3rd edition of ETS underway
The third season of the Euro Touring Series is underway with over 200 drivers here is Kastellaun, Germany for the opening race of the six round Xenon Racing backed 2009/10 Series. One of the biggest changes to this season’s ETS is the switch to LiPo batteries and walking through the pits driver’s tables are a lot less cluttered with chargers and dischargers than normal.
The switch to LiPo has seen most of the top drivers using the opening practice rounds to play around with motor choice with everything from 4.0 to 6.5 being tried by the leading competitors. Current World Champion Marc Rheinard, the winner of this event 12 months ago, tried a 4.5 Speed Passion in his new Tamiya 416X but said the choice of gearing he ran meant he had too much power and he wants to play around with different ratios. This is his first touring car race since finishing runner up at the European Championships in Luxembourg, although the German has been busy winning the 1:10 4WD European Championships between races. Tamiya team-mate Viktor Wilck, who is running the 416WE, has started out with a 4.0 motor with the curve on his Speedpassion speedo set to the lowest setting. The Swede said it felt ok but plans to try a 4.5 later.
2007 Kastellaun winner Juho Levanen, who has plenty of LiPo experience having used them at the Reedy and IIC races over in the US, is using a 5.0 LRP motor in his factory Associated TC5. The Finnish driver, who will be doing all six rounds of 2009/10 ETS, is hopeful of repeating the win he claimed here three years ago but said the quality of the entry this weekend is going to make it a difficult challenge. That quality entry includes 2006 World Champion Andy Moore. With the British National Championship introducing LiPo batteries this year and a 6.5 motor limit the factory Hot Bodies driver has plenty of experience outdoor with LiPo but said it will be interesting working with the lower 1350 gram weight limit here on carpet. Moore has started out with what he knows best, running a 6.5 Team Orion motor in his Cyclone TC.
The Xray team have a strong line up here this weekend with their team drivers running the soon to be released T3 chassis. Team leader Teemu Leino was responsible for much of the development work on the new car and said the new platform is easier to driver and has a lot better traction than the T2. The Finn who hasn’t raced since the European Championship in August as he was busy getting married said he is confident his wedding ring won’t slow him too much! Leino is running a 5.5 motor which he said is plenty for indoor.
Making his ETS debut, Elliot Harper is another with the new T3 chassis. The young British talent has done a lot of testing with the new Juraj Hudy creation and last weekend gave the Slovakian made car its debut win after taking victory at Round 1 of the RugRacers Series in England. Harper says the new car is a big improvement having tested it at two different tracks in preparation for this event.
Heading the Yokomo challenge Ronald Volker is feeling a bit secondhand this weekend after injuring his back during the week while playing badminton. The former European Champion, who has been excused from marshalling duties by race director Scotty Ernst, has done a lot of LiPo testing with the BD5 and is much happier with the overall balance of the car now. Fresh from winning the German Outdoor Nationals last month Christopher Krapp represents Kyosho hopes. The ultra professional teenager is playing around with the positioning of the weight he must carry on his car following the switch to LiPo and is also working on tyre preparation as he becomes familiar with the new ETS control tyre from Xenon Racing.
Interestingly there are a number of big name nitro drivers competing here. Current 200mm European Champion Dirk Wischnewski is competing in the modified as is top Italian racer Michelle Romangnoli. A former Italian EP champion Romangnoli has switched to Tamiya for this event having collected on his arrival to Germany a brand new 416WE which was built for him by Toni Rheinard. Better known for racing 1:8 Oroad racing in which he is a factory driver for Shepherd, Eric Dankel is competing in Pro Stock driving an Xray and earlier this year won the German Indoor Nationals in the class so we can expect to see him feature strongly against the regular ETS frontrunners like Alexander Stocker, Matthias Lang and Daniel Wohlgemuth.
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