Coelho wins static A1
Bruno Coelho took an easy win of a completely static A1 final at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series season finale at the Hudy Arena, with not one pass being executed over the 5-minutes as the 10 cars finished exactly as they qualified. Top Qualifier Coelho made an early break over Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg allowing the newly crowned champion to cruise to a 1.3 second victory. 1.9-seconds back from Hagberg, Awesomatix’s Viljami Kutvonen completed the Top 3 with the Finn having no problems fending off the Yokomo of Ronald Volker. The only attempted pass of the race came from Yannic Prumper as the VBC driver tried to find a way passed Team Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp but the German couldn’t get it done.
With many drivers joking as they left the drivers’ stand that the ETS should introduce DRS to help with overtaking, Coelho agreed it was ‘boring for all drivers’ as there was ‘no overtaking and no body even made mistakes’. On his own race, his fastest lap 2/10th faster than anyone else, he said, ‘my car was perfect on new tyres which allowed me to push a the beginning to pull away. Once I had a lead I could control the race, it was a little bit too easy (of a race)’. Looking to A2, which takes place in the morning, the new Season #9 Champion said, ‘everything was perfect and I hope it will be the same for tomorrow’. Another dominant performance in A2 would secure him a third win of the season and cap off a perfect campaign.
Hagberg described his ORCA powered T4 as being ‘a little loose at the start’ and losing time as result at the beginning he said he, ‘couldn’t make it back up later on’. While he couldn’t catch Coelho, the Swede said there was ‘no threat from behind’ so it wasn’t any pressure as a result. Asked about improving his car at the start for A2, the reigning Nitro Touring Car World Champion, replied, ‘we will try to find something overnight and put on a better show tomorrow.’
‘It was OK, on the negative side the Xrays were faster but on the positive all the others were slower’, was how Viljami summed up his final. While he would stay with Hagberg for the first few laps he said there was ‘no real pressure from Ronald behind’ so it was an easy race. Feeling the diff in his LRP powered A800 was too soft for the temperatures he said depending on conditions at time of the A2 start he might go harder with the diff.
While the first Volante Modified encounter was dull, the preceding Pro Stock race was entertaining with Top Qualifier Tom Krägefski having to see off two different challengers. First to mount a challenge was P2 starter Noah Asendorf. While the the pair duelled it out, from fifth on the grid, champion Jan Ratheisky found his way third and started to close. A mistake by Asendorf as the race reached half distance dropped the Swiss driver out of contention for the win with Ratheisky there to take over the challenge. With Ratheisky all over the bumper of his T4, Krägefski stood up to the pressure to hold on for the win by 0.114 of a second with Asendorf getting third. In Formula, it was an easy win for Ratheisky as the Top Qualifier & back to back champion won by a massive 6-seconds from Matej Dobnikar. Dobnikar benefited when the battle for second saw Jitse Miedema getting in to the rear of Serpent’s David Ehrbar. With Miedema waiting on Ehrbar to take back position Dobnikar slipped through with 3-laps to go for second followed by Miedema.
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