Record entry gets Season 4 underway
The hall here in Kastellaun is a hive of activity with a record entry in attendance for the opening round of the 2010/11 ‘Yokomo Euro Touring Series’. Season four of what has become the largest electric touring car championship in the world has not just attracted the biggest entry in terms of numbers but also in the quality of the entry with a growing number of factory squads committed to the entire series.
Heading the entry here in Germany in the Xenon Modified class is defending champion Marc Rheinard. Having designed the track layout for this event, even the three time World Champion admits that this is set to be the toughest ETS encounter yet. Tamiya have been champions for the last three season and won here last year with Viktor Wilck. The Swede, who also took TQ honours 12 months ago, is aiming to repeat his only ETS win of the 2009/10 season but also agreed with his team-mate that the competition is greater this time round. Within their own squad the they will have to watch out for their young team-mate Elliot Harper who is making his debut at the Kastellaun event.
One of the biggest challenges to Tamiya’s domination comes from Yokomo. Having become the title sponsor of the series the Japanese company have been enjoying a run of success with Ronald Volker. Last year was only the German’s second carpet event with the BD5 and that was reflected in qualifying as he lined up 7th before going on to take a very impressive second splitting the Tamiya’s of Wilck and Rheinard. Now fully up to speed with the car on carpet having won both the DHI Cup and the EFRA Indoor Euros the European Champion is really looking forward to his weekend. Yokomo will also be strong contenders in Pro-Stock with Martin Hofer, runner-up here last year, and Yukijiro Umino who is here not just as Volker’s mechanic but also as a racer.
Another factory outfit signing up to a full ETS program is Xray. The Slovak company, who are a primary sponsor of the series and will have the Pro-Stock class named after them, are here with their new T3’11 chassis which will debut in the hands of Teemu Leino, Alexander Hagberg and Martin Hudy. Leino, who is just back from 1:8 Buggy testing in Thailand, said his first few runs are going to be used to re-adjust his driving back to onroad. Hagberg on the other hand is ready to get straight down to business, the fast Swede hasn’t raced since the 1:10 Nitro Euros in Gotenburg back in August but with a preference for carpet racing he is looking forward to the event and having tested the new car at home is confident of a good showing.
Andy Moore and Freddy Sudhoff form the factory Hot Bodies line-up. Former World Champion Moore has been doing a lot of carpet testing with the TCX back in England which has been very productive but says the carpet used here is different but thinks that shouldn’t be too much of a problem once the traction comes up. Hot Bodies are the clear favourites for the victory in the Xray Pro-Stock class with Alexander Stocker. The defending champion and only driver to ever win here in Kastellaun this is only the German’s second race with the TCX chassis and his first on carpet.
The winner of the first ever Euro Touring series race here four years ago Juho Levanen is the sole entry for Team Associated. The Finnish ace has been doing a lot of carpet testing at home as he gets used to the new TC6. Although the car he is running is still a pre-production version, he expects his first production kit next week, he said he is pretty pleased with how that testing as gone, but this weekend will give him a true indication of where they are at with the car in terms of indoor set-up.
With 2009/10 Champion Michal Orlowski having graduated to Pro Stock the third of the ETS categories, the Speed Passion Hobby Class, is wide open this year. Today’s schedule will see four rounds of practice followed by the first of five rounds of qualifying. A reseed of the heats will be made based on each drivers best three consecutive laps from the 3rd and 4th practice runs when we should start to bring you news of where the various teams are in terms of pace.
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