Sunday, March 20, 2011
Video – Mod & Pro Stock A-main Leg 3 Categories - Racing, Report - comments closed
The winner of the first ever ETS race back in 2007, Juho Levanen finally returned, 18 races later, to the top step of the podium with victory today in the fourth round of the 2010/11 series at Legionowo, Poland. The 26-year-old claimed the victory with his second win of the day in the third leg to beat Ronald Volker and end the German’s domination of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series.
Commenting on his first big touring car win for sometime, the three time European Champion said it was good to taste victory again and even better to give Associated’s TC6 its first major win in Europe. Following the early end to his challenge in Leg 2, Levanen took a more cautious approach going in to the final race of the day and made his move on the straight with Volker unable to respond. Although Volker reduced the gap in the later part of the race, Levanen had remained calm to take a very popular victory.
Graceful in defeat Volker congratulated Levanen on his victory saying the Finnish ace was a deserving winner having been the fastest driver since TQ’ing the final round of qualifying on Saturday evening. Switching car for the deciding A-Main, Volker said it was totally different to the previous car and was not good enough to match Levanen’s pace.
Third in the final leg Elliot Harper was very happy with his performance as he netted his first ETS podium finish. Bringing Tamiya’s unbroken run of podium finishes to 15, the English teenager described the weekend as a turning point for the TRF417 and said it was nice to come away with a good result.
Once again Team Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper missed out on a podium finish and as at the third round in Austria ended up fourth overall. Setting the fastest lap of the final leg, TITC winner Andy Moore ended the event in fifth but leaves the Arena Legionowo upbeat about the performance of his Hot Bodies TCX saying it was the best it has ever been on carpet. The pace setter in Friday’s practice, Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg completed the Top 6, a result he will be disappointed with having started the weekend so well.
Like in the Xenon Modified class, the outcome of the Xray Pro Stock class went down to the final leg. Top Qualifier Ivan Laptev looked on target to take a historic win for the small Awesomatix operation but with a minute to go caught a piece of tape sending his A700 rolling out of contention. This allowed Schumacher’s Martin Hofer, who was closing in on the Russian, to take the win to back his maiden ETS success in Austria with a second victory for the British company. Finishing Leg 3 second ahead of Swiss driver Sandro Kuriger, Oliver Franke completed the podium for Hot Bodies.
The indoor leg of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series is now complete with the fifth round taking racers outdoors to the beautiful Apledoorn track in the Netherlands. With just under three months of a break, drivers have plenty of time to get their set-up sorted for the June 10-12 asphalt event.
Xenon Modified A-Final – Leg 3
1.(2) Juho Levanen (FI) – Associated/Reedy – 24/5:12.281
2.(1) Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 24/5:13.399
3.(3) Elliot Harper (GB) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 23/5:00.548
4.(4) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/LRP – 23/5:00.827
5.(5) Yannic Prumper (DE) – Yokomo/Speed Passion – 23/5:01.447
6.(6) Andy Moore (GB) – Hot Bodies/Moore Speed – 23/5:01.697
7.(7) Magnus Vassmar (SE) – Xray/Nosram – 23/5:02.703
8.(8) Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray/LRP – 23/5:06.483
9.(9) Rene Klöckner (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 23/5:07.625
10.(10)Thomas Mirke (DE) – Xray/LRP – 23/5:08.071
Xray Pro-Stock A-Final – Leg 3
1.(2) Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 22/5:05.624
2.(4) Oliver Franke – (DE) – Hot Bodies – 22/5:07.167
3.(7) Sandro Kuriger (CH) – Tamiya – 22/5:09.383
4.(3) Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray – 22/5:10.198
5.(1) Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 22/5:11.971
6.(9) Philip Tschupp (CH) – TOP – 22/5:12.219
7.(8) John Bruins (NL) – Tamiya – 22/5:14.206
8.(6) Vasco Christiaanse (NL) – Kyosho – 21/5:03.912
9.(5) René Klöckner – (DE) – Tamiya – 21/5:05.041
10.(10)Beni Stutz (CH) – Tamiya – 21/5:06.089
Xenon Modified Overall Result
1.(2) Juho Levanen (FI) – Associated/Reedy – 2pts
2.(1) Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 3
3.(3) Elliot Harper (GB) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 5
4.(5) Yannic Prumper (DE) – Yokomo/Speed Passion – 8
5.(6) Andy Moore (GB) – Hot Bodies/Moore Speed – 9
6.(4) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/LRP – 9
7.(7) Magnus Vassmar (SE) – Xray/Nosram – 12
8.(8) Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray/LRP – 15
9.(10)Thomas Mirke (DE) – Xray/LRP – 18
10.(9)Rene Klöckner (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 18
Xray Pro-Stock Overall Result
1.(2) Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 2
2.(1) Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 3
3.(4) Oliver Franke – (DE) – Hot Bodies – 4
4.(7) Sandro Kuriger (CH) – Tamiya – 7
5.(3) Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray – 8
6.(8) John Bruins (NL) – Tamiya – 12
7.(9) Philip Tschupp (CH) – TOP – 14
8.(6) Vasco Christiaanse (NL) – Kyosho – 14
9.(10)Beni Stutz (CH) – Tamiya – 16
10.(5)René Klöckner – (DE) – Tamiya – 17
View the complete results here.
View our event image gallery here.
Video – Mod & Pro Stock A-main Leg 2 Categories - Racing, Report - comments closed
After the excitement of the first leg of Xenon Modified final here in Poland the anticipated battle didn’t materialize when an early move by Juho Levanen on Ronald Volker resulted in the Associated driver rolling out of contention. This left Top Qualifier Volker to take a tone to tone victory meaning the winner of the fourth round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series will be decided in the third and final race of the day.
One of racing’s most sporting drivers Volker said he felt sorry for his coming together with Levanen as the Finnish ace tried to pass him around the outside. Levanen was quick to call it a racing accident and point the blame more on himself for trying such a move saying ‘maybe I was a bit stupid trying to overtake where I did’. Playing a waiting game in the opening leg which he won in the thrilling last lap battle, the former European Champion said because Volker was so slow he was under pressure from Tamiya Elliot Harper which forced him into making his move. Rejoining the race last on the wrong part of the track, the incident cost Levanen a massive 7 seconds but such was the blistering pace of his TC6 he worked his way back up to sixth setting a new fastest lap of 12.890 to cross the finish line just over 4 seconds behind winner Volker.
Volker said his lack of pace was due to his car having ‘zero’ traction in the opening laps and with no confidence in it he now plans to run his second chassis in the events deciding race. The reigning European Champion said running the second car, which has a different chassis plate, is a huge risk but needs to be taken if he is to have any chance of securing his fourth consecutive ETS victory.
Finishing second, Harper was happy with his result but said his TRF417 is still not fast enough and he is not sure why. Glad to be competitive this weekend after ending up in the B-Main in Austria, the TRF driver will try a different set of tyres in the third leg as he looks to secure his first ETS podium finish.
Andy Moore enjoyed a good run to third but was annoyed he had not capitalized on an ‘epic’ start which saw him get by Yannic Prumper. The recent TITC winner said his Moore Speed powered HB TCX was really good but after throwing away his great start there was little he could do to challenge at the front as the pack is so closely matched. In the end Moore benefited from Prumper and Alexander Hagberg coming together, Hagberg dropping from third to 8th as a result.
In Pro Stock Ivan Laptev looked like giving Awesomatix their first international win but in the final laps he made a mistake allowing Martin Hofer to find a way passed. Laptev came back at him and the pair made a dash side by side to the finish line with Hofer’s Schumacher getting the win by just 19/1000th of a second. The Russian said afterwards the pressure got to him as challenging for victory at an international race is not something he is familiar with. Hofer said the close finish was what Pro Stock racing is all about and predicts an exciting third final. Third spot went to Oliver Franke.
Xenon Modified A-Final – Leg 2
1.(1) Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 24/5:12.292
2.(3) Elliot Harper (GB) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 24/5:12.975
3.(6) Andy Moore (GB) – Hot Bodies/Moore Speed – 23/5:00.749
4.(5) Yannic Prumper (DE) – Yokomo/Speed Passion – 23/5:01.407
5.(7) Magnus Vassmar (SE) – Xray/Nosram – 23/5:02.800
6.(2) Juho Levanen (FI) – Associated/Reedy – 23/5:03.240
7.(8) Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray/LRP – 23/5:04.982
8.(4) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/LRP – 23/5:05.123
9.(9) Rene Klöckner (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 23/5:07.373
10.(10)Thomas Mirke (DE) – Xray/LRP – 23/5:08.035
Xray Pro-Stock A-Final – Leg 2
1.(2) Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 22/5:04.296
2.(1) Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 22/5:04.315
3.(4) Oliver Franke – (DE) – Hot Bodies – 22/5:07.794
4.(7) Sandro Kuriger (CH) – Tamiya – 22/5:13.236
5.(8) John Bruins (NL) – Tamiya – 21/5:13.763
6.(3) Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray – 21/5:01.455
7.(10)Beni Stutz (CH) – Tamiya – 21/5:03.399
8.(5) René Klöckner – (DE) – Tamiya – 21/5:04.897
9.(6) Vasco Christiaanse (NL) – Kyosho – 20/4:42.199
10.(9)Philip Tschupp (CH) – TOP – 4/0:54.533
View the complete results here.
View our event image gallery here.
Video – Mod & Pro Stock A-main Leg 1 Categories - Racing, Report - comments closed
Team Associated’s Juho Levanen has won a thrilling opening final at the fourth round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Legionowo, Poland. Starting from second on the grid, the Finnish ace followed Top Qualifier Ronald Volker around the track for four minutes before the race came alive culminating in a final lap that had the crowd in the Arena on their feet as he pulled off a great series of moves to beat the German.
Applying some pressure to Volker in the opening 2 laps Levanen dropped back and it looked like the Yokomo driver had checked out for the win while the focus of attention turned to the five car battle for third. Setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 9 it was from this point that Levanen began to make his comeback as he tidied up his lines. Commenting on the race the winner of the first ever ETS event said, ‘The first half of the race I made too many mistakes but I got it together and then when Ronald had his moment I knew the win was possible. My car was really good and I dont think I could have made it any better’.
Looking to maintain a 100% success rate in this season’s ETS having TQ’d & won the opening three events, Volker said afterwards that he got more congratulations following the race than he would normally get if he won, showing the level of appreciation fellow racers had for the battle that took place. The European Champion said new tyres for the race did not suit his BD5WX and he had no confidence with it as it suffered from huge understeer out of the corners. Asked about his moment on lap 19 that allowed Levanen to get on his back bumper, Volker knew even without it Levanen was going to catch him and challenge for the win. Eventually the race was decided when the pair touched in the last section of corners but Volker said it was just a racing incident. Lucky to recover to just get out in front of the battle for third and finish second, Volker said he had enjoyed the battle and was proud of his comeback pass on Levanen at the end of the straight.
Finishing third Elliot Harper described his race as difficult as he had to drive a very defensively due to a problem with the rear gear diff in his Tamiya TRF417. That driving frustrated Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg who could not find a way passed as the pack bunched up behind the British teenager. Eventually Hagberg’s frustration got the better of him and he made a mistake which allowed Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper through to take fourth. Andy Moore completed the Top 6 with his Hot Bodies finishing just ahead of the Xray of Sweden’s Vassmar Magnus.
In Pro Stock Ivan Laptev began the next chapter in the success story in the making that is Awesomatix. Having claimed the first TQ honour for the Russian car yesterday he led the opening leg of the final from start to finish. The Moscow driver said afterwards the car was a little slow in the beginning of the race, most likely due to tyre additive on the tyres, but with each lap it got better and better allowing him to open up a comfortable lead to take a popular win.
Martin Hofer applied some pressure on Laptev in the opening laps but faded and then traction rolled his Schumacher. The German said his Mi4cx had too much grip on the fresh set of the Xenon control tyres but is confident things should be a lot better for Leg 2. Coming from fourth on the grid to take third, setting the fastest lap of the race on the way, Oliver Franke said new tyres transformed his Hot Bodies.
Xenon Modified A-Final – Leg 1
1.(2) Juho Levanen (FI) – Associated/Reedy – 24/5:13.174
2.(1) Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 23/5:00.854
3.(3) Elliot Harper (GB) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 23/5:01.311
4.(5) Yannic Prumper (DE) – Yokomo/Speed Passion – 23/5:01.401
5.(4) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/LRP – 23/5:01.543
6.(6) Andy Moore (GB) – Hot Bodies/Moore Speed – 23/5:02.294
7.(7) Magnus Vassmar (SE) – Xray/Nosram – 23/5:02.557
8.(10)Thomas Mirke (DE) – Xray/LRP – 23/5:06.765
9.(8) Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray/LRP – 23/5:08.630
10.(9)Rene Klöckner (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 23/5:11.382
Xray Pro-Stock A-Final – Leg 1
1.(1) Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 22/5:04.355
2.(4) Oliver Franke – (DE) – Hot Bodies – 22/5:07.681
3.(2) Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 22/5:08.081
4.(3) Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray – 22/5:09.610
5.(7) Sandro Kuriger (CH) – Tamiya – 22/5:13.686
6.(6) Vasco Christiaanse (NL) – Kyosho – 21/5:00.814
7.(8) John Bruins (NL) – Tamiya – 21/5:02.395
8.(9) Philip Tschupp (CH) – TOP – 21/5:02.711
9.(10)Beni Stutz (CH) – Tamiya – 21/5:05.331
10.(5)René Klöckner – (DE) – Tamiya – 21/5:05.448
View the complete results here.
View our event image gallery here.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Video – Qualifying Heat 19 – Round 4 Categories - Racing, Report - comments closed
Juho Levanen ended Day 2 of the fourth round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series on a high as he set the fastest five minute run of the Polish event to TQ the final qualifier ahead of overall Top Qualifier Ronald Volker. The run sees the factory Team Associated driver line-up second on the grid for tomorrow’s triple A-Mains. Having left the set-up on his TC6 the same as Q3, the Finn said the extra speed came from him driving it better. Delighted to outpace Volker, a driver Levanen himself said ‘you dont beat too often’, he said the margin could have been larger but with about 30-seconds to run his car started to struggle to turn left, the cause of which he has been unable to identify. His best ever ETS starting position, the winner of the series’ first ever event says he is really looking forward to putting in a strong challenge for win number 2 tomorrow.
Having secured the overall TQ honours by topping the opening three qualifiers Volker said his car was very inconsistent for the first half of the heat but then started to work reall well. Asked if he expects a close race considering he has dominated the first three rounds of the 2010/11 Series the German ace said it is very close between the top 4 qualifiers and he is taking nothing for granted.
Despite the absence of his TRF team-mates, who are racing electric off road in the US this weekend, Elliot Harper is another to secure his best ETS start position. Setting the third fastest time in the final run of the day his Tamiya TRF417 will line up third.
Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg suffered a radio glitch in Q4 which resulted in his slowest run of the day and the man who set the pace in yesterday’s practice lines up a lower than anticipated fourth. Behind Hagberg on the grid is Yannic Prumper who pulled up early in the final qualifier. Setting the fastest lap for Q4, which was just 1/1000th off the best lap of the weekend set by Volker, Hot Bodies’ Andy Moore will start sixth on the grid.
In Pro Stock Ivan Laptev gave the new Russian Awesomatix its first international race accolade by securing TQ honours ahead of ETS Round 3 winner Martin Hofer. Laptev took the uniquely designed shaft driven car to a third TQ run of the day. Changing from a Mazda Speed 6 shell to an LTC-R he topped Q4 with the best time of the day with Zdenko Kunak second fastest. Driving an Xray, Slovakian Kunak will line up third on the grid tomorrow behind Hofer and in front of Oliver Franke who in Austria finished second from fifth on the grid.
Xenon Modified A-Final Grid
1. Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 310
2. Juho Levanen (FI) – Associated/Reedy – 308
3. Elliot Harper (GB) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 305
4. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/LRP – 304
5. Yannic Prumper (DE) – Yokomo/Speed Passion – 304
6. Andy Moore (GB) – Hot Bodies/Moore Speed – 303
7. Magnus Vassmar (SE) – Xray/Nosram – 297
8. Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray/LRP – 296
9. Rene Klöckner (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 295
10.Thomas Mirke (DE) – Xray/LRP – 293
Xray Pro-Stock A-Final Grid
1. Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 310
2. Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 309
3. Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray – 307
4 Oliver Franke – (DE) – Hot Bodies – 304
5. René Klöckner – (DE) – Tamiya – 304
6. Vasco Christiaanse (NL) – Kyosho – 304
7. Sandro Kuriger (CH) – Tamiya – 300
8. John Bruins (NL) – Tamiya – 298
9. Philip Tschupp (CH) – TOP – 297
10.Beni Stutz (CH) – Tamiya – 293
View the complete results here.
View our event image gallery here.
