Xray have confirmed that American Touring Car ace Paul Lemieux will contest the penultimate round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series over the weekend of June 1-3 at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. Having made annual appearances in three of the four previous seasons of the world famous electric touring car series, this will be the US National Champion’s fourth time to race in the ETS but will be the Wisconsin driver’s first experience of the Apeldoorn venue which is rated by many top drivers as one of Europe’s greatest race tracks. The RC America/Thunder Power backed driver will join factory Xray drivers Alexander Hagberg and Martin Hudy at the fifth round as the Slovakian manufacturer looks to build on their maiden victory in the Ride Modified class at Round 4 in Poland that has moved Hagberg into contention for the overall 2011/12 ETS Championship title.

The ETS’s third visit to Apeldoorn since its inspection in 2008, the Dutch venue is the second of three asphalt events on this season’s calendar and is expected to see the regular World class field bolstered by a number of additional factory entries. Having claimed his first ETS victory at the first outdoor race in Gran Canaria, factory Kyosho driver Christopher Krapp is one of the pre-event favourites for Round 5 but can expect tough competition in particular from World Champion Marc Rheinard who took his first of two wins there last year. The Tamiya Racing Factory driver needs to take his first win of the current season if he is to have any chance of denying Team Yokomo’s Ronald Volker back to back Euro Touring Series titles.

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Alexander Hagberg pulled off a stunning drive in the third & deciding leg of the Ride Modified A-main at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series fourth round in Poland this evening to claim both his and Xray’s first win in the championship’s premiere class.  The day was to be very much an Xray affair at the podium presentations as team driver Zdenko Kunák took victory in the third Pro Stock A-Main to make it a double success for the Slovak company.

Having won the second A-Main after a rare mistake by Top Qualifier Ronald Volker, Hagberg had pretty much conceded the win to the reigning champion going into the final race of the day in Poznan based on the German’s domination of practice, qualifying and the opening A-Main but the Yokomo driver had a surprise lack of pace in the deciding race.  Securing his best ETS finish in the preceding race in Gran Canaria where he finished second, Hagberg could smell his first win but showed great patience waiting for the right opportunity to make his move on the man who has pretty much dominated the indoor carpet scene.  Making a pass in which the pair made contact to go to the front, the 22-year-old pulled clear and kept his nerve to take the leg ahead of the Tamiya’s of Marc Rheinard and Viktor Wilck to claim a popular overall victory which keeps the title race alive as the series now moves outdoors and on to asphalt.

Delighted with his win, but not half as much as his father Bosse, Hagberg said his car felt really good and was by far the best car out there.  Having finally added his name to the exclusive list of ETS race winners in a year in which he also took one of America’s biggest races, the Snowbirds, he said he is really looking forward to Round 5 at the start of June as he feels his Xray team have a better car this season for asphalt as he proved in Gran Canaria.  A long time driver with Xray, Hagberg thanked the team for their support along with his new electrics sponsor ORCA for whom this is also their first win in the world renowned touring car series.

Finish up fourth in the third leg, overall Volker ended up on the second step of the podium and after having had such an advantage over his rivals all weekend was clearly disappointed at losing out on his third victory of the season but added that Hagberg was a deserving winner.  Struggling with the handling of his car Volker said for no apparent reason the car had gone from being super easy to drive to being edgy and having a lot of understeer despite making no set-up changes and he couldn’t respond to Hagberg’s pace.  Regarded as best driver in the World on carpet, he said he wanted to thank his engineer Umino, a man who has been key to his success, for all his help over the indoor part part of the season.  Having come so close to successfully defending his ETS title today, Volker said he must now switch his attentions to racing outdoors and he is looking forward to the extra challenge.

Continuing his 100% record of podium finishes in this season’s series, the only driver with such a record, Rheinard said he was glad to see the end of the indoor season and added Apeldoorn cannot come quick enough.  Having by his own standards struggled this weekend, he said their car has always been better on asphalt so he will be looking to end the season like last year when he won the final two races.

Just off the podium, Freddy Südhoff ended his Awesomatix debut in the ETS in fourth position after struggling in the third main with traction roll.  Having finally got a good start from his second spot starting position, the German said his A700 started to struggle, in particular through left corners and eventually he traction rolled out of second to end up 5th.  Having experienced the high of claiming his first ETS victory at Round 3, Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp could only manage 8th position but the 19-year-old German is sure to be a force again when the series move to the Netherlands and back on to asphalt.

In the Xray Pro Stock deciding third A-Main, a close fought race between Top Qualifier Oliver Franke and Zdenko Kunák was to go the way of the Slovakian who becomes the first double race winner in the category this season.  Battling hard for the lead Franke ran a little wide and the Xray and HB made contact. Kunák waited but Franke ran over the dots allowing No.2 car to take the lead which he wouldn’t surrender.  Italian ETS round winner Steffen Leinburger, who was a surprise winner of Leg 1 from 5th on the grid, completed the podium on tie break from reigning champion Martin Hofer.  In the Formula class third place qualifier Roman Pichler took the win ahead of Dai Sakaguchi and pole sitter Herbert Weber.

With the biggest crowd we have ever witnessed at a race, being part of MotorShow Poznan has been a great experience for both the Yokomo Euro Touring Series and the sport in general as it is sure to have sparked an interest with the many youngsters who came along and witnessed the best touring car drivers provide some thrilling racing.  We look forward to returning again next year.

Ride Modified A-main leg 3 results
1. (3) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – 24/5:01.783
2. (4) Marc Rheinard (DE) – 24/5:02.885
3. (6) Viktor Wilck (SE) – 24/5:03.620
4. (1) Ronald Völker (DE) – 24/5:04.541
5. (2) Freddy Südhoff (DE) – 24/5:07.366
6. (9) Zdenko Kunák (SK) – 24/5:07.592
7. (7) Andy Moore (GB) – 24/5:07.995
8. (5) Magnus Vässmar (SE) – 24/5:08.596
9. (10) Marco Kaufmann (DE) – 24/5:12.403
10.(8) Christopher Krapp (DE) – 24/5:12.706

Ride Modified A-main Overall results
1. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/ORCA – 2pts
2. Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 4
3. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya/SP – 4
4. Freddy Südhoff (DE) – Awesomatix/LRP – 7
5. Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya/Thunder Power – 10
6. Zdenko Kunák (SK) – Xray/LRP – 10
7. Magnus Vässmar (SE) – Xray/Thunder Power – 11
8. Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho/Orion – 11
9. Andy Moore (GB) – HB/Hobbywing – 15
10.Marco Kaufmann (DE) – Xray/ORCA – 18

Xray Pro Stock A-main leg 3 results
1. (2) Zdenko Kunák (SK) – 23/5:06.105
2. (3) Martin Hofer (DE) – 23/5:07.244
3. (1) Oliver Franke (DE) – 23/5:08.504
4. (5) Steffen Leinburger (DE) – 23/5:09.547
5. (4) Ivan Laptev (RU) – 23/5:09.958
6. (7) Tony Streit (DE) – 23/5:10.554
7. (9) Marek Cerny (CZ) – 23/5:11.986
8. (6) Michal Orlowski (PL) – 22/5:01.333
9. (8) Denis Zuykov (RU) – 22/5:01.807
10.(10) Rob Janssen (NL) – 22/5:02.980

Xray Pro Stock A-main Overall results
1. Zdenko Kunák (SK) – Xray – 3pts
2. Oliver Franke (DE) – HB – 3
3. Steffen Leinburger (DE) – HB – 5
4. Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 5
5. Tony Streit (DE) – Xray – 7
6. Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 11
7. Michal Orlowski (PL) – Tamiya – 13
8. Marek Cerny (CZ) – Yokomo – 13
9. Denis Zuykov (RU) – Awesomatix – 15
10.Rob Janssen (NL) – Tamiya – 19

View the complete results here.

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Alexander Hagberg has won a thrilling second A-Main at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Poznan, Poland, after Top Qualifier & Leg 1 victor Ronald Volker made a rare mistake setting the stage for a grandstand finish in front the huge crowd in attendance at the MotorShow of which the fourth round of the series is taking place.

Unfortunately the size of the crowd attending MotorShow Poznan, which last year attracted almost 50,000 visitors, appears to have influenced the race as afterwards both Hagberg and Volker said they had been distracted by a member of the public who managed to get inbetween them on the drivers stand. Volker said the mistake was his own fault and couldn’t say it was the fault of the intruder but added he was a major distraction to his driving. Hagberg, who was standing next to Volker said he too was distracted by the stranger who seemed keen on being close to the race leader moving from Volker to Hagberg once the Swede was at the front.

Dropping back to seventh after the off, which cost him 4.5 seconds, Volker said he had no choice but to drive at ‘Maximum attack’ and the approach almost paid off as he worked his way to the front pulling off a great move on Freddy Südhoff to move into second on the penultimate lap.  With Hagberg now in his sight the German said he knew it was going to be a do or die lap but in the end he pushed too hard causing his Yokomo BD5 WXi to grip roll allowing Südhoff back to second.  The defending champion lost a further 4 seconds but managed to just hold off Xray’s Zdenko Kunák, who started 9th, to claim 3rd.  Volker said he needs to just focus now on a clean run for the deciding leg but he knows in terms of the car he has the package to get the job done.

Delighted with his win, Hagberg was realistic about the chances of bagging his first overall ETS victory saying if Volker drives clean he wont be beaten however he added that Leg 2 showed even the best can make mistakes.  Happy with his ORCA powered T3 2012 at the start of the race the Xray team leader said it got edgy in the latter part of the race.

Südhoff, who was muscled out off second by Hagberg at the second corner after the start, said his Awesomatix was a lot better this time round after he tried a different tyre prep.  The German said he still needs to make a better start through the first section of corners but is confident that he has the pace to claim an overall podium finish.

Unfortunately for Tamiya Racing Factory’s Viktor Wilck a potential Top 2 finish for the round ended when his Thunder Powered equipped TRF417 got hit by Südhoff’s A700.  Qualifying 6th, the Swede made a strong start and found himself in the middle of three way battle for the lead once Volker came undone.  Unfortunately after the contact from Südhoff, his car was collected by the following cars ending any chances of a recovery and he pulled up after 18 laps.

After a chaotic opening A-Main in the Xray Pro-Stock class, the second leg was a much cleaner affair with 18-year-old Top Qualifier Oliver Franke seeing off a strong challenge from Zdenko Kunák to take the win.  Defending Champion Martin Hofer completed the Top 3 while leg 1 winner Steffen Leinburger decided to pull up after two mistakes ended any chance of good finish.

Ride Modified A-main leg 2 results
1. (3) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – 24/5:04.284
2. (2) Freddy Südhoff (DE) – 24/5:05.713
3. (1) Ronald Völker (DE) – 24/5:08.483
4. (9) Zdenko Kunák (SK) – 24/5:08.676
5. (8) Christopher Krapp (DE) – 24/5:09.272
6. (4) Marc Rheinard (DE) – 24/5:09.476
7. (5) Magnus Vässmar (SE) – 24/5:13.157
8. (7) Andy Moore (GB) – 23/5:06.249
9. (10) Marco Kaufmann (DE) – 23/5:06.539
10.(6) Viktor Wilck (SE) – 18/3:58.212

Xray Pro Stock A-main leg 2 results
1. (1) Oliver Franke (DE) – 23/5:06.998
2. (2) Zdenko Kunák (SK) – 23/5:07.882
3. (3) Martin Hofer (DE) – 23/5:09.602
4. (7) Tony Streit (DE) – 23/5:10.298
5. (6) Michal Orlowski (PL) – 23/5:13.678
6. (4) Ivan Laptev (RU) – 23/5:15.030
7. (8) Denis Zuykov (RU) – 22/5:02.373
8. (9) Marek Cerny (CZ) – 22/5:06.554
9. (10) Rob Janssen (NL) – 18/4:14.404
10.(5) Steffen Leinburger (DE) – 12/2:45.517

View the complete results here.

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Widely regarded as the best carpet touring car racer in world, Ronald Volker showed why he has earned this accolade as he absolute dominated the opening Leg  of the A-Main at the fourth round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Poznan, Poland this morning.  Describing the race as ‘the perfect run’, the defending champion had checked out after the first lap leaving his rivals to fight over second spot, a battle which was won by Marc Rheinard from Alexander Hagberg after the Swede’s Xray traction rolled on lap 14.

Starting from his 3rd pole position of the season, Volker said his Yokomo BD5 was ’so easy to drive’ but added his early break from the field was helped by the slow No.2 starting Awesomatix of Freddy Südhoff.  Setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 4 of 25, the German said with the car so good he will not be touching a thing for Leg 2 when is it almost a foregone conclusion that he will wrap up his 6th ETS race victory.

Finishing second Marc Rheinard said starting from 4th on the grid and considering how his Tamiya is handling the result wasn’t too bad.  The World Champion added that such is Volker’s pace and advantage over everyone else the battle is now all about second and third spot at this evening’s podium presentation. Only managing the 7th fastest lap of the race, the German inherited the position rather then earning them as Südhoff ran wide on the first run down the straight and Hagberg flipped his Xray.

Hagberg who made a late charge to try and retake second from Rheinard over the closing laps of the 5-minute race said his ORCA powered T3 was fast but difficult to drive particularly in the middle of the run.  The Swede who took his first ETS podium finish at the previous Round in Gran Canaria said he has no choice but to change his set-up for Leg 2.  Behind Hagberg Xray team-mate and fellow countryman Magnus Vässmar took fourth from fifth on the grid,a result which the 25-year-old was pretty pleased with.

For ‘Fast Freddy’ the race didn’t go to plan at all.  The factory Awesomatix driver said his LRP powered A700 had no traction for the first three laps and when he turned in on the first run down the straight the car just went straight on. Although the car felt good by the end of the race as he took fifth, Südhoff said he has no idea what he needs to change for the second A-Main.

A race which saw a lot of contract between drivers Hot Bodies’ Andy Moore pulled off after he had enough of being bounced around.  Championship standings leader Christopher Krapp had a crash at the start but the Kyosho driver was able to recover to finish 6th.

In the A-Main of the Xray Pro-Stock class the race was a chaotic affair with almost every driver coming into contact with one another.  At the end it was Italian ETS round winner Steffen Leinburger who came out best.  Starting from 5th on the grid after motor problems in qualifying yesterday, the German HB driver took the win ahead of fellow TCX driver and Top Qualifier Oliver Franke who saw his chances of the win ultimately ended when he suffered a body tuck.  Tony Streit completed the Top 3 just ahead of fastest man in the race Zdenko Kunák who had a failed attempt at taking the lead which led to a chain reaction of crashes.

Ride Modified A-main leg 1 results
1. Ronald Völker (DE) – 25/5:11.361
2. Marc Rheinard (DE) – 24/5:02.863
3. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – 24/5:02.993
4. Magnus Vässmar (SE) – 24/5:03.448
5. Freddy Südhoff (DE) – 24/5:04.901
6. Christopher Krapp (DE) – 24/5:08.278
7. Viktor Wilck (SE) – 24/5:09.161
8. Zdenko Kunák (SK) – 24/5:09.736
9. Marco Kaufmann (DE) – 24/5:10.760
10.Andy Moore (GB) – 8/1:38.640

Xray Pro Stock A-main leg 1 results
1. Steffen Leinburger (DE) – 23/5:12.561
2. Oliver Franke (DE) – 22/5:00.010
3. Tony Streit (DE) – 22/5:01.490
4. Zdenko Kunák (SK) – 22/5:01.507
5. Martin Hofer (DE) – 22/5:01.875
6. Marek Cerny (CZ) – 22/5:02.684
7. Ivan Laptev (RU) – 22/5:05.969
8. Denis Zuykov (RU) – 22/5:09.889
9. Michal Orlowski (PL) – 15/3:27.232
10.Rob Janssen (NL) – 10/2:11.069

View the complete results here.

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Reigning Euro Touring Series Champion Ronald Volker is Top Qualifier for tomorrow’s fourth round in Poznan, Poland, the Yokomo driver securing his third pole position of the 2011/12 season to line up ahead of Awesomatix’s Freddy Südhoff and Xray’s Alexander Hagberg in the Ride Modified A-Main.

Running the fastest heat of the weekend in the fifth & final qualifier, Volker was pushed hard over the 5-minutes by an ever improving Hagberg who set a new fastest lap of 12.672 on his way to second for the round.  Aware that his LRP powered BD5 is still not the quickest in terms of outright pace Volker said changes made for Q5 gave him a better feeling with the car and he was able to drive it with a lot more confidence as a result.  Commenting on Hagberg’s speed over a single lap he said he thinks over a full race distance he has the upper hand.  Happy to take the overall TQ, the German said he is actually more happy about bagging the championship point that comes with it.

Hagberg said his ORCA powered T3 had a little understeer and considering this the Snowbirds Champion said he didn’t feel he could have driven much better so he was very happy with how he ended his day.  Admitting to being a little frustrated at missing out on taking the penultimate round of qualifying due to a poor last lap which would cost him second on the grid, the Swede added he believes he has a good chance a going for the win tomorrow.

Struggling with traction roll in the final qualifier leading him to pull up after 3-minutes, Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard will line up fourth on the grid following what he described as a ‘frustating’ day. With his chances of challenging Volker for the ETS title rapidly fading the World Champion had little to say about what he felt he could do starting from fourth.  Team-mate Viktor Wilck was in contrast very happy with the final outcome of his day.  Changing to a softer front shock oil and widening the front track of his Thunder Power equipped TRF417, the Swede said it felt good and was easy to drive until he made a mistake a hit a curb ending any chance of a strong final qualifier. The Swede said considering the circumstances he was happy to line up 6th.

Seperating the two Tamiya Racing Factory drivers was man of the weekend Magnus Vässmar.  The 25-year-old who was in the B-Main on his last ETS appearance in Italy, was delighted with 5th on a grid that features four Xrays with Zdenko Kunák and 18-year-old German driver Marco Kaufmann also making the show.  Although he made the A-Main previously, this is Vässmar’s best result but he said he is not setting himself any targets prefering to just wait to see how it goes.

Lining up 7th and 8th on the grid Andy Moore and Christopher Krapp both enjoyed a strong final qualifier but said maybe they found their pace a little bit too late in the day.  Krapp said his first aim of the weekend was to get into the final and now that he’s achieved that he could now focus on the race.  Finding a good set-up for Q5 he can now push his Kyosho a lot harder so his plan is to enjoy the finals and see how it turns out.  Qualifying sixth for the season opener in Germany he ended up achieving his first ever ETS podium finish in the race, a performance he will be hoping he can repeat tomorrow.

In Pro Stock, HB driver Oliver Franke drove the perfect final qualifier to snatch the overall TQ honour from Xray’s Zdenko Kunák.  The German needed not just to take Q5 but set a new fastest time and that just what he did denying the Slovak from taking a third pole position of the season. The first time the former race winner has TQ’d an ETS race he said he is very confident about his chances of taking the win tomorrow. Having taken three of the five qualifiers Kunák was very dissappointed to miss out and admitted he is going to have his work cut out tomorrow.  Defending Champion Martin Hofer lines up third just ahead of the man he shares the current lead in the points standings with, Ivan Laptev.

In the Speed Passion Formula class Herbert Weber took the final qualifier with a new fastest time to ensure he became Top Qualifier on the tie break after he finished on the same quali points as Dai Sakaguchi.

Ride Modified Qualifying Round 5
1. Ronald Volker (DE) – Yokomo – 24/5:10.214
2. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 24/5:11.306
3. Magnus Vässmar (SE) – Xray – 24/5:12.323
4. Andy Moore (GB) – HB – 24/5:12.629
5. Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 23/5:00.615
6. Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray – 23/5:01.565
7. Tim Wahl (DE) – Xray – 23/5:02.167
8. Niclas Nilsson (SE) – Xray – 23/5:03.492
9. Marco Kaufmann (DE) – Xray – 23/5:03.502
10.Eric Dankel (DE) – Yokomo – 23/5:05.912

Ride Modified A-Main Grid
1. Ronald Völker (DE) – 310pts – Yokomo
2. Freddy Südhoff (DE) – 307 – Awesomatix
3. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – 306 – Xray
4. Marc Rheinard (DE) – 305 – Tamiya
5. Magnus Vässmar (SE) – 305 – Xray
6. Viktor Wilck (SE) – 302  – Tamiya
7. Andy Moore (GB) – 301 – HB
8. Christopher Krapp (DE) – 300 – Kyosho
9. Zdenko Kunák (SK) – 298 – Xray
10.Marco Kaufmann (DE) – 296 – Xray

Xray Pro-Stock Qualifying Round 5
1. Oliver Franke (DE) – HB – 22/5:03.736
2. Zdenko Kunák (SK) – Xray – 22/5:03.971
3. Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 22/5:04.281
4. Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 22/5:06.895
5. Marek Cerny (CZ) – Yokomo – 22/5:07.820
6. Michal Orlowski (PL) – Tamiya – 22/5:07.888
7. Carsten Madsen (DK) – Awesomatix – 22/5:08.285
8. Denis Zuykov (RU) – Awesomatix – 22/5:08.723
9. Rob Janssen (NL) – Tamiya – 22/5:08.872
10.Fabian Bucher (DE) – Xray – 22/5:09.176

Xray Pro-Stock A-Main Grid
1. Oliver Franke (DE) – 310pts – HB
2. Zdenko Kunák (SK) – 310 – Xray
3. Martin Hofer (DE) – 306 – Schumacher
4. Ivan Laptev (RU) – 304 – Awesomatix
5. Steffen Leinburger (DE) – 304 – HB
6. Michal Orlowski (PL) – 303 – Tamiya
7. Tony Streit (DE) – 303 – Xray
8. Denis Zuykov (RU) – 300 – Awesomatix
9. Marek Cerny (CZ) – 298 – Yokomo
10.Rob Janssen (NL) – 297 – Tamiya

View the complete results here.

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In the penultimate qualifier for the fourth round of the Euro Touring Series in Poland, Ronald Volker and Zdenko Kunák returned to the top of the time sheets putting them both on target to secure their third overall TQ honours of the 2011/12 season in their respective classes.

Volker produced his second 24-lap run of the event in Q4 ahead of the Xray of Alexander Hagberg who becomes the only other driver to match the Yokomo driver in terms of laps completed over 5-minutes. In what is turning out to be a Germany versus Sweden battle this weekend, Magnus Vässmar was third fastest ahead of fellow Swede Viktor Wilck with championship standings leader Christopher Krapp fifth.

Having set the pace in Q3 Freddy Südhoff suffered a spur gear failure in the fourth heat but goes into the final qualifier as the only driver who can deny Volker from starting tomorrow’s final on pole position. Setting the fastest lap for the round with a 12.743, Marc Rheinard was on a potential TQ run until a mistake on lap 8 cost him over 2 seconds, a further two mistakes meant the World Champion ended up with 19th for the round.

Behind Kunák in the Xray Pro-Stock class Martin Hofer took second for the round with Q3 pace setter Oliver Franke third, the trio separated by just 7/10th. Like Volker, Kunák only has one challenger to him carrying No.1 on his Xray in the A-Main and that is Franke. In the Formula class Austrian driver Herbert Weber backed up his Q3 TQ run leaving him equal with Germany’s Dai Sakaguchi, who TQ’d the opening two qualifiers, meaning its going to be decided on who ends up with the fastest 5-minute time.

Ride Modified Qualifying Round 4
1. Ronald Volker (DE) – Yokomo – 24/5:11.316
2. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 24/5:12.611
3. Magnus Vässmar (SE) – Xray – 23/5:00.913
4. Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya – 23/5:01.794
5. Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 23/5:02.530
6. Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray – 23/5:02.857
7. Andy Moore (GB) – HB – 23/5:03.539
8. Tim Wahl (DE) – Xray – 23/5:04.098
9. Steen Graversen (DK) – Awesomatix – 23/5:04.175
10.Niclas Nilsson (SE) – Xray – 23/5:04.693

Xray Pro-Stock Qualifying Round 4
1. Zdenko Kunak (SK) – Xray – 22/5:04.731
2. Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 22/5:05.456
3. Oliver Franke (DE) – HB – 22/5:05.531
4. Michal Orlowski (PL) – Tamiya – 22/5:07.524
5. Steffen Leinburger (DE) – HB – 22/5:07.613
6. Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 22/5:07.964
7. Marek Cerny (CZ) – Yokomo – 22/5:08.589
8. Rob Janssen (NL) – Tamiya – 22/5:09.056
9. Carsten Madsen (DK) – Awesomatix – 22/5:09.416
10.Daniel Wohlgemuth (DE) – HB – 22/5:09.516

View the complete results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Awesomatix team driver Freddy Südhoff has taken the third round of qualifying at the Yokomo Euro Touring in Poznan, Poland. The 22-year-old, who is being tipped to be a strong title contender at this year’s upcoming World Championships, is the first driver to top the time sheets as early event dominator Ronald Volker rolled his Yokomo out of a TQ run before pulling up after a second mistake in Q3.

Having described his A700 as feeling like a drift car in Q2, ‘Fast Freddy’ said a change to his tyre prep gave him the start pace he had been looking for but added that by the end of the 5-minutes it was starting to get a little loose. Having tried different tyre preparations for each of his runs so far this weekend the German, who just set the fastest lap of the weekend with 12.708, said he thinks now its time to focus on the set-up of the unique dampers on the Russian designed car.

Losing out on a TQ run to Südhoff by 15/100ths following a messy final lap, Alexander Hagberg was still very upbeat about his latest run. The Swede has been fighting with his own driving since arriving in Poland but believes he has now got that under control. Admitting he lost out on taking the round due to some small mistakes in the final few laps, the Round 3 podium finisher said his Xray is working well and with his confidence coming back up he is determined to redeem himself in the final two qualifiers.

Another driver to throw away a TQ run was Marc Rheinard. The World Champion caught a dot coming onto the straight on his penultimate lap losing 1-second to finish third fastest 4/10th off the TQ pace. The Tamiya driver switched his front tyres from left to right for Q3 and said it reversed the problem he had in the opening two qualifiers of the car being ok through left corners and a handful when turning right. The German, who said the mistake was his own doing, also tried a front geardiff for the round but said he thinks he will revert to a spool for his next run.

With his Xray a bit of a handful in Q2, Magnus Vässmar said he changed his tyre prep and rebuilt his shocks for the third round which slightly improved it but it was still too hard to drive and once again lead him to make a mistake. Taking fourth for the round which currently puts him fifth in the qualification ranking he plans to try a number of changes to the set-up for his penultimate heat. Making it three Xray’s in the Top 5 young German driver Marco Kaufmann drove a strong round to set the fifth fastest time ahead of championship leader Christopher Krapp, the pair running in the second fastest of the heat groupings.

19-year-old Krapp said his Kyosho was the same as in Q2, in which he was 16th, only this time round he made no mistakes. Admitting his is still someway off the pace of front runners the German plans to try make the TF6 easier to drive for Q4 in the hope that he will be able to push a little harder without taking too much risk. He added that he is also starting to get more confident with the carpet track so all in all things are starting to look a lot more positive about making the A-Main.

Still the only driver to record 24-laps around the huge track here at the Poznan MotorShow, Volker ran the same set up for the third heat and said he wasn’t sure if his traction roll was due to him driving a little to aggressive or due to a change in track conditions. After his roll the ETS Champion said he tried to make back the time but pushed too hard resulting in a second mistake after which he decided to pull up.

In the Xray Pro-Stock class we also saw a change at the top after the top qualifier from Q1 & 2 Zdenko Kunák also rolled his Xray. This left the door open for HB driver Oliver Franke to post fastest time. The German driver who rolled in the opening two qualifiers leaving him well down the order glued up his front tyre walls and opted to go for a clean rather than fast run and said the end result was ‘near perfect’. Defending Champion Martin Hofer took second for the round with Polish Tamiya driver Michal Orlowski completing the Top 3.

Ride Modified Qualifying Round 3
1. Freddy Südhoff (DE) – Awesomatix – 23/5:00.562
2. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 23/5:00.714
3. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya – 23/5:00.964
4. Magnus Vässmar (SE) – Xray – 23/5:02.668
5. Marco Kaufmann (DE) – Xray – 23/5:03.095
6. Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 23/5:03.432
7. Eric Dankel (DE) – Yokomo – 23/5:03.615
8. Martin Hudy (SK) – Xray – 23/5:05.092
9. Tim Wahl (DE) – Xray – 23/5:06.250
10.Elliot Harper (GB) – Tamiya – 23/5:06.271

Xray Pro-Stock Qualifying Round 3
1. Oliver Franke (DE) – HB – 22/5:06.563
2. Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 22/5:06.736
3. Michal Orlowski (PL) – Tamiya – 22/5:08.648
4. Steffen Leinburger (DE) – HB – 22/5:09.009
5. Denis Zuykov (RU) – Awesomatix – 22/5:09.541
6. Jens Kroger (DE) – Kyosho – 22/5:09.616
7. Rob Janssen (NL) – Tamiya – 22/5:09.958
8. Tony Streit (DE) – Xray – 22/5:10.497
9. Marek Cerny (CZ) – Yokomo – 22/5:10.583
10.Fabian Boucher (DE) – Xray – 22/5:10.595

View the complete results here.

View the event image gallery here.