy with how it worked. World Champion Batlle, who started his Semi from pole, would finish third, the Spaniard saying they ran too light an oil in the diffs of his Mugen.
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