Surprise as Bernabe tops Boots in 1st controlled practice

There were a few surprised faces at the end of the first round of controlled practice at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Spain as the name Daniel Bernabe appeared at the top of the timing screen ahead of reigning champion Elliott Boots.  A former European Semi Finalist, Bernabe would take his SOAR to the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the first of the two seeding rounds by just 6/100th of a second from yesterday’s free practice pace setter.  Behind them 3/10th back, David Ronnefalk would complete the Top 3, the Warm-up Race winner finally showing some strong form around the massive RC Redovan track as he posted the fastest lap with a time of 52.654.

A regular finalist in the highly competitive Spanish National Championships, Bernabe, who was only 42nd in free practice, appeared to benefit from a raft of set-up changes to his 998 which were carried out by SOAR owner & designer Didian Ho on hand to support his drivers.  Changing to a longer rear arm, the suspension & diff oils as well as switching to a softer clutch spring & shoes to make his OS engine less aggressive, the 22-year-old Spaniard said these made his car ‘more comfortable to drive now’. Running on Pro-Line’s Fugitive tyre in M2 compound, the driver from Murcia said he has no plans to change anything for the final seeding round that will complete Day 2’s action.

‘We just missed out but it wasn’t bad’, was Boots reaction to being knocked off the top of the time sheets for the first time since taking control of proceeding in the second free practice yesterday.  The Kyosho driver who ran the same package as yesterday, only running a new set of Pro-Line Blockades, the British driver said they were ‘a bit edgy’ at the start but planning to run them in CP2 he feels they should be good on their second run.  In terms of the car, while he felt conditions are ‘hotter today’ which affects everything on the car including the flex of the plastics but added, ‘everything still feels pretty good’.  Feeling the track is starting to break up in spot which ‘catches you out’ he said ‘the wind picked up too during the run which was a bit of a nightmare’. Planing to leave his Reds Racing powered MP9 unchanged for the final practice he said, ‘tomorrow will be more about consistency’, the action switching to qualifying in the morning.

‘This one was pretty good. I got my three laps pretty decent’, was how Ronnefalk summed up his P3 seeding time.  The former champion who lacked the kind of fast lap form expected of him added, ‘we are getting there slowly’.  Pleased with where his Orion powered D815 is, the HB driver said ‘the key thing now is deciding what tyre to go for’.  Switch between AKA Enduro and Zipps, the Swede said they both bring ‘similar lap times but feel a little different’ and he needs to ‘just decide what I want the car to do out there’. On the wind, he said ‘you can really feel it on the back section but its not bad on the infield’.  Concluding that dealing with the wind was ‘ok’ he joked ‘you just need to stay low’.

Bryan Baldo would post the 4th fastest time, the race host pleased with how his Mugen performed. Having used the 5-minute shakedown run this morning following overnight track work to test Procircuit Road Runner tyres on his MBX7R he said, ‘I didn’t like them, they made the car difficult to drive’. Switching to Procircuit’s new as yet unnamed prototype tyre for CP1 he said they were ‘much, much better’ making the car ‘more comfortable and stable’ and he will continue with this package for the second seeding round.  Bryan’s younger brother Oscar would take his similar Mugen/Ultimate package to P7.

‘Quite good’ was how Robert Batlle summed up his P5 time.  The 2012 World Champion would do a tyre change during the 10-minute seeding practice switching from Procircuit’s new tyre to their Road Runner. Describing the prototype tyre as ‘so much faster’ he will run this for CP2.  Also making rear shock adjustments during the tyre stop, he said this was ‘not good’ and he will go back to the previous setting for the next one. Asked about track conditions this morning, the Spaniard replied ‘it’s super nice now’.

Completing the Top 6 would be Davide Ongaro. The leading Italian challenger so far in Spain, the 15-year-old Mugen driver was 4/10ths of a second off the similar car of Batlle. With Oscar Baldo next up, Joseph Quagraine would continue the good form he showed in free practice to take his JQ to the 8th fastest time in front of the Kyosho of Riccardo Berton and the Agama of Darren Bloomfield.

View complete event results here.

View our complete event image gallery here.