Wilck tops final practice
Tamiya Racing Factory’s Viktor Wilck has topped the official timing for final practice at the Electric Touring Car World Championship as he took his prototype TRF417 around the high speed MACH track in the fastest three consecutive laps ahead of Ronald Volker and Atsushi Hara although over 5-minutes it was Volker who ran the fastest time with 18 laps in 5:09.745.
Having made further changes to the set-up of his Thunder Power motor which he said gave him more overall power than he had in CP1, Wilck said as a 5-minute run it was not very good as he made two big mistakes but over three laps he was very happy with his pace. Knowing from pre-event testing that Volker’s Yokomo works best in cooler conditions while their car is more suited to running in higher temperatures, Wilck said he thinks he is in good shape for tomorrows qualifying.
‘Really really good’ was how Volker described his car and the run showed they have very good pace over the full length of a run. The Euro Touring Series Champion had an incident with Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp in the early laps which he said cost him any chance of the fastest 3-laps but the most important thing was that over 5-minutes they had a good advantage over the rest of the field. With his fastest three laps being set in CP1 and good enough to end the day third, the German will start second on the road in the opening qualifier as second fastest driver Atsushi Hara drives in the second highest heat.
Factory HB driver Hara was pleased with his day saying his TCX was ‘really good’ although he thinks for tomorrow he will try a slightly heavier shock oil and lighter diff oil to further improve the balance of the car. Running a fresh battery for the first time in CP2, having used old packs up to now, the former World Champion said he had a little bit too much power and he will reduce the boost for the morning. One of the legends of the sport, the Japanese ace said the key to qualifying is going to be keeping pace consistent after 10 laps when the tyres start to drop off. Team-mate Andy Moore, the third of the drivers competing here to have held the World title, said he is struggling with the balance of his Hobby Wing powered example by the end of the run with the change from start to finish being far too much. The fourth of the drivers to have been Touring Car World Champion Surikarn Chaidajsuriya is not present this year as he had to stay in Thailand to await the arrival of a new baby.
Ending up fourth in the official timing but closest to Volker over a full run, defending Champion Marc Rheinard said his Tamiya dropped off power after three minutes. Using a brand new battery for the final run of the day he said it needed an extra charge cycle but overall he said the car feels OK and he thinks when the times really start to count he should be not to far off Wilck and Volker. Team-mate Jilles Groskamp, who many have tipped for the win here as it is his local track, said he is struggling to get the car to turn in over the opening laps but then it feels good and is very consistent till the end. The Dutch ace set the sixth fastest 5-minute run but was a little frustrated a not being able to run faster than a 17 second lap.
Fifth fastest, 3-time 1:12 World Champion Naoto Matsukura said his Yokomo BD5 suffered from a little understeer but overall it was OK. Planning to fine tune his set-up for Q1 to get that fraction of steering he is missing the 18-year-old thinks with this sorted out he should be good for qualifying. Team-mate and fellow teenager Yannic Prumper made it three Yokomo’s in the Top 4 over 5-minutes, the winner of the ETS finale earlier this month officially 7th fastest behind Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg who was also a winner this year in the ultra competitive Euro Touring Series.
After practice was completed the IFMAR international jury held a meeting to discuss tomorrow’s qualifying where it unanomiously voted to revoke the early decision to reduce it to five rounds and so the drivers will now have six round by round point scoring heats, of which the best three are to count. It was also voted that tech inspection will only be done pre race with battery voltage and weight checked everytime with other elements only being checked at random which it is hoped will make for the smooth running of tomorrow’s action.
View complete live results here.
View our event gallery here.