Hernandez tops first practice
Spanish star Borja Hernandez has topped the time sheets here in Crete as Day 2 of the 2008 EFRA European 1:8 Buggy Championships gets underway. The Hobao driver was fastest from young Team Losi hot shot Darren Bloomfield by just over one second at the end of the timed five minute run.
Hernandez was pleased with is run and only plans to try Proline XTR over the M2 he ran in the first practice. Bloomfield was also happy with his run and will too just try different tyres for Practice number 2. Running Losi Eclipse Red Compound tyres, the British racer will run a softer insert next time out.
With five different manufacturers in the Top 5 places it was the Bergonzi R1 Prototype of Raul Peris who recorded the third fastest run. The Spanish driver said the track is very difficult but his car is running well and he only plans a few suspension changes. Hupo Honigl was next up with his LRP S8. The Austrian said his run was not so good but he is happy with the overall time. Honigl is another who will try different tyres for the next outing with both XTR and Hole Shots ready so he can make the call just before his Group go on to the track, which again has come in for a lot of criticism from the top drivers.
Top Mugen is Daniel Vega with the fifth fastest time. The Spaniard will experiment with different tyres next time out but plans no changes to his car. Running the Ninja engines, Vega is running a GRP pipe here this weekend as the new EFRA spec Ninja pipes did not arrive on time.
Heading Xray’s challenge is France’s Jerome Sartel in eight while Swede Linus Thern is the fastest of the Kyosho drivers. Sartel will change the springs on his 808 as he tries to get the car to work better over the increasing bumps. Thern plans to run a front torsion diff on his MP777 having run the standard diff in the first run. He had used the torsion diff at the Warm up race and he feels it should improve traction. Team mate Daniel Reckward, currently in 18th, ran as truggy clutch this morning and found a big improvement in traction. The man behind Reckard Tuning is using a Speed 2.5 Extended clutch and has switched from carbon to aluminium shoes. The German, together with Sartel and Thern will run a second RB engine in the second run to have it ready should he hit any problems later in the event. All three are also running RB’s 3003 pipe which is originally designed for On Road use. The power appears to be smoother with the pipe but at the expense of a slight fall in fuel economy.
Richi Gomez, who made a last minute switch from GS to Hong Nor in the lead up to the Euros, is very happy with his new car. This is the young Spanish drivers first race with the car and compared with his previous GS Buggy he is very happy with the X1CR which he says turns in better and also has more traction. Gomez will try a harder Panther tyre and stiffen the rear diff for his next practice.
Here is the complete ranking after Practice Round 1 (PDF). Thanks to Aebi RC progress for providing Red RC with the results.
Check out our event image gallery here.