Kutvonen takes final qualifier

Viljami Kutvonen has TQ’d the final round of qualifying at the DHI Cup.  The result secures the Awesomatix driver 2nd on the grid behind Top Qualifier Ronald Volker, the defending champion having wrapped up pole position with a third TQ run in the previous round.  While Volker would make two mistakes as he used Q4 to test a set-up for the finals, Kutvonen topped the times posting the second fastest time of qualifying with a 6/10ths of a second advantage over Alexander Hagberg.  Hagberg as a result will start tomorrow’s three A-Main encounters from third on the grid ahead of 2013 Champion Adrian Berntsen.  Making the trip to the famous Danish event for the first time, a somewhat frustrated Bruno Coelho completes the top half of the grid.

‘It was good, just liked I planned it’, that was Kutvonen’s response to delivering a TQ run.  The 2014 runner-up said reverting back to his Q2 set-up along with running stiffer flex settings on his LRP powered A800 left the car ‘unbelievably good’. Planning to leave the car unchanged for A1, the Finnish driver is confident ‘the car is good enough to battle with Ronald tomorrow’ for the win.

Commenting on what was essentially a 5-minute test for the finals, Volker said the changes made to his BD7 ‘made it very easy to drive’ but the car suffered from understeer.  Catching a dot sending the car into a roll just after the first minute mark, Volker said he then drove over the limit trying to make back the time.  Getting back on the TQ pace with the fastest lap of the weekend he would make a second mistake with four laps to go leaving him to end up P3. Looking to the finals, he will go back to his Q3 set-up.

‘I thought I drove really well but I was still slightly off the pace’, was Hagberg’s reaction to performance, Q4 his fastest qualifier.  The Xray driver said, ‘Ronald and Viljami have faster cars and we have to find something for tomorrow if we are going to be able to compete with them in the finals’.

Having shown promise in practice when he debuted new Danish manufacturer Gizmo’s GZ-1 at the ETS season opener in December, Adrian Berntsen gave the team reason to celebrate as he secured 4th on the grid.  One of the company’s co-founders Martin Lissau, a former 1:5 World Champion, said they were ‘very happy’ to be so well placed on the DHI Cup A-Main grid with the result showing they have a good idea in the car design.  The Dane went on to explain that the high traction this weekend is not something they have been able to experience before so it has added to the learning curve.  Asked about Berntsen’s final qualifier he said fitting a new bearing set from a different manufacturer to the car for the heat they tightened up as the race went on slowing their star driver. With Steen Graversen making up arm set-up changes to the car prior to bearing issue Berntsen was ‘quite happy’ with the feeling of the car.

A driver who many expected to put Volker’s quest for a 7th DHI Cup under treat this weekend, Coelho himself was miffed by his lack of pace.  Having tried three different bodyshells, the set-up of Hagberg, Cerny and Hudy but with no improvement the World Championship runner-up said the problem had to be down to a bad set of tyres.  While drivers get two sets of tyres for the weekend, Coelho said the tyres improve with each run and while he has a second set they are not going to solve his problems as they have no running on them and are there going to be even slower.  He said while his T4 is drivable it has no traction compared to his rivals.  Starting behind Coelho will be Xray team-mate Marek Cerny followed by Yokomo’s Meen Vejrak. The grid is completed by Serpent’s Marc Fischer, Schumacher’s Elliot Harper and young Japanese talent Naoki Akiyama.  Former Champion, his 2008 win launching his international racing career, Viktor Wilck finds himself with the unenviable BQ honours at this year’s event.

In Super Stock, Kyosho driver Tim Benson gave the Japanese manufacturer’s new TF7 it first international race honour.  Debuting the car at the ETS season opener but the event proving ‘tough’, in Odense the German was on the pace from the start setting the pace in practice.  Carrying that through to qualifying he would TQ’d the opening qualifier but TQ runs for Xray’s Jan Ratheisky and Marek Cerny in Q2 & 3, meant it was all to play for in the final round.  Recovering from his set backs in the 2nd & 3rd round, Benson would deliver in style in the final round to TQ with the only 23-lap run of the weekend. Behind Benson, it is reigning champion Cerny who will start second followed by 2015 podium finishers Ratheisky and Mike Gosvig.  Awesomatix driver Tony Streit completes the Top 5 line-up.

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Volker is Top Qualifier at DHI Cup

Ronald Volker is Top Qualifier for the DHI Cup, the Yokomo driver securing his fifth pole position at the Danish classic when he made it three from three in the penultimate round of qualifying.  Chasing a 7th win at the Odense based event, the German topped the times in Q3 from Xray’s Alexander Hagberg after an early mistake by Viljami Kutvonen ended the Awesomtaix driver’s expected challenge of Volker’s reign on proceedings.

‘It always nice to start off a new season with TQ’, said Volker of his latest pole position at the DHI Cup.  Having won 4 of his 6 titles as Top Qualifier, While he qualified 3rd when he won in 2012 and started second when he was victorious in 2010, on the other four occasions victory came from starting at the front of the grid.  Commenting on his Q3 performance, the fastest of his three TQ runs, he said ‘the car started quite edgy and for the first 2-minutes I didn’t feel comfortable but then it was on pace’. Setting the fastest lap he said despite how his BD7 2016 started out the set-up changes made ahead of the run were an improvement for the final 3-minutes having previous struggled in the latter part of the heat with the car getting loose.  With the car getting ‘up on 2-wheels’ a number of times he said Q4 will be a test of some changes to try & get rid of the edginess in preparation for tomorrow’s finals.

Over four and a half seconds off Volker’s pace, Hagberg said he started off well but for the second half of the qualifier his T4 became ‘very difficult to drive’. Having to open up for a recovering Kutvonen he ‘also lost time for that too’.  The European Champion said the problem is that they need to make the car more consistent over 5-minutes and this is something they need to try to find for the final qualifier which he believes if they can do will give him a good chance to race Volker for the win tomorrow. For team-mate Bruno Coelho and Marek Cerny it was a tough round.  Two mistakes for Coelho left him with a P9 while an error that hindered Meen Vejrak left Cerny 18th fastest.

‘Not a very good run for me’ was how Kutvonen summed up a disappointing run.  The Finnish star said going to a harder front spring brought on traction roll and with it striking on the second corner after starting the heat.  For his final attempt and P2 on the grid up for grabs between himself & Hagberg, he will go back to his Q2 set-up when he got to within 4/10ths of Volker.

After starting out with a P6 in Q1 but only 11th in P2, 2013 Champion Adrien Berntsen would run the fourth fastest time in Q3.  The Norwegian said after bad driving and a difficult car in Q2, a different tyre prep made this a little better.  Describing his Gizmo GZ-1 as ‘still a little too aggressive’, he said he needs to discuss his options with his mechanic & Gizmo co-founder Martin Christensen and find a way to get the car easier to drive.

Changing to a solid front suspension mount on his Yokomo, Meen Vejrak said he was ‘happier with the car’.  Running a Top 3 pace, on the sixth lap the former nitro touring car World Champion would get caught up in an error by Cerny.  Making contact with the BD7 it would cause a body tuck losing the Thai driver 3-seconds.  For the final qualifier Vejrak plans to change his tyre prep with his mechanic & Yokomo team-manager Robert Itoh also consider rising the cars diff position.

Completing the Top 6 was Schumacher’s Elliot Harper but the British Champion was not celebrating the result. ‘I managed to stay on the track this time’ was his reasoning for the improved performance.  Describing the car as ‘really aggressive initially and then having understeer’ he rambled off a list of things he changed on the car adding ‘I don’t know what else to change to be honest’.  Currently 8th in the qualification ranking he needs another good run to book his place in the A-Main.

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Viljami closes gap but it’s Volker again in Q2

Viljami Kutvonen reduced his deficit by half to record a P2 in the second round of qualifying at the DHI Cup this morning.  As in last night’s opening qualifier, the Awesomatix driver again set the fastest lap finishing just 0.452 of a second off defending champion Ronald Volker.  With track conditions proving fastest on Day 2 of the event, having TQ’d the first qualifier Volker would improve on that time by 3-seconds.  After a slow start to the event yesterday, Bruno Coelho would post a Top 3 run finishing just ahead of Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg, but with both drivers making mistakes the gap was a considerable 6-seconds.

‘Close’ was Kutvonen’s reaction after the qualifier.  The Finn said fitting new O-rings to the diff in his A800 had made it ‘slightly stiffer’ and as a result gave him a little more steering.  He continued ‘I think the track was faster now so maybe for the next one I will try a harder front spring’.  Turning over his car and pointing to scuff marks on the front of the chassis he said said ‘I need to reduce the chassis touching the carpet’ and this should also help with more steering’.  Commenting on the run he said ‘I made a number of small mistakes and when its super close they make a difference so I need to work on my driving also’.

Volker said he ‘was expecting (Kutvonen) to be fast’ and his pace was ‘no surprise’.  Making ‘small adjustments’ to his BD7 2016 for Q2, the German said these ‘made it more reactive’ and he was happy to get another TQ.  Having found his car strongest at the start of the first qualifier, the multiple ETS Champion said he made a push at the start to get a gap.  With  Kutvonen coming back at him to reduce the early advantage he said he then just tried to maintain the gap.  With his car ‘still getting a little loose’ over the 5-minutes he said ‘this is something we need to discuss’ with his engineer Yukijiro Umino.

Only 15th in Q1, Coelho’s response to his P3 in the second qualifier was ‘it’s much better today’.  Changing from the Silvy bodyshell in ran in Q1 to a Nazda 2 from new sponsor Montech, he said it was an improvement.  Making a mistake during the qualifier when he flipped his LRP powered T4, he said the focus for the final qualifier is to tune the set-up to get the best from the body change.

Fourth fastest Hagberg described his run as ‘not very good’ adding ‘I was pushing too hard’.  The Xray driver crashed twice after catching the curbing through the chicane in front of the drivers stand adding ‘I need to drive better’.  With traction higher the European Champion said he will also make a set-up change on his ORCA powered T4 so as to ‘free up the car’.

Describing his Yokomo as ‘a little difficult to drive’, Meen Vejrak said he had opted to go for a safe run with that leading to a P5 for the DHI debutant.  The Thai driver said his Scorpion powered BD7 was loose and in order to make it more stable they will change the front suspension mounts.  Running split mounts for Q4 they will fit a solid mount which with the traction getting higher should ‘take the edginess off’.

Completing the Top 6 Marek Cerny said he didn’t expect the result.  Having got a P4 in Q1, the star of Pro Stock said he ‘just wanted to make a clean run’ with the result locking him into an A-Main starting position.  Describing his Xray as ‘super easy to drive’,  the Czech driver said for Q3 he will ‘push a little more’ adding two Top 6 runs is very encouraging for future Modified outings.

In Super Stock it was Xray’s Jan Ratheisky who topped the second qualifier ahead of team-mate & defending champion Cerny.  Having TQ’d last night’s opening qualifier unfortunately Tim Benson would suffer a DNF. Tony Streit would complete the Top 3.

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Volker takes Q1 at DHI Cup

Ronald Volker had a strong opening day at the DHI Cup, the Yokomo driver taking taking the opening round of qualifying as he chases at 7th win at the Danish Classic.  Having set the pace in practice behind Volker it was again Alexander Hagberg who was the main challenger, the Xray driver 7/10ths of a second off at the end of the 5-minutes.  Runner-up to Volker in 2014, Awesomatix charge Viljami Kutvonen would complete the Top 3 his deficit to Hagberg just 16/100ths of a second.  While only the Top 3 managed 24 lap runs, best of the those on 23-lap was reigning Super Stock champion Marek Cerny, the Pro Stock ace surprising himself with his performance ahead of Meen Vejrak and former Mod Champion Adrian Berntsen.

‘It is always nice to start an event with a TQ run in the first qualifier’ was Volker’s reaction to a strong first day in Odense.  Describing it as ‘pretty close’ between him Hagberg and Viljami, the German said there was definitely room for improvement for tomorrow.  Happy with his LRP powered BD7 2016 at the beginning of the run when he said it ‘felt easy to drive’ he said ‘it went a little loose later on’ and as a result they may change tyre prep in the morning for the second of the four qualifiers.

Hagberg said his T4 started off a bit slow and he lost time in the first minute.  With the car’s pace then picking up he said he was able to pull back a little time only to lose it again over the last minute.  With his times from the middle of the heat showing ‘the car is on pace’, he said they will try a different tyre prep combined with some small set-up changes for Q3 to try to get the car to work more consistent over the duration of the qualifier.

Setting the fastest lap of the opening qualifier Viljami said his A800 was much better after a change to his tyre prep.  Feeling he drove the first minute ‘too careful’ which he said cost him in the region of half to 1-second he said ‘for sure the car is getting better’ and he is confident of being in the mix tomorrow.  Set to run a slightly harder diff in Q2, the Finn said ‘I think with this I will have pace to match the others’.

Europe’s top Pro-Stock driver, holding the ETS title for the last three seasons, Cerny was said his T4 was ‘super easy to drive’ after they made an improvement to the steering after practice.  Admitting to being a touch nervous, the Czech driver said this led to him touching the curbing, confident he can reduce the mistakes he said things are looking positive for tomorrow.

Another who felt nerves effected his driving was DHI Cup debutant Vejrak.  The Yokomo driver said as a result of a nervous start he made a few mistakes.  While improving his BD7 from practice after discovering his springs choice was too hard, the Thai ace said the car now has a little understeer which is something they need to get sorted for Q2.

‘I made too many mistakes’ was Berntsen’s reaction to his P6 in Q1.  The star driver at new manufacturer Gizmo, the Norwegian said his car was loose at the start as a result of starting offline and picking up dirt on his tyres.  Once the tyres got traction he said the GZ1 was ‘super good’ and with the ‘pace there’ he ‘just need(s) to drive a clean race’.  Behind Berntsen, former winner Viktor Wilck would take his Serpent to the 7th fastest time ahead of young Japanese Yokomo protege Naoki Akiyama.

In the Super Stock class it was Kyosho’s Tim Benson who continued to lead the way with the top seed taking Q1 from Denmark’s Mike Gosvig.  Better know for his 1:8 Onroad exploits Serpent’s Merlin Depta completed the Top 3 ahead of Cerny.

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New season but no change as Volker tops DHI practice

It is the long established opening international race of the new season, but the early signs from the DHI Cup is that little has changed for 2016 with Ronald Volker topping the practice times in Odense.  Closest to the 6-time winner of the Danish classic would be Alexander Hagberg, the gap over 3-consecutive laps being 1/10th of a second.  Winner of the event in 2013, then driving for Xray, Adrien Berntsen would complete the Top 3 for new Danish manufacturer Gizmo with Viljami Kutvonen making it four different manufacturers at the top of the time sheets with his Awesomatix.

Winner of the event for the last two years, Volker said ‘practice went well’.  Starting out running two cars each practice, one a carbon chassis and the other aluminium,  he said while both cars ran the same lap time he preferred the feeling of the alu chassis choosing it for the timed practice. Having a distinct advantage of over 4/10ths after the first timed practice, Volker said his rivals closed right up in the final practice.  Having struggled with his BD7’s consistency over 5-minutes at the opening round of the ETS in December, he said here the car is very good over 5-minutes.  While lap times are close with his rivals he is confident he will benefit from that consistency at the end of the qualifiers.

A touring car driver with one of the busiest race schedules, Hagberg was clearly looking refreshed after his ‘no racing’ break over the Christmas.  The Swede summed up practice by saying, ‘as always things are the same at the DHI. It starts off with low grip but as the traction comes up it starts to suit the Xray car better’.  Runner up at last year’s DHI Cup, the European Champion said his T4 2016 ‘feels good but just needs slightly more pace’ continuing ‘we can still improve it with more set-up changes’.  Team-mate Bruno Coelho would take his example to the 6th fastest time.  His first DHI Cup outing, he said the biggest thing for him are that the handout LRP tyres are ‘completely different’ to what he is used to racing on.  Feeling he is ‘missing a little steering’ he said it’s proving difficult to find but added ‘we are still working on it’.

Having impressed on his Gizmo debut at the opening round of the ETS where he was seeded in the top heat, Berntsen said his GZ1 is working really good joking that the driver was also ‘pretty decent’ today.  Describing the Top 3 pace as ‘super tight’, the Norwegian’s car features some new parts with one of the Gizmo designers Steen Graversen have worked on lightening some parts, the Dane adding that these were one off works and not viable for production.  For Q1 Berntsen said other than rebuild his diff, everything else is fine and he would leave the car as is for now.

‘Like normal it is getting better and better’ was how Viljami summed up his practice.  Changing ‘a lot of small things’ over the four practices, the Finn said this led to improved steering for the new A800.  Set to run the car set-up unchanged for tonight’s first qualifier, he will change his tyre prep after finding the car loose at the beginning of the last practice run.

Another driver making his DHI Cup debut at the 16th running of the event, Thailand’s Meen Vejrak would post the 5th fastest time 4/10th off his team-mate Volker.  The former nitro touring car World Champion said track conditions gave a similar feeling that of a gas car adding he also likes the track layout, which, was designed by Volker.  In terms of his Scorpion powered BD7 2016, he said he needs to make it more stable with it sliding one side more than the other.  Asked if the car was tweaked, he said ‘maybe or maybe something is loose so we will check everything over for qualifying to see what we can find’.

In the Super Stock class, which runs a handout LRP 13.5 X20 Stock Spec motor and blinky mode speedos, it was the Kyosho of Tim Benson that set the pace.  Behind the German, Dane Mike Gosvig took his Xray to second fastest time with Tony Streit completing the Top 3.  Defending Champion Marek Cerny would post the 4th fastest time.

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