Ronnefalk sets early pace in Austria

Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk is the early pace setter at the 1:8 Offroad European Championship as the Swede’s combined three fastest laps of the Fehring track put him top of the time sheets at the end of the first day of action in Austria.  The reigning European Junior Champion headed a Kyosho 1-2 as Jérôme Aigoin set the second fastest time just ahead of TLR’s Darren Bloomfield.

Running the same set-up on his Orion powered MP9 as he used at the Warm-up Race, Ronnefalk was very happy with his buggy’s performance from the start with the only change made between the two runs being a switch from AKA City Block which he used in the morning’s 10-minute run to Impact for the afternoon’s longer 15 minute run.  Using soft compound he said the Impact gave him more forward traction and also made the buggy easier to drive.  For tomorrow’s two 10-minute practice runs, from which each driver’s fastest 5-minutes will count towards a reseeding for the qualifying heats, last year’s 10th place finisher said he might try a heavy shock oil as this is the only area he thinks they could improve a little as it felt just a little soft in the second of his runs.

Last year’s Top Quaifier Jérôme Aigoin said for the first day of the event he was happy with his performance.  Running medium compound AKA City Block on his Novarossi powered MP9, the newly crowned French Champion focused on his driving saying the buggy was easy to drive so he needed to make no changes.

Having changed engine for the second practice as part of his preparations to have two engines set-up for the remainder of the event, Bloomfield said they didn’t quite get the tuning right on the second engine but in terms of his medium compound AKA Ibeam shod 8ight he was very happy to open the event with such a ‘solid’ pace.  Describing the track as ‘very high speed’, the British driver will try a thicker roll bar tomorrow to help push the buggy better through the bumps in the fast sections.

Elliot Boots, who just took over the reign of British National Champion from Bloomfield, set the fourth fastest time with his Kyosho.  The multiple former European Junior Champion switched from a Cab forward bodyshell to a standard version for the second run but said the track was a lot cleaner so it was hard to tell if there was any real difference.  Running soft compound AKA City Block on the Novarossi powered MP9 the 19-year-old plans to continue with the standard shell for the first run in the morning.

Defending Champion Robert Batlle, who Mugen are hoping will bring them a fifth consecutive European title on Saturday, set the fifth fastest time. The Spaniard said his MBX6R worked well but they didn’t focus too much on set-up as he expects the track to change considerably by the time qualifying comes round on Thursday.  Discounting the times as not a true reflection of where everyone is at the 2-time Champion said he had some issues with his Novarossi engine today which was down on power compared to normal but he said they should have that sorted for the morning.

Former electric offroad World Champion Neil Cragg completed the Top 6 with his LRP powered Team Associated RC8.2, the British driver who prefers to do his talking on track summing up the day as ‘pretty good’.

With Masayuki Miura, who is best known as the mechanic of all round r/c star & former 1:8 Offroad World Champion Atsushi Hara, on hand to prep his buggies factory Hot Bodies driver Teemu Leino set the 7th fastest time.  The Finn didn’t have the best of starts to the day as he broke his prototype buggy before even completing one timed lap.  Switching to a pre production version of the soon to be released D8 12, although both driver and mechanic say they are not sure the name has been made official yet, was very happy with the buggy.  Having received the car during the electric touring car World Championships little over a week ago in the Netherlands, Leino said he was only able to run one fuel bottle through the car prior to coming to Austria due to a lack of spares he got with the buggy then.  Running AKA medium compound City Block he said they have a good base set-up but plan to fine tune it tomorrow so as to make it slightly easier to drive.

Setting the 10th fastest time behind former champions and TLR pairing Davide Tortorici and Miguel Matias, 2008 to 2010 Champion Renaud Savoya said his second run was all about running the full 15-minutes without crashing.  Having changed to a thicker oil in the front diff of his RB powered Xray he said it made the XB9 easier to driver but the French ace thinks he can go a little heavier again to further improve the feeling of the buggy.  Running a medium ‘red’ compound Sweep Double Action tyre in the second practice, Savoya said he was very happy with the wear over 15-minutes and he will use them for qualifying.  Over half a second off the pace of Ronnefalk’s outright fastest lap time of 35.632,  Savoya said while he is a little off in outright pace he can run very consistent times and clean laps and this is more important for qualifying.

Day 1 Free Practice times
1. David Ronnefalk – 1:47.256
2. Jérôme Aigoin – 1:48.139
3. Darren Bloomfield – 1:48.186
4. Elliot Boots – 1:48.493
5. Robert Batlle – 1:48.647
6. Neil Cragg – 1:48.912
7. Teemu Leino – 1:48.946
8. Davide Tortorici – 1:48.980
9. Miguel Matias – 1:49.107
10.Renaud Savoya – 1:49.165

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