Ronnefalk TQ’s opening Reims Qualifier

Team Kyosho’s young star David Ronnefalk has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Reims, France,  the Swede navigating the chalk track 3-seconds faster than World Champion Robert Batlle with Xray’s Martin Bayer completing the Top 3 in a close encounter which saw the next 6 drivers covered by just 3-seconds.  For defending champion Darren Bloomfield two mistakes left him down the order with the 20th fastest time, the British driver saying he just pushed too hard.

Ronnefalk described his run as ‘pretty much the perfect run’.  The 17-year-old said today’s colder conditions meant the unique chalk track had more traction and this resulted in his Orion powered MP9 being much easier to control.  Commenting that he was ‘helped for sure by having no traffic issues’, something many of the top drivers had trouble with, he said his buggy, which was equipped with a scrubbed set of AKA Handlebar tyres, felt really good as it has all week and he doesn’t plan to make any changes for Q2.

‘Not bad, much better than yesterday’, was how Mugen’s Batlle summed up his first qualifier.  The Spaniard, who is looking to add a third European title alongside his current World title, said a change to heavier diff oils had given him the traction and grip he was lacking in yesterday’s practice.  Having a few little mistakes and feeling he lost a little time when he caught Elliot Boots after the Kyosho driver had a crash, Batlle feels he can improve.  In terms of his Procircuit shod MBX-7 he will go for a heavier oil in the rear diff for Q2.

Czech driver Bayer was very happy with his opening performance commenting that it was a good points haul to start the qualifying with.  The factory Xray driver said his LRP powered XB9 felt good and was ‘really comfortable’ to drive.  Having favoured AKA’s Wishbone tyre over the more popular choice the Handlebar, he ran the latter saying for the cooler conditions it suited his buggy better but for the next round when conditions will be much warmer he plans to revert to running Wishbone.

Having not really featured on the radar yesterday Team Durango’s Joern Neumann set the fourth fastest time with his latest prototype buggy.  The reigning 4WD Electric Offroad European Champion said it was a clean run adding that his Picco powered buggy is easy to drive and has good steering.  Running a slick tyre, which started out life as a JConcepts Black Jacket before Durango designer Gerd Strenge went to work on them with a belt sander, the German said it worked well on the morning’s slightly moist track but for Q2 he said practice has shown that they will not work as the track gets dusty and so he will run a less modified tyre from the JConcepts range.

Top seed after yesterday’s practice, Jerome Aigoin described his run to the 5th fastest time as ‘hard’.  The Kyosho driver had one mistake of his own doing which lost him 3-seconds but lost a further 3-seconds on his final lap when he struggled to get by a back marker.  The French Champion said his MP9 felt good and he just needs better luck in Q2.   Kyosho/Novarossi team-mate Elliot Boots also had a mistake along with a number of ‘scruffy laps’ ending up 10th fastest. The World Championship Top Qualifier said the track changed since yesterday and his buggy did not feel great for the conditions and he needs to get it to rotate more for Q2.

Renaud Savoya said he got caught out a little by the conditions.  With all the drivers getting a round of 2-minutes of practice, essentially a track cleaning run, he said the track was really grippy but then come his first qualifier the traction was much lower than expected.  Having set his Orion powered XB9 for high traction he said it was hard to drive and he was not comfortable with it.  Just driving to ‘keep it safe’ and with the track in his opinion getting slower and slower every round he said he thinks that his pace is there and with a bit more grip from a better set-up he should be good for the next one which he pointed out was not for another 5-hours so he has plenty of time to look over everything.

Lee Martin, who called into question the refereeing having had problems with traffic, described his qualifier as ‘alright’ adding it was a ‘nervous first run’.  The British driver who travels to Spain next week to defend his 2WD Electric Offroad European title, said he ‘didn’t try super hard’ as he wanted to put in a clean run but was frustrated by slower drivers hindering him and not getting out of his way with the referee only telling the drivers to stay calm rather than informing them he had a faster buggy behind him.  Running Proline’s Ion tyre Martin said he plans to continue with that choice but will be ‘keeping an eye on the weather’.

Round 1 Qualifying Top 12
1. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion – 8/5:19.79
2. Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi – 8/5:22.77
3. Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP – 8/5:23.25
4. Joern Neumann – Durango/Picco – 8/5:23.73
5. Jerome Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:23.91
6. Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion – 8/5:24.33
7. Lee Martin – Mugen/Beat – 8/5:25.07
8. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision – 8/5:25.23
9. Daniel Vega – Agama/Bullitt – 8/5:26.82
10.Elliott Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:27.80
11.Bryan Baldo – Mugen/Novarossi – 8/5:27.81
12.Jerome Sartel – Agama/Bullitt – 8/5:28.50

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Jerome Aigoin top seed for qualifying in Reims

Kyosho’s Jerome Aigoin is the top seed for qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships after the quiet Frenchman topped the second round of timed practice in France from Kyosho/Novarossi team-mate Elliott Boots with Mugen’s Lee Martin putting in a much improved run to post the third fastest time.  Having posted the fastest time of the day in the morning’s opening timed practice, Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk lost around 7-seconds after a coming together with a slower buggy and ending up only 10th fastest.

A driver who prefers to let his driving do the talking Aigoin was pleased with his second run describing it as a ‘clean run’.  Having ran his AKA shod MP9 the same as the morning, the 2011 Top Qualifier said other than ‘clean it’ he will do nothing to his buggy for the first qualifier adding that ‘all is good’ and that he is confident for tomorrow.

Boots, who switched from Proline’s Ion in M4 compound to the M4, said he initially didn’t think his MP9 was as good as it has less grip but talking to other drivers afterwards he said he thinks it was the track that was actually looser.  As Mick Craddock, who has been key to Boots recent rise to the top, pointed out this forced the 19-year-old to drive smoother within the run, which while slightly slower was a better overall drive than the morning.  ‘Improving everytime’ he goes out on the track, Boots said he is feeling pretty good now and he plans to stick with the same set-up for the opening qualifying and working on further improving his lines.

After a troubled first run in which he had problems with traffic, Martin was much happier with his second attempt. Having went for a softer shock oil, which he said due to the high temperature at the track you would not expect to work, and reducing his rear toe to 2.5 his MBX-7 had more rotation giving him a lot better feeling over the 5-minutes.  Still looking to get a little more rotation, reporting that as his tyres heated up it faded, the World Championship finalist plans to make further changes for Q1.

With Xray coming to the Championships with a new front end on their XB9, Martin Bayer managed to take his LRP powered example to the 4th fastest time.  The Czech driver said they have been trying different things every run to try and understand how the new parts work on the unique chalk Reims track.  Happy with how the buggy feels now he said they still have a few things to do but overall things are much better than this morning’s opening run.  An AKA driver, like defending Champion Darren Bloomfield, he prefers the Wishbone tyre over the more popular Handlebar.  Interestingly to save his available sets of Wishbone tyres Bloomfield went to the Handlebar for the second time practice and could only manage 6 laps saying afterwards that the tyre just didn’t work for him.

Setting the 5th fastest time Martin’s World Champion team-mate Robert Batlle said he had a lot of problems with traffic in his heat but in terms of his buggy it was much better then earlier.  Making his Procircuit equipped MBX-7 heavier, adding weights to the rear uprights and using a heavier Pivot Ball Adjust Nut in the front steering, he said this improved the feeling but the Spaniard added they still need to find more in the set-up.

Outside the Top 10 in the first practice, Renaud Savoya posted the 6th fastest time saying that his team did a great job today improving the car.  Suffering three spins and having some issues with traffic, the 3-time former European Champion said on a clean lap he was very happy with his Sweep equipped XB9 as he can now place it where he wants on the track.  For tomorrow he said he just needs to be more precise with his lines.  Asked how the new front differs from the old one, the ‘Shark’ said it makes the buggy less aggressive and gives it more overall steering with a particular improvement in the rotation at low speed.

Behind Savoya, local driver Romain Valter produced another strong run with his Novarossi powered Kyosho to set the 7th fastest time, ahead of the OS powered MP9 of Christopher Svensson, backing up his 10th fastest time in the opening timed run.

2nd fastest in his first run, Team Associated’s Yannick Aigion posted only the 9th fastest time after he crashed into a slower buggy.  Taking the full blame for the incident, the former champion said he didn’t expect such a big difference as he came up behind the slower buggy and this caught him out.  Trying the Road Runner tyre in the warm-up he said he switched back to the Hot Dices for the run saying while the difference between the two was not much he was more comfortable with the latter adding he will stick with these for qualifying.

Despite setting the fastest time of the day, Ronnefalk is the No.2 seed for qualifying after the tie break is decided on the finishing positions of the driver’s dropped round rather than on the time of the counting round.  The Swedish teenager said coming through the triple double he came upon a slower buggy and they made contact and then out of his rhythm he made a second mistake in the same lap.  Without the lap last year’s running up would have topped the times saying that he had a good feeling with his buggy and he is looking forward to getting down to the more serious business of qualifying tomorrow.

Round 2 Timed Practice Top 10
1. Jerome Aigoin – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:25.89
2. Elliott Boots – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:26.58
3. Lee Martin – Mugen/Beat – 8/5:27.11
4. Martin Bayer – Xray/LRP – 8/5:28.09
5. Robert Batlle – Mugen/Novarossi – 8/5:28.28
6. Renaud Savoya – Xray/Orion – 8/5:28.79
7. Romain Valter – Kyosho/Novarossi – 8/5:29.42
8. Christoffer Svensson – Kyosho/OS – 8/5:29.73
9. Yannick Aigoin – Associated/nVision – 8/5:30.75
10.David Ronnefalk – Kyosho/Orion – 8/5:31.06

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