Coelho tops brief practice after carpet change at ETS
Over a short 2-minute practice at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Germany it was Bruno Coelho who laid claim to being fastest on eventful Day 1 at the second round of the championship. The biggest race of the ETS to-date, with over 440 entries, a hidden problem would arise during practice when an incorrect batch of carpet left racers struggling for traction. With no sign of conditions improving, the carpet fluffing up, the championship’s promoters made the brave call to resurface the track. Having to wait 4-hours for the delivery of the correct ‘ETS Black Carpet’ all the way from the centre of the Netherlands, a pre-selected crew which included the current World Champion Naoto Matsukura did an impressive job to rebuild the track in just 2-hours. With the two planned rounds of practice on the busy schedule having run on the bad carpet, a reshuffle of the timetable during the track resurfacing allowed a quick 2-minute practice round to give drivers a feel for the regular carpet racers have become accustomed too. The difference in the carpets was immediately clear as Coelho went from a 44-seconds 3-consecutive lap time to a 41.364.
Having done 2-days of testing at the Hudy Arena, where they have ETS carpet, as preparation for the ETS, Coelho said they got a ‘big surprise’ when he put his Hobbywing powered T4 on the track this morning. ‘Completely different’, he said his car was ‘impossible to drive’. With a rumour quickly circulating that they may rebuild the track he said he changed the car slightly to make it possible to do laps and use the next practice to learn the flow of the track. Putting back on his Hudy Arena set-up for the new carpet, the Round 1 podium finisher said ‘it was amazing, really amazing’. With last year’s Muelheim-Kaerlich event marking only his second carpet race, the Portuguese driver as he put it himself ‘flipped’ his way to 10th on the grid, but with a lot more experience on carpet now he is hopeful of a better outcome tomorrow when all four rounds of qualifying will be run.
Making his ETS carpet debut, Naoto Matsukura would set the 2nd fastest time. Having not raced his touring car for 2-months and not raced on carpet for a few months prior to that, the Tamiya driver said he got a bit of ‘surprise’ when practice started and was relieved to find out the lack of traction was a carpet issue. Running just one car, team-mate Marc Rheinard running two cars in the 2-minute practice, Matsukura said his TRF419 was ‘good’ and on the proper carpet so was the track layout. Feeling his car was understeering a little, he will tweak his set-up changes for qualifying adding ‘then it will be perfect for tomorrow’.
Winner of this race last season, ending a 5-year winning drought on carpet, and taking the win at this season’s opening race in Czech Republic, Rheinard would record the 9th fastest time. The 4-time World Champion described it as ‘an interesting day’ adding ‘but at least we ended up on good carpet, it was definitely a good call’. With only a 3-quick laps to get the feel of each car, the German said while difficult to fully tell he said the second car felt better and it is this he will run in qualifying leaving it unchanged for Q1.
Setting the third fastest time, Team Yokomo’s Meen Vejrak was pleased with his comparative pace but said ‘I needed more time to test’. Another driver to run two cars over the short practice, the former Nitro Touring Car World Champion said of his two Scorpion powered BD7s, which ran different set-ups, the second one was better. While he will use this for the opening qualifier, he feels the car needs to be more stable and so he will make some small set-up changes.
Sixth fastest behind Olly Jefferies (4th) and Viktor Wilck (5th), reigning ETS Champion Ronald Volker said the change was good and that decision was reflected in the lap times. Adding that the rebuild came ‘just in time’, he said the 2-minute practice was ‘tough’ in terms of getting a proper feel for conditions and the car. Overall the Yokomo driver ‘wasn’t too happy with the feeling of his car’ and they have to come up with a better set-up for qualifying.
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