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.

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No surprises as Volker TQ opening DHI qualifier

The opening round of qualifying threw up no real surprises as Team Yokomo’s Ronald Volker TQ’d the opening round of qualifying ahead of defending Champion Adrian Berntsen and Marc Rheinard.  Bringing the first day of action at the 14th running of the famous Danish event to a close Volker topped the first of the four scheduled qualifiers with a time of 25-laps in 5:11.289 with Bernsten just over 1 second adrift. Despite setting the fastest lap of Q1, Rheinard could not make a 25-lap run finishing with a time of 5:00.764.

While it was pretty much plain sailing out front for Volker, Rheinard said his Tamiya is just sliding around with the lack of overall grip appearing to be getting worse for the German.  Admitting he is not far away from his arch rival and ETS title nemesis, he said unlike Volker for him to do that kind of pace every lap is just not possible.  Running his ‘soft’ TRF418 in Q1, the Much More powered car fitted with a more flexible chassis plate, he said for tomorrow’s second qualifier he might switch back to his ‘stiffer’ chassis again but first he plans to think about his set-up options overnight before making that decision.

Setting the fourth fastest time Awesomatix factory driver Viljami Kutvonen described his first qualifier as an ‘ok start to the event’.  The rapid Finn said he changed his tyre preparation for the run and that was a wrong decision.  This resulted in him losing time at the start of the run but once the tyres came in he said the car was good and he feels the pace is there to mix it with both Rheinard and Berntsen. Planning to go back to the tyre prep he used in practice he said he will fine tune the set-up on his LRP powered A700 EVO as he feels he can get a little more speed out of him by getting a better balance between having more steering without bringing on traction roll.

Serpent’s Marc Fischer kicked off his qualifying with the fifth fastest time.  The German said his Viper powered S411 was good in the beginning but a combination of mistakes that got bigger and bigger cost him a lot of time.  Feeling the car started to push as the run progressed he said without the mistakes he believes he is pretty close to Rheinard.  Not sure yet what he will change for the morning’s second qualifier he said he hopes to cure the car from developing as much understeer but ultimately he needs to cut out the mistakes for a good run.

Completing the Top 6 was Xray team leader Alexander Hagberg.  The Swede said he had a couple of mistakes over the 5-minutes adding he is not entirely comfortable with his ORCA powered T4.  Planning to work on it tomorrow, when asked about the possibility of trying a similar set-up to Berntsen he said their driving styles are completely different as he found out when he previously tried to run the Norwegian’s set-up.

In the Pro Stock class Oliver Franke got his debut for Awesomatix off to a great start by taking his A700 EVO to the fastest time in the opening qualifier.  The German TQ’d the round by just a little over 2-seconds from reigning ETS Pro Stock Champion Marek Cerny, the Xray driver having topped practice earlier in the day.  The Top three for the class which runs a controlled LRP X20 13.5T motor was completed by German driver Jan Ratheisky.

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