Euro Touring Series

July 27, 2017

ETS waves chequered flag on 10th season with first visit to Ettlingen

The chequered flag will be waved on the 10th season of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series this weekend (28-30 July) as the championship travels for the first time to the Ettlingen track in Germany. A regular host venue of the Euro Nitro Series, Ettlingen will become the 10th different outdoor circuit to feature on the ETS calendar over its hugely successful 10 seasons of existence. The 57th race to be put on by Uwe Rheinard and Scotty Ernst since creating the championship in 2007, the Ettlingen entry includes all four of the drivers who have lifted the prestigious ETS title in that period. While Bruno Coelho already wrapped up his second consecutive Volante Modified title last month at the Hudy Arena, the racing will be no less competitive with teams looking to end their campaigns on a high note.

Coelho comes into the event with a mileage advantage over his rivals as does inaugural champion Jilles Groskamp with both drivers having raced at the ENS encounter at the start of the month. Taking the TQ in 1:10 and finishing 2nd in 1:8, Coelho would appear to be very at home on its unique ultra fine asphalt surface. Having won 4 of the 5 races so far, the Xray driver will be looking to extend his record for the most number of wins in a single season.

The only other driver to make it on to the top step of the podium, Ronald Volker comes into the season finale fresh from retaining his European Championship title. As a 5-time consecutive ETS Champion, the Yokomo driver will want to close off what has been a challenging ETS season and put himself clear as the championship’s most winning driver.

Sharing the title of most ETS career wins, 14-time winner Marc Rheinard made the biggest change of his R/C career when after 22-years with Tamiya he joined class newcomers Infinity. The former champion has had some strong showings, most notably Round 3 in Madrid, and he will be determined to go one better at Ettlingen and having given the Japanese brand its first major title with victory at the Reedy Race of Champions he is determined to try and deliver their first ETS win as a manufacturer. Infinity team-mate Jilles Groskamp completes the line-up of champions competing in the season finale as he makes only his second outing of the season.

While the champions look to add to their tallies, a number of drivers will be out to prove their own points. Alexander Hagberg made it an Xray 1-2 last time out and would love nothing more than to finally beat his team-mate. Naoto Matsukura claimed his first ever ETS podium at the Hudy Arena, a result he will be looking to repeat if not better. Infinity team-mate Akio Sobue travels to Germany fresh from being crowned Japanese National Champion ahead of Matsukura and World Champion Volker and has regularly shown the speed to challenge for his first ETS win this season. ETS Italy podium finisher Elliott Harper will be aiming to capitalise on the track’s unique surface and add to Schumacher’s maiden podium finish.

While the Modified title is decided it is still all to play for in Pro Stock and Formula. Lifelong Tamiya driver Christian Donath leads the Xray Pro Stock standings having claimed his first ever win last time out. The German however has three challengers in the form of ETS rookie Alexandre Duchet, reigning champion & Xray team-mate Jan Ratheisky and Awesomatix’ Olivier Bultynck. In the Scorpion Power Formula class, it is a three way title battle. Serpent’s David Ehrbar leads from defending champion Ratheisky, both with two wins each, with Shepherd’s Bultynck joining the hunt with victory at the Hudy Arena.

June 18, 2017

Coelho caps off ETS title winning weekend with record equalling 4th win

Bruno Coelho has capped off his Euro Touring Series title weekend in Slovakia with a record equaling fourth win of the season. The Xray driver joined Marc Rheinard as the only driver to win four races in a single season when he again cruised to A2 victory at the Hudy Arena to wrap up Round 5, the organisers to be complimented for completing the event after effectively losing two days of running due to rain. Able to sit out A3, Coelho’s win means he maintains his unbeaten run of victories at his team’s home track since making his ETS debut three seasons ago. Behind, team-mate Alexander Hagberg continued the 1-2 enjoyed by Xray as he won A3 after seeing off a rejuvenated Naoto Matsukura, the former World Champion claiming his first ever ETS podium finish.

Reflecting on his 9th ETS career win, the season finale next month in Germany an opportunity for him to make it five wins in a season, Coelho said, ‘I don’t think about these things, I’m here to win every race and when I finish 2nd I lose. My job is to develop the car to help our customers. This year has been really good in terms of the car working pretty well, we didn’t change too much on it over the year’. He continued, ‘It is also rewarding to work with brands that were nothing 2-years ago like Hobbywing and MonTech but are now at the top’. With Francesco Martini a key contributor to harnessing his natural abundance of driving talent, Coelho continued, ‘We reached our goal with the ETS title and next we will go to the European Championships. Everything is looking good but these are not conditions & tyres we have practiced for so we will see how it goes’.

Clearly meaning a lot to him to win A3, Hagberg said, ‘An Xray 1-2 is what people expect here but the competition have caught up so it was tougher to get the 1-2 this year’. Having struggled in A1 with Matsukura eventually passing him for second, he continued, ‘I got my car a lot better after we changed a few things on the set-up so I was not having to drive as defensively as before’. Setting the fastest lap of the race weekend in A3 with a 17.345, he continued, ‘setting the fastest lap showed we got a good set-up at the end’. Having endured a tough season, Round 4 in Italy a particular low point, he concluded, ‘for sure it is good to be back at the front and I’m really looking forward to the final round’.

‘First time on the podium, I’m so happy’, was the reaction of a very pleased looking Matsukura. He added, ‘I had good places in A1, A2 and A3 so I think I can say I am back’. Joining Infinity at the start of the year, the said, ‘everything is coming good again and part of this is that the team is good. My car worked good here because I had Fujiwara san for my mechanic this weekend. Now I will go testing in Japan for next ETS because I want to win that one’.

Finish 4th having set the pace in Thursday practice before rain hampered the next two days of action, Marc Rheinard said, ‘I think we lost the race in qualifying’. The Infinity driver was referring to the 5/100ths by which Hagberg out qualified both himself and Matsukura, saying ‘Hagberg was really slow in A1 and if Naoto had of been second and Alex fourth it would have been a different story. The next time’. The German concluded, ‘This is Xray’s home town so I think we were closer than it looked in the final so I think we can give them a run for their money in Ettlingen’.

In both the Pro Stock and Formula A Mains, the winners wouldn’t be decided until A3. In Formula, having won A1, in A2 Top Qualifier Olivier Bultynck put his Shepherd on the grass while leading which let David Ehrbar through for the win ahead of Jan Ratheisky. In A3 however Bultynck would have no such problems and after an early mistake by Ratheisky and then Ehrbar he could cruise to the A3 win ahead of Toni Rheinard to claim his second Formula win of the season. Ratheisky and Ehrbar completed the Round 5 podium with the title set to be decided at the season final in Germany next month.

The Xray Pro Stock final was similar to Formula with a mistake on the opening lap of A2 by A1 winner Christian Donath giving Jan Ratheisky the win from Alexandre Duchet forcing the race to go to A3. This time the pole sitter made sure to put in the perfect race taking his Tamiya to a 3.6 second winning margin over Duchet and Martin Hofer. The German’s first ETS win he was joined on the podium by Ratheisky in second and Duchet in third with the champion going to be decided in Ettlingen.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

June 18, 2017

Coelho cruises to A1 win as Matsukura snatches 2nd

Having wrapped up his second consecutive Euro Touring Series title by taking the TQ in Slovakia this morning, Bruno Coelho made light work of his opposition to cruise to the win in A1. Almost immediately the Xray driver would establish a lead while the rest of the field backed up behind team-mate Alexander Hagberg. Spinning out on the curbing at the one & a half minute mark would end Marc Rheinard’s race as he got collected by Infinity team-mate Akio Sobue resulting in the front left corner being pulling off the German’s car. This would take the pressure from behind off Matsukura allowing him to focus on finding his way passed Hagberg, the Japanese driver forcing a mistake from the Swede on the penultimate lap to get passed for second. Despite setting the slowest fastest lap of the race, Ronald Volker would finish 4th behind Hagberg, the World Champion clearly having to dig deep to make up for his car’s lack of pace.

With his season’s goal achieved this morning and the race now an opportunity to add to his ETS career statistics, Coelho said after his easy A1 win, ‘it was pretty good’. The Portuguese ace added, ‘I forced from the start but at 2-minutes lost the rear in the middle of the track. Maybe I overheated the tyres but after this I took it easy and controlled the race to the end. Alex & Naoto fighting gave me more space’. On target for his fourth win of the season, a feat only Rheinard has achieved when he won his only ETS title in 2009/10, Coelho used A1 to ‘try different things’ on his Hobbywing powered T4 and happy with them he said he plans to use A2 for further testing.

A driver clearly enjoying being back at the front, Matsukura was delighted with his pass on Hagberg but also slightly frustrated at being held up by the former Nitro Touring Car World Champion. He said, ‘I changed back to yesterday’s set-up and my car was pretty good now but Alex was a little slow so I had no chance to try race with Bruno’. He added ‘I kept the pressure on Alex and he made a little mistake and I could go on his inside for the pass but for the next one I need to take him at the beginning, I really want to try to take the fight to Bruno’. In terms of his also Hobbywing powered IF14, he said, ‘the car is good so I will keep it the same and just fit new tyres’.

‘Not good’ was Hagberg’s reaction after A1. He continued, ‘I was struggling with the car. It was too difficult to drive and that’s why I couldn’t defend my position’. Describing the car as ‘loose’, he said, ‘we need to change the set-up for the next one so I can actually race’.

In the opening Xray Pro Stock encounter, Top Qualifier Christian Donath managed with a minute to go to get back the lead he lost 5-laps early to Jan Ratheisky for a very popular win. Very closely bunched at the front, Martin Hofer would also finish where he started after seeing off the attentions of fifth place starter Tom Krägefski. In Formula it was also a win for the Top Qualifier with Olivier Bultynck keeping champion Ratheisky at bay with Helge Johannessen coming from 9th on the grid to complete the Top 3.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

June 18, 2017

Coelho wraps up title with TQ at ETS Slovakia

Bruno Coelho has wrapped up his second Euro Touring Series title after the Xray driver claimed the overall TQ this morning in Slovakia. The reigning champion secured his fourth TQ of the season when he again topped the times in the second of the qualifiers at the rain effected 5th round with the bonus championship for the TQ putting amends to his only remaining title rival coming into the weekend, Ronald Volker. Behind Coelho, Alexander Hagberg made it an Xray 1-2 line up for the triple A-Mains as he managed to better the Q1 time of Naoto Matsukura to move ahead of the Infinity driver. Behind Matsukura, team-mate Marc Rheinard will line up 4th with Volker completing the top half of the grid.

Reacting to his TQ run, Coelho said, ‘It was a very good qualifier. The car was a little loose the first few corners but by the straight it was working perfect and I could push to get a gap’. Chasing a hat trick of wins at the Hudy Arena, he continued, ‘I knew Naoto’s car drops of a lot at the end so if I could get a gap at the beginning I would be ok. In the end Alex was also able to pass Naoto so it was a ver positive qualifying for the team’. With the championship now decided, asked about his approach to the finals he replied, ‘I will race to win but we might try new T4 parts to make use of the track conditions because we don’t normally get to test in race conditions’. Commenting on winning his second ETS title, this only his third season contesting the highly coveted championship, he said, ‘I think we were more prepared than last year. Last year was my first year with Hobbywing and MonTech so this year we had our notes from last year to work off which allowed us to create a much better overall package. I knew on asphalt I would be good but the carpet races would be a bigger challenge but the season started off very good with a TQ & win at the first round and a second at the next one. This was a very positive start and my preferred surface was still to come. Everything was perfect this season’.

Hagberg described Q2 as ‘very good’, the Swede happy with set-up changes he made to his T4 for the qualifier. With less than 8/100ths of a second separating him, Rheinard and Volker, he said, ‘luck was running on his side’ to keep ahead of the two World Champions. Describing the track as ‘slightly better than yesterday’ the 1:12 European Champion said with the sun starting to come out the track was already starting to slow down and he expects less grip for the finals. Planning to leave his car unchanged, he said the goal for the finals is to ‘try my best to keep up with Bruno and see what happens’, the annual ETS visit to the Hudy Arena having netted Xray and Coelho/Hagberg 1-2 the last two years.

Securing his best ever ETS qualifying position thanks to his time from Q1, Matsukura was very happy with the result but less happy with the set-up of his IF14 in Q2. The 2014 World Champion said, ‘I changed the set-up but it was no good so I go back for the finals’. With the car suffering ‘too much push’ he said this caused him overdrive to try and keep pace with Coelho but this led to a number of mistakes. Looking to the final, the reigning 1:12 World Champion said, ‘I want to take Alex and try to chase Bruno but he is super consistent for 5-minutes. I can race Alex but Bruno is more of a challenge, apart from him the rest are very close, we are all on the same pace’.

Having set the pace in Thursday’s free practice, Rheinard said, ‘it still doesn’t feel like in practice but it was not bad’. He continued, ‘luck is on Xray’s side but to get 3 of our cars in the final at Xray’s track shows we are doing a good job’. Asked about what he hopes to get out of the finals, the 2014 Hudy Arena winner replied, ‘Now the sun comes out and normally the Xray’s are a little slower, we seen this in Madrid and on Thursday so I hope we will be close enough that we can fight with them’.

Volker said, ‘I’m kind of disappointed to lose 2nd on the grid by 0.1 something but on the other hand having had some scary moments in the run trying to keep the car on the track there is not much more I could have done’. The reigning World Champion, who is clearly struggling with his car of late, said one positive of the event was that team-mate Nicholas Lee has made his first ETS A-Main and former race winner Christopher Krapp as put his BD8 in the A-Main for the first time since joining the team. Offering his congratulations to Coelho on winning the championship, the German said, ‘he was the most consistent driver so for sure he deserves it but I promise to come back stronger even for the last race of the ETS season’. The the 10th season of the ETS concluding next month in Germany when it makes its first visit to the Ettlingen track.

In Pro Stock, Christian Donath claimed his second overall TQ of the season as the Tamiya driver took both qualifiers. Behind him reigning champion Jan Ratheisky will start second with Martin Hofer third for Yokomo. The season’s only double winner Alexandre Duchet starts fourth with Tom Krägefski completing the top half of the grid. In Formula Shepherd’s Olivier Bultynck TQ’d both qualifiers to secure pole ahead of the Serpent of David Ehrbar with Ratheisky third ahead of Tonisport’s Toni Rheinard who has come out of retirement to race the VBC chassis.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

June 17, 2017

2nd qualifier deferred to final day at ETS Slovakia

Despite efforts to get the track dry to allow for a second round of qualifying today at ETS Slovakia, the decision has been made to defer Q2 to the tomorrow’s final day at the penultimate round of the championship. Having just managed to get the first round of qualifying completed after a wet start to the day and Friday having been a washout, the rain returned to the Hudy Arena as Q2 got underway stopping the action once again. Starting as a light drizzle it worsened and while many drivers took to sweeping and drying the track once the rain stopped, the evening drop in temperature and lack of sunshine mean’t it never completely dried. Opened for free practice, cars struggling to get around, the decision was then made to call it a day. With Sunday’s forecast showing a nice dry day in Trencin, the organisers have set a 07:00 start time so as to get a second round of qualifying in ahead of running the finals. With just two rounds of qualifying, drivers will count their best round with the fastest time the tie breaker leaving overnight Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho in a strong position to take the overall TQ. Such an outcome would secure the Xray driver back to back ETS titles.

View our event image gallery here.

June 17, 2017

Coelho takes important Q1 from Matsukura at rain effected ETS Slovakia

With rain effectively wiping out yesterday’s action at the Hudy Arena, qualifying at Euro Touring Series finally got underway this afternoon with Bruno Coelho taking an important TQ run in the first of the 3 rescheduled qualifiers from a surprise Naoto Matsukura. With drivers getting only 3-minutes of running yesterday, they would again have to play the waiting game this morning as further rain delayed proceedings at the 5th round of the championship. Getting another 3-minute practice run once the track had dried after the morning downpour the expectation of further rain meant the stakes for Q1 were high. Having topped Thursday’s sun drenched free practice, it would be Marc Rheinard who led away the top heat but a minute in the Infinity driver would make a mistake. This left team-mate Matsukura to go to the top but a strong finish from Coelho, who had issues with his Xray being blown around the track by the wind, allowed the champion elect to TQ by 7/10ths from Matsukura with Alexander Hagberg getting third ahead of Rheinard. For Coelho’s only remaining title contender, Ronald Volker, the event is proving hugely challenging with the Yokomo driver describing his P6 as a ‘miracle’.

‘Super difficult’ was Coelho’s reaction afterwards. Looking to put to bed a back to back ETS titles with the overall TQ, he continued, ‘it was not the car but the conditions. The wind caused me to lose the car 3 times. When the car is not right you know where you can have problems but with the wind it surprises you. It even pushed me up onto the grass’. Going for his third win in a row at what is his Xray team’s home track, the said, ‘Fortunately while Matsukura got close to me I knew I was faster and he only caught me because of the wind. I tried to force to the end and I was able to get first’. The significance of Q1 was highlighted by the fact as the second round of qualifying got underway it started raining again, although one positive is that tomorrow is showing as good meaning the finals should run without interruption.

A very pleased Matsukura summed up his first competitive ETS showing for a long time with, ‘This feels good for me to have no mistakes and to be able to drive a controlled race. Before I was not able to battle at the front. I’m super happy’. Working the IF14’s designer Kotonori Fujiwara as his mechanic this weekend, the 2014 World Champion said this was also a big factor in his performance. Warming up for the event with a win at the most recent round of the CETC in China, in terms of his car he said, ‘my car was pretty good but after 3-minutes it started to get a little push and then Bruno could pull a gap. I will change the set-up for the next one to make it more consistent for the full run’.

Helping Xray to take a 1-2 here the last two years, Hagberg summed up the first qualifier as ‘pretty good’ but like his team-mate said the windy conditions made it unpredictable. Describing it as ‘a safe run’, the Swede said he took ‘no risks considering how unpredictable the weather is’ adding ‘3rd is a good result to have’. Pleased with the performance of his T4 he said, ‘I will leave it the same and just push more in the next one’.

Fastest in free practice, Rheinard said, ‘it didn’t feel as before, it felt loose so I didn’t have the right feeling to push the car’. Coming into the event on the back of his 6th Reedy Race of Champions win, he continued, ‘I made a mistake, without it I could have got third but that’s still not what it should have been. At least I got 4th I suppose’.

Posting the fifth fastest time, Freddy Sudhoff said, ‘that was pretty good, everything went fine’. He added, ‘actually since the first practice I have been confident with the set-up and the track’. The Awesomatix driver said, ‘I took it a little easy due to the weather so I did not have any hot laps but it was a good start’. Asked about the wind effecting his car the German replied, ‘a few laps in the car pushed a little more but it wasn’t a big problem for me’. For Q2, which looks now like being the only other qualifier they will fit in due to the latest rain, he will leave his kit standard A800 unchanged.

Finishing almost 5-seconds off Coelho’s pace, Volker didn’t hold back on his issues. The World Champion described his car as ‘horrible in the opening laps’ highlighting that the problem has been there since Thursday’s free practice. He continued, ‘there is absolutely no rear grip, its a miracle finishing P6’. Running last in the heat, the German said he had to use the time to know when it was the last lap so he could launch his car across the finish line, the 2/10th gained the only reason he got 6th as apposed to a P10. He concluded, ‘We are totally off the pace in the beginning and need to do big changes in order to get up there but thats going to be very tough’. Behind Volker, team-mate Christopher Krapp was the next fastest Yokomo with newly crowned Reedy Race Open Champion Jin Sawada taking his Destiny to 8th for the round.

In the Xray Pro Stock class it was the Tamiya of Christian Donath that took the first TQ. During the first attempt at qualifying yesterday, the rain arrived before all the Pro Stock heats were completed but getting the remaining three heats done today it was Donath who was fastest from the Yokomo of former Champion Martin Hofer with Xray’s Tom Krägefski completing the Top 3. Best of the winners so far this season would be ETS Italy winner Max Mächler who was fifth fastest. In the Scorpion Power Formula class Shepherd’s Olivier Bultynck took Q1 ahead of Jan Ratheisky and Tim Benson with Tonisport owner Toni Rheinard coming out of retirement to set an impressive P4 time ahead of double winner David Ehrbar.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

June 16, 2017

Rain hampers Day 1 at ETS Slovakia

After basking in the sunshine in free practice yesterday, drivers didn’t fair as well on the official opening day of ETS Round 5 in Slovakia as a number of rain showers effectively wrote off any meaningful running at the Hudy Arena. Waking to rain this morning in Trencin with further rain showers over the morning, a dry track finally appeared after lunch allowing a round of 3-minute practice to prepare the track for qualifying. With further rain forecast for the morning, the schedule was brought forward to run two rounds of qualifying over the rest of the day but 9 heats in to the 27 heats the heavens opened again bringing a stop to proceedings.

Consulting with Martin Hudy on how the track dries and how late it would be possible to run, the track not having flood lights, it was felt the track could be made ready to complete the first round of Xray Pro Stock qualifying as well as Q1 for the Scorpion Formula class. Running another round of practice, Modified having had the call made that their day was done, the track conditions however wouldn’t come up as expected and so the ETS made the decision to call time on the a frustrating day. Unfortunately showers are been forecast again for the morning but from lunch it looks like the event might be able to get going with Sunday showing clear of any chance of rain.

View our event image gallery here.

June 16, 2017

Track Focus – Hudy Racing Arena

Name – Hudy Racing Arena
Country – Slovakia
Location – Trencin (120km NE from capital city of Bratislava)
Host – Hudy/Xray
Surface – Asphalt
Direction – Anti-clockwise
No. of ETS Races hosted – 4
Previous Winners –Bruno Coelho (2016 & 2015), Marc Rheinard (2014), Ronald Volker (2013)

The Hudy Racing Arena hosts the Euro Touring Series for a fifth time in 2017 but unlike the previous four visits this time it is not the season finale but instead round 5 of 6. First opening its doors to international racing when it welcomed the ETS in 2013, the facility which is also home to the Xray/Hudy factory has been a bucket-list topper for racers around the world ever since. With the ETS utilising the outdoor track, the EOS visiting earlier in the year & making use of the indoor track, there have been some tweaks to the 320 metre long asphalt circuit since the last visit. In the centre section of the track all of the original curbing has been taken out and replaced with new lower profile curbing with World Champion Ronald Volker declaring it as ‘much better’. Martin Hudy said while it was a lot of work to take out the old curbs, the new curbing has made the track ‘more fun’ to drive with it now possible to run on the curbing without the car flipping. The track works have also seen the addition of new concrete barriers at locations where the racing lanes run parallel, this improvement sure to prevent some of the spectacular crashes witnessed in the past when cars crashed into the path of oncoming cars, in particular on the main straight.

While not effecting the track in terms of the driving experience, another more visual change this year is the almost complete indoor dirt offroad track that is being added to the 25,000 square feet facility which in a previous life was a soccer stadium. Where previously a green area lay between the Arena and the factory, there is now an impressive new building. A steel frame when the ETS was last here it is now a fully inclosed building with just some final roof work needed to complete the exterior before they can get on with building the two (1:8 and 1:10 dirt) tracks inside. Its addition certainly adding to the status of the Hudy Arena being the worlds greatest RC facility.

Image Gallery