Volker pulls off perfect start to ETS title defence
Team Yokomo’s lead driver Ronald Volker pulled off the perfect weekend to claim an early victory at the opening round of the 2011/12 Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Mülheim-Kärlich, Germany. Starting from pole, the German ace backed up his win of the first A-Main with an even more dominant performance in the second to secure the overall win. Able to sit out the third and final Main of the day, Volker’s performance which saw him top the time sheets for every round of practice and qualifying has put pressure firmly on his rivals to find something before the fifth season of the ETS moves on to Italy in January for Round 2 of 6.
Although the winning margin of the second A-Main was smaller than race 1, Volker controlled the race from the start this time. Pushing harder over the opening laps he said once Rheinard made a mistake on lap 8 of 24 he was able to run a controlled race. Admitting to a lapse of concentration on the final lap that saw him get his BD5 WXi up on two wheels, he said he was delighted to kick off his title defence in the same way he got his successful 2010/11 campaign underway. The winner of the opening three race last season, he said could not have expected a better weekend and although not sure what to expect at Round 2 as its is an all new event on the calendar he is really looking forward to moving onto the next round which is also on carpet.
Recovering from his roll Rheinard once again took a frustrating second behind his great rival. The World Champion said in testing on carpet his Speed Passion Tamiya TRF417x has felt really good but in race conditions it is no match for Volker’s Yokomo. Putting much of the champions domination down to Umino Yukijiro who has travelled from Japan to provide technical support, Rheinard said he hopes he can convince Tamiya to send chief designer Kiyo Suzuki to Italy so they can try halt Volker and Yokomo in their quest to defend the title they took away from Tamiya last season. Although Viktor Wilck set the fastest lap of the second A-Main, he too struggled to keep the car on four wheels dropping from second to sixth in the race.
After a tough first Main, Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg enjoyed a good clean race to finish third. The Swede said while he benefited from others mistakes his new T3 2012 felt fast and with Volker sitting out the third leg the race for second overall is still wide open. Planning to run a harder front shock to reduce his steering he said he hopes he just gets a second chance at having a clean race. Making it four different brands of cars in the top four Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp repeated his Leg 1 result to again finish fourth from sixth on the grid.
With his Hot Bodies working much better this time round, Andy Moore was looking good for second until he got out of shape first allowing Rheinard passed before getting swallowed up by the pack when he got hit later in the lap causing his body to tuck. The British Champion lost 4 seconds as a result and in the end finished 9th.
In Pro Stock the overall winner of the season opener will go down to the final leg after Oliver Franke took a narrow win over champion Martin Hofer. Top Qualifier & winner of the opening leg, Zdenko Kunák led the race until lap 7 when he ran over a dot and got out of shape to get swallowed up and hit a number of times by the pursuing pack. Out of contention for a string finish, the Xray team driver pulled up. The result means three drivers, Kunák, Franke and Hofer, have a chance taking overall victory with a win in the final leg.
Ride Modified Leg 2 results
1. Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 24L 5:02.814
2. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 24L 5:03.951
3. Alexander Hagberg – Xray/LRP – 24L 5:05.604
4. Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho/Orion – 24L 5:06.244
5. Yannic Prümper (DE) – Yokomo/Thunder Power – 24L 5:08.942
6. Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya/Thunder Power – 24L 5:09.114
7. Dominik Fleischmann (DE) – Hot Bodies/LRP – 24L 5:09.247
8. Zdenko Kunák (SK) – Xray/LRP – 24L 5:10.255
9. Andy Moore (GB) – Hot Bodies/HPI Flux – 24L 5:11.154
10.Freddy Südhoff (DE) – Hot Bodies/LRP – 24L 5:12.639
Xray Pro Stock Leg 2 results
1. Oliver Franke (DE) – Hot Bodies – 23L 5:11.388
2. Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 23L 5:11.958
3. Tony Streit (DE) – Xray – 23L 5:13.014
4. Philipp Hagnauer (CH) – Yokomo – 22L 5:02.407
5. Daniel Wohlgemuth (DE) – Tamiya – 22L 5:02.938
6. Carsten Madsen (DK) – Awesomatix – 22L 5:04.786
7. Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 22L 5:05.364
8. Michael Spiering (DE) – TOP – 22L 5:06.198
9. Steffen Leinburger (DE) – Xray – 21L 4:53.379
10.Zdenko Kunák (SK) – Xray – 7L 1:30.943
View complete race results here.
View the event image gallery here.
