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published: 2013-08-16 23:37:17 (58870) Author: Willy Wuyts

EC A 1/10 Ic Track Kirchberg Austria mediapartner blog

EFRA 1/10th IC Touring Car Qualifying Round up
It’s been a tough week for Dutchman Jilles Groskamp, he struggled to find balance on his Shepherd Chassis, the car not handling to his liking. But over night some big changes including body shell and a return to the set up which brought him victory at the ENS at this track earlier in the year really turned things around for him and his first qualifying heat 17 laps in 5:14:089 was not to be beaten! in the second two rounds he did some testing and in the fourth and final round it looked like he might be on for 17 in 5:13, however his mechanic alerting him to this news put him off and briefly and it was game over! No great loss though and the Shepherd team driver is very happy going into finals day.
Eric Dankel, quite dominant during practice and still the fastest man over 1, 3 or even 5 laps, repeatedly lowered the lap record (which he currently holds at 18.184) but sadly couldn’t string together enough consistency today to challenge for TQ. Most notably mistakes first thing when the track was at it’s best cost him his chance of topping the time sheet but in round 4 he finally found his mojo and clocked 5:14:162 which will put him on pole in Semi B
Dominic Greiner however, John Hindhaugh our host this weekend has taken to calling ‘Greiner the grinder’ because he grinds lap after lap with such consistency, John believes this means his style will be much more suited to the 20 minutes and hopefully 45 minute long races if he makes the main final so perhaps he’s one to watch!
The rest of the days action really focussed on position #14 – the semi finals cut off point, Great Britain’s Mark Green, spent the day battling with Alexander Hagberg, Adrien Bertin and surprisingly Robert Pietsch, though Francesco Tironi was ultimately the unlucky driver who will have to join the others in the 1/4 finals and battle for a top 3 position to join #14 Mark Green in the semi standings. Alexander Hagberg eventually claimed 12th after a lacklustre few days and surprisingly former EC winner Dirk Wischnewski could only get to 16th, but of course everything changes tomorrow and the 6 drivers who make it through the 1/4 finals will have 20 minutes of track experience (at least) to help them on their way… Stay tuned for an exciting finals day tomorrow!
Plus you can fast forward through the whole day of coverage here!! Don’t forget to check out the qualifying round up interviews right at the end!