Volker takes DHI Cup tally to six

Ronald Volker has brought his tally of DHI Cup titles to six after another easy win in A2 secured him overall victory at the 15th running of the famous Danish event. The Yokomo driver was joined on the podium in Odense by Xray’s Alexander Hagberg, winner of a controversial A3, with Freddy Sudhoff getting his debut for HB off to an encouraging start with third overall.  Having been the only serious contender to the reign of Volker over the weekend Yannic Prumper would miss the podium finishing fourth after a coming together with Hagberg as they battled for the lead in the closing race.

As in the opening final, Volker again benefited from Prumper struggling with his BD7 while having improved slightly his own car was able to take advantage of having a clean track in front of him.  Still not entirely comfortable with his car, he said it was better than A1 and he had more confidence to push, allowing him to match Hagberg’s pace as the Swede mounted a charge having got by both Marc Rheinard and Prumper for second.  ‘Very happy’ to kick off the 2015 season with another DHI Cup win, he said it also had extra meaning as this year marks his 10th year of being supported by LRP, who are also the main sponsor of the DHI Cup. Describing the carpet used at the event as more unpredictable than the black ETS carpet, he also acknowledge the efforts of his engineer Yukijiro Umino over the weekend.

Promoted to the win of A3 after Serpent’s Marc Fischer was penalised for a last lap move on leader Sudhoff, Hagberg said his ORCA powered T4 was very good again at the start of the race and posting the fastest lap of the race he was able to put pressure on Prumper. Running on the bumper of the BD7, the Swede saw his opportunity to pass on lap 9 but it would see him put the German’s car on its roof.  Giving his account of the incident, he said he thought Prumper had run a wide line coming onto the straight and he tried to get down the inside but the space wasn’t there and he ended up putting the Yokomo on its roof.  Saying ‘(he) was responsible for that’, he waited on Prumper to retake position but this allowed both Sudhoff and Fischer to also go passed.  Following the collison he said he just waited behind the leaders and this was to pay off as coming off the straight Sudhoff ran slightly wide resulting in his PRO5 getting tagged by Fischer opening the door for Hagberg to go into second a position that later became first when an apologetic Fischer was given a time penalty for his contact.

Prumper was clearly annoyed by the attempted pass by Hagberg saying ‘he is not able to make a clean race’. The 21-year-old went as far as saying ‘I think it was intentional’ giving the example of how he was able to run on the Hagberg’s rear bumper cleanly at the opening round of the ETS in the Czech Republic last month.

Unaware of Fischer’s penalty, intially believing he had finished fourth, a result he was pleased with, Sudhoff was delighted to discover he had got new contract with HPI Racing underway with a podium finish.  Commenting on his A3 drive, the German said ‘up to the last lap the race was ‘really good’.  Trying to keep Fischer behind he said he went a little too wide into the corner after coming off the straight leading to the contact that put his PRO5 out of shape dropping him to third on the track. Making a diff change for the final encounter hoping it would gve him more steering he said the steering remained the same but left the car more difficult to drive and on the right side of the track he slowed which allowed Fischer to close in each lap.  Thanking both Andy Moore and HB team manager for their text message support throughout the weekend, he feels they are going to work very well together and he is excited about prospects of working with them face to face at future races.

Classified third after his penalty Fischer would end the race 5th overall with Xray’s Martin Hudy completing the Top 6.  Having qualified third Marc Rheinard’s would finish last.  The Tamiya driver made a mistake on the opening lap in A1 and quickly pulled off and in A2 got out of shape leading to contact with Hagberg.  The day would not end any better as having discover a broken wheel on his TRF419 after A2 he had to us a wheel from another set and into the first corner he traction rolled off the track.

In Super Stock, ETS Champion Marek Cerny would win the opening two A-Mains to claim his first DHI Cup title.  Although the Czech driver already had the title sewn up he went for the clean sweep in A3 but a bad first lap saw his Xray team-mate Jan Ratheisky take the win and second overall in what would be an all Xray podium with Danish driver Mike Gosvig completing the overall Top 3.

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Chassis Focus – Ronald Volker

Chassis – Yokomo BD7 2015
Motor – LRP X20 4.5T
ESC – LRP Flow
Battery – LRP 6000mAh
Radio/Servos – Sanwa
Body – Protoform Speed6
Remarks – The German Yokomo ace is running a pretty standard example of the Japanese car, the only option parts being the aluminum chassis and the lightweight aluminum dogbones in the rear. He is also using a titanium screw set. Setup-wise, he was able to run his standard carpet setup, with the only major change being to a lighter shock oil

Image Gallery

Video – Touring Mod & Super Stock A-main Leg 2

Video – Touring Mod & Super Stock A-main Leg 1

Volker cruises to A1 win at DHI Cup

Defending DHI Cup Champion Ronald Volker moved in on a sixth title at the Danish event this morning as he cruised to an unchallenged win in the opening A-Main.  Expecting a strong challenge from his Yokomo team-mate Yannic Prumper that never materialised as Prumper got out of shape on Lap 2.  While Volker pulled clear taking the win by almost 5-seconds, the battle of the race would be for second with Xray’s Alexander Hagberg finding a way passed Prumper.  Despite a roll at the first corner, HB’s Freddy Sudhoff would finish fourth just 3/10ths off Prumper.

Volker said right after the start he got lucky as Prumper struggled with his car and ‘something happened’ to the No.3 starting Tamiya of Marc Rheinard.  Despite setting the fastest lap of the race, outright pace having evaded the German in qualifying, he said his LRP powered BD7 had a lot of steering with the rear end feeling very loose.  While it improved over the 5-minutes, his fastest lap coming on lap 19 of 25, he said he couldn’t push and had circumstance been different in terms of his rivals he said he could have found himself under a lot of pressure.  Adding ‘overall I shouldn’t complain as I got what I wanted from the race but for A2 we need to make a small tweak to our tyre prep’.

‘Pretty good’ was Hagberg’s response to how his race had gone.  Starting from fourth on the grid, the Swede said his T4 was ‘very good at the start as always’ and having caught up to Prumper he was was able to take advantage of a mistake to get passed. Again having issues with the car’s pace dropping off towards the end of the race he said he knew he was never got to be able to catch up Volker and he declared himself ‘pretty happy’ with second.

Prumper said his ‘car was terrible’.  Making a shock change after qualifying he said this left his Muchmore powered BD7 very loose in the rear and this was compound by his rear right tyre having come partly unglued.  For A2 the 21-year-old said he will go back to the soft front, harder rear shock oil set-up he ran yesterday.

Sudhoff said he got ‘quite lucky’ in taking fourth.  Traction rolling at the first corner dropping to last he said when he arrived at the hairpin it was full of cars on their roofs and he managed to make back up the lost positions.  Finding the track conditions very different to yesterday he said his PRO5 was edgy to drive and he plans to make a set-up change as a result for A2.

Not finishing the race, Rheinard said ‘I just messed up’.  Hitting the curbing on the first lap he found himself in the middle of the pack and after further incidents he opted to pull over after just 2 laps.  Describing his Tamiya TRF419 as feeling ‘not so bad in the warm-up’ the former DHI Cup winner said he could ‘hopefully make a better start to the next one’.

View complete onroad event results here.

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Volker to seek sixth DHI Cup win as Top Qualifier

Defending champion Ronald Volker will aim for a sixth DHI Cup victory from pole position tomorrow after the Yokomo driver secured the overall TQ in Denmark this evening.  Going head to head with team-mate Yannic Prumper in the fourth & final qualifier, Volker would claim his third TQ run just 0.547 seconds ahead of Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard.  Struggling with understeer Prumper could only manage 3rd for the round, almost 2-seconds off the TQ pace but still managed to make it a 1-2 for Yokomo.  Rheinard good finish to qualifying allowed him to secure third ahead Xray’s Alexander Hagberg while Freddy Sudhoff, debuting his new HB, completes the top half of the grid for the 15th running of famous season opening event.

Make changes to his tyre prep and set-up for the final qualifier, Volker said he felt a big difference in the balance of his LRP powered BD7 which he said compared to Q3 was ‘easy to drive’.  Again while unable to match the pace of his rival’s fastest laps, a slightly resurgent Marc Rheinard posting the quickest lap of 18.034 seconds, Volker said he knew if he kept his run free of mistakes his overall pace would give him another TQ run and he focused on that.  Aware of Rheinard closing the gap as the 5-minute came to a conclusion he said by the end of the run he was on ‘maximum push’ as highlighted by his last lap being his fastest of the qualifier. While he knew only Prumper could deny him the overall TQ he was aware that should Rheinard top the last round it would put his arch rival second on the grid ahead of Prumper this in itself a motivating factor for him to TQ the round.  ‘Happy to start out another year at the DHI Cup with the overall TQ’, he said for the final they will make a very small change to give him a feeling somewhere in between what he had in Q3 and Q4 adding he wanted to have just a little more outright pace in reserve for the finals should he need it.

Prumper said he was ‘slightly too slow’ and he compounded the lack of pace with a mistake.  Making no changes to his car, he said for some reason the car started to ‘push’.  Running heavier oil in his rear shocks for tomorrow he will make the front and rear the same with a lighter oil than he was running in the front. Asked about challenging his team-mate in the finals he said the track offered a number of passing spots and he would ‘for sure push Ronald for the win’.

A much more inspired Rheinard said he was ‘surprised’ at how well the switch to Protoform’s new Dodge Dart bodyshell had worked out.  Also running a softer shock set-up, the front and rear now filled with the same weight oil, he said the body made his car more stable while giving him the same level of steering as before.  Fitting a new diff to the car he said having not bench run it it took a while to come in losing him some time early on.  Describing the car as fast but still really hard to drive on power he said Q4 was the best its been and he will stick with everything the same for A1.  Asked if he could pressure the two Yokomos, the 1:12 World Champion said ‘I just hope Yannic can put pressure on Ronald’.

Hagberg said his T4 was again good at the start but continues to drop off pace towards the end of the 5-minutes.  Able to run a TQ pace he said the drop off lost him too much time and with the drivers much closer on pace this time round that left him 4th costing him 3rd on the grid. While a little better than it was in Q3, the Nitro Touring Car World Champion said he needs to figure out something for tomorrow adding he will be making some sort of set-up change having already gone down the route of changing his tyre prep.

Changing the roll bars on his LRP powered PRO5, Sudhoff said the car was really good and he was able to push much harder, as highlighted by his fastest lap time which as just 0.034 off Rheinard’s, but ultimately he ended up pushing too much and over doing it leading to a number mistakes.  With limited amount of spares he said he took the decision to pull off before he broke anything.  ‘Really happy’ with fifth on the grid he said in terms of the car he has no plans to change anything but instead drive it within its limits although he might try a different tyre prep, something he will decide nearer to the time of A1.

Completing the Top 6 on the grid will be Serpent’s Marc Fischer, a strong start to qualifying fading out over the final two qualifiers with him pulling off in Q4 after a number of mistakes.  Behind him the rest of the grid is made up of Martin Lissau, Martin Hudy, last year podium finisher Viljami Kutvonen and the Tamiya of Danish driver Patrick Folman.

In Super Stock, Marek Cerny secured the overall TQ for Xray with three TQ runs from team-mate and Q3 pace setter Jan Ratheisky.  Making it an Xray Top 3 on the grid Danish driver Mike Gosvig took his T4 to third with the Serpent of 1:8 Onroad racer Merlin Depta set to line up fourth.

View complete onroad event results here.

View the event image gallery here.