Champion Boots Top Qualifier in Spain

Reigning champion Elliott Boots is Top Qualifier at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships, the Kyosho driver claiming the honour early with a second TQ run in the penultimate round of qualifying in Spain.  Opening the second day of qualifying with his fastest time around the huge RC Redovan track, Boots would top the times ahead of fellow Brit Darren Bloomfield who was just 2/10ths off the Q4 pace.  Winner of the second round of qualifying, Davide Ongaro would complete the Top 3 ahead of yesterday’s other TQ driver David Ronnefalk, a bad tyre choice ending the Swede’s chances of overall TQ honours.

‘Stage one complete I suppose’, was Boots reaction to claiming his second consecutive Euros TQ which last year he was able to convert into a first European title. Switching to the light version of Pro-Line’s Fugitive tyre for the fourth qualifier he said the tyre was really good adding it might be an option for the Semi Final. Having run the standard Fugitive in the previous qualifiers, he said while the tyre is around 3/10th slower than the light it the perfect tyre for the Main adding his MP9 is ‘really comfortable and nice & easy to drive’. While the overall TQ is already wrapped up, the former World Championship Top Qualifier’s competitive instinct hasn’t waned. Asked if he would use Q5 to test for anything for the finals, he replied, ‘It would be nice to have the TQ with three perfect scores’.

Pleased with another P2 run, Bloomfield said, ‘we ran the car the same but it understeered a bit and that was on my mind the whole run’. The Agama driver added, ‘I don’t know why really (it had understeer) but we will have to try something (for Q5) but I haven’t thought it through yet’. One idea he has it to glue the insert to the wheel but as Beta tyres come pre glued he said ’its a big job’. The 2012 Champion said ‘seeing as I was that close (to Boots) I don’t know if I need to change much’. He continued, ‘I was slow through the whoops once and then on the uphill section I hit the pipe which put me out in the dust. Without these I could easy have been 2-seconds ahead of Elliott’s time’.

15-year-old Ongaro was pleased with the start to his day, the Italian’s only report a mistake in the whoops which he said cost him about 1-second. With the only change to his Mugen a fresh set of Procircuit Road Runner tyres he said the car was ‘again all perfect’. With the result locking him into the Semi after a poor Q1, the reigning European Junior Champion said the plan for the final qualifier is to ‘just push’.

‘OK, I went for the wrong compound’ was Ronnefalk’s reaction to Q4. Going for a soft AKA Zipps tyre he said it was too soft leading to ‘one pretty rough lap as the car was tricky to drive’. The HB Racing driver added ‘I’m sure the problem was just the compound as it was good in the warm-up but then in the race to good hard to drive’. The former back to back champion said ‘even with the car not good I could still get 4th so its all good and the aim now for the last one is to get the pole for the Semi B’.

Deciding in the end to copy his brother in changing to a heaver centre diff in his Mugen, Bryan Baldo said he ‘didn’t like it’ but was happy to get a 5th for the round. Planning to go back down in the diff for Q5, the Spaniard said with three solid qualifiers now he would use the final qualifier to try some things, one being a different tyres just to get a comparison to the new prototype tyre he has been running thus far in qualifying. His brother Oscar who got a P9 for the round also didn’t like the diff change and he too will revert back.

2015 finalist Marco Baruffolo would claim his first Top 6 but the TLR driver wasn’t overly happy with the run.  The Italian said ‘I never got the whoops right so I never had one clean lap’.  Adding one degree more anti squat for the round, this improved his Picco powered 8ight giving him more corner speed but needing another good run he will make no more changes for the final qualifier and try drive cleaner especially through the whoops. Behind Baruffolo, surprise of Q1 João Figueiredo would post a second Top 10 finish with a P7 to go with his P5.

Elsewhere Robert Battle would end up 21st after a simple mistake but as he tried to return to the track his Mugen got caught up on one of the pipe retaining pins costing him over 6-seconds. Other than this the former World Champion said his car was good as he posted his best lap of qualifying with a 52.739.

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Ronnefalk comes good in Q3

David Ronnefalk finally came good in the third round of qualifying at the 1:8 Euros in Spain to become the third different driver to post a TQ run in Redovan.  The championship’s last back to back champion, the HB Racing driver concluded the first day of qualifying with the overall fastest time finishing 4/10ths of second up on Darren Bloomfield.  Taking the opening qualifier and second in Q2, Elliott Boots would complete the Top 3, the reigning champion holding the overnight TQ ahead of tomorrow’s final two qualifiers.  Taking the TQ in the second qualifier, Davide Ongaro would back up his P1 run with fifth just behind Mugen team-mate Robert Batlle with Byran Baldo completing the Top 6.

Summing up his improved performance a much happier looking Ronnefalk said, ‘That was really good’.  Winner of the Warm-up Race but up to now lacking the ultimate pace of his rivals, the Swede continued, ‘it was stressful after Q2, the car was just too slow even though I had a good run so we decided to do a full rebuild’.  Using the rebuild to take a different direction with the set-up, the 20-year-old said this decision ‘turned out great, it helped find the pace we needed’.  With his Orion powered D815 ‘faster’ after the changes, it was also ‘easier to drive then before’ but he said ‘it got a little more difficult to drive at the end of the heat’.  Feeling the car is maybe ‘too soft’ he said they will ‘try something for tomorrow’.

‘Very good’ was how Bloomfield described Q3.  The Agama driver said his A215 seems to work better in the cooler weather and this was the key big factor in his improvement, the British driver setting the fastest lap of the round. With the ‘temperature coming to the car’, the Brit admitted he was ‘tempted to go down in the tyre (compound) as (he) though it would be better as it was colder’ but said the decision to stick with the medium compound BetaV-Max ‘worked out good’.  His second P2 of the day leaving him third overall overnight, he said they the need to try for hotter conditions to imitate how the cars feels on a cooler track with ‘harder tyres and maybe different roll bars are the way to go’.

A driver who looks to be driving well within his limits, when asked about Q3 Boots replied, ‘I had bad luck really as a hurricane came through during the heat and I had to almost roll the back jumps which cost me the TQ’.  He continued, ‘I’m just a little unlucky as there is a lot of wind in my run while the other 2 (top heats) are OK.  Hopefully tomorrow it might be the other way round’. Happy to leave the track with the overnight TQ, the British driver concluded, ‘the others seem to be pushing quite hard while I’m more comfortable with my car which is what you want for the finals so it’s looking good so far’.

‘We found the steering we needed but we need more forward traction’ was Batlle’s reaction to his P4 in Q3.   Improving his Mugen’s steering by reducing the rear toe in, the Spaniard said he had a little issue with traffic but said of the day overall it was ‘not bad. Two 3rds and 5th enough to be in the Semi Finals’.  Feeling the traction he is lacking, highlighting its ‘just a little not a lot’, is in his MBX7R he said ‘we don’t know exactly what we need to change but maybe after I talk with my pillow tonight I will have the solution for the morning’.

Declaring himself ‘super happy’ with his Mugen, Ongaro described Q3 as ‘another good clean drive’.  Needing another good run to lock himself into a semi final position as he managed only a P21 in Q1, the Italian teenager  said he will play it safe in Q4 but ‘after that will go for it’, that being another TQ run.  Having left his MBX7R unchanged all day, only changing to a different tyre insert for Q2, he said the only planned change for tomorrow would be to fit a fresh set of the Procircuit Road Runners that have been his choice all day.

Posting a second P6 run for the day in Q3, two driver errors in the opening qualifier leaving him only the 30th fastest time, Bryan Baldo said a decision to run a plus 5mm rear shock mount had made the rear end of his Mugen more stable.  Feeling he found good rhythm allowing him to but together good laps he said ‘we need to find a little more speed to get close to the top’.  With his younger brother Oscar, who sits sixth in the overnight standings with three Top 9 runs, planning to try to find extra speed from switching to a harder oil in the centre diff of his MBX7R, Bryan will play safe and leave his car unchanged for Q4 wth the aim of registering a decent third run so he can drop his Q1 result.

Wrapping up the day with his best qualifier, Xray’s Martin Wollanka posted the 7th fastest time.  The Austrian, who had a P8 in Q2, said the run was better but felt his ‘last lap was not so good’.  The former podium finisher added, ‘I prefer racing to qualifying but hopefully we can get one more good run tomorrow’.  Asked about his FX powered XB8, he said, ‘it works very well and for me I would be happy to leave it unchanged but maybe Juraj (Hudy) has some things he wants me to try’. Behind Wollanka, Oscar Baldo was 8th quickest with the Mugen of Juan Carlos Canas and Serpent’s Joern Nuemann completing the Top 10.

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Ongaro TQ’s 2nd Euros qualifier

Young Italian talent Davide Ongaro has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the 1:8 Offroad Euros.  After a disappointing opening qualifier, the Mugen driver put in an impressive run setting a new fastest time around the Redovan RC track to top the times ahead of Q1 pace setter Elliott Boots.  Running in the same heat as Boots, Ongaro would improve on his own pace a massive 11-seconds ending up 8/10th quicker than the reigning champion. Behind them Robert Batlle would post the third fastest time with an almost identical time to his Q1 pace with Davide Ronnefalk again completing the Top 4 in Spain.

Asked were his improvement in Q2 came from, Ongaro replied, ‘No wind and better driving’.  Also changing to a softer insert in his Procircuit Road Runner tyres, the 15-year-old said this also helped make his MBX7R ‘more stable’ and therefore ‘more consistent to drive’.  The reigning European Junior Champion, finishing 4th overall at the Euro last year at his home track in Italy, said other than ‘a little bobble at the whoops’ it was a clean run and his aim was to try repeat a similar drive in Q3.  Asked if he planned any changes to his car looking at his mechanic he replied ‘definitely not’.

‘A bit of a scruffy start’ was Boots response when asked about Q2. The Kyosho driver continued, ‘On the first lap I caught the piping on the straight which put me out in the dust, the first few laps were a little scatty’.  Going on to post the fastest lap of the round with a 52.358, he would later get his MP9 up on two wheels saying it was ‘difficult out there’ but complimented Ongaro on his TQ saying he ‘drove well’.  Putting his P2 down to the driver rather than his car, the British ace was pleased that he was already racing in his finals tyre adding this was his third run on the same set of Pro-Line Fugitives. For Q3, the last qualifier of the day, he added he will ‘probably run new ones for the next one’.

Changing to a harder compound tyre, Batlle said traction was better but a rear shock change to improve steering on his Mugen was ‘so so’.  With the car ‘still pushing a little’, the 2012 World Champion said they need to work on the set-up more to get more steering.  The Spaniard concluded, ‘At least we have 2 good qualifiers and have three more to get another good one’.

‘I felt I was driving good but the pace just too slow compared to Ongaro and Boots’, that was reaction of Ronnefalk.  The HB Racing driver continued ‘Yannick (Aigoin) had a crash and I caught his car which lost me time but anyway I still wouldn’t have been fast enough for TQ’.  Winner of the Warm-up Race, the Swede said ‘I was happy with my driving, I was hitting all my lines so we need to find speed in the car’.

Posting the fifth fastest time, Bloomfield said ‘it feels good and feels like I can go faster but when I do it all gets a bit wobbly’.  Making one mistake in the whoops, which he said was unusual as his Agama ‘has been really good through there’, the Bullit powered A215 got turned around costing him over a second and a potential Top 3 for the round.  For Q3 the former Champion said he is ‘just going to stick with it (the same set-up)’ adding ‘Elliott looked like he was going to have 3 crashes on a lap and mine don’t look like that, I was just unfortunate to have one’.

Completing the Top 6, Bryan Baldo put his improvement down to better driving.  The host of the race, who after each days racing has to carry out track repairs, the Mugen driver said his MBX7R was very good in the first qualifier but he made two driver errors.  Starting off with a more cautious pace in Q2 looking to get in a banker he said by the end of the 5-minutes he was starting to push.  Saying ‘I don’t think I will make any changes for the next one’, he will try for one more safe run adding ‘then I can push tomorrow’, the final two qualifiers making up Friday’s schedule.

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