Track Focus – Messe Wien
Track Name – Messe Wien
Club – HSH Traiskirchen
Country – Austria
Location – Vienna
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Carpet
No. of ETS Races hosted – 0
Season #11 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series gets underway at an exciting new location as drivers descend on Austria’s largest model show which is expecting almost 50,000 visitors. Invited to be part of ‘Modellbau 2017’ by the show organisers, while this is the championship’s 7th visit to Austria, it is the first time the country has hosted the season opener. Surrounded by trains, slot cars, rc drifting, military RC battle fields, RC construction sites and everything modelling related, the ETS has taken over around half of one of the Messe Wien’s exhibitions hall with the show already bringing in large crowds, helped today (Friday) by the fact it is a national holiday in Austria. Led by Daniel Raimann and Robert Bachofner with a team from local club HSH Traiskirchen, the track build for the show was a bigger undertaking than normal for an ETS indoor race. As with most exhibition halls there are covered over cable tunnels running throughout the hall to feed electrical supplies to exhibitors stand and so to have the flattest possible surface on which to lay the track carpet a wooden subfloor had to be built prior to the start of the ‘normal’ track build’.
Covering an area 34 metres long by 20 metres wide, the additional bonus of the subfloor is that the boards can be screwed into position making for a better presented track layout. Coming into the weekend chasing a third consecutive ETS title, Bruno Coelho described the layout as ‘fast & technical at the same time but fun’. Adding the track is ‘a little bumpy’ he said while ‘there is not really one place you can make or lose time’ he added that the chicane in front of the drivers stand was very challenging. Coming into it fast, the sweeper before it having already been tweaked during practice from its original layout, he said, ‘the entry is very fast and then you are turning left and right on the brakes’.
Asked his thoughts on the track, Ronald Volker said, ‘the layout is good but it could be a little more tight. Now the lap times are very close however its a nice and flowing layout’. The Yokomo driver shared rival Coelho’s view on the standout section of the track saying, ‘the long fast corner in front of the driver stand into the chicane is the hardest corner’. On the track surface, he said, ‘It is a bit bumpy but for me it is ok’.
One new addition to the ETS this weekend is the introduction of the Infinity Masters Touring Car Class. Open to drivers 40-years old or over, the class runs to the championship’s regular Pro Stock rules with 29 drivers signing up for the class here in Austria.
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