Coelho tops practice in Austria
Coming into the third round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series on the back of his first carpet win of the championship, Mulheim winner Bruno Coelho has picked up where he left with the Xray driver fastest at the end of practice. The ETS making its first trip to Wels in Austria and laying down a track that all drivers are describing as different to normal, the joint championship leader set the fastest 3-consecutive laps from reigning champion Ronald Volker, with Alexander Hagberg completing the Top 3. Sharing the lead in the standings with the swede, Marc Rheinard would end up 4th quickest after the 3-rounds of practice.
Summing up his practice Coelho said ‘the (track) layout is a bit strange but I like it’. Running two cars in each practice run, the Portuguese driver said both cars felt pretty similar but one had more steering and while a little more difficult to drive he would run it in this evening’s opening qualifier. Although planning to change some small details in the set-up for Q1, his main focus would be on driving the track better saying it was hard to be consistent every lap. Explaining that in ‘many spots you are close to the dots’ he added that the perfect line at the chicane had the potential to take 3/10th off the lap time but get it wrong and you ‘destroy the car’.
‘Being close to Bruno is definitely better than previous race in Germany’ was Volker’s reaction to being just 0.06 of a second off Coelho’s pace. Running two cars, which for this weekend had a greater set-up difference than normal so as to help them better gauge which direction to go with set-up, the German said one felt faster having better grip and steering. Set to use this car for Q1, the Yokomo driver is hopeful a small set-up change can give the car a little more rear stability so it’s more comfortable over 5-minutes.
Fresh from claiming a third consecutive European 1:12 Championship title last weekend, Hagberg said ‘I wish I was racing by 1:12, the touring car feels more like a tank’. 4/10ths off his team-mate, the Swede said his practice runs were ‘alright’. With one of the two cars he ran ‘a little easier to drive’ he said they will work on that for qualifying and try to get more steering from it. A fan of the track, which is much deeper than normal, he said it is ‘really good’ to drive.
‘Average’ was how Rheinard summed up his practice performance. Almost half a second off Coelho, the Tamiya driver said his first car he used each run was ‘undrivable’ when turning right but ‘good’ turning left. The 2nd of his cars, which are both latest developments of the upcoming TRF419X release, while easy to drive he said was too slow due to it ‘missing grip’. The German said his preference is to run the first car if they can get it to turn as good both right & left adding there ‘must be something wrong which (they) haven’t spotted yet’.
Giving the revolutionary new David Erbhar designed Serpent 4X its international race debut in Wels, Marc Fischer showed its potential setting the fifth fastest time. Serpent’s long standing lead driver, the German said the car is ‘much better than the 4.0’ adding it’s ‘more easy to drive’. Featuring some unique new design ideas, Fischer said there are a lot of unknowns with the car in terms of what set-up changes they need to be making. Hoping to be able to fine tune the car for qualifying, Fischer said the weekend was already a positive beginning for the new car.
Making his big race debut for VBC Racing, having switched from Yokomo since Round 2, Yannic Prumper completed the Top 6. The former race winner reaction to his early performance was ‘not too bad actually’. While in ‘low traction the car felt good’, he said as the traction comes up they are now struggling a little with set-up. With the car ‘now too nervous & edgy’ and ‘lifting a wheel’, for Q1 they will replace the carbon chassis with a new one to see if that’s the problem. With the event providing the first indication of where he and the new car are really at he said as a starting point he is overall happy with how the weekend has started out.
Behind Prumper, Awesomatix’s Viljami Kutvonen would end up 7th. The Finn described his pace as ‘too slow’ adding he’s not sure why as his A800 ‘feels OK’. Lacking some consistency he plans ‘a few set-up changes’ for Q1 adding ‘hopefully that brings more speed’. Making his return to the team this weekend, describing it as ‘like being back home’, Freddy Sudhoff would post the 8th fastest time behind promising Xray talent Dionys Stadler. Sudhoff described his his A800 as ‘super easy to drive’ over 5-minutes. ‘Missing 1 to 2/10th on lap times’, the German will make a small change for the opening qualifier in the hope of find a 1/10th. Behind Sudhoff, Xray designer Martin Hudy completed the Top 10 in front of his British team driver Olly Jefferies.
In the Xray Pro Stock and Serpent Formula class it was the same man Jan Ratheisky who topped practice for both. The Xray driver topped Formula from Serpent designer David Ehrbar and Oliver Bultynck while in Pro Stock it was the Yokomo of Valentin Hettrich who was closest to the German. Round 2 winner Tony Streit would complete the Top 3 for Awesomatix.
View complete event results here.
View the event image gallery here.
