May 22, 2015

No surprises as Volker tops RROC practice

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Day 1 of the Reedy International Touring Car Race of Champions threw up no real surprises as defending champion Ronald Volker set the pace over four rounds of practice at the Tamiya Raceway in California. With the Yokomo driver unable to better his P3 time, it was Viktor Wilck who made the most of the final round of practice improving from 10th to 2nd.  The Serpent driver would also reduce the gap to Volker to less than 3/10ths of a second, the smallest margin at which the German headed the time sheets over the opening day.  Christopher Krapp made it an all European Top 3, finishing the day ahead of team-mates Akio Sobue and Marc Rheinard, the latter the only one of the three to better his time in P4. While the times may have little bearing on the race’s unique format with 12 rounds of heads up racing getting underway in the morning, the big talking point at the end of the opening day is the narrow racing line. A track popular with racers because of its many overtaking opportunities, a particularly dirty offline has left some drivers concerned that overtaking could be limited.

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With drivers given the chance to do a grid start during their final practice, Volker said it was interesting to run behind other cars and try to overtake them.  Describing it as ‘totally different to last year’, he said going offline to attempt a move led to the tyres to pick up a lot of dirt leaving the car loose for the next couple of corners.  Despite topping the times, the body language of the ETS Champion didn’t reflect satisfaction of that fact. Running behind Keven Hebert, he said while he was a little faster than the Canadian but any attempts to pass just resulted in his tyres picking up debris leaving him with no traction.  Hoping that the track is cleaner and has higher grip tomorrow, he said it needs this as it will make for ‘better competition’ over the next three days. One noticeable thing over the day was the amount of track surface that broke away with track staff gathering a rather big pile of debris as they blew off the track at the end of the day’s action.

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Changing to softer front springs on his S411, the front and rear spring now the same, Wilck said this made the car a little more easy out of the corners. Describing the car overall as ‘easy to drive and good for racing’, the Swede thinks starting on the outside of the grid is going to be interesting because if you have to stay outside through the first corner then you could have problems due to it being ‘very dirty’ offline. While the track was cleared of the dirt at the end of the day, he hopes that they will also sugar water a much wider line in particular the first corner so as to give the opportunity to overtake.

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‘All the team’s cars were good today and I am really happy with my car’, that was Krapp’s summary of his first ever day at the Tamiya track.  Changing to a steering knuckle made of a different plastic to the standard one for P4, he said this improved the TRF419 in the short corners.  However with the ‘racing line very narrow’, he was unable to improve on his time after the practice start.  Describing the track as ‘really dirty offline’, the multiple World Championship finalist said this was making it ‘hard to overtake’ but in terms of his car he was ready to go racing.

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Feeling his Tamiya was better in P4, Sobue said that wasn’t reflected in his time as he made ‘many mistakes’ over the 5-minutes.  Looking forward to getting down to racing, the 20-year-old star of the ETS’ smallest track of the season, Mattsee, said for him it was a good day and he would leave his car unchanged for the first race.

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Changing to a harder shock spring on his TRF419, Rheinard said the car was not as good as before.  Dropping from 4th to 5th, even though he picked up his 3-lap pace a little, he plans to go back to a softer spring for the opening race adding that with this ‘the car should be good enough for racing’.

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Completing the top 6, Team Yokomo’s Meen Vejrak ran two cars. With one car fitted with short shocks and the other with the regular shocks, the shorter version gave more overall traction and this is what he would use for the opening race. While he didn’t improve on his earlier pace the Thai ace said, ‘the Reedy is not about being the fastest’.

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Dropping one place to 7th, HB’s JJ Wang said changes to his PRO-5 ‘didn’t really work out’.  Despite this, the first time visitor to Tamiya Raceway said it had been a good day and he had made a lot of progress.  The fastest HB driver, Freddy Sudhoff 12th and Andy Moore 15th fastest in the 27 car field, he said the team would brainstorm tonight to see where they need to go with set-ups for tomorrow. Behind Wang, Ryan Cavalieri improved his time fractionally in P4 to end the day 8th with Associated team-mate Keven Hebert and young Japanese talent Naoki Akiyama completing the Top 10.

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May 22, 2015

Rivals close gap slightly to Volker in P3

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While Ronald Volker continued to dominate the top of the time sheets on the opening day of the Reedy Race of Champions at Tamiya Raceway, on a quickening track the Yokomo driver’s rivals managed to reduce slightly the gap to the defending champion. With Volker improving his P2 pace by over 1.1-seconds, fellow German Chrstopher Krapp would shoot to second fastest at the end of P3, the newest Tamiya recruit getting to within less than half a second of the Yokomo ace. With Viktor Wilck, who was second fastest after P2, one of a number of drivers failing to improve on their times, Akio Sobue would move ahead of TRF team-mate Marc Rheinard to complete the Top 3.  Having broke cars in each of the opening two practices, World Champion Naoto Matsukura is classified 22nd of the 27 runners with one practice remaining but the Japanese driver is not concerned. Running two cars in P3, the Tamiya driver said the second car which had no transponder was very good and that the times are not reflective of his true pace.

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Running two cars, one with old and the other with new tyres from controlled tyre provider Sweep, Volker said the balance of the car on old was good but the BD7 fitted with the new set felt edgy.  With drivers having to race new tyres and then that same set for the next race, the ETS champion said they needed to work on getting a set-up that is better balanced for new tyres.

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‘Very happy’ with his improved pace Krapp said he was probably even closer to Volker’s pace as changing car in the run his second car, which had no transponder, felt faster. His first time to the track, he said while he still had a few overshoots he was starting to drive the track a lot better. Running new tyres on both cars he said the first two laps were very loose which was not good for the heads up racing and so for the final practice he will try a different tyre prep.

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Going down in the rear diff oil and moving the front shocks in on the lower arm, Sobue said his Tamiya had better initial steering.  Second fastest to Volker in terms of outright fastest lap time, he said he wants to find more overall traction and so will make further tweaks to the set-up for the final practice.  Staying 4th fastest but improving his time by half a second, team-mate Rheinard said his TRF419 was ‘easy to drive but not crazy fast’.  ‘Consistent to drive’, the 4-time Reedy Race winner said ‘it isn’t about being fast, it’s about having a car that is easy to drive’ and he was happy with were he is at.

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Setting the fifth fastest time, Meen Vejrak said ‘now my car is working’.  Having struggled with no rear traction in the opening two runs, the Thai driver said adding toe-in to the rear of his Yokomo was a big step forward but added they still have to further improve the set-up.

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Another driver on his first visit to the Tamiya track, JJ Wang would make a big improvement in P3 to put his PRO-5 6th fastest.  The 17-year-old factory HB team driver said his first two packs were all about just learning the track.  With a good feel for the track for P3 he would run two cars for comparison with the stiffer car his preferred choice.  Having only run new tyres, for the final practice he plans to run both cars again but fitted with used tyres.

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Improving to 7th, Keven Hebert said changes to his Associated TC6.2 were ‘pretty good’ but that the car was ‘now too stable’.  The Canadian plans to go back a little on the changes by taking out some of camber added to the rear.  Third fastest after P2, team-mate Rick Hohwart would drop to 11th as he failed to improve his early time.  While he managed to improve his brakes he said he needs to go more with the adjustment but with the track ‘so dirty’ offline that the tyres are done for the rest of the run he couldn’t pull off to make the adjustment over the 5-minutes.

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Better known as one of the all time great electric offroad racers with 4 world titles to his credit, Ryan Cavalieri would set the 8th fastest time on his annual touring car outing.  The Associated star said his TC6.2, which is being set-up by Randy Caster, was ‘by far the best it’s been’ in P3.  Feeling he was ‘driving it a little too hard’ he said it was ‘super consistent’ and with the car better than last year he was upping his goal for the event.  Having set himself a Top 10 finish but ended up 11th last year he said he is confident he ‘can mix it up more this year’ and so has set himself a Top 7 result.

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May 22, 2015

Chassis Focus – Rick Hohwart

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Chassis – Associated TC 6.2
Motor – Reedy 4.5
ESC – Reedy
Batteries – Reedy 7000mah
Tires – Sweep (handout)
Radio/Servo – Airtronics
Bodyshell – PF LTC-R
Remarks – Touring car legend Rick Hohwart is in good form here at the Tamiya Raceway, driving a TC6.2 with a number of interesting parts. The rear end features Tuning Haus aluminum driveshafts and TC4 suspension arms, while in the front the TC5 version of the wishbones are being used. Rick also chose to use TC5 caster blocks and rear hubs.

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May 21, 2015

Volker sets early pace at RROC

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Ronald Volker set the early pace on the opening day of the 18th running of the Reedy International Touring Car Race of Champions.  Winner of the event on its return to the famous Tamiya Raceway last year, the Yokomo driver posted the fastest three consecutive laps of the opening two of the four scheduled rounds of practice.  A 27-car invitational field, the most competitive the race has seen since it was previously ran at the Californian track, it was Serpent’s Viktor Wilck who was closest to Volker’s pace albeit over half a second off.  An impressive run from Team Associated’s Rick Hohwart would see the touring car veteran completing the Top 3.

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While the track proved to be considerably slower than last year, the German said he was very happy with his pace when compared to his rivals.  With the track improving a lot from the first to the second run, the sun only breaking through the clouds late in the morning, Volker would post a fastest lap of 12.365 him having managed 11-second laps last year.  Running two cars in each of the runs, he said overall both worked well adding that having to change car during last year due to a ‘massive crash’ on the straight it was good to know he had two good cars at his disposal.  With one car the same as that with which he took the win last year and the other ‘tuned differently’, the ETS champion said he liked the second car slightly more describing it as being ‘more responsive’.  Highlighting that this is the most competitive field for years, he said being fast was ‘not the only thing you have to have’ for the Reedy Race but it was a positive starting point.

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Wilck was ‘happy enough’ with his early pace saying his S411 ‘felt pretty good’.  Describing the track as ‘very tricky’ and ‘need(ing) the perfect line’, for his next practice having run the standard kit shocks he will use the track time to test pre-productions version of an upcoming new shock release from Serpent.

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‘Really good so far’, that was how Hohwart summed up his opening runs.  Happy with his TC6.2 the American said his main problem was with his braking.  Changing to an Airtronics M12 for the race he said the ‘brakes feel quite a bit different’.  Although he has set the same end points as his previous M11X radio the braking is ‘not enough’.  Knowing of an M11X at the Associated/Reedy head office, he has made a call to tell them to bring it to the track ‘just in case’.

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Fourth fastest, Marc Rheinard described his early pace as ‘pretty ok’.  Testing two variations of his TRF419, he said he preferred the car with the softer chassis and now he will focus on fine tuning that car over the day’s final two practices.  Also back to back testing new versus used tyres, drivers having to race the same set of handout Sweep tyres for 2 races before getting a new set, he said while the new was a little faster the used was not that much different.

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Star of the last round of the Euro Touring Series in Austria which was also a small track Japanese driver Akio Sobue would post the 5th fastest time.  The Tamiya Racing Factory driver, who is a fan of small tracks as they are similar to his home track of RC Paradise in Nagoya, said having run two different TRF419 he preferred the ‘softer car’. Fitted with a chassis that gives more flex and also running lighter diff oil, the 20-year-old said it gave more steering and traction. Planning to focus on that car for the remaining two practice runs, he said he will try to future tweak the set-up.

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Sixth fastest Alexander Hagberg said his main focus was getting used to the track.  The first time the Xray driver has raced the track the Swede said ‘it’s more difficult to drive than it looks’.  Changing his T4 ‘a lot’ after the first round he said it was much better for the second run but his driving still had a lot of room for improvement.  Describing the corners as ‘easy to overshoot’, he believes in hot conditions overheating the tyres is going to be a problem and so conservative driving could have its benefits.

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Setting the 7th fastest 3-consecutive laps and making his first trip to Tamiya Raceway, Christopher Krapp said the track fits his driving style with the low traction requiring it to be driven smooth.  Describing his Tamiya as ‘solid’, the German feels the biggest improvement is going to come from his driving. ‘Overshooting the corners a lot’, he said his plan for the rest of practice was to ‘work on that’. Fellow Tamiya driver Nicolas Lee would sit 8th after the first two rounds of practice.  The Singaporean driver said his TRF419 was ‘not so bad’ but seeking more overall traction he would try a different shock set-up for the third run.

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Canadian Andrew Hardman would post the 9th fastest time just ahead of fellow countryman Keven Hebert.  The 16-year-old Yokomo driver described his BD7 as having ‘great balance’ and it was the driver who needed to get more dialled in. Having raced here for the first time last year he said most of that event was spent learning the track which he said ‘appears so simple but is the toughest track he has driven’.  Hebert said his Associated was ‘ok’ but 5-laps into the second run a shock blew out.

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May 21, 2015

Chassis Focus – Andrew Hardman

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Chassis – Yokomo BD7 2015
Motor – Orca 4.5
ESC – Orca
Batteries – Orca 6200 mah
Tires – Sweep (handout)
Radio/Servo – KO Propo
Bodyshell – PF LTC-R
Remarks – Canadian Yokomo driver Andrew Hardman is in attendance at the Reedy Race with a pretty standard but very well Corey Whiteman prepared version of the Japanese car. Running almost everything as comes from the box, the only options to be found on the BD7 are a titanium screw set, titanium turnbuckles and shock bodies & shafts.

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