Volker takes fifth DHI Cup title

Ronald Volker has claimed his fifth DHI Cup title, the Team Yokomo driver kicking off his 2014 season in perfect fashion by wrapping up overall victory at the 14th running of the famous Danish event with a second win in Leg 2.  Having dominated A1, the second encounter was not as straight forward for the German ace who had to battle with a damaged car and see off a challenge from fast Finn Viljami Kutvonen. Looking comfortable for the win as the race entered the second half Volker’s new DB7 2014 edition collected the Serpent of David Ehrbar when after an off track excursion it was being place back on the track by the marshal.  Damaging the body of the No.1 car, Volker’s pace dropped as he struggled with his front tyre rubbing badly through left hand corners.  Making his first attack Kutvonen was clearly now faster but just as he looked like making a pass for the lead entering the straight he rolled his Awesomatix.  Dropping back he quickly closed down the gap again but trying a pass on the final lap he touched the Yokomo sending it into a roll for which he waited allowing Volker to complete the final corner in front for the leg & overall win.

Volker said he was very excited about winning his 5th DHI Cup, this being his 9th time to contest the event, and he couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season with the exception of the damaged bodyshell.  He said just before the race his mechanic Yukijiro Umino told him to look after the bodyshell as they planned to use it for the upcoming second round of the ETS but now its only fit for practice.  Despite losing the shell, Volker said after winning with the new car this weekend for both him & Umino, a key to the three times ETS Champion’s success, the motivation for the 2014 World Championship season couldn’t be higher.  Commenting on his A2 race, Volker said after his impact with Ehrbar on the left corners it was like the car had extra brakes due to the body rubbing and he had to give extra throttle to just keep it moving.  Admitting Kutvonen had him under pressure he said with his damaged car he would not have been able to hold him off for 2.5 minutes only for him going off on the straight.  While the A700 was all over him again on the final lap he said he knew if he just kept his lines tight it would be enough.

‘Almost’ was Kutvonen’s reaction to the race, admitting he was over doing it when he had his crash on the straight.  Describing his car as really good he said it took him some time to get back into his rythm and his first priorty was to protect his second position from Marc Rheinard.  Once clear of the 3-time World Champion, he said he knew he had a chance of the win but the time lost refinding his rythm meant he just couldn’t get it done.  Kutvonen would go on to win A3 from Alexander Hagberg, Volker sitting it out, to secure second overall.

Completing the podium in Odense, Rheinard said today he was just driving around waiting for others to make mistakes as he just didn’t have the pace.  Attending the race as preparations for his Euro Touring Series campaign, he said he struggled with the unusually low traction and he is hopeful that back in the high traction conditions of the ETS he will be a lot more competitive against Volker.

In Pro Stock Oliver Franke got his new sponsorship with Awesomatix off to a great start as he completed a clean sweep of the weekend taking the TQ honours and winning all three legs of the A-Main.  Behind the German, Team Xray’s ETS Champion Marek Cerny had to settle for second with Serpent’s Jan Ratheisky (formerly Jan Asmer) completing the podium.

Mod Touring Car Overall Result
1. Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo – 2 pts
2. Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – 3
3. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya – 5
4. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 6
5. Marc Fischer (DE) – Serpent – 9
6. Adrian Berntsen (NO) – Xray – 11
7. Steen Graversen (DK) – Awesomatix – 11
8. Jan Ratheisky (DE) – Serpent – 13
9. Tim Benson (DE) – Xray – 14
10.David Ehrbar (DE) – Serpent – 18

Mod Touring Car A2 Result
1.(1) Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo – 25/5:08.339
2.(2) Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – 25/5:08.575
3.(5) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya – 25/5:09.475
4.(4) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 24/5:01.227
5.(9) Jan Ratheisky (DE) – Serpent – 24/5:02.489
6.(7) Steen Graversen (DK) – Awesomatix – 24/5:02.761
7.(6) Marc Fischer (DE) – Serpent – 24/5:04.146
8.(3) Adrian Berntsen (NO) – Xray – 24/5:10.244
9.(10)David Ehrbar (DE) – Serpent – 24/5:12.616
10.(8)Tim Benson (DE) – Xray – 2/0:23.989

Mod Touring Car A3 Result
1.(2) Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – 25/5:07.333
2.(4) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 25/5:07.719
3.(6) Marc Fischer (DE) – Serpent – 24/5:00.423
4.(3) Adrian Berntsen (NO) – Xray – 24/5:01.317
5.(5) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya – 24/5:02.483
6.(8) Tim Benson (DE) – Xray – 24/5:04.809
7.(7) Steen Graversen (DK) – Awesomatix – 24/5:10.692
8.(9) Jan Ratheisky (DE) – Serpent – 24/5:13.052
9.(10)David Ehrbar (DE) – Serpent – 24/5:16.081
10.(1) Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo – DNS

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Volker cruises to A1 win

As if anyone expected any different of an outcome, Team Yokomo’s Ronald Volker cruised to an easy win in the opening A-Main of Modified Touring Car this morning at the DHI Cup.  The Top Qualifier was kept somewhat honest early in the race by defending Champion Adrian Berntsen until the Norwegian got it wrong rolling his Xray.  This allowed Tamiya’s fast starting Marc Rheinard up to second but the former World Champion could do nothing about his fellow countryman’s lead, the gap at the end of the 5-minute encounter being a very convincing 6-seconds.  Having started from the No.2 spot Awesomtaix team driver brought his A700 EVO home in third position followed by the Xray of Alexander Hagberg.

In the opening Pro-Stock Main Top Qualifier Oliver Franke also lead from start to finish despite some initial attention from ETS Champion Marek Cerny.  In the end the Awesomatix driver would win by over 2-seconds from the Xray with the Serpent of Jan Ratheisky completing the Top 3. For defending Champion Zdenko Kunak it was a terrible race the Slovak Yokomo driver finishing 9th having started 4th.

Mod Touring Car A1 Result
1.(1) Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo – 25/5:05.523
2.(5) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya – 25/5:11.445
3.(2) Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – 24/5:00.784
4.(4) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 24/5:02.110
5.(7) Steen Graversen (DK) – Awesomatix – 24/5:02.958
6.(6) Marc Fischer (DE) – Serpent – 24/5:03.465
7.(3) Adrian Berntsen (NO) – Xray – 24/5:07.678
8.(8) Tim Benson (DE) – Xray – 24/5:09.406
9.(10)David Ehrbar (DE) – Serpent – 23/5:06.833
10.(9)Jan Ratheisky (DE) – Serpent – 23/5:07.510

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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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