Track Focus – fahr(T)raum
Track Name – fahr(T)raum
Country – Austria
Location – Mattsee
Host – fahr(T)raum
Surface – Asphalt
Direction – Anti-clockwise
No. of ETS Races hosted – 0
Round 4 of the Euro Touring Series is not the typical type of event that the electric touring championship has become world famous for. This weekend drivers find themselves racing in the small market town of Mattsee in Austria on a temporary parking lot track but the coming about of the event was itself not a typical process. Situated on the grounds of fahr(T)raum, a museum that pays homage to Porsche car company founder Ferdinand Porsche, the race came about following a request from Porsche’s grandson Ernst Piech. A keen modeller himself, Piech wanted to bring a modelling event to the museum he set-up to tell the story of his grand father, putting the idea to Michael Klausner who owns the MK Racing model shop in nearby Salzburg. Klausner immediately suggested applying for a round of the ETS and now today over 250 drivers from around the world have descended on the museum for three days of world class racing.
A week ago one would have been forgiven for doubting any kind of racing would be possible other than offroad as the asphalt on which the separate level track and pits now stand was not even laid. Originally planned to be an outdoor event, a question by Piech to ETS organiser Uwe Rheinard as to what would happen if it was to rain for the event meant that despite it being a wet day drivers are still running. With Rheinard answering that rain would result in drivers sitting around rather than racing, Piech didn’t want to have such a scenario and so on checking the weather forecast for the event earlier in the week on Tuesday the 50 X 15 meter track was housed inside a huge marquee mirroring the one that had been erected for the pit area.
While many racers were skeptical of how the freshly laid asphalt would work drivers have been pleasantly surprised by how quickly the grip levels have come up with most drivers admitting to enjoying driving the track. Having originally planned a fast flowing track layout, during the construction it was decided to change it to a more US styled boards track layout. Involved in the building of the track, Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard said that while its ‘maybe a little narrow for racing its really good to drive on’. Xray’s Alexander Hagberg had similar views describing the track as ‘different but interesting to drive on’. Standing for Scotty Ernst to announce this weekend’s action, making the trip over the United States to attend his first ever ETS, Charlie Suangka said the track is very similar in layout to the big carpet indoor tracks he attends in the US but he said while the layout is technical it has a good flow to it and he is looking forward to the weekend ahead.
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