Ronnefalk TQ’s opening Reims Qualifier
Team Kyosho’s young star David Ronnefalk has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Reims, France, the Swede navigating the chalk track 3-seconds faster than World Champion Robert Batlle with Xray’s Martin Bayer completing the Top 3 in a close encounter which saw the next 6 drivers covered by just 3-seconds. For defending champion Darren Bloomfield two mistakes left him down the order with the 20th fastest time, the British driver saying he just pushed too hard.
Ronnefalk described his run as ‘pretty much the perfect run’. The 17-year-old said today’s colder conditions meant the unique chalk track had more traction and this resulted in his Orion powered MP9 being much easier to control. Commenting that he was ‘helped for sure by having no traffic issues’, something many of the top drivers had trouble with, he said his buggy, which was equipped with a scrubbed set of AKA Handlebar tyres, felt really good as it has all week and he doesn’t plan to make any changes for Q2.
‘Not bad, much better than yesterday’, was how Mugen’s Batlle summed up his first qualifier. The Spaniard, who is looking to add a third European title alongside his current World title, said a change to heavier diff oils had given him the traction and grip he was lacking in yesterday’s practice. Having a few little mistakes and feeling he lost a little time when he caught Elliot Boots after the Kyosho driver had a crash, Batlle feels he can improve. In terms of his Procircuit shod MBX-7 he will go for a heavier oil in the rear diff for Q2.
Czech driver Bayer was very happy with his opening performance commenting that it was a good points haul to start the qualifying with. The factory Xray driver said his LRP powered XB9 felt good and was ‘really comfortable’ to drive. Having favoured AKA’s Wishbone tyre over the more popular choice the Handlebar, he ran the latter saying for the cooler conditions it suited his buggy better but for the next round when conditions will be much warmer he plans to revert to running Wishbone.
Having not really featured on the radar yesterday Team Durango’s Joern Neumann set the fourth fastest time with his latest prototype buggy. The reigning 4WD Electric Offroad European Champion said it was a clean run adding that his Picco powered buggy is easy to drive and has good steering. Running a slick tyre, which started out life as a JConcepts Black Jacket before Durango designer Gerd Strenge went to work on them with a belt sander, the German said it worked well on the morning’s slightly moist track but for Q2 he said practice has shown that they will not work as the track gets dusty and so he will run a less modified tyre from the JConcepts range.
Top seed after yesterday’s practice, Jerome Aigoin described his run to the 5th fastest time as ‘hard’. The Kyosho driver had one mistake of his own doing which lost him 3-seconds but lost a further 3-seconds on his final lap when he struggled to get by a back marker. The French Champion said his MP9 felt good and he just needs better luck in Q2. Kyosho/Novarossi team-mate Elliot Boots also had a mistake along with a number of ‘scruffy laps’ ending up 10th fastest. The World Championship Top Qualifier said the track changed since yesterday and his buggy did not feel great for the conditions and he needs to get it to rotate more for Q2.
Renaud Savoya said he got caught out a little by the conditions. With all the drivers getting a round of 2-minutes of practice, essentially a track cleaning run, he said the track was really grippy but then come his first qualifier the traction was much lower than expected. Having set his Orion powered XB9 for high traction he said it was hard to drive and he was not comfortable with it. Just driving to ‘keep it safe’ and with the track in his opinion getting slower and slower every round he said he thinks that his pace is there and with a bit more grip from a better set-up he should be good for the next one which he pointed out was not for another 5-hours so he has plenty of time to look over everything.
Lee Martin, who called into question the refereeing having had problems with traffic, described his qualifier as ‘alright’ adding it was a ‘nervous first run’. The British driver who travels to Spain next week to defend his 2WD Electric Offroad European title, said he ‘didn’t try super hard’ as he wanted to put in a clean run but was frustrated by slower drivers hindering him and not getting out of his way with the referee only telling the drivers to stay calm rather than informing them he had a faster buggy behind him. Running Proline’s Ion tyre Martin said he plans to continue with that choice but will be ‘keeping an eye on the weather’.
Round 1 Qualifying Top 12
1. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion – 8/5:19.79
2. Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi – 8/5:22.77
3. Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP – 8/5:23.25
4. Joern Neumann – Durango/Picco – 8/5:23.73
5. Jerome Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:23.91
6. Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion – 8/5:24.33
7. Lee Martin – Mugen/Beat – 8/5:25.07
8. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision – 8/5:25.23
9. Daniel Vega – Agama/Bullitt – 8/5:26.82
10.Elliott Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:27.80
11.Bryan Baldo – Mugen/Novarossi – 8/5:27.81
12.Jerome Sartel – Agama/Bullitt – 8/5:28.50
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