First Italian ETS encounter attracts World class entry of nitro drivers
This weekend (January 20-22) the Euro Touring Series travels to all new territory as Italy plays host to the second round of the Yokomo backed 2011/12 Series with a massive 300 strong entry set to descend on the town of Scandiano in the North East of the country. A nation famed for its motoring passion and in rc racing for producing world class nitro drivers, the event has attracted one of the sport’s greatest legends Lamberto Collari who will be joined by other big names from the onroad nitro scene such as Dario Balestri, Walter Salemi and Andrea Pirani. A nine-time 1:8 Onroad World Champion, Collari has already shown his ability to quickly adapt to 1:10 electric touring cars having made the A-Main at the Italian Charity Race in December which attracted a quality field as the main factory teams used it as a warm-up event for the first ever Italian ETS encounter.
Racing a Yokomo chassis, Collari will be in good hands on his ETS debut having reigning Modified Champion Ronald Volker for a team-mate. The Team Yokomo lead driver got his title defence off to the perfect start at the season opener in Germany at the end of October when he took a dominant victory over his great rival Marc Rheinard and the driver who carries the unofficial title of being the World’s best touring car driver on carpet is sure to have plenty of top tips for Collari who is much more at home on asphalt tracks.
Having been victorious over Volker when they used the Italian Charity Race as preparation for this weekend, Tamiya Racing Factory’s Rheinard will be hoping he can take his first ETS carpet success since Poland two seasons ago. The World Champion lost his crown as Champion of what is now the World’s biggest championship for electric touring cars to Volker last year after the Team Yokomo driver dominated the first half of the season on carpet and Rheinard knows the key to retaking the title is denying his fellow German a victory indoors.
Having secured his first ETS podium finish at this seasons opening round, Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp will be aiming to build on that result this weekend but will have to see off tough opposition from rival factory drivers in the Ride Modified class. Two such drivers are Team Xray’s super fast Swede Alexander Hagberg who must now be due his big break and Team Associated’s Juho Levanen who looked very good at the Asian Touring Series pilot event at Yatabe in November where he finished runner-up to Volker.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Zdenko Kunák will be looking for a repeat of Round 1. In Germany we witnessed a very popular maiden victory for the Team Xray driver when the talented Slovak racer final got the job done holding off the Hot Bodies of former race winner Oliver Franke and the Schumacher of defending champion Martin Hofer.
Being a country steeped in Formula 1 history, the organisers of the ETS have chosen the Italian round to debut the new Formula class that will now join the Modified and Pro Stock Touring Cars classes as the third category on the race program at each of the remaining 5 rounds of the 2011/12 series. Replacing the Hobby class, Formula racing is enjoying growing interest around the world and the first race has had a very positive response with a healthy 45 entries registered for this weekend.
Round 2 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series gets underway with practice on Friday and culminates with triple mains for all drivers on Sunday. All the action from Scandiano can be followed live throughout the weekend on RedRC.
