Boots caps of Euros quali with 3rd TQ run
Although he secured the Top Qualifier honours in the penultimate round, Elliott Boots capped off qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in style with a 3rd TQ run in the final round. The defending champion would further improve on his best time over the 5-minutes to top the round from David Ronnefalk, the Swede ending up third overall which means he will line-up right behind the Brit in Semi-A. Rounding out qualifying with the third quickest time, which would end as one off his dropped rounds, Darren Bloomfield secures pole for the Semi-B ahead of Q1 TQer Davide Ongaro, the young Italian completing qualifying at RC Redovan with a P5. Two drivers to end qualifying with their best performances of the five rounds would be Martin Wollanka and Joern Nuemann claiming a P3 and P6 respectively.
‘I could be a bit more relaxed that one as whatever happened happened, but I finished 2-seconds up on David (Ronnefalk) so I’m happy with that’, was Boots’ reaction to Q5. Also the overall Top Qualifier last year in Italy, the biggest change they would make for the final qualifier would be to run his Reds Racing engine more rich as it was ‘so hot today’ with tomorrow’s Semi Finals set to run around a similar time of the day. He added, ‘it was a little slower on the straight but we knew that and overall we were still faster which is good for tomorrow’. Asked about run time, he replied, ‘We’ll probably play safe, I think everyone will as you cant afford to miss a lap because its so big’.
Commenting on his P2 overall Bloomfield said, ‘I’m happy with that. If you said to me on the journey over I would be second I would have said that will do me as I was very slow in Italy. I didn’t make the final there. Now me and Elliot are the most consistent’. Having to deal with understeer in Q4, the Agama driver would remove the under-drive from his A215, reverting to the standard drive and while ‘you need to be a lot more careful’ he was happier with the feeling and found steering. With the overdrive he said you were ‘burying the throttle everywhere to the get the car to pull out of the corner but now you can be more gentle with the throttle which is gaining fuel mileage’. He added, ‘I cant find steering with overdrive so I think I am going to go with the standard for the finals’. Switching to a hard compound Beta V-Max tyre for the final qualifier, a tyre which when he ran it in controlled practice caused a big drop off in pace, he said now he still had the same pace, helped by the overdrive removal.
‘Car was really good that last one’ was how Ronnefalk summed up the final qualifier. Losing 1-second on the last lap when he tangled with a crashed car just before the loop, the Swede said that wouldn’t have changed the result and for him the big thing was that they were able to improve the car from the morning qualifier. The HB Racing driver said, ‘I felt comfortable with the car and feel I can run this pace over a longer run’. Planning to just rebuild his Orion powered D815 but leave it unchanged in terms of set-up, on run time the 20-year-old said, ‘you need to be really sure of your mileage because if you miss a lap here you may be in trouble’. The 2013/14 champion concluded, ‘its a long way for the marshals to get your car so its going to be very important to stay on your wheels in the finals’.
‘Looking at the start I had, to qualify P4 is better than expected’ was Ongaro’s view on qualifying P4. The Mugen driver would use Q5 to test different tyres. Having run Procircuit’s Road Runner throughout the event he switched to the Spanish company’s new prototype tyre which fellow Mugen drivers Batlle and the Baldo brothers have been running but he will revert back for the finals. The 15-year-old said the new tyre was good but for him the Road Runner had more traction while still offering more corner speed, adding the wear was also better. Asked about fuel stops for the Semi final, he said while they could run over 8-minutes from his LRP engine ‘it was too risky because of long lap so we will would pit on 7-minutes’.
Ending up 5th overall, Batlle said for the last one, ‘we tried a different set-up which was not so good’. With an improvement not possible he said with his younger brother Dani in contention for a Semi position he backed off on the last lap to try help him but he failed to make the cut. Planning a few changes to test in the Semi Practice he said they will be ok for the race, the Spaniard adding, ‘I’m confident with the car and we are super close so I’m happy’.
Securing sixth overall, Bryan Baldo said, ‘I’m very happy, it’s my first time to qualify Top 10 at a European Championships’. Making a switch to Procircuit’s Road Runner tyre for the final qualifier, the race host and track owner said, ‘it works well but was less predictable than the prototype (tyre) so I will go back for the Semi Final’. With his brother Oscar also making the Semis with 10th overall which puts them up against one another for a bump up position, Bryan said, ‘tomorrow I will just try and drive a good Semi and try to make the final’.
Top Xray with seventh overall, Wollanka was happy with his Q5 performance but felt his shocks were too soft for the hot temperatures adding the P4 was down to a clean run with ‘the lap times not so fast’. Planning to run heavier shock oil in the Semi, the Austrian said his XB8 was ‘consistent’ but he will try a combination of the best things from his previous set-ups in the Semi practice. Switching to Hot Race tyres for the event, the former podium finisher was again running the Roma pattern and as he ‘like(s) it’ and will stay on them for the Semi.
Finishing fifth in Italy last year having qualified 6th overall there, Neumann claimed 9th this time round just behind TLR’s Marco Baruffolo. Sixth in the final qualifier boosted the Serpent driver’s result considerably, the German saying afterwards, ‘I needed a safe one as in the first one I was fast but crashed’. Describing his Maxima powered SRX8 as ‘good’, for the Semi he would ‘just check everything over and its good to go’. Asked about the longer race distance, the multiple electric offroad European Champion said, ‘we have been working on longer distance set-up from the start as you need an easy car for this track, so the set-up is already good for finals’. Running Pro-Line’s Fugitive tyre he will stick with that for the Semi saying it ‘should last 20-minutes easy and for 45 it should be OK too’.
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