Volker sets early pace at World Championships
Ronald Volker is the early pace setter at the 1:10 Electric Touring Car World Championships in South Africa. With four of the opening day’s 8 scheduled free practice sessions complete, the reigning Champion’s Yokomo was fastest over 3-consecutive laps of the impressive Welkom RC Arena track from Bruno Coelho. The 10th running of the Touring Car World Championships, this will be the first title to be decided indoors since the inaugural Worlds back in 2000 but such is the size of the brand new facility the fastest laps seen so far are taking a rather lengthy 23-seconds. Behind Volker and Coelho it was Freddy Sudhoff who was third quickest ahead of Viktor Wilck who completed the Top 4 to represent the fourth of the manufacturers with factory team representation at the event. Behind Wilck, Christopher Krapp was 5th fastest ahead of new 1:12 World Champion Alexander Hagberg.
Summing up his first half of the day, Volker said, ‘we are testing two cars every run and both are quite different in set-up, more than usual’. Running a BD8 which feature a number of new parts and material, both expected to form part of Yokomo’s upcoming new touring car kit release, the German added, ‘this is the first time running this car so we are trying many things. One car has a lot of potential and just needs some fine tuning so overall it going not too bad’. He concluded, ‘I’m confident for the rest of the day’.
Winner of the Worlds Warm-up race back in April, the track then not completely finished, Coelho described practice as ‘going ok but not perfect yet’. The Xray driver continued, ‘we are working on the car to get it better. It is not like the Warm-up. Then the rear was sticky and the car was pushing a little. Now the rear is loose and there is not a lot of steering so its the opposite. We are working on fixing that but we still have four runs today to so I think we can do it’.
‘So far so good’, was Sudhoff’s thoughts on the early practice. The Awesomatix driver who didn’t attend the Warm-up race but subsequently travelled with the Russian manufacturer for testing at Welkom RC Arena, said, ‘we almost using the same set-up we used at the practice session here and now just need some fine tuning’ He added, ‘You don’t know who is running new or used tyres so its hard to compare but appears to be going good for us’. Starting off running two cars, both the rear motor and mid motor set-ups, he said, ‘I liked the mid motor because it had a little more initial steering so I will keep this for now and fine tune the set-up’.
Wilck described the first four practices as ‘a little up and down’ due to ‘trying things’ adding the traction increasing a little each run was adding to the challenge of fine tuning his car’s set-up. The only one of the leading drivers to not have travelled to South Africa prior to today for track time, the Beijing podium finisher said he is still looking for the balance between steering and rear grip. Running Serpent’s 4X EVO with the same new rear end he used in the ETS, he said the set-up is ‘pretty close, I think and it is now down to the finer details’.
‘It’s going pretty good up to now’ was Krapp’s reaction at the halfway stage of today’s practice. The Yokomo driver added, ‘we are still trying both alu and carbon chassis car so I’m actually happy to be up there in the Top 5 but I am not sure what (chassis) to use. Ronald is running just alu but I am trying carbon too. The times are the same on both but I think if the traction comes up carbon will be good. I hope to decide tonight’. Commenting on the ‘super smooth’ surface, the German feels the Worlds layout is better than that when he attended the Warm-up race saying, ‘for me this layout is better. It is not as risky as the Warm-up was. I like it’.
Wrapping up the 1:12 World Championship earlier in the week here at Welkom RC Arena, Hagberg said, ‘its not too bad so far. I am trying to find a good feeling for the car’. Asked if the switch from his 1:12 car to touring car had caused him much issues he said, ‘the first run felt a bit weird. It was like driving a bus but I got used to it quickly.’ Asked his thoughts on the layout, the Swede replied, ‘It a great layout. It’s technical and it’s still fast. They improved the curbing from the Warm-up and they are more forgiving for the average guy. The organisers did a great job with the track’. Running two cars each run, he said, ‘we are still trying to decide which is better’.
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