Euro title contenders content at end of Day 1

With no official timing available from the three rounds of practice that made up the schedule for today’s opening day of action at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in France, it is hard to decipher which driver has best mastered the conditions of the unique chalk surface Reims track but at the end of a very hot day all the main contenders have declared that they are happy with the direction in which they are headed although some seem more convincing than others.

Defending Champion Darren Bloomfield declared himself happy with where he believes his Novarossi powered TLR can be at.  Switching to AKA’s Handlebar tyre for the final & extended 9-minute practice, the British driver said this left him with less overall grip.  Having been very happy with his 8ight 3.0 in the second 5-minute practice when he ran a set of Wishbone tyres he said he will just revert back to that combination declaring that he would be happy to go into qualifying with the buggy working as how it did then.  Looking to find better corner speed after his opening practice run, Bloomfield said he opted to stick with the same set-up and just drive around the lack of steering rather than ending up with a buggy that has too much steering which is more likely to lead to mistakes.  With the current set-up he said he has to take it easy in the corners and this should make for a clean run however should he find his pace is lacking in the timed practice he said he may change his approach going into qualifying.

Also using the final practice to try a different tyre choice was Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk.  The Swede who ran AKA Super Soft Handlebar in Practice 1 & 2 ran the Clay compound version of the tyre in P3 and while it made his MP9 feel easy to drive it left him with less steering and an overall feeling of the buggy being loose.  Also changing his Orion engine for P3 to a ‘less powerful one’ to help improve the traction, Ronnefalk said reverting the buggy to how it was in P2 he is pretty confident for tomorrow which will see two rounds of timed practice which will determine the seeding for qualifying which gets underway on Thursday.

Kyosho’s other big hope for a European title is newly crowned back to back French Champion Jerome Aigoin.  The unassuming Frenchman, who is still in search of his first European title having been back to back Top Qualifier in 2010 & 2011, said after struggling with the feeling of the track and with some traffic issues in the two morning runs the third run was ‘better’.  Describing the track surfaces as ‘the only one of its kind in the World’, he said he was happy with where he was at in terms of tyre choice, running AKA Handlebars, and his MP9 set-up with the biggest issue today being the driver who he said needs to ‘improve a lot for tomorrow’.

The other half of the famous Aigoin racing brothers, Yannick summed up his day as ‘OK’.  The Team Associated driver said he is not as prepared as he could be as he is now a little more focused on the business side of things heading up CML Racing’s French distribution adding its going to be hard to beat the ‘full time’ drivers. The two time former European Champion said tyres was his focus with this always being the greatest challenge at Reims.  A driver who knows this track better than most he said it is never the same with ‘slicks working one day’ and then big pins tyres the best option the next day.  He said the way the chalk dries out has a lot to do with this.  Aigoin said his biggest worry now is the track developing a black line which will completely change the feeling of the track.

Robert Batlle ended the day not overly happy with his buggy saying it is difficult to drive.  The World Champion said his Novarossi powered Mugen has the speed but he needs to get more comfortable with the buggy.  Doing a tyre stop in the final practice so as to compare back to back the medium and soft compound of Procircuit’s Hot Dices tyre he said there was not a big difference.  The Spaniard said today’s programme was more about tyres but added he is still not sure of what tyre to use and tomorrow he might try a slick for comparison although the key focus is on fine tuning the set-up of his MBX-7.

Lee Martin, whose Mugen is running on Proline tyres, described his second outing as ‘very good’.  Changing to a more ‘worn’ tyre for his final practice he said it was fast but lacked consistency the main problem being that while the tyre was good online, offline it was not great however should the track ‘groove up’ he believes this combination would be perfect.  Pleased with the set-up on his Beat powered MBX-7, the British driver said he still has a little work to do on tyre selection adding that he needs to have two tyre opinions available – one for when the track is cool & dusty and another for when there is a ‘hot black track’.

Fellow British driver Elliott Boots summed up his day saying he was ‘getting there slowly’. Describing the chalk surface as ‘weird to drive on’, the World Championship Top Qualifier said his Novarossi powered Kyosho ‘never grips’ and is ‘constantly moving’ around on the track.  Admitting he has a little work to do he said they will get there tomorrow in the final two practices.  Running Proline’s ION tyre today he said they have worked on adjusting the buggy’s set-up to suit the tyre rather than changing between different tyres options.

Team Xray’s Renaud Savoya feels his lap times are inline with expectations but said he needs to make his Orion powered XB9 easier to drive.  The 3-time European Champion said the track is still nothing like what he has experienced here before with big differences in grip levels at different points of the track.  Changing to a shorter wheelbase and also changing the camber link positions for tomorrow he is hoping this will give him a more consistent feeling.  Running Sweep’s Dirt Effect tyre he thinks this is the pattern he will run in qualifying although he is not yet decided on the compound to use.  Sweep’s Ryan Lee will arrive in France tomorrow evening and is bringing with him a fresh batch of the tyre which Savoya says are made from a rubber that has been mixed differently.

View our complete event image gallery here.