ETS arrives in Gran Canaria
Better known as a holiday destination rather than a place to host an international RC race, this week the island of Gran Canaria has seen an influx of people carrying suspicious hand luggage through Las Palmas airport as the top touring cars drivers from around the world arrived for Round 3 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series. A new addition to this season’s ETS schedule, the event gives drivers a very welcome break from indoor carpet racing thanks to the Mediterranean climate of the Spanish island.
With most drivers having come out to Gran Canaria a few days earlier than normal to combine some R&R into the trip, the track has seen plenty of activity throughout the week but today the event officially got underway with controlled practice, with defending champion Ronald Volker setting the pace after 4 of 6 runs. Taking his second win of the season in Italy the German ace said there that he expected the switch to asphalt to present his Yokomo team with a tougher challenge and even though he is fastest at the moment he believes the times, based on three consecutive laps, are not a true indication of the form here. Having suffered a well highlighted high speed crash on Wednesday which totally destroyed his BDX5 chassis, Volker believes he has benefited today from running a fresher sets of tyres than his rivals as he is still fine tuning his set-up. While his biggest rival Marc Rheinard is struggling with the low traction levels he said this isn’t a real problem for him.
Rheinard said he was pretty pleased with his Tamiya yesterday but today the World Champion has suffered two tyre failures and is struggling with the lack of traction. The German is only 10th fastest behind both his team-mates Elliot Harper and Viktor Wilck who recorded the 5th and 7th fastest time respectively. Keeping the mood in the TRF camp somewhat positive is Harper. The 18-year-old damaged two chassis’ yesterday but said today has been going pretty well so far and he is enjoying racing outdoors again.
Posting the second fastest time Hot Bodies’ Andy Moore is pleased with his pre-release TCXX chassis which he said feels pretty balanced. Focusing more on tyre prep than chassis set-up he has been trying different additive each run to try and get a more consistent car. Fast and easy to drive in the latter half of the 5-minute run he said if he can get the car to work like this from the start he should be in for a good weekend.
Driving for Awesomatix Steen Graverson was happy with his morning as he posted the third fastest time. The Danish driver said it took a bit of getting used to racing on asphalt in what is still the middle of the indoor carpet season but he is pretty happy with his pace. With two major bumps on the track, bumpy tracks being known to affect the unique suspension of the A700, Graversen said it has not been as a big an issue as at previous events and he is feeling confident about his chances here this weekend with the shaft driven car.
Still on a high from winning the Snowbirds in the US, his first big international victory, Alexander Hagberg used his ORCA powered T3 2012 to set the fourth fatest time. The Swede said this is the first time they have raced the new chassis on asphalt and having tested here for most of the week he said its an improvement on last year’s car. Xray have a smaller presense than usual this weekend with Martin Hudy and chief designer Juraj Hudy both missing the event due to their ever increasing work load.
Enjoying a very strong start to the season with a podium finish at the opening round in Germany, Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp is fifth fastest with his new TF6-SP. Featuring a more flexible chassis and top deck, the Orion powered car ran very well in the first two runs of the day but the German found it loose in P3 & 4. Believing the change in weather may have contributed to the lack of traction he plans to try different gear diff options in the final two practice runs. Having started out as an overcast morning the clouds have finally started to clear giving racers their first glance of the sun today.
The man responsible for bringing the Euro Touring Series to Gran Canaria, series regular Toni Mateo, who lives on the island, has had a good morning setting the fastest time time in the Xray Pro Stock and the 8th fastest time in the Ride Modified class.
Doubling up their factory effort this weekend Team Associated pairing Juho Levanen and Keven Hebert set the 9th and 12th fastest times. Levanen described his run as pretty good considering the lack of experience they have with the TC6.1 on asphalt. Last weekend the pair competed at the TITC where traction was extremely high and now they have the complete opposite of conditions pretty much cancelling out what they learned in Thailand. While his 3-lap time is only 9th fastest, the Finn believes he has one of the more consistent cars over 5-minutes and so he feels confident for tomorrow’s qualifiers. Canadian Hebert said his performance so far have been ‘average’ and that is down to both his car set-up and his own driving. A much bigger track than he is used to racing on he said he needs to find a little more steering and also needs to relax his driving admitting he driving a bit too hard.
View the event image gallery here.
