Boots tops first controlled practice
Britian’s Elliot Boots topped the opening controlled practice this morning on Day 2 of the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Frehing, Austria, where drivers were greeted with a very different conditions to yesterday’s dusty track following some overnight rain. Getting 10 minutes of track time, the second half of the run was timed for the purpose of being used to reseed drivers for tomorrow’s qualifying heats with Boot’s Novarossi powered Kyosho managing 8-laps in 5:00.504 which was 1 second faster than Renaud Savoya who in turn was 3/10th of a second faster than defending Champion Robert Batlle.
Having run a set-up yesterday which he uses regularly back in the UK, where he has dominated this year’s National Championship, Boots switched to his Warm-up Race set-up for today’s first run having seen Kyosho team-mate David Ronnefalk use it to good effect yesterday when he topped the opening days action. A damp track, Boots said it felt quicker to drive as the buggy wasn’t sliding around as much as in the dust yesterday but in terms of lap times it was slower, something he put down to the concrete section of the track where he said it was ‘very slippery’. Running AKA soft compound Grid Iron the 19-year-old said he will keep an eye on the conditions before choosing what tyre to run in this evening’s second practice as while the skies are overcast the warm temperatures are sure to make for much drier conditions. In terms of set-up changes the former European Junior Champion, who is clearly benefiting from the guidance of Mick Craddock who turned down a chance to race here in Austria to concentrate on his young protege, said he may depending on the conditions change diff oil.
Having changed to a thicker front diff oil last night following his second free practice run Savoya said it was slightly too heavy for this morning’s conditions. The 3-time former Champion said his choice of Sweep tyre was also not perfect with his RB powered Xray lacking a little in terms of side grip. With the track about 1 second a lap faster the French ace said he only lost .8 per lap in pace and so overall he is pleased with the run. Other than fine tuning his choice of diff oil he feels the set-up on his XB9 is good for qualifying and so for the second practice today he will work on finding a tyre suitable for the finals. Planning to run the Exagon pattern he said its important to see if his set-up needs to be adjusted to suit the tyre.
Mugen’s Batlle, who was analyzing video footage of his first controlled practice, said he maybe went for too soft a tyre choosing Pro-Circuit’s extreme compound Square Impact for the ‘slippy’ conditions. Planning to add more front caster to his MBX6R along with changing to a softer rear spring, the Spaniard said the run was OK. Having complained that his Novarossi engine was down on power yesterday he said they had sorted that problem and the engine power was now ‘awesome’.
Setting the fourth fastest time factory Team Associated driver Neil Cragg described his run on the ‘completely different’ track as steady. Using Proline M3 Holeshots on his RC8.2 he said the buggy still felt pretty good despite only changing tyres for the different conditions. Planning to revert to Proline Blockades for his second run he said he will make a call on which compound to run near the time, depending on how much the track has dried.
Driving ‘The Car’, JQ Products boss Joseph Quagraine was the surprise of the morning as he set the fifth fastest time. The Finnish driver said he was very comfortable driving the buggy mainly due to having had the opportunity to do 5 gallons of testing over a 10 day period just prior to the Euros. Having launched his own buggy just one and a half years ago Quagraine said the first year was taken up sorting out problems that come with creating an all new product and its only in the last six months that he has been able to work on developing the buggy and as a result it has been improving with every outing this year.
Behind Quagraine last year’s podium finisher Daniel Reckward completed the Top 6 with his Mugen ahead of the Agama of France’s Jerome Sartel, Xrays’s Martin Bayer and 2011 Top Qualifier Jerome Aigoin. Yesterday’s pace setter David Ronnefalk was on target for a good run until his Kyosho got tangled up with a slower buggy and ended up on it roof costing the Swedish teenager almost 7 seconds and a Top 3 time. Ending up 14th fastest, the reigning Junior Champion said his Orion powered MP9 was very consistent but lacking a little in steering. Choosing soft AKA Grid Iron tyres he said they gave good forward traction but he had to drive on the throttle to get around the corners. Expecting conditions to be dry for his next outing he will switch back to Impact tyres.
A former podium finisher at the European Championship, Spanish driver Borja Hernadez, who along with Top Austrian offroad racer Peter Pinisch is driving LRP’s S8-BXR Evo Buggy, had a good run which would have put him sixth fastest but in post race technical inspection the buggy was found to be two wide and his time was disallowed. Elsewhere factory HB driver Teemu Leino did a good job to post the 12th fastest time as he is suffering from food poisoning. The Finn has been excused from marshalling with his mechanic Masayuki Miura standing in for him.
Controlled Practice Run 1
1. Elliot Boots (GB) – 8/5:00.504
2. Renaud Savoya (FR) – 8/5:01.508
3. Robert Batlle (ES) – 8/5:01.849
4. Neil Cragg (GB) – 8/5:04.790
5. Joseph Quagraine (FI) – 8/5:05.015
6. Daniel Reckward (DE) – 8/5:06.707
7. Jérôme Sartel (FR) – 8/5:06.768
8. Martin Bayer (CZ) – 8/5:07.092
9. Jérôme Aigoin (FR) – 8/5:07.271
10.Christoffer Svensson (SE) – 8/5:07.563
11.Daniel Vega (ES) – 8/5:07.714
12.Teemu Leino (FI) – 8/5:07.945
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