Prumper TQ’s opening DHI Cup qualifier
Yannic Prumper has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the DHI Cup. Challenging his Yokomo team-mate Ronald Volker at the top of the timing screens, a mistake by the defending champion halfway through the 5-minute qualifier would allow Prumper to go onto take an easy TQ run by 2.3 second from Marc Rheinard with Volker recovering to post the third fastest time.
Only changing the oil in his diff back to that which he ran when he topped the opening round of time practice, Prumper was very happy with his opening qualifying performance. While Volker’s error made his job slightly easier, the 21-year-old was pleased by the fact that he was already ahead of his team-mate who was top seed for qualifying before he rolled. Setting the fastest lap of Q1, taking his Muchmore powered BD7 to a best time of 12.162, the German said he was very happy with his car and plans to ‘leave everything the same’ for tomorrow’s second qualifier.
Describing his Tamiya as ‘still drifting around’ with him having ‘no feeling or grip’, Rheinard said second came simply from him driving around clean for 5-minutes rather than his pace. With both Yokomos and Alexander Hagberg setting faster lap times, Rheinard said with him having a distinct traction issue to his rivals all he can do for tomorrow is to just continue to drive around and hope that brings him repeat results. Feeling a bad set of tyres are the root of his problem he said he might try going a little softer in the rear diff.
‘Not what I was hoping for’ was how Volker summed up his run. Losing three seconds due to a roll and contact with Marek Cerny as he rejoined the racing line, the 5-time DHI Cup winner added to still come away with a third was not too bad. Running equal with Prumper he said he felt he had to push over his own limit to keep up and it was this that led to his mistake. Lacking high speed steering, with him able to see in the first qualifier where his team-mate has an advantage he said they will make two changes for Q2 tomorrow which he hopes will also give him a little better overall balance.
Posting the fourth fastest time Marc Fischer said he ran his diff too soft. Running 3000w oil in his Serpent so as to make it easier to drive he said for the qualifier it was ‘pushing on power big time’. With his rivals running between 6-7000w oil, the German will make the switch to 6000w for tomorrow.
Posting the 5th fastest time on his debut for HB, Freddy Sudhoff was pleased with his first day with the new PRO5. Changing to a softer front sprig and a stiffer rear diff he said this didn’t work out as the temperature dropped for Q1 and the traction was higher making the car push even more. In constant contact with new team-mate Andy Moore and HB team manager Hiroyuki Kasuya via messaging throughout the day he said it was a good day of learning and he is looking forward to building on that tomorrow.
Completing the Top 6 was Alexander Hagberg. The Xray driver made a good start to the qualifier but said he lost focus leading to mistakes. The Swede said the ‘intial pace was there’ and while he could have driven better himself they need to make some small changes for Day 2 as his T4 was a little hard too drive but he is confident they know what changes are needed.
In the Stock class, known here in Denmark as Super Stock, it was practice pace setters Marek Cerny and Jan Ratheisky who again topped the times taking their Xray’s to a 1-2 in Q1. Behind them Danish driver Mike Gosvig set the 3rd fastest time ahead of Serpent’s Merlin Depta who is best known for his nitro onroad exploits.
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