‘From Race Control’ – Day 3, Qualifying

Qualifying gets underway here today at the 1:8 Offroad European Championships in Sand am Main with 3 of 5 scheduled qualifiers making up the timetable.  After a completely dry day yesterday it is a damp start this morning following some overnight rain with the heat containing the Top Seed & defending Champion David Ronnefalk set to be the first to go on track.  While the track appears to be not too wet, the damp conditions could make for a surprise result to Q1 although the threat of further rain still hangs over the track with some rather dark clouds in the area.

Ronnefalk top seed for qualifying at Euros

Reigning 1:8 Offroad European Champion David Ronnefalk got his title defence off to the perfect start as he topped today’s second timed practice in style to become top seed for qualifying which gets underway tomorrow at the German event.  The Kyosho driver was a full 6-seconds faster than the pace set by Mugen’s Robert Batlle in the day’s opening practice with Xray’s Renaud Savoya closest to the Swede the second time round 4.848 seconds adrift.  Savoya’s run sees him end the seeding 3rd behind Batlle. Despite having missed yesterday’s four rounds of practice Team Durango’s Joern Neumann would put in an impressive second run to post the 3rd quickest time for the round to claim 5th in the seeding.

Ronnefalk was very happy with his pace pointing out he had better luck with traffic the second time round with the Race Referee also helping out the situation of getting by slower cars.  Leaving his MP9 and choice of AKA Catapult tyres the same as the earlier run he said it again felt really good with it was just getting better and better as the traction comes up.  Changing his Orion engine so as to have a second unit set-up & ready to go should he need it later in the event, he said the spare engine felt it had a little less bottom end but this made the car easier to drive and ‘super consistent’.  Planning to run the same set-up for the first qualifier, the 18-year-old said the track’s dirt sections are grooving up well and while the track got a little rough at the Warm-up Race back in May so far this time round the track is ‘holding together pretty well’.

Posting only the 6th fastest time in the second practice, albeit almost a 1/10 faster than his P1 topping time,  Batlle said having originally planned to switch to a small pin tyre for the second run he didn’t and that was a bad call.  The World Champion said his Novarossi powered MBX7 struggled with a lack of steering but overall the run was never going to be great as he had issues with traffic as well as a crash that cost him over 2.5 seconds.  With a short 2-minute practice this evening, essentially a systems check of the reseeded heat order for the timekeepers, he will switch to a set of Procircuit’s Square Impact tyre to ensure that the they give him the desired steering he is seeking. Winner of his 2nd European title here in 2011, he said his set-up fine tuning was ‘not a big issue’ and he was confident going into qualifying.

Having reported a lack of steering after the first practice which led him to overdrive and crash his Orion powered XB8, Savoya was a lot happier with his car.  Changing the caster the 3-time Champion said it was much improved although he was having to depend a little on the rear brake to get the required amount of rotation.  Describing taking the corners as ‘grip, grip, slip’, he said he will go further with the set-up change so as to reduce his dependancy on the rear brake for smoother corner.  Also removing the buggies optional 15gram hub weights the French ace said this made it more reactive although it also made it a little less predictable but it was nothing he couldn’t deal with. Running Sweep’s Micro Contacts tyre he is still playing around with insert combinations adding he might try a stiffer insert.  Describing the car as having a ‘good balance he said its just now the small details he needs to adjust and one such change he plans is less toe in to free up the rear into the corners.

Xray team-mate Martin Bayer said he was also able to improve the steering on his LRP powered XB8 but feels he still needs to go a little more with the set-up.  His second run ‘without mistake’, the Czech driver declared himself very happy at having posted two competitive Top 5 runs, his first time securing him 4th in the overall seeding.  Switching to AKA soft compound Catapult he said while at the end of the run they got better they took too long to come in and so he will revert to the Super Soft compound which he had been previously running.

Newly crowned double 1:10 Offroad European Champion Neumann said other than one mistake caused by traffic he was pleased to run a Top 3 pace. Switching to a harder compound of Pro-Line’s new Fugitive try he said it was much better.  Also going to a harder front spring and changing from a 14 to a 13 tooth clutch on his FX Engine, the German said these small tweaks further improved the car.  Describing himself as ‘hard on tyres’, for qualifying he will go up in oil weight in the centre diff so as to try and reduce his front tyre wear.  Behind Neumann fellow countryman Dominic Bauer completed the Top 6.  The 19-year-old Mugen driver wouldn’t have a good second practice his impressive P4 time putting him up in the mix with Europe’s best drivers.

2012 Champion Darren Bloomfield again struggled with traffic losing time as he got sandwiched between two slower cars.  Despite this frustration the factory Agama driver feels his A8 is ‘really good’ and hopefully with a cleaner heat grouping for qualifying he believes is right in the mix in terms of competitiveness.  Completing the Top 10 behind Bloomfield was fellow British racer Jack Embling, the teenager like Bauer not having a good second practice, last year’s Top Qualifier Jerome Aigoin and Kyosho Germany backed Carsten Keller.  On the schedule for tomorrow are 3 of the five scheduled 5-minute qualifiers with a driver’s best 3 points to determine the final qualifying order.

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