Coelho sees off Sudhoff challenge to take A1
Bruno Coelho has won the opening A-Main at Round 2 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Germany. The Xray driver saw off the challenge of Freddy Sudhoff, the Awesomatix driver mounting intense pressure on the Top Qualifier in the early part of the race. While Coelho would eke out a small gap towards the end of the race, Sudhoff was never more than 6/10ths behind. While the Top 2 pulled clear of the 11 car field, Mugen’s Viljami Kutvonen secured the bump up from the B-Main, it was to be Ronald Volker who completed the Top 3. An early mistake from Alexander Hagberg promoted the Yokomo driver to third which he would maintain until the finish. Running fifth for most of the race behind Yannic Prumper following his roll, Hagberg would come together with Marc Rheinard in the final sprint to the loop and drop to 9th, Rheinard finishing 10th.
Commenting on A1, Coelho said, ‘It was a great final. I had Freddy all the time on my back’. Chasing a repeat of his 2018 Daun victory after a difficult start to Season #12 only netted him a 6th place in Vienna, he continued, ‘at the beginning he made a lot of pressure on me but at the end I was able to get a little space to breath. I am happy with my race, I had no mistakes and I will try to make the same the next one’.
Sudhoff joked, ‘same story different day’, having finished 3 of the 4 qualifier second just tenths off the Xrays of either Coelho or Hagberg. In the hunt for his first ever ETS win, the German said, ‘I pushed 110% at the beginning. Bruno and I pulled clear of the others and I could risk more. Even if I hit a dot I would still be second. It was super intense and I was always with 5 to 6/10ths of him’. Looking to A2 he said, ‘I will try to attack again, especially at the beginning when my car seems to better than his’.
Coming into the weekend as the championship points leader having ended a victory drought at the season opener back in October, Volker was pleased to kick off the final day of the weekend with a Top 3 in A1. Having struggled in practice but recovered to claim the self titled ‘best of the rest’ in qualifying with P4 on the grid he said, ‘Hagberg went off pretty slow and then rolled in front of me which handed me third but that was the best my car has been all weekend. I am now not loosing as much time to Freddy and Bruno’. The ETS’ most crowned Modified champion, added, ‘trying to fight for the podium is now the goal and I hope this is possible’. On his improvement in pace, the German said, ‘We made a big change on the set-up of the suspension. We’ll try something smaller for A2’.
In the first Pro Stock A-Main, there would be four different leaders. Top Qualifier Max Machler looked to take early control of the race but having established a gap over the battle for second he made a mistake allowing Leo Arnold to take over the lead. The Frenchman lead for 8 laps but like Machler with a comfortable advantage made an error and dropping right to the back of the field. From 5th on the grid it as Frederik Mikkelsen who became the third different leader but the Danish driver had Simon Lauter all over his rear bumper. Winner of the opening round of the season in Austria, Lauter made a great pass at the end of the straight driving around the outside of Mikkelsen who a little early on the brakes for the 180 corner. Holding position to the finish behind Machler salvaged a third place from the race. In the other two touring car classes, the 40+ Masters class saw a dominant A1 win for Top Qualifier Alexander Stocker who finished more than 8-seconds ahead of Andreas Weyhoven and Christian Drießle. In 17.5 Stock, Alexander Müller took advantage of a lap 2 mistake by Top Qualifier Torsten Baggendorf to take the win in front of Karsten Bartsch and B-Main bump up Thomas Bemmerl.
The Formula class brought a win for reigning champion Jan Ratheisky who was kept on his toes for the 5-minutes by Round 1 winner David Ehrbar. The Serpent driver came close but just couldn’t quite make a move on the Xray, crossing the line 2/10ths behind Ratheisky. Starting 8th on the driver the Xray of René Kölbel would get third benefiting from a clash between former champion Herbert Weber and Olivier Bultynck.
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