Volker takes Q2 at DHI Cup
Defending DHI Cup Champion Ronald Volker took the second round of qualifying this morning at the famous Danish event. The heat would see a number of drivers top the time screens over the 5-minutes but in the end it was the Yokomo driver who got the job done. 2.8-seconds down, Xray’s Alexander Hagberg would claim second with yesterday’s Q1 winner Yannic Prumper completing the Top 3.
Having rolled in the opening qualifier as he tried to keep pace with team-mate Prumper, Volker had a clean second heat with him declaring himself pleased to get a TQ run under his belt. Having made changes to his LRP powered BD7 which gave him ‘a lot more steering’, the German said with the car having a very different feeling he had to adapt his driving and this allowed Serpent’s Marc Fischer, who early-on set the TQ pace, to close in. Able to get a better feel for the car after 2-minutes he said he was then able to pull away from Fischer and get in a clean final 3 minutes. While the changes increased the cars steering he said it was a little too much for his driving style and overall he found it more difficult to drive adding they need to make small changes for the next qualifier to get it more comfortable.
Having put his ORCA powered T4 at the top of the timing screen, Hagberg described his qualifier as ‘a lot better driving wise’. The Swede added the first 2-minute were ‘really good’ but then he lost pace, something he is attributing to his tyre prep. Changing to a stiffer shock spring for today, he said this made the car more consistent adding if they can figure out a tyre prep that make the tyre perform evenly over the run everything ‘should be fine’.
Not happy with his opening lap, Prumper said his performance got better during the run as he worked his way to the top of the times. Setting the fastest lap of the round, he would however make a mistake after the straight on lap 17 of 25 losing amost 1.5 seconds. Despite this the 21-year-old said his Muchmore powered Yokomo is ‘very good’ and its just down to him driving it.
Switching to his ETS car having struggled yesterday with a lack of traction Marc Rheinard said it was ‘OK’ but again in the fast chicane he had ‘zero feeling’. Making a mistake a lap before Prumper had his, he said without the lost 1.3 seconds it would have been a pretty decent run to second instead of fourth. Having went softer with the rear diff in his TRF419 he felt it was too much and for Q3 he will go back up in oil and ‘try again’.
Going from 3000w to 6000w oil in the diff, Fischer said this improved his G-Force powered S411 a lot. Also changing the front shock position he said he was surprised by his own pace over the first minute but after that ‘maybe I drove like shit’ leading to a mistake and the 5th fastest time. Overall pleased with the improvement made to the car which he feels without his mistake had the pace to finish ahead of Hagberg he will for the next qualifier increase further his rear diff oil to 8000w.
Completing the Top 6, new HB signing Freddy Sudhoff said he learned that he went the wrong way with his set-up. Trying a different shock set-up he said while it improved the pace of his LRP powered PRO5, in terms of fastest hot lap it was difficult to drive consistently. Knowing now what direction he needs to take he expects Q3 should be better.
In the Super Stock class factory Xray drivers Marek Cerny and Jan Ratheisky repeated their Q1 performance with another 1-2. Serpent’s Merlin Depta completed the Top 3 followed by top Dane Mike Gosvig and Norway’s Helge Johannessen.
View the event image gallery here.
