Jerome Aigoin top seed for qualifying in Reims

Kyosho’s Jerome Aigoin is the top seed for qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships after the quiet Frenchman topped the second round of timed practice in France from Kyosho/Novarossi team-mate Elliott Boots with Mugen’s Lee Martin putting in a much improved run to post the third fastest time.  Having posted the fastest time of the day in the morning’s opening timed practice, Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk lost around 7-seconds after a coming together with a slower buggy and ending up only 10th fastest.

A driver who prefers to let his driving do the talking Aigoin was pleased with his second run describing it as a ‘clean run’.  Having ran his AKA shod MP9 the same as the morning, the 2011 Top Qualifier said other than ‘clean it’ he will do nothing to his buggy for the first qualifier adding that ‘all is good’ and that he is confident for tomorrow.

Boots, who switched from Proline’s Ion in M4 compound to the M4, said he initially didn’t think his MP9 was as good as it has less grip but talking to other drivers afterwards he said he thinks it was the track that was actually looser.  As Mick Craddock, who has been key to Boots recent rise to the top, pointed out this forced the 19-year-old to drive smoother within the run, which while slightly slower was a better overall drive than the morning.  ‘Improving everytime’ he goes out on the track, Boots said he is feeling pretty good now and he plans to stick with the same set-up for the opening qualifying and working on further improving his lines.

After a troubled first run in which he had problems with traffic, Martin was much happier with his second attempt. Having went for a softer shock oil, which he said due to the high temperature at the track you would not expect to work, and reducing his rear toe to 2.5 his MBX-7 had more rotation giving him a lot better feeling over the 5-minutes.  Still looking to get a little more rotation, reporting that as his tyres heated up it faded, the World Championship finalist plans to make further changes for Q1.

With Xray coming to the Championships with a new front end on their XB9, Martin Bayer managed to take his LRP powered example to the 4th fastest time.  The Czech driver said they have been trying different things every run to try and understand how the new parts work on the unique chalk Reims track.  Happy with how the buggy feels now he said they still have a few things to do but overall things are much better than this morning’s opening run.  An AKA driver, like defending Champion Darren Bloomfield, he prefers the Wishbone tyre over the more popular Handlebar.  Interestingly to save his available sets of Wishbone tyres Bloomfield went to the Handlebar for the second time practice and could only manage 6 laps saying afterwards that the tyre just didn’t work for him.

Setting the 5th fastest time Martin’s World Champion team-mate Robert Batlle said he had a lot of problems with traffic in his heat but in terms of his buggy it was much better then earlier.  Making his Procircuit equipped MBX-7 heavier, adding weights to the rear uprights and using a heavier Pivot Ball Adjust Nut in the front steering, he said this improved the feeling but the Spaniard added they still need to find more in the set-up.

Outside the Top 10 in the first practice, Renaud Savoya posted the 6th fastest time saying that his team did a great job today improving the car.  Suffering three spins and having some issues with traffic, the 3-time former European Champion said on a clean lap he was very happy with his Sweep equipped XB9 as he can now place it where he wants on the track.  For tomorrow he said he just needs to be more precise with his lines.  Asked how the new front differs from the old one, the ‘Shark’ said it makes the buggy less aggressive and gives it more overall steering with a particular improvement in the rotation at low speed.

Behind Savoya, local driver Romain Valter produced another strong run with his Novarossi powered Kyosho to set the 7th fastest time, ahead of the OS powered MP9 of Christopher Svensson, backing up his 10th fastest time in the opening timed run.

2nd fastest in his first run, Team Associated’s Yannick Aigion posted only the 9th fastest time after he crashed into a slower buggy.  Taking the full blame for the incident, the former champion said he didn’t expect such a big difference as he came up behind the slower buggy and this caught him out.  Trying the Road Runner tyre in the warm-up he said he switched back to the Hot Dices for the run saying while the difference between the two was not much he was more comfortable with the latter adding he will stick with these for qualifying.

Despite setting the fastest time of the day, Ronnefalk is the No.2 seed for qualifying after the tie break is decided on the finishing positions of the driver’s dropped round rather than on the time of the counting round.  The Swedish teenager said coming through the triple double he came upon a slower buggy and they made contact and then out of his rhythm he made a second mistake in the same lap.  Without the lap last year’s running up would have topped the times saying that he had a good feeling with his buggy and he is looking forward to getting down to the more serious business of qualifying tomorrow.

Round 2 Timed Practice Top 10
1. Jerome Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:25.89
2. Elliott Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:26.58
3. Lee Martin – Mugen/Beat – 8/5:27.11
4. Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP – 8/5:28.09
5. Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi – 8/5:28.28
6. Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion – 8/5:28.79
7. Romain Valter – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:29.42
8. Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho/OS – 8/5:29.73
9. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision – 8/5:30.75
10.David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion – 8/5:31.06

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Ronnefalk fastest in 1st timed practice

Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk has topped the opening timed round of practice at the 1:8 Offroad European Championship in France, completing 8 laps of the unique chalk surface track 2.7-seconds faster than Associated’s Yannick Aigoin with Kyosho’s Elliot Boots completing the Top 3 a further 2.3 seconds adrift.  Defending Champion Darren Bloomfield took his TLR to the 6th fastest time over the 5-minute run which will count towards a reseeding of the heats for qualifying which gets underway tomorrow.

17-year-old Ronnefalk was very happy with his run describing it as ‘pretty clean’.  Suffering one rollover which cost him around 1-second, he said his main focus going into the run was to keep everything smooth and that approach paid off.  Having tried to double the hump section in the 2-minute warm-up, the talented Swede said for the run he took the approach of driving around the first hump and jumping the second as while it was about 2/10th slower, doing the double was risky and one mistake would negate any time gained. Happy with how his AKA Handlebar shod MP9 is working, he said the tyres seem to work better on their second run and so for this afternoon’s second timed practice he will run a brand new set to prepare them for qualifying along with running a different Orion engine so as to have it ready should he need one later in the event.

Running a Centro chassis from CML Racing on his nVision powered RC8, which positions the engine more forward making the buggy more forgiving, Aigoin said he drove very safe and while ‘a little slow’ he was ‘very consistent’ declaring his 2nd fastest time as a ‘good’.  Admitting that without making mistakes 4 to 5 drivers can beat his time, he said he needs to find 3-4/10th a lap joking that this is why he has ‘Adrien (Bertin) working on the car’.  The 2 time former champion said he can always drive better but said he prefers to think the car is not perfect and more time can be found in the set-up although he said the car feels really well balanced and easy to drive.  Running Procircuit Hot Dices tyres, the Frenchman will will try the new Road Runner tyre in the warm-up and depending on how it feels run it or go back to the Hot Dices for the actual run.

Boots appeared happier with his performance today saying a change of diff oils had given his Novarossi powered MP9 more forward drive.  Running Proline’s Ion tyre the World Championship Top Qualifier said that he is a lot more comfortable with the buggy now and for the next practice he just plans on trying to tidy up his driving.  It was a good start to the day for Kyosho with 3 of the Top 5 drivers running for Kyosho.  Setting the fourth fastest time French Champion Jerome Aigoin described his run as good adding that the ‘driver was much better today’.

Setting the 5th fastest time Kyosho’s Christoffer Svensson was ‘pretty happy’ with his run describing his OS powered MP9 as ‘great’.  Having taken the opposite approach to fellow countryman Ronnefalk, whom he said he has done a lot of testing with in preparation for this years Euros, by doubling the opposing hump section he said he had two mistakes there.  Feeling he can do better, he will adapt Ronnefalk’s line for the final practice along with making a small change to the rear linkage.

7.8 seconds off Ronnefalk’s time with the sixth fastest time, Bloomfield said after a ‘shaky few laps’ in the warm-up he has to do a bit of a reset when he came in for fuel to start the timed run going for consistency rather than speed.  Commenting that he never starts an event of ‘fast’ adding that Ronnefalk’s early pace was impressive, he said his Novarossi powered 8ight 3.0 was a little soft on the rear making it ‘squirmy on power’.  Planning to run a stiffer spring and go to a heavier oil in the centre diff he thinks this should cure the problem.  Unlike the majority of AKA drivers who are running the Handlebar, Bloomfield prefers the Wishbone but with a limited supply available he will run Handlebar in the next practice to save tyres for qualifying.

Sporting a ‘chequered flag’ hair style, which from some angles could very easily be mistaken for a football, Joesph Quagraine took his Yellow Edition of The Car to an impressive 7th fastest.  The Finn said the car is performing well and its his driving he needs to work on.  Able to do certain sections of the track well he said he is throwing away the time at other sections and his goal for the second practice is to try and string all the good sections together for a complete lap.  Running AKA Handlebar this morning he will try Hot Bodies Beam tyres in the second outing.

Setting the 9th fastest time behind Associated’s Neil Cragg, World Champion Robert Batlle was not overly pleased with his pace.  The Mugen driver, who is running the same tyre as Yannic Aigoin who posted the 2nd fastest time, said his MBX-7 has too much grip on the front and not enough in the rear adding that he thinks the problem is with the set-up rather than the tyres.  For Mugen team-mate Lee Martin it was also a disappointing run, the British driver saying the run was a combination of bad driving, traffic issues and a set-up that gave him ‘too much grip’.

Arch rival Renaud Savoya took his Xray to the 12th fastest time, almost 10 seconds off the current pace.  The 3-time former European Champion said having struggled for consistency yesterday they have now got this sorted but now the problem is that they are lacking speed.  With his Orion powered XB9 easy to drive he said ‘they are missing something’ but the plan for this afternoon is to change the set-up to try and get more mechanical grip from the chassis.

Round 1 Timed Practice Top 10
1. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion – 8/5:20.04
2. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision – 8/5:22.74
3. Elliot Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:25.08
4. Jerome Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:25.73
5. Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho/OS – 8/5:26.10
6. Darren Bloomfield – TLR/Novarossi – 8/5:27.87
7. Joesph Quagraine – JQ/JQ – 8/5:28.08
8. Neil Gragg – Associated/LRP – 8/5/28.24
9. Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi – 8/5:28.43
10.Romain Valter – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:28.64

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Euro title contenders content at end of Day 1

With no official timing available from the three rounds of practice that made up the schedule for today’s opening day of action at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in France, it is hard to decipher which driver has best mastered the conditions of the unique chalk surface Reims track but at the end of a very hot day all the main contenders have declared that they are happy with the direction in which they are headed although some seem more convincing than others.

Defending Champion Darren Bloomfield declared himself happy with where he believes his Novarossi powered TLR can be at.  Switching to AKA’s Handlebar tyre for the final & extended 9-minute practice, the British driver said this left him with less overall grip.  Having been very happy with his 8ight 3.0 in the second 5-minute practice when he ran a set of Wishbone tyres he said he will just revert back to that combination declaring that he would be happy to go into qualifying with the buggy working as how it did then.  Looking to find better corner speed after his opening practice run, Bloomfield said he opted to stick with the same set-up and just drive around the lack of steering rather than ending up with a buggy that has too much steering which is more likely to lead to mistakes.  With the current set-up he said he has to take it easy in the corners and this should make for a clean run however should he find his pace is lacking in the timed practice he said he may change his approach going into qualifying.

Also using the final practice to try a different tyre choice was Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk.  The Swede who ran AKA Super Soft Handlebar in Practice 1 & 2 ran the Clay compound version of the tyre in P3 and while it made his MP9 feel easy to drive it left him with less steering and an overall feeling of the buggy being loose.  Also changing his Orion engine for P3 to a ‘less powerful one’ to help improve the traction, Ronnefalk said reverting the buggy to how it was in P2 he is pretty confident for tomorrow which will see two rounds of timed practice which will determine the seeding for qualifying which gets underway on Thursday.

Kyosho’s other big hope for a European title is newly crowned back to back French Champion Jerome Aigoin.  The unassuming Frenchman, who is still in search of his first European title having been back to back Top Qualifier in 2010 & 2011, said after struggling with the feeling of the track and with some traffic issues in the two morning runs the third run was ‘better’.  Describing the track surfaces as ‘the only one of its kind in the World’, he said he was happy with where he was at in terms of tyre choice, running AKA Handlebars, and his MP9 set-up with the biggest issue today being the driver who he said needs to ‘improve a lot for tomorrow’.

The other half of the famous Aigoin racing brothers, Yannick summed up his day as ‘OK’.  The Team Associated driver said he is not as prepared as he could be as he is now a little more focused on the business side of things heading up CML Racing’s French distribution adding its going to be hard to beat the ‘full time’ drivers. The two time former European Champion said tyres was his focus with this always being the greatest challenge at Reims.  A driver who knows this track better than most he said it is never the same with ‘slicks working one day’ and then big pins tyres the best option the next day.  He said the way the chalk dries out has a lot to do with this.  Aigoin said his biggest worry now is the track developing a black line which will completely change the feeling of the track.

Robert Batlle ended the day not overly happy with his buggy saying it is difficult to drive.  The World Champion said his Novarossi powered Mugen has the speed but he needs to get more comfortable with the buggy.  Doing a tyre stop in the final practice so as to compare back to back the medium and soft compound of Procircuit’s Hot Dices tyre he said there was not a big difference.  The Spaniard said today’s programme was more about tyres but added he is still not sure of what tyre to use and tomorrow he might try a slick for comparison although the key focus is on fine tuning the set-up of his MBX-7.

Lee Martin, whose Mugen is running on Proline tyres, described his second outing as ‘very good’.  Changing to a more ‘worn’ tyre for his final practice he said it was fast but lacked consistency the main problem being that while the tyre was good online, offline it was not great however should the track ‘groove up’ he believes this combination would be perfect.  Pleased with the set-up on his Beat powered MBX-7, the British driver said he still has a little work to do on tyre selection adding that he needs to have two tyre opinions available – one for when the track is cool & dusty and another for when there is a ‘hot black track’.

Fellow British driver Elliott Boots summed up his day saying he was ‘getting there slowly’. Describing the chalk surface as ‘weird to drive on’, the World Championship Top Qualifier said his Novarossi powered Kyosho ‘never grips’ and is ‘constantly moving’ around on the track.  Admitting he has a little work to do he said they will get there tomorrow in the final two practices.  Running Proline’s ION tyre today he said they have worked on adjusting the buggy’s set-up to suit the tyre rather than changing between different tyres options.

Team Xray’s Renaud Savoya feels his lap times are inline with expectations but said he needs to make his Orion powered XB9 easier to drive.  The 3-time European Champion said the track is still nothing like what he has experienced here before with big differences in grip levels at different points of the track.  Changing to a shorter wheelbase and also changing the camber link positions for tomorrow he is hoping this will give him a more consistent feeling.  Running Sweep’s Dirt Effect tyre he thinks this is the pattern he will run in qualifying although he is not yet decided on the compound to use.  Sweep’s Ryan Lee will arrive in France tomorrow evening and is bringing with him a fresh batch of the tyre which Savoya says are made from a rubber that has been mixed differently.

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33rd 1:8 Offroad Euros underway in Reims

The 33rd running of the 1:8 Offroad European Championships got underway this morning in France with Day 1 of the event, which will come to a conclusion on Saturday, set to be a rather uneventful affair with just 3 rounds of untimed practice making up today’s schedule.  Having had the Warm-up race cancelled just as the Semi-finals got underway due to rain, the hot sunny weather that has greeted drivers on their arrival to the famous Champagne producing city has created a totally different set of track conditions with tyre choice set to be the key factor to the outcome of the race.

Having claimed TLR’s first European title last year, defending Champion Darren Bloomfield was pleased with his opening 5-minute practice.  The British driver was forced to cancel his entry for the warm-up race after he had all his equipment stolen the night before the event joking that ‘some say it was Elliot Boots’ who did the big hoist.  Putting his AKA shod 8ight 3.0 on track this morning he said he was surprised at how well the run went adding that he felt really good with the ‘fun’ track layout straight away.  Describing his car as maybe a little too easy to drive he said he will try to improve his corner speed in the next two practices, the final one being a longer 9-minute run. Suffering with a wisdom tooth that is causing him some discomfort, Bloomfield is without the crack pit crew of Adam Drake and Kevin Gahan, many attributing his victory last year to the Americans, and asked if he felt any extra pressure being the defending champion he said he was just treating the race like any other and that is ‘just to go out and do the best he can’.

Coming so close to the title last year after a great closing battle with Bloomfield, Kyosho star David Ronnefalk is very confident about the week ahead saying he is out to get ‘revenge for last year’.  The 17-year-old Swede likes the fast flowing track, which he described as ‘really fun’ to drive, and is using today to ‘get used to the track again’.  Classified 6th at the rain effected Warm-up Race, Ronnefalk is pleased that the weather for the entire event will be good meaning he can focus on his driving once they find a good base set-up.  Asked what he felt was the key part of the track he said that being smooth was essential as it was easy to lose time if you go offline.

The man who lost his European title to Bloomfield last year when he finished 3rd overall in Austria, Mugen’s current World Champion Robert Batlle has to be one of the favorites for the event.  The winner of the Warm-up Race, the Spaniard really likes the ‘fast European style’ track but added that not much in terms of what they learned at the Warm-up is the same now. Running pin tyres for his first run, the Procircuit driver said he is not sure whether or not he will run the slicks which where seen at the Warm-up although unlike then his tyre sponsor have come prepared with tyres that already have the pins ground down.  Batlle contested the 2005 Euros here at Reims when he drove for Hobao but went out in the Semi Final when he lost a screw out of the steering knuckle while running inside the Top 3.

Mugen team-mate Lee Martin, who many are tipping as a strong contender this year, said after his first run that he is still playing around with set-up on his Proline shod MBX-7.  The British driver who would love to add a 1:8 European title to his tally of electric European Offroad titles said matching the right tyre with the right insert is going to be so important.  Asked about running slicks, Martin said the big problem is keeping the tyre legal.  With the pins ground down the tyre is just above the 109mm limit but after running, especially a final, the tyre would be below that so he feels its best thinking longer term to try get a pin tyre combination that works well rather than going for a qualifying slick. Asked about the track he said while he doesn’t particularly like the triple double section, the landing of of the triple making it hard to set-up the buggy for the double, the rest of the track is really good.

Sharing the honour of winning the greatest number of European Championship with Daniel Reckward, 3-time back to back former champion Renaud Savoya is one of a super strong line up of French drivers who are sure to be contenders come Saturday afternoon.  Just missing out on the podium last year in his debut season with Xray, the French driver has built a really strong relationship with the Slovakian manufacturer.  Knowing the track well from the French Nationals, Savoya said while the French drivers will have some advantage from his first run this morning the track is nothing like any other time he has raced on it, something he said is possible due to the recent run of good weather.  He said the big difference is that the inside line is very rocky and the outside very dusty, something he has not experience before. Describing the track as not very interesting or technical he said keeping your speed through the corners is very important.  Again like all the drivers we spoke to the Sweep sponsored driver said tyre choice is going to be key.

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