Batlle tops first seeding practice
Robert Batlle set the pace in the opening round of seeding practice at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Germany, the Mugen driver fastest over 5-minutes from the Kyosho of defending Champion David Ronnefalk. Winning his second European title the last time the championships visited the Sand am Main track, the Spaniard would outpace his Swedish rival by 2.644 seconds with Team Xray’s Martin Bayer completing the Top 3 a further 1.704 off.
Despite topping the first of the two scheduled seeding rounds Batlle described the run as ‘not super good’. Elaborating, the World Champion said they ‘still need more speed to win’. Happy with the consistency of his Novarossi powered MBX7 describing the overall package as ‘not bad’ he feels he that it could do with more corner speed. Running Procircuit’s medium compound Hot Dice tyre he will switch to the small pin Square Impact for the second practice feeling this should contribute to finding some of the extra speed he is looking for. Still to discuss his options with his team he is also pretty sure they will also have to make a set-up change to go with the change of tyre.
Ronnefalk described the performance of his Orion powered MP9 as good but said he had ‘bad luck’ with traffic. While he said he could do nothing about the traffic on the small track he felt in total it ended up costing him around 6 seconds. Having been frustrated when his final practice run yesterday lasted just one-lap because of the arrival of rain, the 18-year-old said the shock change they had planned to test then turned out to be really good adding that his car felt ‘pretty much dialled in’, helped by today’s improved traction. Running AKA’s soft compound Catapult tyre he plans to leave everything the same for the final seeding practice adding the hopes for better luck with getting through the traffic.
A ‘Pretty sweet run’ was how Martin Bayer summarised his performance, the Czech driver running a number of heats earlier than his rivals. Last year’s podium finisher said while his LRP powered XB8 had a little less speed than yesterday ‘I’m there and not to far off the top guys so I’m happy’. Feeling he needs to find a little more steering out of the corners which he is confident he can rectify for the second run he added overall he has a good feeling with the car and engine which are very stable so he can’t really complain. Running AKA’s Catapult he will stick with his tyre choice.
Xray team-mate Renaud Savoya would end up 15 fastest. The 3-time former champion, whose reign came to an end here in 2011, would lose 4 seconds after putting his Orion powered XB8 on its roof. The French driver said the car was lazy and the crash was due to having to push too hard to make up time. Like Bayer, he said the buggy needs more steering something that should be sorted with a caster change. Having run hub weights he said he will probably run without these for the next outing as he needs to make more reactive. Using Sweep’s Micro Contact tyre he is set to continue with them for now.
Making the switch to Pro-Line’s new LockDown tyre 19-year-old Dominic Bauer posted the 4th fastest time. Describing his run as ‘not bad’, he said while the tyres made his Alpha powered Mugen feel slower to drive it had more forward traction and was ultimately faster. Using X2 compound, the Austrian said the tyres took a few minutes to come in and so for the second practice he will fit a brand new set using the track time to scrub them in for qualifying giving him a second set to work with tomorrow.
Having set the pace in yesterday’s opening day of practice, Darren Bloomfield would post the 5th fastest time as he struggled through the run with traffic. The factory Agama driver said almost every lap he had to avoid unturned buggies as he came up the hill so it was nearly impossible to run a clean lap. Asked how his Bullitt powered A8 felt, he said because of the traffic it was hard to tell but he ‘think(s) it felt good’. Running a used set of Beta’s Freeride tyre, in medium-soft compound, he will fit a brand new set of the same tyre for the next run opting to leave the buggy set-up as is.
Behind the current British National Championship points leader was another UK driver, up & coming talent Jack Embling. The protege of Lee Martin, the factory Mugen driver posting the 14th fastest time, Embling described his run to the sixth fastest time as ‘a little bit scrappy’. The 17-year-old said his Beat powered Mugen had a lot of rotation which made it tricky to drive if he got out on the dust. Running Pro-Line X3 Blockade tyres he said these were a little edgy and he will switch now to X2 compound. In terms of set-up he will leave his MBX-7 unchanged having tried underdrive in yesterday’s final practice but finding he had better traction today without it.
Seventh fastest would be Kyosho Germany team driver Carsten Keller. The 25-year-old said his Bullitt powered MP9 ‘was a little difficult to drive but the speed was there’. Suffering a mistake that cost him almost 3-seconds he said he went with too soft a tyre choosing AKA’s Super Soft Catapult. Planning to leave his set-up untouched and wait for the traction to come up he will switch to Soft compound Catapults for the last seeding practice.
Top Qualifier here in 2011, Jerome Aigoin would set the 8th fastest time. The current French National Champion said his Kyosho was good but the driver made a lot of small mistakes. Pleased with his MP9 set-up he joked unless he gets a light bulb moment he will run the MP9 the same but most probably he will try a different tyre to compare it to the AKA’s Enduro Soft he just ran.
Former European B Champion Ricardo Monteiro and two time Champion Yannick Aigoin completed the Top 10. Monteiro said his RB powered TLR was good but the driver needs work as he felt he nerves of the the first time run affected his performance. Having run AKA’s Catapult tyres in open practice, the 21-year-old switched to Impact which he felt made his 8ight 3.0 feel less loose. For his next run the Portugese driver plans to run everything the same and focus on getting any improvement in pace from himself.
Having missed yesterday’s practice due to being in hospital with a lip infection, we are glad top report newly crowned double 1:10 offroad European Champion Joern Neumann has been released and is at the track. Unfortunately needing all the track time he can as he tries to catch up with his rivals, the first seeding practice didn’t go exactly to plan for the Team Durango driver. On his second lap the battery plug discounted losing the German two valuable laps of the track. Once up and running again he said his FX powered buggy ‘felt ok’. Running Pro-Line’s yet to be released Fugitive tyre in X3 compound he feels a harder tyre would have been better and he will switch to a Suburb X2 with his main focus being on working on fine tuning his driving to the track of which he has so far only done a total of 11-timed laps.
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