Ronnefalk to defend title from pole

Just as he did last year enroute to winning his first 1:8 Offroad European Championship title, David Ronnefalk will start the Main Final in Sand am Main from pole position.  Top Qualifier for the event the Kyosho driver cruised to an easy win over the man who he took the title from Darren Bloomfield but it was the second of the Semi Finals that provided the drama.  On target for a repeat of Ronnefalk’s domination of the first Semi, World Champion Robert Batlle’s Mugen would in the final 30-seconds of the 20-minute encounter come to a halt coming up the hill due to a battery failure.  Luckily for the Spaniard, who won the last time the championships were hosted at the German track, he had completed just enough laps to claim sixth despite not going the full distance, the last bump up position, to progress to the final.

The benchmark for all his rivals all week, Ronnefalk showed no signs of slowing, the exceptionally composed Swede was never really threatened in the Semi.  The only driver to run multiple 27-second laps the Swede said the race went exactly to plan although he felt Bloomfield had good speed and if it weren’t for mistakes by the 2012 Champion the race might not have been as easy.  Describing his Orion powered Kyosho as ‘perfect’, he declared everything as being ‘all good for the final’.

Bloomfield said to be starting the Main second was ‘better than expected’.  The factory Agama driver said ‘job one was to get in the final’ and they have accomplished that and starting at the front of the grid is ‘even better’.  Managing his first 27-lap of the week, he said had it not been for a ‘scrappy finish’ to the race he could have been closer to Ronnefalk, the final gap being around 4-seconds short of a lap.  Looking to tweak his A8 for the 1-hour final he will be going up in his shock oil and make a droop adjustment as well as fitting a fresh clutch to his Bullitt engine.  Team-boss Jon Hazlewood was pleased with his driver making the final quoting that Lego Movie theme tune in that ‘everything is awesome’.

Third in the Semi A, last year’s podium finisher Martin Bayer summed up his race as ‘good, I’m in the final’.  The Czech Team Xray driver said he was ‘lacking rotation’ from his LRP powered XB8 and should he have any time left after rebuilding the buggy’s centre diff he will look at making a set-up change but added the 1-hour final, in which he start 5th, will make ‘everything different anyway’.

Xray team-mate Renaud Savoya would take the win of the Semi B following Batlle’s drama.  The 3-time champion said the Semi practice didn’t go as planned and this left him ‘not very confident’ for the race.  While his Orion powered XB8 was ‘super easy’ to drive he said it was ‘a little too slow’ and so he had to play an ‘old guy driving style’ which he said worked out well him managing to go 15-minutes without a mistake.  He said the main thing is he is in the final, and having started 7th last year and finished second, starting 3rd now ‘everything is to play for’.

‘Alright’ was how Boots described his second place, 5-seconds behind Savoya.  The World Championship Top Qualifier said in addition to making a few mistakes he struggled with a lack of rotation from his Reds Racing powered Kyosho.  Running Pro-Line’s X2 Suburb and with it cooler than previous runs he said he will probably make a combined set-up and tyre change for the final to try and improve the cars steering.

Making Kyosho the most represented manufacturer in the final, privateer racer Christoffer Svensson was delighted at making the final for the third year in row.  The 23-year-old Swede said he got caught up with Savoya early on and that lost him contact with the lead pack. Battling with Lee Martin and Yannick Aigoin for the all important 6th position he said by the end he was able to get clear of that battle.  Decribing his OS Speed powered MP9 as ‘excellent’ he said with a few less crashes he should be ‘hooked up’ for the final.

Relieved at getting his Novarossi powered Mugen into the final after  suffering a receiver battery failure, Batlle said starting from 10th was not ideal but he’d take it.  Very happy with the pace of his car in the race he said two laps before his MBX7 came to a stop up the hill he could feel something was not right.  Feeling he has the same pace as Ronnefalk he said anything can happen over 1-hour of hard racing.

For the first time in a long time the European Championship will start without one of France’s famous Aigoin brothers among the starting 12.  Top Qualifier of this race in 2011, Jerome could only manage 7th the Semi-A while 2012 World Finalist Yannick ended up 8th.

Main-Final Grid
1. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion
2. Darren Bloomfield – Agama/Bullitt
3. Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion
4. Elliott Boots – Kyosho/Reds Racing
5. Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP
6. Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho/OS Speed
7. Carsten Keller – Kysoho/Bullitt
8. Lee Martin – Mugen/Beat
9. Martin Wollanka – Xray/FX
10.Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi
11.Joseph Quagraine – JQ/Reds Racing
12.Teemu Leino – HB/Novarossi

Semi Final A Result
1. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion – 42/20:16.135
2. Darren Bloomfield – Agama/Bullitt – 41/20:12.999
3. Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP – 41/20:21.525
4. Martin Wollanka – Xray/FX – 41/20:29.321
5. Joseph Quagraine – JQ/Reds Racing – 40/20:04.517
6. Teemu Leino – HB/Novarossi – 40/20:04.725
7. Jerome Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi – 40/20:15.267
8. Joern Neumann – Team Durango/FX – 40/20:15.467
9. Hupo Honigl – Team C/Novarossi – 40/20:25.026
10.Jack Embling – Mugen/Beat – 40/20:29.673
11.Alex Zanchettin – TLR/Novarossi – 39/20:06.033
12.Dominic Bauer – Mugen/Alpha – 6/3:11.471

Semi Final B Result
1. Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion – 41/20:13.269
2. Elliott Boots – Kyosho/Reds Racing – 41/20:18.412
3. Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho/OS Speed – 41/20:23.502
4. Carsten Keller – Kysoho/Bullitt – 41/20:25.540
5. Lee Martin – Mugen/Beat – 41/20:26.899
6. Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi – 40/19:21.070
7. Miguel Matias – Xray/RB – 40/20:10.055
8. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/Ultimate – 40/20:14.420
9. Daniel Reckward – RB/RB – 40/20:16.345
10.Hannes Käufler – TLR/Reds Racing – 40:20:24.555
11.Fabrizio Teghesi – Kyosho/OS Speed – 39/20:02.288
12.Byran Baldo – Mugen/Novarossi – 39/20:12.056

View our event image gallery here.