Q4 Touring Car Update – Grid Finalised

With Ronald Volker having secured overall TQ honours in Q3, the final round of qualifying was about deciding the order of the grid behind the Team Yokomo ace.  Once again Volker would set the pace in Q4 to pull off the perfect clean sweep of qualifying.  Backing up his second place in the penultimate qualifier, Awesomatix’s Viljami Kutvonen would run his fastest 5-minutes, a time that would help him to secure second on the grid in a tie break with defending DHI Cup Champion Adrian Berntsen.  The Xray driver, who will start from 3rd, was in strong contention to TQ the round swapping the lead pace with Volker but in his own words ‘pushed too hard’ and half way through the run crashed losing 6-seconds.

Also running his fastest time of qualifying, Alexander Hagberg posted the third fastest time which was enough to secure him fourth on the grid for the final ahead of former two time winner Marc Rheinard.  Pulling up in the last round of qualifying struggling with his set-up, Serpent’s Marc Fischer completes the Top 6 grid positions ahead of former international racer Steen Graversen.  Making a one off return to racing the Dane’s appearance makes him one of only 5 drivers to have contested every single DHI Cup.

In the Pro Stock class a TQ run in the final qualifier makes Oliver Franke the overall Top Qualifier. The Awesomatix driver TQ’d the opening qualifier but Team Xray’s Marek Cerny would top Q2 & 3 setting the stage for a showdown in the closing round.  Separated by just 5/100ths of a second both drivers recorded their first 24-lap runs of the weekend, leaving the pair equal on points with Franke’s time giving him tie breaker.  Current ETS Pro Stock Championship leader Jan Ratheisky (formerly Jan Amser) will start third with his Serpent with defending DHI Cup Champion Zdenko Kunak’s Yokomo securing fourth on the grid.

Mod Touring Car A-Main Grid
1. Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo – 310 pts
2. Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – 306
3. Adrian Berntsen (NO) – Xray – 306
4. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 304
5. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya – 303
6. Marc Fischer (DE) – Serpent – 302
7. Steen Graversen (DK) – Awesomatix – 298
8. Tim Benson (DE) – Xray – 298
9. Jan Ratheisky (DE) – Serpent – 296
10.David Ehrbar (DE) – Serpent – 293

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Volker wraps up DHI TQ honours in Q3

In a pretty much forgone conclusion, Team Yokomo’s Ronald Volker is Top Qualifier for the 14th running of the DHI Cup. The driver with the most number of past wins at the famous Danish event, yet another TQ run in Q3 put the pole position for tomorrow’s final beyond the reach of his rivals despite one round of qualifying remaining. Posting his fastest 5-minute run of the weekend, the 4-time event winner was a whole 5-seconds clear of his rivals with Awesomatix Viljami Kutvonen claiming second followed by Xray’s Alexander Hagberg, both drivers posting their first 25-lap runs.

Running the 2014 version of Yokomo’s BD7 for the first time in Europe, Volker said was ‘very happy’ to with how the car has run since putting it on the track for the first time at the Stadium Arena Fyn yesterday morning.  Changing his tyre preparation ‘slightly’ for the penultimate qualifier he said it was ‘slightly’ better and combined with the improving track conditions he said he was able to push the car harder.  Planning to leave the car as is for the final qualifier, which should see a very close battle to determine who will start second on the grid, he said they will use this to try gauge how much the track changes so as to determine what if any set-up changes they should make for the finals.  The German said he is interested to see who will start directly behind him viewing Adrian Berntsen as his biggest threat adding that seeing Viljami’s progress today he wouldn’t rule out the Finn either.  Unfortunately in Q3 an early accident resulted in Berntsen breaking a rear arm on his Xray forcing him to retire after just 30 seconds.

A ‘good run’ was how a pretty pleased looking Viljami summed up his latest qualifier.  Having lowered the roll centres on his LRP powered A700 EVO he said the changes gave him more steering and more traction.  Having changed and improved the car every run he said for the final qualifier he will leave it as it as there is a lot at stake with him in contention for that No.2 spot on the grid.

Making a few further set-up tweaks to his ORCA powered Xray, Hagberg said they further improved the speed of the car.  Only 2/10ths of a second off Viljami at the end of the 5-minutes, the Swede said without mistakes they would have been very closely matched.  Feeling that he is maybe trying a little too hard in terms of his driving leading him to make small mistakes, for the final qualifier he is not sure whether or not to leave or change his set-up.  With the Top 6 grid positions wide open he said its going to be close and a clean run could make a big difference to where you start the finals.

Changing to his ETS car for Q3, setting the fourth fastest time, Marc Rheinard described it as driving a ‘tank’ and he will revert back to his softer TRF418 for the final round.  With a complete lack of steering or corner speed, the Tamiya Racing Factory driver said its pretty much a case of accepting that it ‘is what it is now’ and there is little he can do about Volker’s blistering pace.  Feeling that the rest of the cars are pretty equal he said Yokomo know exactly how to optimse the tyres and their preparation.  The German said there is a lot to be said for the handout additive such as that introduced by the ETS, his reasons for attending the DHI being to prepare for Round 2 of the World famous championship something he said has so far proved worthless.

Fifth fastest factory Serpent driver Marc Fischer said changes for Q3 made his S411 ‘push like hell’.  With ‘no corner speed’, the German will revert to his Q2 set-up for the final round adding with the grid behind Volker so close its going to be important to run a good 5-minutes.  Behind Fischer fellow countryman Tim Benson once again completed the Top 6 at the controls of his Xray.

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Volker continues to reign at DHI

Having topped practice and then TQ’d the opening round of qualifying yesterday, Ronald Volker continued his reign at the 14th running of the DHI Cup by kicking off Day 2 of the Danish event by topping the second of the four qualifiers.  The Team Yokomo ace took the round once again ahead of Team Xray’s Adrian Berntsen with Serpent’s Marc Fischer completing the Top 3.  Exiting the boundaries of the track twice as his Tamiya understeered off the track, Marc Rheinard failed to complete the full 5-minutes.

‘Could not be any better ‘ is how Volker summed up his run which was over 4-seconds faster than his opening qualifying time of last night.  His first outing in Europe with Yokomo’s new BD7 2014, he said after traction rolling during his warm-up laps he knew traction was high and so he adjusted his driving accordingly. With no such issues over the 5-minutes he said the car performed perfectly.

Summing up his qualifier as ‘pretty good’, Berntsen said he struggled a little at the start something he is putting down to his tyre preparations. Once the tyres on his T4 2014 came in, the reigning champion said he was very happy & confident with the car allowing him to close the gap to Volker for a time before making a mistake on the final lap which lost him over 1-second.  ‘Happy with second’, he plans to change his tyre preparation for Q3 after consultation with his father on what to do differently.

After a error filled run yesterday, Fischer said both his driving and his S411 where better today.  Set-up changes made the car better in the early part of the run better but after the 3-minute mark the German once again had to contend with understeer.  Describing the run as ‘much cleaner’, for his next run the German will change to a softer front spring as well as switching from LRP to CS tyre additive to evaluate if there is any key difference between the two that might help cure his understeer.

Having reverted to his practice set-up Alexander Hagberg was a little happier this morning as he took his ORCA powered Xray to the fourth fastest time.  The Swede said the car was now ‘OK’ but the run just contained too many small driver mistakes.  With a clean run he said he believes a Top 3 run is possible and going forward he is much more confident about the remaining two qualifiers.

Awesomatix’s Viljami Kutvonen said changes to his A700 EVO had improved the car over how it ran in Q1 but the second run was let down by two driver errors.  Eventually posting the 5th fastest time, the Finn said he is undecided as to whether to make any further tweaks to his set-up ahead of Q3.

Germany’s Tim Benson completed the Top 6.  Driving his LRP powered Xray with the same set-up as he ran yesterday when he posted the 7th fastest time, he said his focus for the run was to do 5-minutes with no mistakes.  Achieving that the 23-year-old said having notched up a second safe run he will use the third qualifier to try a set-up to try and gain more in corner steering.

Running the same car as in Q1, Rheinard appears be at a loss as what to do to cure his understeer problems which are clearly visible as the former 3-time World Champion makes his entry onto the main straight.  The German said his two flying exits from the track were a result of him trying, unsuccessfully, to drive through the understeer.  For Q3 he is undecided as to whether to switch to his stiffer ETS chassis or make some radical set-up changes to his ‘softer’ TRF418.

View the complete TC event results here.

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