Yokomo duo to go head to head in TQ decider

Yokomo’s star drivers Ronald Volker and Yannic Prumper are to go head to head for the overall TQ at the DHI Cup while the battle for who will start second is wide open.  The penultimate qualifier at the Odense event again saw a number of drivers laying down a TQ pace but it was Volker who would make the least errors to take it with second going to HB’s Freddy Sudhoff after an impressive drive.  One of the drivers to set the early TQ pace Alexander Hagberg would despite a roll on his penultimate lap complete the Top 3 followed by Marc Rheinard and Martin Lissau.

With five drivers running faster laps than him, Awesomatix’ Viljami Kutvonen posting the fastest lap, Volker said changes to his tyre prep and a small set up adjustment on his BD7 had improved his car but the German added it was not 100% as he would like to have it.  Having to work harder than normal to be fast he said while he topped the times by 3-seconds this was not a true refection of how close the field is and unlike his rivals his run didn’t contain mistakes.  For the final qualifier when he will need to see of the challenge of Prumper, admitting his fellow countryman has slight better pace, he will after a 10-minute discussion with engineer Yukijiro Umino make further changes to his tyre prep and set-up.

Suffering a string of mistakes Prumper eventually decided to pull his BD7 off at just after the 3-minute mark.  With no complaints about the car he said the problem was simply down to too many mistakes from the driver.  Having taken Q1 when the pressure of his pace caused forced Volker to push over the limit and make a mistake he said he knows he has the speed to deny his team-mate the overall TQ, which would be a good start to his 2015 season with 2014 having been a rather fruitless season for the 21-year-old.

Having went the wrong direction with a suspension change for Q2, Sudhoff said he just went the opposite way and the result was a car that was ‘very easy to drive’.  Suffering one moment when he had the car on three wheels through the fast chicane, he said they now just need to make some fine adjustments to find that last 1/10th of a second. Still in remote contact with Andy Moore and HB team manager Hiroyuki Kasuya he said hopefully they can find that for the final qualifier and allow him to battle for a good starting position in the final.

Hagberg described the first 3-minutes as ‘very good’.  Changing his tyre prep he said the car was better than before but his problem this time was that when himself and Rheinard ran noise to tail, Hagberg in front, he lost his rhythm.  In the end he would make a ‘stupid mistake’ on his second last lap losing over a second in time as a result.  Happy with the progress made in the consistency of the car he said they were now down to the last minute of the race seeing a drop off in pace and he hopes further tyre prep changes would rectify this.

Trying a different additive and again making his rear diff harder, Rheinard said these made little difference. The slightly dejected Tamiya driver said he will again go up in the stiffness of his TRF419 diff adding that with little to lose he will also use the last run to try out Protoform’s new Dodge Dart bodyshell.

Running a heavily modified Awesomatix, Martin Lissau said while the round produced his best result, changes made to the car to try and help it with the bumps had made it super hard to drive.  Saying his ‘pace is really good for (him)’ the Dane plans to revert to his Q2 set-up when he was on a good run before suffering a spin.

Completing the Top 6 Marc Fischer said the increase in the oil weight in the diff of his Serpent was ‘not good’.  Going to 8000w he will revert back to 6000w.  The German also found after the run that his rear left shock was loose on the S411 something he acknowledged wouldn’t have helped the car’s performance.  Behind Fischer Viljami was seventh fastest followed by Xray’s onroad chassis designer Martin Hudy.

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Volker takes Q2 at DHI Cup

Defending DHI Cup Champion Ronald Volker took the second round of qualifying this morning at the famous Danish event. The heat would see a number of drivers top the time screens over the 5-minutes but in the end it was the Yokomo driver who got the job done. 2.8-seconds down, Xray’s Alexander Hagberg would claim second with yesterday’s Q1 winner Yannic Prumper completing the Top 3.

Having rolled in the opening qualifier as he tried to keep pace with team-mate Prumper, Volker had a clean second heat with him declaring himself pleased to get a TQ run under his belt.  Having made changes to his LRP powered BD7 which gave him ‘a lot more steering’, the German said with the car having a very different feeling he had to adapt his driving and this allowed Serpent’s Marc Fischer, who early-on set the TQ pace, to close in.  Able to get a better feel for the car after 2-minutes he said he was then able to pull away from Fischer and get in a clean final 3 minutes.  While the changes increased the cars steering he said it was a little too much for his driving style and overall he found it more difficult to drive adding they need to make small changes for the next qualifier to get it more comfortable.

Having put his ORCA powered T4 at the top of the timing screen, Hagberg described his qualifier as ‘a lot better driving wise’.  The Swede added the first 2-minute were ‘really good’ but then he lost pace, something he is attributing to his tyre prep.  Changing to a stiffer shock spring for today, he said this made the car more consistent adding if they can figure out a tyre prep that make the tyre perform evenly over the run everything ‘should be fine’.

Not happy with his opening lap, Prumper said his performance got better during the run as he worked his way to the top of the times.  Setting the fastest lap of the round, he would however make a mistake after the straight on lap 17 of 25 losing amost 1.5 seconds.  Despite this the 21-year-old said his Muchmore powered Yokomo is ‘very good’ and its just down to him driving it.

Switching to his ETS car having struggled yesterday with a lack of traction Marc Rheinard said it was ‘OK’ but again in the fast chicane he had ‘zero feeling’.  Making a mistake a lap before Prumper had his, he said without the lost 1.3 seconds it would have been a pretty decent run to second instead of fourth.  Having went softer with the rear diff in his TRF419 he felt it was too much and for Q3 he will go back up in oil and ‘try again’.

Going from 3000w to 6000w oil in the diff, Fischer said this improved his G-Force powered S411 a lot. Also changing the front shock position he said he was surprised by his own pace over the first minute but after that ‘maybe I drove like shit’ leading to a mistake and the 5th fastest time.  Overall pleased with the improvement made to the car which he feels without his mistake had the pace to finish ahead of Hagberg he will for the next qualifier increase further his rear diff oil to 8000w.

Completing the Top 6, new HB signing Freddy Sudhoff said he learned that he went the wrong way with his set-up.  Trying a different shock set-up he said while it improved the pace of his LRP powered PRO5, in terms of fastest hot lap it was difficult to drive consistently.  Knowing now what direction he needs to take he expects Q3 should be better.

In the Super Stock class factory Xray drivers Marek Cerny and Jan Ratheisky repeated their Q1 performance with another 1-2. Serpent’s Merlin Depta completed the Top 3 followed by top Dane Mike Gosvig and Norway’s Helge Johannessen.

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Prumper TQ’s opening DHI Cup qualifier

Yannic Prumper has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the DHI Cup.  Challenging his Yokomo team-mate Ronald Volker at the top of the timing screens, a mistake by the defending champion halfway through the 5-minute qualifier would allow Prumper to go onto take an easy TQ run by 2.3 second from Marc Rheinard with Volker recovering to post the third fastest time.

Only changing the oil in his diff back to that which he ran when he topped the opening round of time practice, Prumper was very happy with his opening qualifying performance.  While Volker’s error made his job slightly easier, the 21-year-old was pleased by the fact that he was already ahead of his team-mate who was top seed for qualifying before he rolled.  Setting the fastest lap of Q1, taking his Muchmore powered BD7 to a best time of 12.162, the German said he was very happy with his car and plans to ‘leave everything the same’ for tomorrow’s second qualifier.

Describing his Tamiya as ‘still drifting around’ with him having ‘no feeling or grip’, Rheinard said second came simply from him driving around clean for 5-minutes rather than his pace.  With both Yokomos and Alexander Hagberg setting faster lap times, Rheinard said with him having a distinct traction issue to his rivals all he can do for tomorrow is to just continue to drive around and hope that brings him repeat results.  Feeling a bad set of tyres are the root of his problem he said he might try going a little softer in the rear diff.

‘Not what I was hoping for’ was how Volker summed up his run.  Losing three seconds due to a roll and contact with Marek Cerny as he rejoined the racing line, the 5-time DHI Cup winner added to still come away with a third was not too bad.  Running equal with Prumper he said he felt he had to push over his own limit to keep up and it was this that led to his mistake.  Lacking high speed steering, with him able to see in the first qualifier where his team-mate has an advantage he said they will make two changes for Q2 tomorrow which he hopes will also give him a little better overall balance.

Posting the fourth fastest time Marc Fischer said he ran his diff too soft.  Running 3000w oil in his Serpent so as to make it easier to drive he said for the qualifier it was ‘pushing on power big time’.  With his rivals running between 6-7000w oil, the German will make the switch to 6000w for tomorrow.

Posting the 5th fastest time on his debut for HB, Freddy Sudhoff was pleased with his first day with the new PRO5.  Changing to a softer front sprig and a stiffer rear diff he said this didn’t work out as the temperature dropped for Q1 and the traction was higher making the car push even more.  In constant contact with new team-mate Andy Moore and HB team manager Hiroyuki Kasuya via messaging throughout the day he said it was a good day of learning and he is looking forward to building on that tomorrow.

Completing the Top 6 was Alexander Hagberg.  The Xray driver made a good start to the qualifier but said he lost focus leading to mistakes.  The Swede said the ‘intial pace was there’ and while he could have driven better himself they need to make some small changes for Day 2 as his T4 was a little hard too drive but he is confident they know what changes are needed.

In the Stock class, known here in Denmark as Super Stock, it was practice pace setters Marek Cerny and Jan Ratheisky who again topped the times taking their Xray’s to a 1-2 in Q1.  Behind them Danish driver Mike Gosvig set the 3rd fastest time ahead of Serpent’s Merlin Depta who is best known for his nitro onroad exploits.

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Video – Mod Touring Controlled Practice Rd2

Volker tops DHI Cup practice

Defending DHI Cup champion Ronald Volker got his quest for a sixth win at the famous Danish event off to a good start as he topped the final practice in Odense.  With the second of the timed practice rounds seeing improvements from the Top 14 drivers the biggest improvement came from Volker to see him jump ahead of team-mate Yannic Prumper to see the German duo seeded 1-2 for qualifying.  Knocking over 6/10ths of a second of his fastest three consecutive laps, Volker would top the times by 3/10ths from Prumper with Xray’s Alexander Hagberg improving his time by 3/10ths to jump ahead of Serpent’s Marc Fisher to complete the Top 3.

Making an oil change to the diff on his LRP powered BD7, Volker said the softer set-up helped him to improve his pace.  With the change making the car easier to drive while retaining the same amount of steering he said it was good step forward but added they still need to go more.  Describing his final practice as ‘a consistent run’, he said they would play safe for the first qualifier, which will bring Day 1 of the 15th running of the DHI Cup to a close, and leave the car unchanged and ‘hopefully’ he can capitalise from leading away the 10 car field.

Switching to a heavier oil in the rear diff of his Muchmore powered BD7, Prumper said while he went faster he didn’t like the feeling the stiffer diff gave. Also raising the rear camber link with a 1.5mm shim he will go back to what oil he ran in the previous practice, when he topped the times, while leaving the camber link change as is.

Hagberg was pleased with changes made to his ORCA powered T4.  The Swede said they ‘still need to pick up the pace a little’ but they are headed in a good direction and now have a good base set-up for going into qualifying.

Having had issues with the roof of his bodyshell being too low in the earlier practices, changes to rectify this left Fischer’s S411 shell rubbing the track.  Still improving his time by more than 2/10ths he said the change to softer shocks for the tracks bumps was a good improvement and he will stick with that for Q1. In terms of the rubbing he said a new set of front body posts should eliminate that issue.

Running the upper arms on his Awesomatix wider, Vijami Kutvonen said the change moved him ‘one step closer’ as he went fifth fastest and ahead of former team-mate Freddy Sudhoff.  With the A700 rolling in the corners more the Finn said he had more grip. Still looking to improve the cars overall level of steering for Q1 he is considering a geardiff change to help with that.

Completing the Top 6 Sudhoff said his ‘pace is still good’ as again he ‘just played around with small changes to see how the car reacts’.  Having only had one day of testing with his new PRO5 since making the switch to the HB team, he said while Volker opened up a bit of gap in the last practice it is all open and he predicts it should make for close action.

Top Danish driver Martin Lissau would again post the 7th fastest time ahead of Marc Rheinard.  Rheinard said his Tamiya was still sliding around despite changing tyres and ruling out the problem being with the set-up said he ‘hope(s) they (tyres) get better on their second run’.  In Pro Stock, drivers using a handout LRP motor,  it was Xray’s Marek Cerny who topped the times from Xray team-mate Jan Ratheisky with Denmark’s Martin Christensen completing the Top 3.

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