World Champions go head to head as ETS makes first visit to Czech Republic
The third round of the 2009/2010 Euro Touring Series travels for the first time to the Czech Republic this weekend where almost 200 drivers from around the world will descend on the town of Hrotovice in the south of the country. While current electric Touring Car World Champion Marc Rheinard is no stranger to competing in the Xenon Racing backed series, this weekend the German will go head to head with the nitro Touring Car World title holder Daniele Ielasi.
The Italian’s participation in the 3-day event has come about after he met up with Marc’s brother Toni at the Italian Grand Prix back in December. Racing an old car he had borrowed from a friend, Ielasi made the A-Main impressing Toni enough for him to offer the man behind IDM engines the use of a Tamiya/Speedpassion combination for the Czech event. Keen to see how he would compare against his electric equivalent when using the same equipment Ielasi jumped at the offer.
In the championship it is Viktor Wilck who leads the way holding a slender one point championship lead over his Tamiya team-mate Rheinard. The Swede, who dominated Round 1 in Kastellaun from pole position, finished third in Budapest where Rheinard won but will be hoping to reverse that result this weekend and extend his lead in the standings.
Once again there will be a large team presence this weekend. Juho Levanen heads the challenge for Team Associated and will be joined by British team driver Olly Jefferies who makes his first ETS appearance. 2006 World Champion Andy Moore is in attendance for Hot Bodies, while Martin Hudy represents the Xray factory who took second last time out with Teemu Leino. Having made their official team debut in the ETS at Round 2, Schumacher Racing are back for more with 5 times British Champion Chris Grainger. Other big names set to do battle in the A-Main include talented youngsters Yannic Prümper and Elliot Harper. This will be Harper’s first international outing since his switch from Xray to Tamiya at the end of last season. Former factory Kyosho driver Steen Graversen will make the trip from Denmark and having enjoyed a very strong run to
fifth at the DHI Cup with his privately entered Tamiya will be one to watch.
One very interesting entry is Kiyo Suzuki, the man responsible for designing Tamiya’s very successful TRF416. Kiyo, is due in Europe for the Toy Fair in Germany the week after the race and is coming a few days early so that he can make his ETS debut. Kiyo is best known for being Marc Rheinard’s pitman at the World and European Championships but will now race against him in the Modified class.
In the 13.5T Pro Stock class a massive 120 drivers are entered setting the stage for action packed racing. There is really only one man they must aim to beat and that is German ace Alexander Stocker. The Hot Bodies driver won the opening two rounds and won the DHI Cup at his first ever attempt earlier this month. After a disappointing outing at his home race where he finished fourth defending Champion Balint Rajki will be looking to get his campaign back on track.
Round three of the Xenon Racing Euro Touring Series, which is also supported by Speedpassion, gets underway with practice on Friday and the event can be followed throughout the weekend on RedRC.net who will be in Hrotovice to report live on all the action.
