Hagberg claims first TQ honours in ETS
Alexander Hagberg has claimed both his and Xray’s first ever overall TQ of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series’ premiere class. Dominating proceedings at the second round of the championship, the Swede put in yet another impressive run in the penultimate qualifier at the German event as he again topped the times from defending champion Ronald Volker. While Hagberg kept his joy of securing pole position for tomorrow’s Ride Modified A-Main under wraps, leading one onlooker to come up the rather catchy title of ‘Ice’berg’ for the Swede, there was plenty of reason for celebration among the Xray team as it would prove to be an all Xray affair. With a record 362 entries in Muelheim-Kaerlich, the Slovakian manufacturer’s cars will start all three classes from the No.1 spot on the grid. Defending Pro Stock Champion Marek Cerny completed a hat trick of TQ runs to put his T4 2014 on pole for the ETS’ biggest class while Jan Ratheisky secured the overall TQ in Formula with an Xray prototype.
Taking his only ETS win so far in Poland 2-years ago when he won from 3rd on the grid, Hagberg said he was ‘very happy’ to secure his first TQ adding it is ‘always an advantage to start first’. Hoping to capitalise on his pole position, he is confident he has the car to get the job done. Starting second on the grid at the season opener he will be hoping he can avoid the outcome of the Czech race where he ended up finishing 8th. Clearly happy with the feeling of his ORCA powered T4, having left his set-up untouched over the past two days, he did hint that he might use the final qualifier to try a slightly different set-up with a view to the Mains.
Enjoying his most competitive qualifier in Q3 getting to within .256 of Hagberg, Volker said he was ‘really glad to get second’. After a poor opening qualifier, backing up his second fastest time in Q2 secures at worst 3rd position on the grid for the driver with the most number of ETS TQs (12). Set-up changes to his LRP powered BD7 2014 helped make a ‘minor step forward’ but the European Champion added they need to keep that progress going to get themselves in a competitive position for the finals.
Yokomo team-mate Yannic Prumper ended the round 3rd fastest. The 2-time race winner, who posted the fastest lap of the round, was in contention with Hagberg to TQ the round topping the timing screens for three laps but in the last minute a coming together with fellow German Freddy Sudhoff dropped him back. Blaming Sudhoff for the incident, the Awesomatix driver pulling up a lap later having cost himself a potential Top 3 run, he said he opted against changing his set-up after Q2. With his BD7 fast at the start of the run he said he doesn’t know what changes he could make to improve the car in the final minute when he said Hagberg has a clear advantage over his rivals.
Posting the fourth fastest time 3 seconds off the TQ pace, Marc Rheinard said for the first minute his Tamiya TRF418 is ‘good’ with the ‘lap times OK’. After that he said it ‘suddenly pushes’ no matter what he changes on the set-up. With Much More owner Mr. Jang travelling to Germany to act as mechanic for the ETS’ most winning driver, Rheinard said he is giving him free reigning on his car to see if he can come up with ‘some crazy set-up’ that might give them some chance of at least battling for a podium finish preferably ahead of title rival Volker.
Despite trying another shock position change and some flex screw adjustments on his Tamiya, Viktor Wilck said the car felt pretty the same as in Q2. The Swede would post the 5th fastest time ahead of new Awesomatix signing Eric Dankel who completed the Top 6 with his best round of qualifying.
Having thought he was making progress when he posted the 7th fastest time in Q2, Atsushi Hara said he went the wrong way with the set-up on his Yokomo. Managing only the 11th fastest time, he said the changes made the car push more and he will revert to his previous set-up for the final qualifier maybe just going with a softer shock oil.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Cerny had his closest challenge yet with fellow Xray driver Tobias Vogel finishing just 4/1000ths behind the 19-year-old Czech driver. Like Hagberg, Cerny has dominated the weekend so far and taking Q3 secures him his 5th overall TQ honours of the championships.
Winning the opening round of ETS in both Pro Stock and Formula, then driving for Serpent and becoming the series first double class winner, Jan Ratheisky is the class of the 67 car Formula field this weekend toping all three qualifiers by a very comfortable margin with his under-wraps Xray chassis.
Qualifying times – Round 3
Ride Modified Q3 times
1. Alexander Hagberg – Team Xray – 22/5:5:05.629
2. Ronald Völker – Team Yokomo – 22/5:06.373
3. Yannic Prümper – Team Yokomo – 22/5:07.416
4. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 22/5:08.632
5. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 22/5:08.793
6. Eric Dankel – Awesomatix – 22/5:10.971
7. Dionys Stadler – Awesomatix – 22/5:11.052
8. Oliver Bultynck – VBC – 22/5:12.002
9. Tim Wahl – Team Xray – 22/5:12.096
10.Steen Graversen – Awesomatix – 22/5:12.208
Xray Pro Stock Q3 times
1. Marek Cerny – Team Xray – 21/5:14.480
2. Tobias Vogel – Xray – 21/5:14.484
3. Jan Ratheisky – Team Xray – 21/5:15.090
4. Oliver Franke – Awesomatix – 20/5:00.282
5. Andreas Myberg – Xray – 20/5:00.652
6. Martin Hofer – Schumacher – 20/5:00.940
7. Steffen Leinburger – Awesomatix – 20/5:01.006
8. Daniel Wohlgemuth – Schumacher – 20/5:01.486
9. Philipp Hagnauer – Yokomo – 20/5:02.131
10.Valentin Hettrich – Xray – 20/5:02.232
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