Volker TQs important opening qualifier

Ronald Volker has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the Touring Car World Championships in the Netherlands, the Team Yokomo driver running 18 laps in 5:09.314 to top the round by just over a second from the HB of Atsushi Hara with Viktor Wilck’s Tamiya taking third.

Volker said afterwards the TQ was a very important one as his rivals have only one more opportunity to better the time when they opt to use their second set of controlled tyres, new rubber offering a distinct advantage over used.  The Euro Touring Series Champion said his prototype BD5 lacked a little traction over the first two laps, something he put down to the wait on the starting grid, but for the rest of the run he was very happy with the performance of the car.  The German had one ‘heart attack’ moment in the run when defending champion Marc Rheinard who on the previous lap let him by hit the rear of his car as they came in to the hairpin in front of the rostrum as he began his third last lap.  Volker got a little out of shape losing 4/10ths as a result but wasn’t overly concerned about the matter afterwards.

Rheinard, who was only fifth fastest, said he just took his normal line through the hairpin and had more speed than Volker.  Happy with how his Tamiya worked at the start of the run, the German setting the early pace for the round, he said the car gradually start to get loose over the run.  Asked what changes he plans for Q2, Rheinard replied that he is not sure as he was planning to run the same tyres again which will make the car very different anyway and that from here on in the rest of qualifying was going to be a tactical game as teams decide which drivers to put out on new tyres and when.

Atsushi Hara was very happy with the start of his qualifying saying after two years of having a tough time in touring car it was nice to be competitive from the start of the event.  Quite cool conditions for the opening round the former World Champion said he only changed his diff oil for the run opting to leave his shocks the same as yesterday when he felt they were a little too soft.  Having also reduced the boost on his Hobby Wing speedo he said the power was better now and other than freshening up the car he will run everything the same for Q2.

Although he’s Swedish, Wilck used a well known French word to sum up his first run through the chicane.  His Tamiya got out of shape and the Reedy Race Champion lost half a second, time that would have put him ahead of Hara for the round.  Happy with the car for the rest of the run he said his biggest decision for Q2 is to decide whether to gamble his second set of tyres or wait to til later in the day when the hotter conditions better suit the Tamiya.  Team-mate Jilles Groskamp, who was fourth fastest, was pleased with his run saying his car is very consistent.  Still unable to run a 16-second lap the former European Champion is looking forward to running on used tyres as unlike most of his rivals he spent much of pre-event testing working on a set-up to get the most from them.

Surprise of the opening qualifier was French National Champion Loic Jasmin, the Yokomo driver setting the sixth fastest time ahead of factory Kyosho driver Christopher Krapp and 1:12 World Champion Naoto Matsukura.  The ETS regular said his LRP powered BD5 has had good 5-minute pace since the event started and so he knew a good run was possible however he admitted finishing in the top 6 was a little better than he expected. Krapp described his 7th as a solid run but after a frustrating final practice yesterday the ETS race winner was a lot happier with his car and thinks he has something good now to build on.  Making a ‘big mistake’ on the final lap which lost him 2 seconds, Matsukura said he was just pushing too hard.

Two notable retirements from Q1 where Yokomo team-mates Yannic Prümper and Hayato Matsuzaki who completed just five laps each. Both finalist at the last Worlds, Matsuzaki the runner-up in Germany, the Japanese driver made a mistake at through the sweeper which saw his car need marshaling while Prumper hit something on the track which caused him to have a moment. Afterwards it was discovered whatever he hit gorged a groove out of the rear of his chassis.  Both will be looking to capitalise in Q2 from their still pretty fresh tyres.

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Wilck tops final practice

Tamiya Racing Factory’s Viktor Wilck has topped the official timing for final practice at the Electric Touring Car World Championship as he took his prototype TRF417 around the high speed MACH track in the fastest three consecutive laps ahead of Ronald Volker and Atsushi Hara although over 5-minutes it was Volker who ran the fastest time with 18 laps in 5:09.745.

Having made further changes to the set-up of his Thunder Power motor which he said gave him more overall power than he had in CP1, Wilck said as a 5-minute run it was not very good as he made two big mistakes but over three laps he was very happy with his pace.  Knowing from pre-event testing that Volker’s Yokomo works best in cooler conditions while their car is more suited to running in higher temperatures, Wilck said he thinks he is in good shape for tomorrows qualifying.

‘Really really good’ was how Volker described his car and the run showed they have very good pace over the full length of a run.  The Euro Touring Series Champion had an incident with Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp in the early laps which he said cost him any chance of the fastest 3-laps but the most important thing was that over 5-minutes they had a good advantage over the rest of the field. With his fastest three laps being set in CP1 and good enough to end the day third, the German will start second on the road in the opening qualifier as second fastest driver Atsushi Hara drives in the second highest heat.

Factory HB driver Hara was pleased with his day saying his TCX was ‘really good’ although he thinks for tomorrow he will try a slightly heavier shock oil and lighter diff oil to further improve the balance of the car.  Running a fresh battery for the first time in CP2, having used old packs up to now, the former World Champion said he had a little bit too much power and he will reduce the boost for the morning.  One of the legends of the sport, the Japanese ace said the key to qualifying is going to be keeping pace consistent after 10 laps when the tyres start to drop off.  Team-mate Andy Moore, the third of the drivers competing here to have held the World title, said he is struggling with the balance of his Hobby Wing powered example by the end of the run with the change from start to finish being far too much.  The fourth of the drivers to have been Touring Car World Champion Surikarn Chaidajsuriya is not present this year as he had to stay in Thailand to await the arrival of a new baby.

Ending up fourth in the official timing but closest to Volker over a full run, defending Champion Marc Rheinard said his Tamiya dropped off power after three minutes.  Using a brand new battery for the final run of the day he said it needed an extra charge cycle but overall he said the car feels OK and he thinks when the times really start to count he should be not to far off Wilck and Volker.  Team-mate Jilles Groskamp, who many have tipped for the win here as it is his local track, said he is struggling to get the car to turn in over the opening laps but then it feels good and is very consistent till the end.  The Dutch ace set the sixth fastest 5-minute run but was a little frustrated a not being able to run faster than a 17 second lap.

Fifth fastest, 3-time 1:12 World Champion Naoto Matsukura said his Yokomo BD5 suffered from a little understeer but overall it was OK.  Planning to fine tune his set-up for Q1 to get that fraction of steering he is missing the 18-year-old thinks with this sorted out he should be good for qualifying.  Team-mate and fellow teenager Yannic Prumper made it three Yokomo’s in the Top 4 over 5-minutes, the winner of the ETS finale earlier this month officially 7th fastest behind Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg who was also a winner this year in the ultra competitive Euro Touring Series.

After practice was completed the IFMAR international jury held a meeting to discuss tomorrow’s qualifying where it unanomiously voted to revoke the early decision to reduce it to five rounds and so the drivers will now have six round by round point scoring heats, of which the best three are to count.  It was also voted that tech inspection will only be done pre race with battery voltage and weight checked everytime with other elements only being checked at random which it is hoped will make for the smooth running of tomorrow’s action.

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Controversy hit Worlds but Volker still fastest

Major problems with technical inspection as the first round of controlled practice had just got underway led to chaos at the Touring Car World Championships that has resulted in a round of qualifying being cancelled although that move has been protested by Japan, the Netherlands and Germany.  Once action on the track did resume it was the morning’s pace setter Ronald Volker who set the fastest lap, consecutive 3-laps and 5-minute run keeping his LRP powered Yokomo at the top of the time sheets.

The problem in technical inspection, which for what is an event that manufacturers invest so much time and money is totally unacceptable, started as the area became over crowded with drivers either returning or collecting their controlled additive free tyres while drivers from later heats went to the tented area to have there cars checked for battery voltage, ride height, etc.  Already congested and with no form of communications coming from officials, the place fell into complete panic when it was discovered some chassis’ had been incorrectly marked earlier in the day and that all 130 cars needed to be rechecked.  With no one taking control of the matter almost 2 hours where lost with no track action happening during this time.  In the end the delay first forced the postponement of the opening qualifier from this evening to tomorrow morning but then in bizarre move IFMAR cancelled the round on the basis of a chance of rain tomorrow.  This move was bizarre because IFMAR issued a controlled wet tyre for the race.

With 3 rounds from 5 qualifiers rather than six now counting driver and teams are up in arms, as with reduced breaks between rounds tomorrow running the full 6 qualifiers would only add an extra 50-minutes to the timetable.

While the arguments and protests continue, in terms of the racing the closest driver to Volker, over 3-consecutive laps which will be used for any reseeding of the qualifying heats, was Tamiya’s Viktor Wilck with Team HB’s Atsushi Hara third.  Defending champion Marc Rheinard, who has been very vocal with officials over the early chaos, used his Speed Passion powered Tamiya to set the fourth fastest time followed by Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and recent ETS race winner Yannic Prumper.

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Pack close gap to Volker

In the fourth & final round of free practice early pace setter Ronald Volker once again set the fastest lap, the Team Yokomo driver’s huge FP3 advantage was much reduced with 3 drivers managing to post a 16 second lap. Posting a fastest lap that was slightly slower than that set in the morning run it was team-mate Naoto Matsukura who was second fastest with defending Champion Marc Rheinard third just ahead of Tamiya team-mate Viktor Wilck.

Trying two different BD5 chassis’, Matsukura said both cars where a little loose but of the two the chassis he used pre-event testing felt slightly better than the fresh car built for the event.  Happy to run his first 16 second lap the 1:12 World Champion will make a small set-up change for the opening controlled practice to try improve the balance.

Running his pre-event test car in FP4, like Matsukura, Rheinard found the car to be better.  Rebuilt by his Tamiya mechanic Kiyo Suzuki before the event, he said it felt better but very different and he needs a little more time to adjust his driving to suit.  Much happier with his pace now, he said he is looking forward to the first controlled practice when all drivers will run just one car adding that it will be interesting to see how Volker fares over the 5-minutes as while his Yokomo is very fast in the early part of the run it is at the expense of pace later on.  Wilck said a change to the set-up of his Thunder Power motor made for a better package and he will go into CP1 with the car as is.

Posting a 17.019 lap, the fifth fastest of the run, former World Champion Atsushi Hara was very happy with how his factory HB is now running.  The Japanese ace, who has an ETS win at the MACH to his credit, had problems with a power drop off in yesterday’s practice runs.  The problem was eventually sourced to the motor but with a new Reedy motor in his car today which features new types of magnets, Hara said the power, even with practice batteries, is good for 5-minutes and with fresh batteries for qualifying he believes he should be able to find at least 1/10th of a second due to the extra ‘punch’.

Sixth fastest just 6/1000th behind Hara was Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg.  The Swede had a couple of crashes but said his T3, which features lower shock towers and shorter shocks, was better after he switched to a longer camber link.  Having more pace in the opening laps the Snowbirds Champion said it started to push near the end of the 5-minutes and maybe he needs to go back a little with his camber adjustment.

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