July 6, 2016

Surprise as Bernabe tops Boots in 1st controlled practice

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There were a few surprised faces at the end of the first round of controlled practice at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Spain as the name Daniel Bernabe appeared at the top of the timing screen ahead of reigning champion Elliott Boots.  A former European Semi Finalist, Bernabe would take his SOAR to the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the first of the two seeding rounds by just 6/100th of a second from yesterday’s free practice pace setter.  Behind them 3/10th back, David Ronnefalk would complete the Top 3, the Warm-up Race winner finally showing some strong form around the massive RC Redovan track as he posted the fastest lap with a time of 52.654.

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A regular finalist in the highly competitive Spanish National Championships, Bernabe, who was only 42nd in free practice, appeared to benefit from a raft of set-up changes to his 998 which were carried out by SOAR owner & designer Didian Ho on hand to support his drivers.  Changing to a longer rear arm, the suspension & diff oils as well as switching to a softer clutch spring & shoes to make his OS engine less aggressive, the 22-year-old Spaniard said these made his car ‘more comfortable to drive now’. Running on Pro-Line’s Fugitive tyre in M2 compound, the driver from Murcia said he has no plans to change anything for the final seeding round that will complete Day 2’s action.

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‘We just missed out but it wasn’t bad’, was Boots reaction to being knocked off the top of the time sheets for the first time since taking control of proceeding in the second free practice yesterday.  The Kyosho driver who ran the same package as yesterday, only running a new set of Pro-Line Blockades, the British driver said they were ‘a bit edgy’ at the start but planning to run them in CP2 he feels they should be good on their second run.  In terms of the car, while he felt conditions are ‘hotter today’ which affects everything on the car including the flex of the plastics but added, ‘everything still feels pretty good’.  Feeling the track is starting to break up in spot which ‘catches you out’ he said ‘the wind picked up too during the run which was a bit of a nightmare’. Planing to leave his Reds Racing powered MP9 unchanged for the final practice he said, ‘tomorrow will be more about consistency’, the action switching to qualifying in the morning.

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‘This one was pretty good. I got my three laps pretty decent’, was how Ronnefalk summed up his P3 seeding time.  The former champion who lacked the kind of fast lap form expected of him added, ‘we are getting there slowly’.  Pleased with where his Orion powered D815 is, the HB driver said ‘the key thing now is deciding what tyre to go for’.  Switch between AKA Enduro and Zipps, the Swede said they both bring ‘similar lap times but feel a little different’ and he needs to ‘just decide what I want the car to do out there’. On the wind, he said ‘you can really feel it on the back section but its not bad on the infield’.  Concluding that dealing with the wind was ‘ok’ he joked ‘you just need to stay low’.

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Bryan Baldo would post the 4th fastest time, the race host pleased with how his Mugen performed. Having used the 5-minute shakedown run this morning following overnight track work to test Procircuit Road Runner tyres on his MBX7R he said, ‘I didn’t like them, they made the car difficult to drive’. Switching to Procircuit’s new as yet unnamed prototype tyre for CP1 he said they were ‘much, much better’ making the car ‘more comfortable and stable’ and he will continue with this package for the second seeding round.  Bryan’s younger brother Oscar would take his similar Mugen/Ultimate package to P7.

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‘Quite good’ was how Robert Batlle summed up his P5 time.  The 2012 World Champion would do a tyre change during the 10-minute seeding practice switching from Procircuit’s new tyre to their Road Runner. Describing the prototype tyre as ‘so much faster’ he will run this for CP2.  Also making rear shock adjustments during the tyre stop, he said this was ‘not good’ and he will go back to the previous setting for the next one. Asked about track conditions this morning, the Spaniard replied ‘it’s super nice now’.

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Completing the Top 6 would be Davide Ongaro. The leading Italian challenger so far in Spain, the 15-year-old Mugen driver was 4/10ths of a second off the similar car of Batlle. With Oscar Baldo next up, Joseph Quagraine would continue the good form he showed in free practice to take his JQ to the 8th fastest time in front of the Kyosho of Riccardo Berton and the Agama of Darren Bloomfield.

View complete event results here.

View our complete event image gallery here.

July 6, 2016

Chassis Focus – Jorn Neumann

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Chassis – Serpent SRX8
Engine – Maxima B2
Tyres – ProLine Blockade X2
Fuel – Maxima
Radio/Servos – Sanwa / K Power HBL836
Body – Serpent High Downforce

Remarks – Serpent factory driver Jorn Neumann is running a SRX8 buggy featuring the newly released beefier front arms, equipped with top and bottom carbon stiffeners. His car also sports a rear aluminium shock tower, bigger (2.5mm) swaybars and is prepared with thicker diff and shocks oil than usual to deal with the high temperatures of the Spanish track.

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July 6, 2016

Chassis Focus – Joseph Quagraine

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Chassis – JQ Racing THE Car White Edition “LV”
Engine – Reds R7
Tyres – AKA Impact Long Wear Medium
Fuel – Sidewinder
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/Savox
Body – Standard / Bittydesign Force

Remarks – JQ Racing’s very own Joseph Quagraine is running the latest “LV” (Las Vegas) version of his White Edition car equipped with a number of prototype parts. The front shock tower allows for a more vertical shock position, while the adjustable c-hubs allow for a caster angle range going from 18 to 20 degrees. The steering knuckles are also new and feature a more forward steering link position that confers a less aggressive but more substantial steering. The chassis is 3mm thick instead of the standard 4mm and works together with the new, longer rear brace. Testing front upper arms instead of camber links for an improved stiffness of the front end geometries, he is also using a 22g steel weight around the centre diff case, rear arm stiffeners and a rear skid plate.

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July 5, 2016

Boots controls tempo on Day 1 of Euros

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Defending Champion Elliot Boots controlled the tempo on the opening day of the 1:8 Offroad European Championship in Spain, the Kyosho driver fastest at the end of the day’s four rounds of free practice.  Posting the fastest time in FP3, Boots would end the day 1.2-seconds faster than Robert Batlle who despite windy conditions posted his best 3-laps of the day in the final practice. Similar to Boots, Darren Bloomfield would fail to improve on his FP3 time dropping a place to end the day 3rd quickest.  Having opened the day with the fastest time but unable to improve in the next two, Bryan Baldo would post the second fastest time of FP4 behind Batlle which would leave the race host 4th fastest.  Bryan’s younger brother would also end the day strongly with his best run promoting him to P6 behind Warm-up Race winner David Ronnefalk.

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‘It’s going good’ was how Boots summed up Day 1 of his title defence.   Very confident in his car set-up, he would try a different tyre compound in FP4 just to see the difference as they ‘don’t need to change the car (set-up)’.  Opting for a harder compound Pro-Line Blockade having run X2 on his fastest run he said they were ‘not as good’ and he will go back for tomorrow’s seeding practice rounds.  With winds picking up for the last few heats of the final practice, Boots said this was ‘a bit of a nightmare’ as in the jumps his Reds Racing powered MP9 was being ‘blown around’. Aside from this the former World Championship Top Qualifier concluded ‘today was a good way to start the event but as I said before we did all the hard work at the Warm-up Race’.

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Batlle was similarly pleased with his opening day performance saying he has ‘a good feeling (with his car) at the end of the first day’.  Commenting on topping the final practice, the former Champion said his MBX7R was ‘better than before’ adding ‘the car is still easy to drive only a little faster’.  Having one big mistake during the extended 9-minute final practice he said that was simply down to him pushing too hard but continued ‘we are going in a good way’ with the set-up and he is ‘confident’ for Day 2 but did add ‘there is still a long week ahead’.

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Bloomfield felt the driver was the problem in FP4 saying ‘the car was alright, I just didn’t drive that well’.  He added, ‘that was the first one that I tried too hard I guess.  I tried to make it go faster rather than let it do its own thing’.  Describing the evening wind ‘as pretty bad’ on his overall performance for the first day he said ‘it seems we’re ok’.

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Bryan Baldo was clearly pleased with his opening day saying he was ‘very happy to be able to run with the best in Europe. Reverting to a softer version of the shock set-up in the morning’s opening practice as well as running a light diff oil in his Mugen he said it was ‘now more comfortable to drive that before’.  Also using the round to test a new and as yet unnamed prototype tyre from Procircuit which features a smaller pin that the Road Runner, he said the new rubber worked very well and he will stick with everything as is for the start of Day 2. Commenting on the surface, which he was responsible for preparing as his family run the track, he said ‘the track is very good now and we will try to keep it like this for the week’.  Making all the same changes to his MBX7R as his older brother, Oscar Baldo said his example was for FP4 ‘better than the rest of the day’.  Able to improve by over 2-seconds he said with the car now easier to drive he is looking forward to a good second day.

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‘Finally I had a good feeling, it was very good in the last one’, was Ronnefalk’s reaction after FP4.  The 2014 back to back champion continued, ‘I was able to stay with Elliott for a couple of laps, its nice to have that feeling going into seeding tomorrow’.  On his Orion powered D815 he said the base set-up is there and ‘it’s very stable to drive’ but there are some minor improvements he would like to make like getting more steering out of the corner.

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Heading the Italian challenge in Spain, Davide Ongaro declared himself happy with his Day 1 performance.  While failing to improve on his best 3-consecutive lap time from FP3, the Mugen driver was pleased with the fact he posted two 52 second laps.  Struggling with the wind which he said kept lifting the rear of the car in the air, the 15-year-old plans to start out seeding practice with an unchanged set-up.  Behind the Junior Champion, the Top 10 times would be completed by the Xray of Martin Wollanka, JQ boss Joseph Quagraine and and the HB of Spanish driver Jorge Soler.

View complete event results here.

View our complete event image gallery here.

July 5, 2016

Chassis Focus – Neil Cragg

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Chassis – Team Associated RC8B
Engine – LRP ZZ.21C
Tyres – ProLine Blockade X2
Fuel – LRP
Radio/Servos – KO Propo
Body – ProLine Predator

Remarks – Top British Associated driver Neil Cragg is running a standard RC8B here in Redovan, the only change on the car being the addition of weight in the rear of the chassis plate.

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