Willetts tops muddy opening qualifier

Mugen driver Simon Willetts set the pace in the opening round of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships which got underway in less than ideal conditions and resulted in a few surprises at the top end of the time sheets.  Having completed the opening two days of practice under beautiful sunny skies, the weather took a turn yesterday evening as heavy rain arrived over Sand-am-Main.  Continuing to rain overnight, competitors arrived to a very wet track with a number of leading drivers making a request to officials to delay the start to allow some of the water to drain off.  Unfortunately for the first few groups of drivers the event started as originally scheduled and they had to contend with very difficult conditions.

First casualty of the wet track was TLR’s Martin Bayer.  Seeded No.1 after practice his group was first on track and just as the 5-minutes started his 8ight succumbed to water in the radio’s electrics.

Running in the fifth group to go on track, Willetts admitted he was lucky to not have been in the earlier heats but felt he had driven well and put in a good clean run.  Running super soft AKA City Block on his Orion powered MBX-6, the British driver said the crucial thing was staying on the line and he complimented the other drivers in his heat for giving him space to pass.

Making it a British 1-2 for the round Darren Bloomfield was very happy with second.  Running super soft Grid Iron from AKA on his Losi 8ight, the British Champion said he had an issue with France’s Jerome Sartel who  held him up for 2 laps.  Costing him a potential to TQ for the round, Bloomfield said despite being delayed he was very happy with second as he went into the opening qualifier with his fingers crossed for a Top 10 time.

Third fastest was Team Xray’s Teemu Leino. The 2009 Finalist said despite the track looking bad his run felt pretty good. Happy with the set-up of his LRP powered XB808 on Tuesday, the Finn struggled a little yesterday but says he is confident he can now maintain his pace.

Making it four different cars in the Top 4 Kyosho’s Jerome Aigoin summarised the challenge of the track by saying ‘I finished’.  Running AKA Grid Iron on his Novarossi engined MP9, the Frenchman said he had some problems with traffic due to all the cars looking the same as a result of being covered in mud.  Behind Aigoin German Mugen driver Stefan Byesse and Chris Doughty from Britain driving a Durango completed the Top 6.

Only 36th fastest, defending champion Renaud Savoya summed up his run in the muddy conditions by saying ‘I did what I could’. Running a clean run the Team Durango driver said the car was easy to drive and he didn’t put a wheel wrong but with the conditions changing so much over the first four groups it was going to be impossible to match the times of those who ran later.

Faring a little better with the 18th fastest time Yannick Aigoin said that while the conditions changed a lot,  following the schedule was probably the fairest systems as no one could predict whether it was going to dry up and rain more.  The TLR ace said the rest of the day could be all about the luck of the timing of your heat.

Practice pace setter David Ronnefalk was one of the drivers that wanted the start of qualifying delayed.  Running in Group 2 along with Yannick Aigoin, the young Swede said the track was really slow and with a mistake he ended up only 27th.

Warm-up race winner Robert Batlle failed to finish his run. The former champion suffered an engine flame out but said he struggled with the braking on his Mugen with the buggy always locking up under breaking.

Round 1 Qualifying – Top 12
1. Simon Willetts – Mugen/Orion – 10/5:12.846
2. Darren Bloomfield – Losi/Nitrotec – 10/5:13.069
3. Teemu Leino – Xray/LRP – 10/5:16.430
4. Jérôme Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi – 10/5:19.605
5. Stefan Byesse – Mugen/RB – 10/5:19.770
6. Chris Doughty – Durango/LRP – 10/5:21.807
7. Miguel Matias – JQ/RB – 10/5:22.095
8. Ricardo Monteiro – Losi/RB – 10/5:22.518
9. Edouard Hugon – Mugen/Alpha – 10/5:22.790
10.Simo Ahoniemi – Mugen/Ninja – 10/5:23.130
11.Ben Williams – Xray/Bullit – 10/5:23.281
12.Lee Martin – Tamiya/OS – 10/5:23.523

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