Jerome Aigoin top seed for qualifying in Reims

Kyosho’s Jerome Aigoin is the top seed for qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships after the quiet Frenchman topped the second round of timed practice in France from Kyosho/Novarossi team-mate Elliott Boots with Mugen’s Lee Martin putting in a much improved run to post the third fastest time.  Having posted the fastest time of the day in the morning’s opening timed practice, Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk lost around 7-seconds after a coming together with a slower buggy and ending up only 10th fastest.

A driver who prefers to let his driving do the talking Aigoin was pleased with his second run describing it as a ‘clean run’.  Having ran his AKA shod MP9 the same as the morning, the 2011 Top Qualifier said other than ‘clean it’ he will do nothing to his buggy for the first qualifier adding that ‘all is good’ and that he is confident for tomorrow.

Boots, who switched from Proline’s Ion in M4 compound to the M4, said he initially didn’t think his MP9 was as good as it has less grip but talking to other drivers afterwards he said he thinks it was the track that was actually looser.  As Mick Craddock, who has been key to Boots recent rise to the top, pointed out this forced the 19-year-old to drive smoother within the run, which while slightly slower was a better overall drive than the morning.  ‘Improving everytime’ he goes out on the track, Boots said he is feeling pretty good now and he plans to stick with the same set-up for the opening qualifying and working on further improving his lines.

After a troubled first run in which he had problems with traffic, Martin was much happier with his second attempt. Having went for a softer shock oil, which he said due to the high temperature at the track you would not expect to work, and reducing his rear toe to 2.5 his MBX-7 had more rotation giving him a lot better feeling over the 5-minutes.  Still looking to get a little more rotation, reporting that as his tyres heated up it faded, the World Championship finalist plans to make further changes for Q1.

With Xray coming to the Championships with a new front end on their XB9, Martin Bayer managed to take his LRP powered example to the 4th fastest time.  The Czech driver said they have been trying different things every run to try and understand how the new parts work on the unique chalk Reims track.  Happy with how the buggy feels now he said they still have a few things to do but overall things are much better than this morning’s opening run.  An AKA driver, like defending Champion Darren Bloomfield, he prefers the Wishbone tyre over the more popular Handlebar.  Interestingly to save his available sets of Wishbone tyres Bloomfield went to the Handlebar for the second time practice and could only manage 6 laps saying afterwards that the tyre just didn’t work for him.

Setting the 5th fastest time Martin’s World Champion team-mate Robert Batlle said he had a lot of problems with traffic in his heat but in terms of his buggy it was much better then earlier.  Making his Procircuit equipped MBX-7 heavier, adding weights to the rear uprights and using a heavier Pivot Ball Adjust Nut in the front steering, he said this improved the feeling but the Spaniard added they still need to find more in the set-up.

Outside the Top 10 in the first practice, Renaud Savoya posted the 6th fastest time saying that his team did a great job today improving the car.  Suffering three spins and having some issues with traffic, the 3-time former European Champion said on a clean lap he was very happy with his Sweep equipped XB9 as he can now place it where he wants on the track.  For tomorrow he said he just needs to be more precise with his lines.  Asked how the new front differs from the old one, the ‘Shark’ said it makes the buggy less aggressive and gives it more overall steering with a particular improvement in the rotation at low speed.

Behind Savoya, local driver Romain Valter produced another strong run with his Novarossi powered Kyosho to set the 7th fastest time, ahead of the OS powered MP9 of Christopher Svensson, backing up his 10th fastest time in the opening timed run.

2nd fastest in his first run, Team Associated’s Yannick Aigion posted only the 9th fastest time after he crashed into a slower buggy.  Taking the full blame for the incident, the former champion said he didn’t expect such a big difference as he came up behind the slower buggy and this caught him out.  Trying the Road Runner tyre in the warm-up he said he switched back to the Hot Dices for the run saying while the difference between the two was not much he was more comfortable with the latter adding he will stick with these for qualifying.

Despite setting the fastest time of the day, Ronnefalk is the No.2 seed for qualifying after the tie break is decided on the finishing positions of the driver’s dropped round rather than on the time of the counting round.  The Swedish teenager said coming through the triple double he came upon a slower buggy and they made contact and then out of his rhythm he made a second mistake in the same lap.  Without the lap last year’s running up would have topped the times saying that he had a good feeling with his buggy and he is looking forward to getting down to the more serious business of qualifying tomorrow.

Round 2 Timed Practice Top 10
1. Jerome Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:25.89
2. Elliott Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:26.58
3. Lee Martin – Mugen/Beat – 8/5:27.11
4. Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP – 8/5:28.09
5. Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi – 8/5:28.28
6. Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion – 8/5:28.79
7. Romain Valter – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:29.42
8. Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho/OS – 8/5:29.73
9. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision – 8/5:30.75
10.David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion – 8/5:31.06

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