Its another extremely hot day here in Italy as free practice for the 2009 EFRA 1:10 200mm European Championships continues at the beautiful Gubbio track. Drivers will get another six 10 minute sessions today but with no official timing we will have to wait till tomorrow’s controlled practice before we can get a clearer picture of who is doing what but many of the leading drivers say its going to be a very close competition.
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This week the beautifully presented Gubbio track in the centre of Italy plays host to the 2009 EFRA 1:10 200mm European Championships. After a one year break due to EFRA’s hosting of the World Championship in Portugal last year, the sixth European title will be awarded on Sunday evening to one of the 120 drivers, from 16 nations, up on the Formula one style podium. Amoung the quality entry are 8 of the 10 World Finalists including World Champion Daniele Ielasi and the Top Qualifier Jilles Groskamp. The defending European Champion Dario Balestri is aiming for a European Championship hat trick on home soil having held the title since 2006 when he won in the Netherlands.
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Jilles Groskamp and Balint Rajki are the 2008/2009 Muchmore Euro Touring Series Champions. The titles went right down to wire at the final round here in Andernach, Germany, with the Modified title actually ending in a points tie between Groskamp and current World Champion Marc Rheinard who was today’s winner. With identicial counting results and race TQ’s, they had to be seperated by qualifying positions handing Groskamp back to back titles. Having TQ’d and won the opening Leg of the A-Main Viktor Wilck looked set to claim his first ETS race win denying Rheinard the chance to challenge for the title but the former DHI Cup Champion made a slight mistake in the second final allowing Rheinard to win both legs and the final thanks to his faster race time.
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Top Qualifiers Viktor Wilck and Matthias Lang got the job done in the first leg of the A-Mains here in Germany converting their No.1 starting positions into victories. Thankfully the very mixed weather conditions cleared for long enough to dry out the track for the top finals.
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After a disastrous third qualifier in which his car suffered heavy damage, Ronald Volker made a stunning comeback to TQ the last qualifier of the day here at the Muchmore sponsored Euro Touring Series finale ahead of Viktor Wilck. The German driver had his work cut out to get his BD5 rebuilt in time for the run, having damaged the front spool and suspension mounts, but he got it done to put in a run that denied Wilck from taking overall TQ honours. The result means we will have to wait till the final qualifier in the morning to see whether its Wilck or Volker that claims the No.1 spot on the grid.
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Viktor Wilck has carried his practice pace through to the first qualifier here at the 2008/2009 ETS finale recording the fastest run ahead of Ronald Volker. The Swede said his Tamiya felt OK for the run and was surprised by how far off his rivals were having not expected his own pace to be good enough to TQ the round. Volker said he had to switch to safe mode for his run after finding his Yokomo difficult to drive on the fresh set of controlled tyres. The car improved during the run but the former European Champion was still not happy with the feeling of his BD5 compared with yesterday.
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Ronald Volker is the pace setter here at the end of controlled practice with the LRP/Yokomo driver posting a fastest lap of 16.55 to top the time sheets from Marc Rheinard who was on a 16.70. The World Championship runner up switched from an LTC-R to the Speed 6 body for his last run and felt it made his BD5 easier to drive. Volker is running a new chassis, top deck and harder suspension arms on his Yokomo, which are designed to make the car more suitable for European traction levels, and the German is very happy with the results. Slighlty concerned about the weather, he is confident that if it stays dry he is in good shape for qualifiying.
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Kyosho are reporting on the 12th Annual running of the Hot Rod Hobbies Shootout in Saugus, California. The Shootout is known as one of the biggest electric races of the year bringing in the top drivers from around the country. This year World Champion’s Hayato Matsuzaki and Naota Matsukura made the trip over from Japan as well as a drivers from Australia making it once again an international field. Like always at Hot Rod in the summer, the temperatures were hot…reaching up into the upper 90’s. The track layout was very technical and proved to be challenging for even the World’s best drivers.
