Ronald Volker TQ’s Round 1

He’s the defending champion and he has shown his intentions are to retain his European crown by TQ’ing the first qualifier for the 2008 Championships. Ronald Volker’s Hot Bodies stopped the clocks at 17 laps in 05:08.819 to top the round by a little over 6/10th from Pre Worlds race win Vicktor Wilck.

Volker said his run was pretty trouble free although he did struggle with seeing his car on occasions due to the strong glare from the midday sun. The German said the car was perfect and he will leave the set-up the same for the second of today’s qualifiers. Wilck on the other hand wont be leaving his Tamiya the same. The Swede wasn’t so happy as he started to struggling with traction from the middle part of the run and also rekons a small mistake on lap 7 cost him a TQ time.

Marc Fisher, who is running a group earlier than the top heat, took his factory Corally RDX Phi to third in the opening round. The hotter track conditions are perfect for his car with the German saying the car unlike everyone else works better in the hotter track conditions than when its cooler. Pleased with his run he said his car did start to push a little at the end of the 5 minutes but that it was not a major issue.

Dutchman Jilles Groskamp was next up with the fourth fastest time and was very happy as he closed the gap between him and the pace setters. Running a narrower trackwidth on his TRF416 he said the car felt better with more steering and while it was a bit twitchy at the start he had better lap times at the end of the run.

Marc Rheinard made it three Tamiyas in the top six with 5th but the German is complaining of his car being way to loose. With a chassis change not permitted once qualification starts Kiyo Suzuki, who is over from the Tamiya factory, will rebuild all the parts from Marc second car onto the designated chassis in an attempt to get a more stable car.

In terms of lap times current World Champion Andy Moore was quickest producing a best lap of 17.567 but the Englishman suffered badly with push from around half way through the heat. Moore thinks the problem might be in his driving as he may have drove a little too hard early on.

Posting the seventh fastest time Teemu Leino was again unhappy with the set-up on his Xray complaining of push. Rounding out the top 10 Alexander Hagberg was eight ahead of leading Kyosho runner Steen Graversen and last year’s EC Top Qualifier Steven Weiss.

Top 10 after Round 1 (2 of 5 counting)
1. Ronald Volker – 17 Laps in 05:08.819
2. Vikor Wilck – 17 Laps in 05:09.462
3. Marc Fischer – 17 Laps in 05:10.076
4. Jilles Groskamp – 17 Laps in 05:10.606
5. Marc Rheinard – 17 Laps in 05:10.886
6. Andy Moore – 17 Laps in 05:11.048
7. Teemo Leino – 17 Laps in 05:11.952
8. Alexander Hagberg – 17 Laps in 05:12.846
9. Steen Gravesen – 17 Laps in 05:12.875
10.Steven Weiss – 17 Laps in 05:13.630

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