Viljami closes gap but it’s Volker again in Q2

Viljami Kutvonen reduced his deficit by half to record a P2 in the second round of qualifying at the DHI Cup this morning.  As in last night’s opening qualifier, the Awesomatix driver again set the fastest lap finishing just 0.452 of a second off defending champion Ronald Volker.  With track conditions proving fastest on Day 2 of the event, having TQ’d the first qualifier Volker would improve on that time by 3-seconds.  After a slow start to the event yesterday, Bruno Coelho would post a Top 3 run finishing just ahead of Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg, but with both drivers making mistakes the gap was a considerable 6-seconds.

‘Close’ was Kutvonen’s reaction after the qualifier.  The Finn said fitting new O-rings to the diff in his A800 had made it ‘slightly stiffer’ and as a result gave him a little more steering.  He continued ‘I think the track was faster now so maybe for the next one I will try a harder front spring’.  Turning over his car and pointing to scuff marks on the front of the chassis he said said ‘I need to reduce the chassis touching the carpet’ and this should also help with more steering’.  Commenting on the run he said ‘I made a number of small mistakes and when its super close they make a difference so I need to work on my driving also’.

Volker said he ‘was expecting (Kutvonen) to be fast’ and his pace was ‘no surprise’.  Making ‘small adjustments’ to his BD7 2016 for Q2, the German said these ‘made it more reactive’ and he was happy to get another TQ.  Having found his car strongest at the start of the first qualifier, the multiple ETS Champion said he made a push at the start to get a gap.  With  Kutvonen coming back at him to reduce the early advantage he said he then just tried to maintain the gap.  With his car ‘still getting a little loose’ over the 5-minutes he said ‘this is something we need to discuss’ with his engineer Yukijiro Umino.

Only 15th in Q1, Coelho’s response to his P3 in the second qualifier was ‘it’s much better today’.  Changing from the Silvy bodyshell in ran in Q1 to a Nazda 2 from new sponsor Montech, he said it was an improvement.  Making a mistake during the qualifier when he flipped his LRP powered T4, he said the focus for the final qualifier is to tune the set-up to get the best from the body change.

Fourth fastest Hagberg described his run as ‘not very good’ adding ‘I was pushing too hard’.  The Xray driver crashed twice after catching the curbing through the chicane in front of the drivers stand adding ‘I need to drive better’.  With traction higher the European Champion said he will also make a set-up change on his ORCA powered T4 so as to ‘free up the car’.

Describing his Yokomo as ‘a little difficult to drive’, Meen Vejrak said he had opted to go for a safe run with that leading to a P5 for the DHI debutant.  The Thai driver said his Scorpion powered BD7 was loose and in order to make it more stable they will change the front suspension mounts.  Running split mounts for Q4 they will fit a solid mount which with the traction getting higher should ‘take the edginess off’.

Completing the Top 6 Marek Cerny said he didn’t expect the result.  Having got a P4 in Q1, the star of Pro Stock said he ‘just wanted to make a clean run’ with the result locking him into an A-Main starting position.  Describing his Xray as ‘super easy to drive’,  the Czech driver said for Q3 he will ‘push a little more’ adding two Top 6 runs is very encouraging for future Modified outings.

In Super Stock it was Xray’s Jan Ratheisky who topped the second qualifier ahead of team-mate & defending champion Cerny.  Having TQ’d last night’s opening qualifier unfortunately Tim Benson would suffer a DNF. Tony Streit would complete the Top 3.

View the event image gallery here.