Boots controls tempo on Day 1 of Euros

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.

‘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’.

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’.

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’.

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.

‘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.

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.

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Boots gets faster, Ongaro best Top 10 improver

Elliott Boots continued to set the pace at the 1:8 Offroad European Championship in Spain, the reigning champion improving on his 3-consecutive lap time in FP3. Having lead the way after the first two rounds of free practice by half a second, Boots extended that advantage to 1.5 seconds, this time over fellow British driver Darren Bloomfield. Bloomfield improved two positions with his FP3 time demoting Robert Batlle, who failed to improve, back to third.  The best place driver to move into the top 10 with his FP3, reigning Junior Champion David Ongaro would post the fourth fastest time demoting FP1 pace setter Bryan Baldo back to fifth, while also enjoying a strong improvement David Ronnefalk completed the Top 7.

‘I’m just learning the track again and getting into my rhythm’, was what Boots attributed his improvement too.  Again posting the fastest lap, getting down to a 52.388, he said the track felt similar to the previous practice although adding ‘its dusting up in a few places and starting to break up’.  He continued, ‘the concrete is taking time to get gripping but everything feels good so we’ll leave it the same for the last one (practice)’.

Taking a break from the heat and enjoying the ac in his rental car, Bloomfield was pleased with changes made to his Agama for the third practice.  Changing the front caster block and top arm position he said this ‘helped carry more corner speed in the tight twisty stuff’.  Looking to the final practice of the day, he said he will ‘just go again with the same set-up’ adding ‘it will be good to drive the same car again for once’.

Changing to a heavy shock oil, Batlle said his Mugen was ‘a little better’ but ‘trying harder (he) made two mistakes’ so the improvement wasn’t reflected on the time sheets.   Feeling his engine was ‘maybe too rich’, the Spaniard said the car is ‘super easy to drive and thats the important thing’ adding ‘there is plenty of time to fine tune it’.

One of the stars of last year’s European Championship which as held as his father’s track in Italy, Ongaro said his improvement from 12th to 4th was simply down to improved driving.  The 15-year-old, who ‘like(s) the track a lot’, said the only change he has made over the three practices is to fit a fresh set of Procircuit Road Runners tyres to his MBX7R.  Planning to ‘leave all the same’ for final free practice, he said ‘if possible I will just try to drive better’.

Opting to not revert back to his FP1 suspension set-up and instead try the same Road Runner pattern as Batlle, Baldo said his Mugen was still ‘too nervous’.  Having ruled out tyres he will now go back to the suspension set-up he started the day out with as well as going to lighter oil in the diffs.  Bryan’s younger brother Oscar would also fail to improve on his best time, set in FP2, dropping to P8.

Improving his pace by over 4-seconds, Ronnefalk said his HB ‘felt a lot better’ but continued ‘we still need to find more speed’.  Switching to AKA Impact tyres having run Enduros the first two rounds, the Swede said the car was ‘now confident to drive’ but with the track now ‘more like what we had at the warm-up’ he will go back to the Enduro and try it for the last run of the day. Apart from tyres, the other changes made for FP3 were small oil changes to reflect the extra heat there was due to the timing of the run.

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