Boots takes opening qualifier in Italy

Elliott Boots has taken the opening round of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Italy.  Winner of the Warm-up Race, the Kyosho driver topped the first of the five scheduled 5-minute qualifiers by 1-second from the TLR of Marco Baruffolo.  Just 2/10ths further back defending champion David Ronnefalk would completed the Top 3 despite two driver errors. Having topped yesterday’s seeding practice, traffic issues would leave Robert Batlle sixth fastest.

‘Went well’, that was Boots reaction to his TQ run.  Following a heavy thunder storm that hit the track last night but which had clearly completed by morning, the British driver said the now dry again Ongaroring track was ‘a lot looser than yesterday’.  Repeating the comments he made after practice yesterday that he is not the fastest driver in terms of outright lap times, said he was consistent.   While ‘not (his) normal style’, the 2012 World Championship Top Qualifier said improving consistency was something he has been trying to improve this season.  Suffering one bobble which he was able to save and running a bit wide on a few corners he said overall it was a ‘safe run’. Adjusting his MP9 set-up to be similar to that to that of fast Italian talent Riccardo Berton, including switching to the taller front shock tower, Boots said the car was working well adding his choice of Pro-Line’s Diamond Back tyre in X3 compound worked out well for the dusty conditions.

Baruffolo described his opening qualifier as ‘very good’.  The 17-year old said while the track had ‘lost a lot of traction’ following last night’s storm and was getting bumpier with ruts starting to develop, he was ok with the latter adding ‘it is getting more like at the Euro Bs’.  Crowned champion at that 2013 European B Championships, he said his Q1 was a ‘clean run’ and his choice of soft Grid Iron tyres was good as the dirt was still a little damp.  Expecting it to ‘dust up’ for Q2, he will switch to softer Impact and run a stiffener in the wheels.

‘Was ok, I should have TQ’d but I had two driver errors but still I am happy to get good points for the first round’, that was how Ronnefalk summed up his opening qualifier.  Chasing a third consecutive title on this his first season with HB/HPI Racing, the Swede said he didn’t change his Orion powered D815 from yesterday and it felt good.  Just changing tyres, going for AKA City Beam in the front and iBeam on the rear, he said they worked well for the conditions but expecting the track to change a lot by the time Q2 comes around he expects to run a different pattern and will decide that closer to the time.

David Ongaro opened his home event with the fourth fastest time.  With drivers getting a quick shakedown run to start off Day 3 of the event, the 14-year-old would make a number of changes afterward in preparation for Q1.  Switching to a harder shock spring, softer clutch springs and lowering the rear upper camber link as well as switching to a larger restrictor on LRP engine, he said the changes worked well.  The only issue for the Italian was traffic which led to a mistake that required his car to be marshalled.

Fifth fastest, Alex Zanchettin described his run as ‘quite good’.  The Italian National Champion found the track ‘really slippery’ leading to him having ‘two little mistakes’.  Running his 8ight 3.0 unchanged from yesterday and choosing Pro-Line Holeshot X3 tyres ‘to be safe’, the 20-year-old said for the first round of qualifying it was a ‘solid start’.  For Q2 he will wait to see how the track changes but expects the only change he will make will be his tyre choice.

Completing the Top 6, Berton said he choose too hard a tyre.  Running Blockades in X2 compound on his Orion powered MP9, the Euro B Champion said the car was loose and he had to adjust to a safe driving style.  Managing a clean 5-minutes, the 16-year-old said considering his tyre choice 6th for the round was a ‘good’ start.

Batlle said ‘too much traffic’ was his only problem.  Stuck behind a group of 6-7 cars he said trying to avoid bumping into any of them he crashed himself at the end of the main straight.  Running in the first heat, describing the track as slower than the following heats, he said without the mistake he had a 5:10 pace, the TQ time an 8 laps in 5:11.142.  Very happy with his Mugen, which he ran the same as yesterday including continuing on Procuit Hot Dice tyres, he said he has ‘enough speed’ and just needs a clear track.

Setting the 8th fastest time was Serpent’s Joern Neumann who like Batlle would also have traffic issues.  The German lost 3-4 seconds as a result of a group of cars that bunched up towards the end of the heat but apart from this said the run ‘was alright’.  Happy with his S811 Cobra 2.2 in practice yesterday but unable to get 3 clean laps in, he said reducing the rear toe-in today had made the car even better.  Running Pro-Line Suppressor X2 tyres they worked well but with almost 3-hours until his next qualifier he said the track will be completely different and he will need to choose a different pattern.  Behind Neumann, Mugen driver Bryan Baldo, who was fastest in timed practice yesterday, and HB’s Renaud Savoya completed the Top 10 in front of British pairing Lee Matin and Darren Bloomfield.

View the complete results here.

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Video – Qualifying Rd1 Heat 5

Video – Qualifying Rd1 Heat 4

Baldo fastest, Batlle top seed

Bryan Baldo has ended Day 2 of the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Sacile, Italy, as the fastest driver around the Ongaroring but it is fellow countryman & Mugen team-mate Robert Batlle who is the top seed as the event moves into qualifying tomorrow. Baldo put in an impressive 3-consecutive-laps in the second of the day’s two timed practice rounds with a time of 1:53.059, bettering Batlle’s TP1 topping time by over a second. Behind Baldo, Italian Alex Zanchettin posted the second fastest time of day practice with a 1:53.507 in TP2. However using EFRA’s tie-break, points awarded each round, the TLR driver is ranked 4th behind Kyosho’s Riccardo Berton.  An improved TP2 would see defending champion David Ronnefalk post the 6th fastest time which was good enough to seed the HB/HPI Racing driver 10th.

Showing great consistency, his second practice time was only 2/10ths off his opening pace, Batlle said he was going for a better time over his last three laps of the 8-minutes but he ran out of fuel with just one corner to go.  Fitting a softer rear rollbar to his MBX-7R as well as switching to Procircuit’s blue compound Hot Dice tyre, the ’07 & ’11 Champion said he was ‘happy with (the) consistency’. Believing he has ‘good speed’, he is ‘confident with the car’ and will start qualifying with it unchanged and focus on putting in a clean first round.

Changing the set-up on his MBX-7R for the final practice to less rear anti-dive, Baldo said this improved it a lot.  Also going for a harder compound Procuit Hot Dice tyre, which made for more stability through the corners, the older of the two Baldo brothers said he was very comfortable now with the car.  Asked how he liked the track, his own family’s track hosting next year’s Euros, the 23-year-old said at first he found it a bit difficult but having adapted his driving he now really likes it.  Hoping there is no overnight rain, rain drops falling on a number of occasion over the day, he said he wont change anything for Q1.

Freshly crowned European B Champion Berton would make a front shock tower change to his MP9 for the final practice.  Running the new taller tower in combination with Kyosho’s longer shock, this brought a big improvement over the bumps. Having felt after TP1 there was more time to be gained from his driving in the centre section, with the new suspension set-up the 16-year-old achieved this. ‘Very happy’ with his day, having stuck with Pro-Line’s Blockade tyre for TP2 he plans to make the switch to X2 Suburb for Q1.

Only 20th fastest in the first timed practice, Zanchettin was much happier with his 8ight 3.0 after a change of tyres and running less rear toe-in.  The reigning Italian National Champion switched from Holeshot to Suburb which made the car a lot more consistent it being ‘really easy to drive but still fast’.  With the track improving, the 20-year-old said it was now more like the Warm-up Race and going into qualifying he was ‘happy for the moment’.

Behind Zanchettin in the seeding, HB team-mates Renaud Savoya and Teemu Leino would end up fifth and sixth with their TP1 times despite TP2 proving much faster for a number of drivers. Lee Martin would post the fourth fastest time, a tenth up on Ronnefalk. Seeded 7th, the Mugen driver said ‘finally we got to the point we needed to be’. Having felt he had good pace yesterday, he put the improvement mainly down to reverting back to the same tyres he was good on before, X2 Blockades, he said he also changed his set-up to be closer to that of team-mate Batlle which helped too.  Describing the track as ‘more rutted now’ he feels his MBX-7R is not rolling enough and for tomorrow he will go ‘a touch softer’ with his shock oils.

With the sixth fastest time from the two timed practices, Ronnefalk declared himself a lot more confident about qualifying following his second run.  Changing to AKA’s Chain Link tyre, having had to wait for the track to be clean enough to use the tyre which he also ran at the Warm-up Race, the Swede the result saw his Orion powered D815 being the best its been so far.  The only change he made, he said it was ‘really good’ and he feels ‘really safe with the car’.  Having been on for a 1:53 pace until a mistake on his third lap the 19-year-old will continue with the car unchanged going into Q1 in the morning.

Son of event organiser Mauro Ongaro, 14-year-old Davide would see his car transformed by a simple body change.  Describing his Mugen as ‘so so’ in the first round, a switch from the standard Mugen to a DT Racing bodyshell his LRP powered MBX-7R was ‘way more stable’  Having been concerned by his lack of pace in TP1, with the car ‘less edgy’ and him able to post the 7th fastest time in the second round he was now ‘super happy’ and will keep it the same for Q1.

Winner of the Euro B Championships when it was held at the Ongaroring in 2013, Marco Baruffolo was 8th fastest in the day’s closing action.  The TLR driver said a combination of changing tyres and better driving led to his 4-second improvement.  Switching from medium Grid Iron to Chain Link tyres he said his Picco powered 8ight had more traction and steering.  In terms of his driving, the 17-year-old said he drove ‘cleaner lines’.  Looking to further improve his corner speed by getting the car to turn in faster he will switch to a softer front spring for Q1.

2013 Podium finisher Martin Bayer was just behind the two Italian teenagers on pace, the Czech driver making improvements after switching from Holeshot to Handlebar tyres. Giving him more corner speed and making his FX powered XB8 easier to drive, he said running in the second heat the track was changing so much by the time the fastest guys were out on track later in the round.  Overall however the former Electric Offroad European Champion said things were going ‘pretty ok’ and ‘comfortable with the car’ he would just wait to see how tomorrow goes when he will run in the same heat as Ronnefalk and Baldo and his Euro Offroad Series rival Joern Neumann.

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