Track Focus – Gröndal Ring
Track Name – Gröndal Ring
Host Club – MK Eskil
Country – Sweden
Location – Eskilstuna (110km drive East of Stockholm)
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Dirt/Astro/Brick section
Previous events hosted – 2016 1:8 Onroad European Championships
The 37th running of the EFRA 1:8 Offroad European Championship takes place in Eskilstuna in Sweden with the country’s third hosting of the championships taking place at the huge Gröndal Ring. Run by the MK Eskil which was established in 1997, the club of around a 100 members moved to its new bigger facility in 2014. Previously having a much smaller track on the outside of the local city of Eskilstuna, the local government sold the land with the promise of relocating the club. Delivering on that promise the club was given a new home at the Gröndals Motorsport Arena around 10km from the city centre. A facility that is home to a speedway track, a drifting course and motorcycle race track, r/c was given a 13,000 square metre site on which you have both an oroad and offroad track either side of a very impressive and large wooden driver stand – you could easily build a large Mini-Z track on it. While the club’s first Offroad Euros it not its first European Championships, the 548 metre asphalt track, which features some cool looking Daytona style banking, hosted the 1:8 Onroad European Championship last year.
On the 463 metre long offroad track, the main focus of drivers has been on the surface, the local dirt more a gravel than a clay. Featuring astro turf covered jumps and a brick section, the club have prepared the track with Dustex following May’s Warm-up Race when drivers faced a very bumpy track for the finals. Sweden’s World Champion David Ronnefalk, who lives a 5-hour drive away, said ‘I think the layout is good, its a fun layout. The challenge is the surface with how it is but its the same for everyone and its part of the game this year’. He continued, ‘I think the club have done a good job with the track since the warm-up but were unlucky because normally they needed a lot of rain before the race but had no luck there, so it was not the best for the preparation of the surface. The track is going to get a lot of character over the week. It will not get as bad as the Warm-up but for sure it will be bumpy’. Asked about the main elements of the track, he replied, ‘All the jumps are key especially in the middle section to keep your rhythm. At the triple double there is super high bite because the dirt in that section has more clay in it. Set-up is going to be about getting corner speed.’
Defending champion Elliott Boots had a different view saying, ‘I think it will end the same as the warm-up by Wednesday. You can see bumps appearing already (after the first round of practice). They put a binding agent down on a few sections but that’s almost gone now’. In terms of the layout, he said, ‘its very similar to the Warm-up which is a good thing but they have improved some of the up ramps’. He added, ‘it quite a fast track which I prefer to slower tracks. It’s not too technical’. Asked about track features the British driver said, ‘I’m not a fan of the step up step down on the left side because the binding agent hooks you in on the landing’. Chasing a third consecutive title he concluded, ‘I don’t think fast laps are important here. You can have a car half to 1 second a lap slower but if its consistent you’ll be right up there’.
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