Bloomfield fastest from Boots in FP3, Ronnefalk remains quickest

Darren Bloomfield was quickest in the latest round of practice at the European Championships in Sweden, the Agama driver topping the times for FP3 from reigning champion Elliott Boots.  While improving on his time from the opening practice, the British driver finding over 2-seconds, he couldn’t better David Ronnefalk’s pace from the second round which still stands as the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the Gröndal Ring track.  The first time we got an official time for Boots as he ran without a transponder in the first two, the Kyosho driver ran almost an identical time with a 2:01.630 compared to Bloomfield’s 2:01.613.  Behind the two Brits, Xray’s Yannick Aigoin would set the the fourth fastest time overall ahead of Robert Battle.  Portuguese driver João Figueiredo had a good FP3 run to complete the Top 6 with one round of free practice remaining that will bring Day 1’s proceedings to a close.

‘The car was a lot better’ was how Bloomfield summed up his latest run.  The 2012 Champion, continued, ‘we lowered the rear hinge pin height which made it more stable in the rear end.  That’s it really’.  Happy with his car he added, we could do with losing a bit of initial steering so we’ll look at that for the next one’.  Running on Beta’s V-Max tyre in the first three runs, he also plans to switch to their Freeride tyre saying, ‘its a bigger block tyre so it should pedal through the bumps better’.

On his FP3 run, Boots said, ‘I ran a new car that one having run an old car before but it felt different’. The Warm-up Race winner continued, ‘I’m not sure if its the track or the car but it did some strange things but other than that its got the pace’.  Asked if he would switch back to his old car, drivers having to tech which chassis they will race by the end of today, he said, ‘We’ll play around with the decision before we decide but we’ve got until the end of the day to make up our mind’. On track conditions Boots said, ‘its breaking up now that was catching me out in a few places’.

Summing up his run, his best three laps 5-seconds off his PF2 time, Ronnefalk said, ‘I changed to a harder compound tyre and it wasn’t good. The car was sliding and catching the ruts and I crashed a couple of times.  This left me in a bunch of cars and it not an easy track to run alongside other cars. I knew the tyre was wrong’. Running the O2 version of JConcepts new Kosmos tyre, he is considering trying two different tyre options in the final practice which is a 9-minute run compared the previous 5-minute rounds.  Also switching engines, trying a 3-port Orion compared to the 7-port he ran in the first two practices, he said, ‘it felt good but the driving style is a little different compared to the 7-port so I will give it another go in the last one’.

Having struggled with what direction to go with set-up in the morning, Aigoin said, ‘we went all the way back to our warm-up set-up’.  3rd fastest for FP3, the popular Frenchman continued, ‘we have nothing except this, so the work for 2-months at home was wasted’.  Happy with how the car is now running he said, ‘we can always improve but the pace is good and I’m getting old so being up the the kids is OK for me’.  With track conditions at the Warm-up ‘a lot bumpier’, he said, ‘the car is easy to drive so maybe it is better for now to make it more reactive.  We will change some small details so to have a little less rolling and a little more steering’.

‘Much better than before, we changed so many things’, was Batlle reaction after FP3.  The Mugen driver continued, ‘We tested so many things at home and put what we thought would work into our plan and we now have a good set-up.  From today it’s now just small details’.  Making the move from long time tyre sponsor Procircuit to AKA for the 2017, he switch to their Zipps tyre for the third round finding then an improvement but adding they would work better if the track was cleaner.  A driver notorious for playing the long game he concluded, ‘there is still a week to go’.

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Ronnefalk sets early pace at Euros

David Ronnefalk has set the early pace in practice at the 1:8 Offroad European Championship according to the official timing with reigning champion Elliott Boots looking quick but opting to not run a transponder in the first two rounds of practice.  Recording a time of 2:00.952 for his best 3-consecutive laps of the Gröndal Ring’s unique surface in the second of the runs, Ronnefalk was fastest from Darren Bloomfield who posted his quickest time in the opening practice.  With Ronnefalk’s advantage 3-seconds, Italian Riccardo Berton completes the Top 3, 2/10ths of a second off Bloomfield with Swedish female racer Jessica Pålsson next up with the fourth fastest time.

‘Both rounds were really good’, was Ronnefalk’s reaction to his early performance. The HB Racing driver said, ‘tyres are the main thing we are working on because other than that I am very comfortable with the track and I know the car is very good here’.  With Jason Ruona making the trip over from the US to support their driver, the World Champion has two new tyres available to him for the event.  With the Stackers having made their debut at the recent US Nationals, the new Kosmos hit the track for the very first time this morning with Ronnefalk happy with the additions. He said, ‘I think these are what we were missing and they fill in the gap for the European and Asia drivers who have requested this tyre of tyre’ adding, ‘the Kosmos is similar to an Impact/Blockade’.  Planning to run a different engine so to have a second one ready as a spare, on track conditions he said, ‘it is starting to break through the hard top surface so I think the bumps will start appearing now’.

‘It seems good’ was how Bloomfield summed up his start to practice adding, ‘its a better start than I thought’.  The Agama driver said, ‘We struggled at the Warm-up with 1 or 2 things so its good to up there and still not be totally happy with the car because when you find it you know its going to be even better’.  Highlighting Boots lack of a transponder and conceding his fellow countryman is most likely faster, the former European Champion said, ‘I have a touch too much steering and I have changed the front all I can so I will look at the rear for the next one’.  Asked his thoughts on track conditions he said, ‘Its rough but it is offroad and since the warm-up they improved a lot the jumps.  The are way more doable now’.

A very pleased looking Boots described his morning’s runs as having been ‘very good’.  He continued, ‘everything is all good. We’ve made no drastic changes and focused just on being on track again and get used to the place again’. Having run Proline’s Blockades tyre in the opening practice he switch to Fugitive lights for the second run, the Kyosho driver saying, ‘we went to the same tyre at the Warm-up and it gave me more of a feeling I was looking for, before it was more edgy but I’m comfortable with it now’. Planning to have a transponder in for the next one, the Warm-up Race winner said, ‘the surface has loosened up now so its nicer to drive’.

Finishing on the podium at the Warm-up Race behind Boots and Ronnefalk, Robert Batlle summed up the first half of practice as ‘not bad’.  The Mugen driver continued, ‘we are just trying to find a way to make the car more comfortable for the bumps and for me to also get used to the track’.  The former World & European Champion added, ‘the surface here is quite difficult and we are not used to it but we have a plan to follow and tomorrow we will choose what configuration of set-up we will use’.

On the podium at the Euros last year in Spain, multiple champion Yannick Aigoin had admitting to struggling to get his head around the kind of set-up it takes to get the car to work on the unique surface.  The Xray driver said, ‘we are trying to decide which way to go with the set-up.  We did a lot of testing since the warm-up to find the right compromise.  The Warm-up set-up was completely wrong at home but good here’.  Trying to deal with the surface and the ‘super high speed’ layout, the offroad veteran said its like nothing compared to track in France and while they had a good base set-up at the Warm-up he is fighting taking that direction again in his head.

With Team Associated on the podium at last year’s championship thanks to Neil Cragg, they will be looking to better that result this year.  Now with World Championship star Davide Ongaro joining Cragg, they have one of their best line-ups for targeting the 1:8 title.  Ongaro described the second practice as ‘better than the first one’ having switched from AKA’s Citybeam to soft Impact tyre.  Asked if he liked the track layout, the teenager replied, ‘Not so much but it is better than the Warm-up race for sure’.  For the 3rd of his four practice runs today he will remove the 30grams of weight he is running in the rear of the car as well as switch to Associated’s emulsion shock caps along with using the track time to run on a set of Zipps tyres.

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Track Focus – Gröndal Ring

Track Name – Gröndal Ring
Host Club – MK Eskil
Country – Sweden
Location – Eskilstuna (110km drive East of Stockholm)
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Dirt/Astro/Brick section
Previous events hosted – 2016 1:8 Onroad European Championships

The 37th running of the EFRA 1:8 Offroad European Championship takes place in Eskilstuna in Sweden with the country’s third hosting of the championships taking place at the huge Gröndal Ring.  Run by the MK Eskil which was established in 1997, the club of around a 100 members moved to its new bigger facility in 2014.  Previously having a much smaller track on the outside of the local city of Eskilstuna, the local government sold the land with the promise of relocating the club.  Delivering on that promise the club was given a new home at the Gröndals Motorsport Arena around 10km from the city centre.  A facility that is home to a speedway track, a drifting course and motorcycle race track, r/c was given a 13,000 square metre site on which you have both an oroad and offroad track either side of a very impressive and large wooden driver stand – you could easily build a large Mini-Z track on it. While the club’s first Offroad Euros it not its first European Championships, the 548 metre asphalt track, which features some cool looking Daytona style banking, hosted the 1:8 Onroad European Championship last year.

On the 463 metre long offroad track, the main focus of drivers has been on the surface, the local dirt more a gravel than a clay.  Featuring astro turf covered jumps and a brick section, the club have prepared the track with Dustex following May’s Warm-up Race when drivers faced a very bumpy track for the finals. Sweden’s World Champion David Ronnefalk, who lives a 5-hour drive away, said ‘I think the layout is good, its a fun layout.  The challenge is the surface with how it is but its the same for everyone and its part of the game this year’.  He continued, ‘I think the club have done a good job with the track since the warm-up but were unlucky because normally they needed a lot of rain before the race but had no luck there, so it was not the best for the preparation of the surface.  The track is going to get a lot of character over the week. It will not get as bad as the Warm-up but for sure it will be bumpy’.  Asked about the main elements of the track, he replied, ‘All the jumps are key especially in the middle section to keep your rhythm.  At the triple double there is super high bite because the dirt in that section has more clay in it.  Set-up is going to be about getting corner speed.’

Defending champion Elliott Boots had a different view saying, ‘I think it will end the same as the warm-up by Wednesday.  You can see bumps appearing already (after the first round of practice).  They put a binding agent down on a few sections but that’s almost gone now’.  In terms of the layout, he said, ‘its very similar to the Warm-up which is a good thing but they have improved some of the up ramps’.  He added, ‘it quite a fast track which I prefer to slower tracks.  It’s not too technical’.  Asked about track features the British driver said, ‘I’m not a fan of the step up step down on the left side because the binding agent hooks you in on the landing’.   Chasing a third consecutive title he concluded, ‘I don’t think fast laps are important here. You can have a car half to 1 second a lap slower but if its consistent you’ll be right up there’.

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