Savoya TQ’s penultimate qualifier

Xray’s Renaud Savoya has TQ’d the penultimate round of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Austria while great rival & defending champion Robert Batlle had his run to the 3rd fastest time struck off after his Mugen was deemed to be too wide in post race scrutiny something his Mugen team firmly dispute as the buggy was running the same set-up as yesterday when the MBX6R had no problems with passing through the box being used by race officials.

Having last TQ’d a round of qualifying at the Euros in 2010, when the event was also held in Austria, Savoya was very happy with his return to the top of the times with the result putting the French ace in with a chance of being overall Top Qualifier, an honour he secured en-route to claiming two of three consecutive European titles.  After watching video footage of his 9 laps in 5:27.733, the factory Xray/RB driver said while his XB9 looked fast but hard to drive it didn’t feel that way from the driver rostrum as he was quite happy with the feeling.  Switching to a harder compound Sweep Double Action tyre for the round he said it made the car better through the concrete block section but he think the best gain in time can come from him adapting a smoother style of driving around what is a very fast track.  Although he has a chance of the overall TQ, Savoya plans to use the last heat to test Sweep’s Exagon tyres as preparation for the finals.  The change of tyres will require some small set-up changes so as the car can get the best from the new pattern.

Fastest in the opening qualifier yesterday TLR’s Darren Bloomfield set the second fastest time despite a first lap, first corner crash but even with this felt a TQ run was possible until he got caught up in traffic near the end of the run that cost him over a second. Traffic had been a problem for quite a few drivers many of whom feel that the heats should for the future be based on the fastest 12 from practice being in the top heat and the next 12 in heat 2 and so on.  As one driver put it ‘its frustrating for us but it must also be frustrating for the guy who spends most of the run looking behind him’.  Other than the crash which cost him around 3 seconds, Bloomfield said the development version of the 8ight was working really well a statement he backed up by setting the fastest lap for the round with a 35.788 lap.

Getting 3rd for the round after Batlle’s disqualification the Top Qualifier for the last two European Championships Jerome Aigoin said a hat trick of overall TQ’s was now not possible.  His best round of qualifying so far, the recently crowned French Champion said he made a small mistake but overall he was happy with the run.  Still running the same set-up as he came to these the 32nd running of the Euros with, the factory Kyosho/Novarossi driver said everything with his buggy, engine and tyres was good and if he can finish in the Top 5 at the end of qualifying he will be happy. This would put him up at the front of the grid for the Semi from where all 12 drivers including the Top Qualifier will have to progress to the Main event.

Team Losi Racing’s Miguel Matias took his RB powered 8ight to the fourth fastest time despite having to deal with traffic, any delays on the high speed track, where the times are very close, costing valuable places in the qualification ranking. Switching to an FTW Night Hawk bodyshell, which he borrowed from fellow Portuguese driver Ricardo Monteiro, the former champion said it gave him the steering he was looking for particularly in the infield but on the two high speed corners it made the buggy a little too sensitive and planning to play it safe for the final qualifier he will revert to his standard Losi bodyshell.

Behind Matias was the totally rejuvenated Joseph Quagraine. The JQ Products boss & founder said he hasn’t enjoyed his racing as much as he has here in Fehring for about 5 years.  Changing nothing on his Yellow Edition ‘The Car’ since getting here the Finn is currently well inside the Top 10 and looks set to make it directly into the all important Semi Finals.

For Kyosho team-mates Elliot Boots, the Round 2 Top Qualifier, and David Ronnefalk, the fastest man in Q3, their fourth qualifier was their worst round so far.  Boots was on a TQ pace with his Novarossi powered MP9 until he crashed on his 3rd lap losing 4 seconds while Ronnefalk, who made some changes to his Orion powered MP9 which he didn’t like, had a disastrous final 46 second last lap after he crashed in between the two big jumps and out of site of the marshals. Losing almost 10 seconds he finished 15th fastest.

Qualifying Times Round 4
1. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB – 9/5:27.733
2. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi – 9/5:28.878
3. Jérôme Aigoin (FR) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 9/5:30.161
4. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB – 9/5:30.983
5. Joseph Quagraine (FI) – JQ/JQ – 9/5:31.509
6. Elliot Boots (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 9/5:32.066
7. Yannick Aigoin (FR) – Associated/Novarossi – 9/5:32.244
8. Jörn Neumann (DE) – Durango/Picco – 9/5:33.344
9. Ignacio Candel (ES) – Mugen/RB – 9/5:35.306
10.Peter Pinisch (AT) – LRP/LRP – 9/5:35.452
11.Neil Cragg (GB) – Associated/LRP – 9/5:35.589
12.Ari Heinonen (FI) – Kyosho/Alpha – 9/5:36.403

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Ronnefalk takes Q3, Bloomfield is overnight TQ

Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk ended the first day of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships with a TQ run in the third round but it is Team Losi Racing’s Darren Bloomfield who is the provisional overnight Top Qualifier in Fehring, Austria.

A slower track for Q3 after a short rain shower that arrived at the end of Q2 but stopped again shortly into the start of Q3, reigning European Junior Champion Ronnefalk was happy to return to the top of the time sheets having set the pace on the opening day of practice for the event on Tuesday.  Having come to the event with the set-up he used at the Warm-up race, the 16-year-old said he hasn’t had to make any changes to his Orion powered MP9 as ‘everything is working well’.  The 16-year-old said with a TQ run under his belt he is confident he can challenge for the overall TQ honours tomorrow.  While very happy with his set-up Ronnefalk said he might make a small change as once or twice he could have done with a little more steering at the 180 degree corners.

Setting the fastest lap of Q3 to claim second overall backing up his Q1 TQ run, Bloomfield was very happy with his performance today on a track which the former British Champion described as the ‘best European track’ he has been to in a long time.  After struggling with new tyres in Q2 when he could only manage 10th, he ran a used set of AKA Enduros on his modified 8ight.  Asked if having US star Adam Drake as his mechanic was a contributing factor to his performance Bloomfield said having someone you can trust working on your car is great and it also gave him more time to talk to other Losi drivers and gather useful information. With very little turn around time between his Q2 & Q3 run he said it was great not have to rush to get the buggy prepped leaving him time to go up to the drivers stand a lot more relaxed than usual.

The fastest man in Q2, Elliot Boots said he just made too many mistakes in Q3 leaving him to take only the fifth fastest time for the round. Sitting third in the overnight ranking the newly crowned British Champion said his Novarossi powered Kyosho is up for the job and with better driving tomorrow everything will be fine.

Defending Champion Robert Batlle took his Mugen to fourth in Q3 and that is the position the Spaniard holds in the current qualification standings.  Finishing ahead of the double champion was his great rival and 3-time champion Renaud Savoya.  The Xray driver said the event is going as expected and his RB powered XB9 is really ‘enjoyable’ to drive. Removing some screws from his buggy for Q3 to give it flex he said the change was good and while the track was slower he was able to post his fastest 5-minute time.  Still following the program they came with he said while little mistakes cost him in terms of his placing for the opening two rounds he said everything is going as expected.

Tomorrow drivers have two final rounds of qualifying in which to secure themselves a place in the all important Semi finals, these spot going to the Top 16 in the final qualification ranking.  One notable driver who will need two good qualifiers tomorrow is last year’s podium finisher Daniel Reckward.  The former World Champion who has won the Euros 3-times previously had a tough day and languishes down in 45th position.  Red RC, whose coverage is being supported by Serpent, Team C and defending champions Mugen, will have full updates after each of those crucial qualifiers.

Qualifying Times Round 3
1. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho/Orion – 9/5:30.054
2. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi – 9/5:30.595
3. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB – 9/5:31.849
4. Robert Batlle (ES) – Mugen/Novarossi – 9/5:30.779
5. Elliot Boots    (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 9/5:33.337
6. Borja Hernandez (ES) – LRP/Alpha – 9/5:34.361
7. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB – 9/5:35.001
8. Neil Cragg (GB) – Associated/LRP – 9/5:35.099
9. Jérôme Sartel (FR) – Agama/Bullit – 9/5:35.248
10.Yannick Aigoin (FR) – Associated/Novarossi – 9/5:36.576
11.Peter Pinisch (AT) – LRP/LRP – 9/5:38.557
12.Rayan Medjoubi (FR) – JQ/JQ – 8/5:00.621

Qualification Ranking after Round 3 of 5
1. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi – 368 pts
2. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho/Orion – 367
3. Elliot Boots    (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 365
4. Robert Batlle (ES) – Mugen/Novarossi – 363
5. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB – 363
6. Jörn Neumann    (DE) – Durango/Picco – 362
7. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB – 360
8. Joseph Quagraine (FI) – JQ/JQ – 356
9. Borja Hernandez (ES) – LRP/Alpha – 355
10.Christoffer Svensson (SE) – Kyosho/OS – 353
11.Teemu Leino (FI) – HB/LRP – 348
12.Jérôme Aigoin (FR) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 346

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Boots fastest in Q2

Having thrown away any chance of a TQ at the first corner in the opening round of qualifying Team Kyosho’s Elliot Boots bounced back in style in Q2 to set a new fastest time by 2 seconds over Durango’s Joern Neumann with Kyosho’s other hot shot teenager David Ronnefalk, who also messed up his Q1 run, setting the third fastest time a further 8/10ths adrift. Just as the second round of qualifying came to an end it started to rain at the Fehring track but it would appear that it was just a passing shower although the skies remain very overcast.

Boots was pleased with his Q2 run but the 19-year-old felt he could have layed down an even faster time had he not been held up for two laps by slower traffic.  During the warm-up the 19-year-old made a number of mistakes but once the 5-minute qualifier started proper the British Champion & 2011 Finalists drove a clean round.  Afterwards Boots said that having fitted a brand new set of super soft AKA Enduros for the second heat he had to run a few aggressive laps to scrub the edges of the tyres and this is why this is why his buggy looked terrible but once the heat started the buggy felt really good.  Hoping it is dry for the third of the five scheduled qualifiers, which will bring Day 3 of the 32nd running of the European Championships to a close, Boots said he would leave everything the same but being from the United Kingdom, he was confident he would have a good set-up should conditions be wet.

Having discovered a problem with his throttle pot on his radio transmitter that was creating its own exponential, Neumann ran the second heat with a Sanwa M11 borrowed from top Austrian racer Peter Pinisch.  Neumann’s own radio is 2-years old but as his mechanic this weekend Hupo Honigl pointed out the German has one of the busiest off road racing programmes of any driver and so the dust & dirt is going to take its toll on the radio. Neumann said he has Sanwa’s new M12 radio but didn’t bring it as he said he hasn’t yet had time to practice with the new unit.  In terms of the buggy the back to back 4WD Electric European Champion said a switch to JConcept Barcodes in soft ‘blue’ compound was the perfect choice for the conditions at the time of his run.  He said as the heat progressed the tyres got better and better each lap and he only wished the heat had been longer.

Having had great pace since the start of the event on Tuesday, Ronnefalk finally managed a clean run but like Boots he too had issues with traffic.  The 16-year-old lost some time with the traffic but said he didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks of getting caught up in the slower cars.  Running the same set of AKA Enduro tyres from Q1 the Swede said this was probably not the best call as they started losing grip in the final minute or so of the run.

Defending Champion Robert Batlle was fourth fastest. With the top drivers spread over five heats rather than the top 12 from controlled practice being in the top heat, the Spaniard was also delayed by traffic including a coming together with fellow Mugen team driver Daniel Reckward. In the end a mistake on the last corner of the last lap cost him about a second and a chance of a potential second fastest time for the round.  In the last heat for Q2 Batlle said at the end of the run he started to lose steering and he wasn’t sure if that was due to the arrival of the rain or something to do with his MBX6R.

Having taken a 1-2 in the opening qualifier Team Losi Racing could only manage 5th fastest with Miguel Matias.  The Portuguese driver said his RB powered 8ight was very consistent but running wide on one of the fast corners, something he described as a big mistake at this level of racing, cost him a few 10ths and overall points for the round.  Team-mate Darren Bloomfield who TQ’d round 1 could only managed the 10th fastest time. The British driver said they made the wrong call to run brand new tyres for Q2, having used scrubbed tyres earlier, as they made his Novarossi powered 8ight very edgy to drive and that led to a crash.

Completing the Top 6 was Joseph Quagraine. The Finn said after the run former World Champion Mark Pavidis, whose AKA brand sponsor his tyres, asked him ‘what was wrong’ as that was the first time in about four years he had seen the JQ Products founder drive with such aggression. Quagraine, who runs City Block on the front and iBeam on the rear of ‘The Car’ was himself delighted with his driving which he described as a ‘good clean round’.

Qualifying Times Round 2
1. Elliot Boots (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 9/5:27.667
2. Jörn Neumann (DE) – Durango/Picco – 9/5:29.714
3. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho/Orion – 9/5:30.557
4. Robert Batlle (ES) – Mugen/Novarossi – 9/5:30.779
5. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB – 9/5:31.357
6. Joseph Quagraine (FI) – JQ/JQ – 9/5:32.558
7. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB – 9/5:32.965
8. Teemu Leino (FI) – HB/LRP – 9/5:33.196
9. Borja Hernandez (ES) – LRP/Alpha – 9/5:34.479
10.Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi – 9 5:35.409
11.Martin Bayer (CZ) – Xray/nVision – 9/5:35.805
12.Lee Martin (GB) – Mugen/OS – 8/5:00.160

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Euro Qualifying starts with TLR 1-2

Team Losi Racing, who despite being one of the main players in the 1:8 Offroad market have never before won the European Championship, got their 2012 campaign off to a strong start this morning in Austria as their drivers Darren Bloomfield and Miguel Matias topped the time sheets for the opening round of qualifying ahead of Mugen’s defending Champion Robert Batlle.

Bloomfield said after his TQ run that ‘it didn’t feel like a 9-lap run’ but he managed to ‘drive an error free 5-minutes’.  Running a scrubbed set of super soft AKA Enduros on his 8ight, which features a number of new parts the team have brought over from the US to test, the British ace said the buggy felt very good.  Having changed to a different Novarossi engine for qualifying, Bloomfield was happier with the tuning having struggled to get a good balance between the top & bottom end on the engine he ran in yesterday’s two timed practice rounds.

Former Champion Matias said his updated 8ight was awesome although he is still looking for a little more steering.  Unlike the majority of drivers running AKA who choose Enduro for Q1, the Portuguese ace ran super soft compound Impact tyres something he said was just down to a personal preference.  Planning to stick with the same set-up and tyres for Q2, for which he has an almost 6 hour wait before his heat is up, Matias said he will modify his rear wing so as to reduce drag and also help with getting better rotation in the corners.

Batlle, who essentially ran two qualifiers this morning following a problem with the timing computer, said his Mugen lacked steering but he was still able to run consistent laps and he was happy enough to set a 9-lap run.  Running soft compound Pro Circuit Square Impact the 2-time Champion said the extra running meant his tyres started to fade at the end of the run.  The problem with the timing occurred as officials input the disqualification of Associated Neil Cragg, whose fuel tank failed for being deem over size, in to the timing causing the automated voice to make random announcements such as 30 seconds to start when the race was already 2-minutes underway.  Restarting the run the problem went away and race director Carlos Gomez is confident the issue is now rectified.

Also running in the restarted heat Kyosho team driver Christoffer Svensson took his OS powered MP9 to the fourth fastest time ahead of team-mate & yesterday’s controlled practice pace setter Jerome Aigoin.  The Swede described the run as ‘just alright’ as while he made no mistakes he did not always hit his lines. Running AKA Enduro tyres he said the plan for Q2 is to just focus on improving his driving.  Fellow Swede and Kyosho team-mate David Ronnefalk set the fastest lap of Q1 with a 36.571 and was on target for a TQ run when he ran wide and out into to the dust causing his to lose traction for the table top off which he crashed his Orion powered MP9 and lost a massive 9 seconds to end up 11th.

Running a new AKA ‘similar to Grid Iron’ tyre in his first qualifier Jerome Aigoin summed up his run as ‘Not so bad, not so fast’.  With one mistake that lost him almost 3 seconds, last year’s Top Qualifier and pole sitter said he will most likely switch to Enduro tyres for Q2 but for now everything else he will leave the same.

Team Durango’s Jörn Neumann, who won the 4WD electric European Championship at this track last month, was pleased with his opening qualifier as he posted the 6th fastest time.  Using a bigger pin tyre having switched from JConcepts Stackers to a Crossbows he said he had better overall grip and steering particularly on the concrete block section of the track.   Running a prototype car most of which has been hand machined by Durango designer Gerd Strenge the German ace said the new buggy is a huge improvement over last year’s.  While he made the final 12-months ago Neumann said this year the buggy, which follows a more traditional chassis design, is a far more competitive package.

The Top seed for qualifying Elliot Boots saw any chance of a TQ run end at the very start of the run when he got the first corner wrong and launched his Kyosho off the track.  Loosing 4 seconds he said the rest of the run was good and the car had the pace to TQ but the lost time meant he got 7th for the round ahead of ‘The Car’ of Joseph Quagraine and the LRP of Borja Hernandez.

Completing the Top 10 was 3-time Champion Renaud Savoya.  The Xray driver said he went into the opening heat looking to put in a clean run but drove a little too cautiously in particular his opening lap which was 38.658 seconds.  Running Sweep Double Action tyres, the French ace said his RB powered XB9 felt good and he just needs to push harder next time out.

Qualifying Times Round 1
1. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR/Novarossi – 9/5:35.967
2. Miguel Matias (PT) – TLR/RB – 9/5:36.453
3. Robert Batlle (ES) – Mugen/Novarossi – 9/5:38.132
4. Christoffer Svensson (SE) – Kyosho/OS – 8/5:00.352
5. Jérôme Aigoin (FR) – Kyosho/Mugen – 8/5:01.445
6. Jörn Neumann    (DE) – Durango/Picco – 8/5:02.031
7. Elliot Boots    (GB) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:02.199
8. Joseph Quagraine (FI) – JQ/JQ – 8/5:02.483
9. Borja Hernandez (ES) – LRP/Alpha – 8/5:02.892
10.Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray/RB – 8/5:02.966
11.David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho/Orion – 8/5:03.636
12.Davide Tortorici (IT) – Mugen/Bliss – 8/5:04.558

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