Volker sets early pace
After three rounds of free practice it is Ronald Volker who is setting the pace at the 1:12 World Championships. The German recorded the fastest three consecutive laps to top the time sheets from Britian’s Olly Jefferies and defending World champion Naoto Matsukura. Also recording the fastest lap so far, with a 13.654, the LRP factory driver said his car feels OK despite the low traction. Running an Associated chassis he was 2/10th faster than the similar combination of Jefferies who was in turn 15/100th up on Naoto. The current German National Champion says he really likes the track layout and in particular the boards admitting to not being a fan of curbs in 1:12 scale.
Jefferies set his fastest consecutive three laps in the second practice after changing his tyre prep for FP3. Resulting in the car having less grip the European Championship finalist will revert back to his early tyre preparation for the final free practice. His Associated team-mate Juho Levanen could only managed the 12th fastest time but the Vice World Champion is playing the waiting saying he is saving his good tyres for when track conditions improve.
Naoto who is running Yokomo’s new R12 also set his best time in FP2. Trying different tyres in his third run the Japanese ace said the car didn’t feel as good. Asked about chassis set-up he said the car is working fine and his focus is on tyres. For the final free practice he will try another different tyre which are currently being prepared by 1:12 scale’s most successful World Champion Masami Hirosaka.
The man responsible for Serpent’s 1:12 programme, Marcus Mobers is very happy with the start to his World Championship as he lies fourth fastest. The German is running a number of prototype parts on his S120 which he says are working really well. Unlike his rivals Mobers feels the traction are not going to come up as expected due to the hot conditions. Running his own Mobgums brand tyres he plans to use the rest of the day’s runs to try different tyre combinations. The Serpent team are running well with two cars in the Top 10 with Jan Asmer currently seventh fastest.
With the fifth fastest time Elliot Harper is top CRC driver after Frank Calandra worked his magic on the young British driver’s car. Harper struggled in the opening two runs but the CRC founder put his ‘Big race set-up’ on the Speed Passion powered Gen-X and it transformer the car giving the teenager a major performance boost. For his team-mates Hupo Honigl and Jilles Groskamp the day hasn’t started off well as the lie only 24th and 34th fastest respectively.
Completing the Top 6 is factory Corally driver Marc Fischer. The German said his car is OK in the opening two minutes of the run but after that gets very loose. Complimentary of the track layout, he plans to try different tyre compounds and more additive in FP4.
Elsewhere V-Design have two cars in the Top 10 with Mark Stiles 8th fastest just ahead of team-mate Chris Kerswell. At Xray Alexander Hagberg is fastest of the XII drivers in 13th with team-mate Paul Lemieux 21st.
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