Hudy Arena ready for Volker/Rheinard title showdown
The Yokomo Euro Touring Series makes its first visit to Slovakia this week (July 18-21) with the Hudy Racing Arena playing host to the season finale where two of electric touring car’s greatest rivals Ronald Volker and Marc Rheinard are set for a showdown that will decide which driver becomes the champion of the sixth season of the World famous championship. A new venue on the calendar, the Hudy Racing Arena is the perfect stage for what is set to be the most thrilling climax to an ETS season and in typical Hudy/Xray fashion the track has undergone meticulous preparations as it gets ready to welcome over the coming days the 240 plus drivers who will contest the 33rd race of the ETS.
Chasing a third consecutive title, which would make him the most crowned driver in the series, Team Yokomo’s Ronald Volker goes into the race at the top of the points standings but the margin is such that the German ace can’t afford to focus on anything less than going for his third win of the 2012/13 season. The situation is the same for Tamiya Racing Factory’s Rheinard, who in terms of race wins is the series most successful driver with 11 victories. After a poor start to the season in which he failed to make the podium in the opening three races, the former 3-time World Champion has made a strong recovery winning the last two encounters including Round 5 in Austria where emotions ran high after an incident packed 2nd Leg of the A-Main. Regaining his composure to take Leg 3 and the overall Traiskirchen win, Rheinard forced the title battle to go to Slovakia where if the German is to claim his second ETS Championship he must win, otherwise irrespective of his finishing position Volker will retain his title.
While the attention will firmly surround the Volker/Yokomo versus Rheinard/Tamiya title showdown, with their respective team-mates Yannic Prumper and Viktor Wilck sure to be well briefed on their supporting roles for the event, a number of manufacturers will be looking to shine at Hudy Racing Arena not least Team Xray. Located next to the Xray factory the outdoor circuit is where the team conducts the majority of its chassis development so their drivers will have the advantage of track knowledge. Alexander Hagberg heads the team’s challenge, which will be bolstered this weekend by their American star driver Paul Lemieux, and will be hoping to capitalise on his track experience and give the T4 its first Ride Modified class win of the 2012/13 season.
Having made a huge leap forward in terms of set-up on his HB TCXX during Round 5, former World Champion Andy Moore will be one to watch at the season finale. Following the set-up break through, the British ace was a contender for the win in Austria and having not been on the podium for more than two seasons he will be more than determined to prove a point this weekend.
In the biggest class of the ETS, Xray Pro Stock, four drivers still have a mathematical chance of becoming champion. Xray’s Marek Cerny heads the standings with 3 wins with Awesomatix pairing Dominic Vogl & Viljami Kutvonen and Schumacher’s former champion Martin Hofer in with an outside chance of denying the Czech driver his first ETS title. Austria Vogl was impressive at his home event losing out on the overall win on a tie break by just 2/10ths of a second but that form and confidence boost has the 16-year-old really fired up for the last race of the season. While the Speed Passion Formula Class title was decided at the penultimate round, new champion Jan Asmer will be looking to end on a high for Serpent as he goes for win number 4 of the season.
Round 5 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series officially gets underway on Thursday, the season finale being extended by a day and culminates with triple mains for all drivers on Sunday. All the action from the Hudy Race Arena can be followed on RedRC where regular updates and increased video action will be published throughout the weekend.
