Euro Touring Series

December 5, 2014

Another TQ run for Hoppe in Q2

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Having TQ’d the opening round of Pro Stock qualifying at the ETS season opener, ARC driver Lars Hoppe repeated the performance in Q2. The German topped the 5-minute qualifier ahead of former champion Martin Hofer despite having to drive the last minute with a collapsed roof. Again setting the fastest lap, Hoppe was on target for another 20-lap run until he came across an incident on the main straight which he was unable to avoid. Although he only lost around 1/2 a second, he would have to continue with a distorted bodyshell causing him to drop off his early pace. Running his R10 the same as he did in Q1, Hoppe said up to that it was pretty much a repeat of the first qualifier. Very happy with the cars performance he said for tomorrow the only change he would consider is going back from the Super lightweight Blitz GSF to the Lightweight version.

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Having had issues with prototype parts he fitted to his Schumacher for Q1, modifications to these for Q2 would allow the former champion to run a competitive second qualifier. Running his car standard in practice so to have a good base to work from for testing the prototype parts and topping the first timed practice, Hofer said a ‘mistake building’ it for qualifying left him struggling in the first round. With it all rectified for Q2 he said he now has a good base to work from and he is confident that they can be stronger for the final two qualifiers.

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Although he fixed the steering linkage issue he had on his Xray in Q1 when he was second fastest, reigning champion Marek Cerny would end up pulling off in Q2 with an ill handling car. Again having issues with left hand corners, the Czech driver who showed very well on his competitive Ride Modified class debut today, suspects a bad tire is the cause of his problem as having gone over his T4 completely can not find anything out of place.

In Formula, Jan Ratheisky would also make it 2 from 2 again taking his Xray X1 to a TQ run this time ahead of team-mate Francesco Martini.

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December 5, 2014

Rheinard TQ’s opening qualifier at ETS

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Marc Rheinard will be hoping Day 1 of the new season of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series is a sign of things to come after the Tamiya driver TQ’d the opening round of qualifying from arch rival Ronald Volker. A very close encounter which saw last season’s Top 3 finishers all take turns at the top of the time screens in the Czech Republic, a last lap error by Volker would allow Rheinard to take the first of the weekend’s four qualifiers by a comfortable 1.476 seconds with Alexander Hagberg completing the Top 3 a further 3/10th off.

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Setting the fastest lap, Rheinard summed up the run as ‘fine’ having survived a moment on the straight half way into the 5-minute qualifier. Getting sideways on the straight after he hit the curbing on the entry he said this lost him up to 8/10th of a second but in terms of the rest of the run he was pretty happy with how it went. Running his aluminium chassis TRF419, the German said having a good set of tyres, unlike those he had in the final practice, the car was good again. Planning to keep the car the same for the morning’s second qualifier he said the only thing he would do is just refreshen up the shocks.

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Increasingly struggling to make conversation due to a worsening cough, Volker said being sick started to catch up with him having trouble focusing on his Yokomo around the track. Dominating this event last season on the way to his fourth ETS championship title, he said he was already over the limit trying to stay in control of the car with his concentration finally giving way on the last lap resulting in him rolling the BD7. Aside from the driver struggling, the German ace said the car had a little more understeer than he was expecting which while it made the car easy to drive left him lacking the outright pace he had in the final practice. Adding that it is the ‘details on track that will decide’ the rest of the weekend with the pace very close he said he will work on the driver first with a dose of medicine and an early night planned.

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Describing his Xray as being better than in practice, Hagberg said his ORCA powered T4 was very good for the first 3-minutes before dropping off. Running wide on the straight the Swede would catch a bump on the outside which to his surprise almost launched the car into the fencing with the moment costing him 7/10th of a second. Other than that he said the rest of the run was clean but added that for tomorrow morning he needs to work on getting the car to be more consistent for the full 5-minutes.

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Opting to run a brand new set of tyres for the first qualifying, most drivers having scrubbed in their allocated tyres during practice, Yannic Prumper would be disappointed with fourth. Expecting the track to be ‘stickier’ he said the tyres took too long to come in with his early laps being ‘too slow’. With his Much More powered BD7 on pace at the end, his fastest lap being his last, he said at least for now he has two scrubbed sets of tyres for the remaining qualifiers.

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Serpent’s Marc Fischer would set the fifth fastest time. Changes to the ackerman and rear diff on his S411 gave the former Hrotovice podium finisher a better car at the beginning of the qualifier but it again would develop understeer. Losing out on fourth after a couple of trips across the corner dots towards the end of the run, the German plans to revert to the set-up he ran in his open practice for Q2.

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Completing an impressive first day on his competitive step into Modified, 2-time defending ETS Pro Stock champion Marek Cerny posted the sixth fastest time. The Xray driver said his T4 was easy to drive but having seen a number of drivers make mistakes, one of such drivers being his super fast team-mate Bruno Coehlo, he decided it best to adapt a conservative approach to the run adding the outcome ‘was ok’. Planning to go with a similar approach tomorrow for Q2 with the aim of another safe round he said then he can look at pushing in the remaining two.

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Making the rear of his Tamiya narrower and running a different shock set-up Viktor Wilck would set the 7th fastest time. The Swede said while a little better he is ‘still too slow’. Asked what changes he would make to achieve this for Q2 he said he would give it thought overnight to try and come up with a potential solution.

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Taking his Awesomatix to the 8th fastest time Viljami Kutvonen described his opening heat as ‘ok but too slow’. Suffering ‘too much understeer’, the Finn said in practice his focus had been to get a good balance on his A700 and having now achieved that the plan for tomorrow was getting more steering. Having run a Bittydesign M15 body shell today he said for Q2 he will switch to the Italian company’s Nardo shell which should increase steering. Behind Kutvonen his team-mates Dionys Stadler and Freddy Südhoff completed the Top 10.

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In the Xray Pro Stock class, having set the pace in practice ARC’s Lars Hoppe was able to carry forward that form and TQ the first round of qualifying from defending champion Marek Cerny. Leaving his R10 2015 unchanged from the final practice, the German describing the car as working well, he was the only driver to complete 20 laps. Describing the run as ‘safe’ he added he didn’t hold back either as was clear from him setting the fastest lap of the round. With the car ‘working well’ and the track very consistent he said there is ‘no reason to make any changes’ for Q2.

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Cerny said he missed out on a potential TQ because of a ‘stupid mistake’. With his Xray struggling in left corners, something he intially put down to tyres, he said he discovered afterwards that the servo link was hitting the top deck effecting how linear the car’s steering was to the left. Having made changes to the car’s steering set-up for Q1 he said overall this improved the feeling and he is confident that with the link fixed for Q2 he should be good. Winner of this event last year, Jan Ratheisky was third closely followed by fellow Xray driver Valentin Hettrich. Ratheisky would take the first round of Formula qualifying, the defending champion set the fastest time from practice pace setter Herbert Weber with René Kölbel completing the Top 3.

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December 5, 2014

Volker tops final practice in Czech

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Defending Yokomo Euro Touring Series Champion Ronald Volker has topped practice at the season opener in the Czech Republic laying down a new fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second timed practice to top the combined times sheets from early pace setter Marc Rheinard. Chasing a fourth win at the Hrotovice venue, Volker knocked almost 3/10th of his early pace to go ahead of Rheinard, who failed to improve, while an improvement from Yannic Prumper allowed him maintain his Top 3 ahead of Alexander Hagberg.

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Making ‘minor changes’ to his LRP powered Yokomo for the final practice, Volker said his improve pace came from having more steering. The German added that while his BD7 was ‘not super easy to drive anymore’, the end result of ‘increasing pace’ was a good step forward. Planning just one further ‘minor tweak’ to the set-up for the first of the four scheduled qualifiers, he said his main focus would be on his driving and putting in a strong first 5-minute run.

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Again trying two cars, Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard said while the times for the second practice where below expectations he is confident he knows the reason for this and armed with that knowledge he should be ok for the first one. With the carbon chassis TRF419 proving the fastest of the two Much More powered cars this time round, he said despite this he would run the alu chassis in Q1 adding that with a good set of tyres on it it has the pace to challenge Volker for a TQ run.

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Changing the rear toe in on his Yokomo, Prumper said his BD7 had more steering but at the cost of it being more aggressive to drive with it particularly senstive to the track’s corner dots. Despite this the German plans to leave it as is for tonight’s opening qualifier and just keep it away from the dots.

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Improving his Xray through a ‘more aggressive steering set-up’, Alexander Hagberg improved by over a 1/10th of a second adding he believes his ORCA powered T4 is now fast enough. Predicting very close times in qualifying, the Swede said having made too many small mistake in his three practice runs his focus for now is just to drive better with him opting to leave the car as is for Q1.

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Ending the practice fifth fastest thanks to his opening time, Serpent’s Marc Fischer said despite two significant changes, body and shock springs, his S411 suffered the ‘same shit’ as it did earlier adding that it just ‘pushed like hell’. Planning a major change of direction with his set-up for qualifying he will go for a harder rear diff along with reducing the car’s ackerman.

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Building on his impressive pace of the first practice when he was 9th fastest, ETS Pro Stock Champion Marek Cerny improved to end up 6th fastest. Having changed to ‘super soft’ shock oil so as to work the alu chassis on his Xray T4 more and switch from a spool to a front diff, the Czech driver said this gave him the steering he was lacking earlier. Now with too much the 20-year-old is set to go back a little with certain elements of his set-up change adding that overall he is feeling pretty good with his car going into qualifying on this his first serious attempt at racing Modified.

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Xray team-mate Marco Kaufmann would enjoy a marked improvement as he bettered his 3-consecutive lap pace by half a second. Making the rear of his T4 narrower, the 21-year-old said this made the car push less and with more steering the change was a good step forward. Having ended up in the B-Main the last four times he got seeded in the top heat, the German said he is less nervous about running in that group this weekend and while his car just needs some minor tuning for Q1 the plan is to leave it as is and ‘just drive’. Behind Kaufmann the Top 10 was completed by Viktor Wilck, Freddy Sudhoff and ETS debutant Bruno Coehlo.

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In the Xray Pro stock class, ARC Racing’s Lars Hoppe would top the times ahead of Mike Gosvig and Julian Borowski with early pace setter Martin Hofer failing to improve and dropping to fourth. Changing from a Lightweight to a Superlightweight version of the Blitz GSF body, Hoppe said this made his R10 easier to drive. Also making a change from a 5800mah to 7400mah Xcite RC battery, the German said this gave improvement to the car’s power over the duration of the run and the star of last season’s Luxembourg encounter, where he had a great battle for the win with champion Cerny, is feeling pretty confident for tonight when Pro Stock will run two of their qualifiers. Although he improved his time Cerny would remain 5th fastest. In the well supported Formula class, former Champion Herbert Weber topped the times with his CRC from the new Xray of defending back to back Champion Jan Ratheisky with Roman Pichler completing the Top 3.

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December 5, 2014

Rheinard tops first timed practice at ETS

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Marc Rheinard topped the first round of timed practice at the season opener of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in the Czech Republic. The Tamiya driver who closed off last season’s ETS championship with a victory was quickest over 3-consecutive laps from defending champion Ronald Volker, the pair separated by just 0.09 of a second around the large carpet track. 2/10th off Rheinard’s pace, Yannic Prumper would complete an all German Top 3 followed by Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and Serpent’s Marc Fischer.

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‘Not too bad’ was how Rheinard summed up his early performance. Taking advantage of the latest round of the popular Czech Mibo Cup, which uses the same Sport-V-Hotel venue to host its championship, the former World Champion ran two different TRF419 chassis over the 4-minute practice. Starting out with a carbon chassis car the German would set his fastest time with the second car he would run which is fitted with an aluminum chassis. With the carbon chassis struggling with understeer, he described the alu version as ‘good’ and while he is swaying towards running this in qualifying he said for the final practice he will again run both cars. With different shock set-ups on the cars he will make both the same to get a more true comparison before making his final decision.

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Feeling slightly under the weather as he is suffering from a sore throat, Volker who has dominated this event on the last three visits, this being the ETS’ fifth, said 2nd fastest was ‘not to bad’ but added ‘there is room for improvement’. Running an alloy chassis on his Yokomo BD7, the four time back to back champion reported understeer, something he put down to the ETS’ new spec carpet. Commenting that normally on carpet too much steering is the issue, he said this particular carpet creates a lot of rear traction from the hand out Ride tyre causing the car to push. With the steering improving as the tyres wear he said even allowing for this they would also ‘change a little’ the set-up for the final practice.

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Running Yokomo’s standard carbon chassis on his BD7, Prumper felt his car is not the best for a ‘hot lap’ but the 20-year-old is condifent he has a really good package for a 5-minute run. With the car very stable in the rear for the last timed practice his mechanic Toni Rheinard will adjust the toe in as well as change to a softer shock oil all round which he hopes will further improve an already good package.

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‘Too slow’ was how Hagberg summed up his early pace. The newly crowned nitro touring car World Champion said the track’s carpet is causing his T4 to push and they need to adjust the set-up to compensate for that fact. Commenting on the layout, which he said is better than last year, the Swede likes the bigger layout which so far is proving to be about 3-seconds a lap slower such is the increase in size.

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A podium finisher here two season back, Fischer said after changing bodyshell for the first time practice he will revert to the all white shell he ran in the morning’s open practice. Switching to a Protoform Speed 6 done up is his orange colour scheme, he said due to this shell being mounted further back on his S411 the car pushed too much. In addition to returning to the more forward mounted body which he said as well as giving more steering give a better overall feeling, the German also intends to make a front spring change.

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Having tried two cars in open practice and opted to run just the alu chassis TRF419 for the first timed practice, Tamiya’s Viktor Wilck posted the 6th fastest time. The Swede said while the alu version was better in terms of having more steering he still needs to reduce the understeer and so he plans to try a different shock set-up for the last practice.

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Joined by Canadian team-mate Keven Hebert this weekend, Team Associated’s Juho Levanen set the 7th fastest time describing his car as ‘actually pretty good’. Unfortunately half way through the run a heavy contact would result in him tweaking the car. Testing different suspension parts on his TC6.2, with Herbert in turn trying another suspension package, the Finn is confident that there is more to come as he tweaked the car before the tyres had reached their best. Other than dial out the tweak, the two time ETS race winner said he will run the same set-up for the second timed practice.

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Running the same set-up as he did at last weekend’s Charty Race in Italy, Xray chassis designer Martin Hudy set the 8th fastest time. The Slovak driver said while his T4 had a ‘little push’ it was OK for now as with the traction improving, so should the car’s steering.

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Making his Ride Modified class debut since becoming back to back champion of the Xray Pro-Stock class, Marek Cerny posted the 9th fastest time. The Czech factory Xray driver said while he could do with a little more steering his T4 was ‘super easy’ to drive. Describing this as his first serious attempt at racing Modified, his plan being to contest both Mod & Pro Stock at all six rounds this season, he said his aim for this weekend is the B-Main. Only fifth fastest in the first timed Pro Stock practice he said this car was a ‘little more difficult’ but added traffic was too a bit of an issue over the 3-laps too and he feels his 5-minute pace is better. Former champion Martin Hofer would top the Pro Stock times with his Schumacher setting the pace from the ARC of Lars Hoppe and Xray’s Mike Gosvig.

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Completing the Top 10 in Modifed was Freddy Sudhoff. While his Awesomatix team have spent the last week testing in Germany, work commitments meant Sudhoff was unable to attend. Describing his two practice runs as ‘so far so good’, he said while the overall balance of the car is very good they will make a set-up change so as to try and get more on power steering. Starting out with a Protoform Speed 6, for the first time run he switch to the American company’s new Dart shell. Describing the body as making the car a lot easier to drive he said it was ‘probably too easy’ and he plans to go back for now to the Speed 6.

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December 5, 2014

Track Focus – Hrotovice

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Host – Mibo Sport
Country – Czech Republic
Location – Hrotovice
Venue – Sport-V-Hotel
Track type – Temporary
Surface – Carpet
Direction – Anti-Clockwise
Previous ETS races hosted – 4

The opening round of Season #8 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series marks two big milestones for the world famous championship. Taking place in the small town of Hrotovice, which is situated in the south of the Czech Republic about a one hour drive from the Austrian border, the event is the 40th running of an ETS event since its creation back in 2007. A significant milestone for the championship, which continues to see growth with over 320 entries turning out for the first of the six rounds that make up the 2014/15 season, the race also sees the Michal Bok hosted event become the championship’s most visited venue, this being the fifth time drivers from around the world have travelled to the Sport-V-Hotel.

The most significant change to the venue, which despite its remoteness is hugely popular with racers, is a new extension to the large hall in which the race is hosted. With the pits somewhat cosy last year, this weekend drivers will have a lot more elbow room thanks to the new side rooms, the largest of which sees pit spacing for 120 drivers. In terms of the track this is also the largest track Bok and his crew has created, the black carpet track covering an area 30 metres wide and 24 metres deep. With 11-second lap times for the leading Ride Modified competitors last year, in early practice 14-second laps look to be this year’s benchmark.

Commenting on the layout defending champion & last year’s race winner Ronald Volker described the track as ‘very flowing’. The Yokomo driver said compared to traditional indoor track layouts it had more long corners instead of hairpin and chicanes. Admitting that it was ‘personally a little too open’ for him, the German ace said ‘in the end it was nice to have such a large track for such a big event’ continuing that adding another lane of carpet was ‘a good idea’. Asked what was key to a successful lap he said a lap was pretty straightforward but added having a centre straight that runs at a 90 degree angel to the drivers stand is little unusual to drive.

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July 6, 2014

Wilck wins A3 for Tamiya 1-2

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Viktor Wilck made it a Tamiya 1-2 at the finale of the ETS when he took victory in the closing race of Season #7 ahead of Champion Ronald Volker. With team-mate & Top Qualifier Marc Rheinard wrapping up TRF’s first win of the season in A2, it was Wilck who led away the field, this time armed with a much faster car. Setting the fastest lap of the race unlike A2 when his off pace TRF418 had a train of cars to contend with, the Swede only had Volker to worry about but once again the German would fail to find a way to go to the front. Second would still secure Volker his 13th consecutive ETS podium finish, while securing his best finish of the finals with 3rd, World Champion Jilles Groskamp would end up fourth overall beating Alexander Hagberg on the tie break for fourth.

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In Xray Pro-Stock, despite having already completed in A2 his mission of taking the win and successfully defending his championship title, Marek Cerny would go on to do a clean sweeep. Topping all four qualifiers, the factory Xray driver would win all three legs of the A-Main, his third coming ahead of local racer Kuba Simurda. On the podium the Czech driver would be joined by fellow countryman David Nemcek with Simurda third.

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In the Formula class, which saw a 35% growth in the total number of entries for the season, VBC Racing team driver Olivier Bultynck claimed his second win of the season backing up his Round 5 Luxembourg victory. Behind the Belgian, back to back title champion Jan Ratheisky took his Xray to second with Serpent’s David Ehrbar, who was Top Qualifier, completing the podium line-up in Trencin.

Ride Modified Final Result
1. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 2 pts
2. Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 3
3. Ronald Volker (DE) – Team Yokomo – 5
4. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 8
5. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray Racing Team – 8
6. Loic Jasmin (FR) – Team Yokomo – 11
7. Akio Sobue (JP) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 12
8. Alessio Menicucci (IT) – Xray Racing Team – 14
9. Yannic Prumper (DE) – Team Yokomo – 14
10.Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – 17

Ride Modified A-Main Leg 3 Result
1.(2) Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:02.532
2.(3) Ronald Volker (DE) – Team Yokomo – 17/5:02.716
3.(6) Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:04.747
4.(8) Loic Jasmin (FR) – Team Yokomo – 17/5:09.941
5.(10)Alessio Menicucci (IT) – Xray Racing Team – 17/5:10.217
6.(4) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray Racing Team – 17/5:10.800
7.(7) Akio Sobue (JP) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:12.321
8.(5) Yannic Prumper (DE) – Team Yokomo – 17/5:12.876
9.(1) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya Racing Factory – DNS
10.(9)Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – DNS

Xray Pro-Stock Final Result
1. Marek Cerny (CZ) – Xray – 2 pts
2. David Nemcek (SK) – Xray – 4
3. Kuba Simurda (CZ) – Xray – 5
4. Jan Ratheisky (DE) – Xray – 8
5. Henrik Heitsch (DE) – ARC – 10
6. Tobias Seidl (DE) – Team C – 11
7. Mike Gosvig (DK) – Awesomatix – 11
8. Mustafa Alp (TR) – VBC Racing – 13
9. Philip Tschupp (CH) – Serpent – 15
10.Kevin Homburg (DE) – ARC – 16

Xray Pro-Stock A-Main Leg 3 Result
1.(1) Marek Cerny (CZ) – Xray – 16/5:16.749
2.(2) Kuba Simurda (CZ) – Xray – 16/5:19.891
3.(3) David Nemcek (SK) – Xray – 15/5:01.030
4.(6) Tobias Seidl (DE) – Team C – 15/5:03.202
5.(8) Philip Tschupp (CH) – Serpent – 15/5:06.384
6.(5) Henrik Heitsch (DE) – ARC – 15/5:07.388
7.(9) Mustafa Alp (TR) – VBC Racing – 15/5:07.539
8.(7) Kevin Homburg (DE) – ARC – 15/5:07.712
9.(10)Mike Gosvig (DK) – Awesomatix – 15/5:13.253
10.(4)Jan Ratheisky (DE) – Xray – 15/5:13.390

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July 6, 2014

Rheinard takes victory at ETS Finale

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Marc Rheinard has taken victory at the season finale of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series at the Hudy Racing Arena, giving the championship’s most winning manufacturer Tamiya their first & only win of the 2013/14 championship. Having not won in the world famous championship for over a season, the most winning driver claimed his 12th victory as he backed up his A1 win with a dominant performance in A2, helped hugely by his TRF team-mate Viktor Wilck. Despite having the slowest car on the track, the number 2 starting Wilck managed to keep a train of cars behind him for the entire five minutes allowing Rheinard to pull clear for an easy 3.6 second winning margin. The battle for second was an impeccable display of world class driving as despite their close proximity and high speeds of the cars there was no contact. With the top 4 finishing in the order which they started with Ronald Volker 3rd and Alexander Hagberg 4th, World Champion Jilles Groskamp was the highest place finisher to make a pass again getting by the Yokomo of Yannic Prumper for 5th.

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After one of his toughest ETS seasons, Rheinard was ‘maximum happy’ to maintain his record of being the only driver to win a race every season for the last 6 years of the championship. The 3-time World Champion was quick to pay tribute to Tamiya who he said have really worked hard recently on making their car competitive in particular against the Yokomo of ETS Champion Ronald Volker. He said ‘In Luxembourg we were close and today we were best which shows we are headed in good direction now with the car’. A World Championship year, Tamiya 3 time back to back defending champions, he said ‘now that we know we have a competitive car we can focus on testing to improve it more’. Commenting on A2, he said having not been so happy with his Much More powered prototype TRF418 in the opening Main the car was now perfect again the only change made being a new set of tyres. Repeating his fast get away from the line he said he could immediately see Wilck was ‘slower’ and he was easily able to extend the gap adding he could have without much effort pushed a lot harder he had needed to.

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Wilck said with the train of cars behind him, the group containing at one point 6-cars running noise to tail, he thought it was all going to end up with someone crashing into him as he was so slow. Lacking steering so much so that he had to lift for the straight left hand kick he complimented Volker on his driving saying ‘Ronald really took care’. No idea as to why the car was so slow he said he hoped it was maybe due to the set of tyres he had. While he will fit a fresh set of tyres for A3 as he hopes to win the leg and make it a Tamiya 1-2 on the podium he said they will also make some small set-up changes.

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‘5-minutes of driving behind a tank’, that was the wording Volker used to sum up the race. Really happy with changes made to the set-up of his LRP powered BD7 between legs, he said he couldn’t show its potential as he just couldn’t find a way passed Wilck who had ‘no pace’. The 4-time back to back champion said the problem was compounded further by how close the cars behind him where meaning he couldn’t even attempt to take a risk in trying to get by the Tamiya. Saying a mistake was his only opportunity, he said Wilck blocked well and didn’t put a wheel wrong despite the pressure adding it was great to see 5 cars running so close at such high speeds and keep it clean. Looking to A3 when he has the potential to take second overall with a win, he said he hoped he would get the chance to show the potential of his car.

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Asked about his race Hagberg said ‘Viktor (Wilck) was very slow for some reason and nobody could get by one another and it was simple as that’. Enjoying running so closely with his rivals he said it was a great showcase for racing at the highest level and he had a lot of respect for all the drivers involved.

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Groskamp said he almost threw away the race off the line as his Tamiya attempted to do a doughnut. Changing from doing one and a half warm-up laps for A2 he just did half a lap while making his way to the line which he said obviously wasn’t enough for his tyres. The start allowed team-mate Akio Sobue passed but the Dutch ace said his car was really good and he was able to catch back up. He said staring 6th from the grid he always knew it was going to be difficult to get a good result as was seen by the train battling for second spot but he was ‘super happy for Tamiya that they are back winning in the ETS’, a championship Groskamp has won twice for the Japanese company.

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In the Xray Pro-Stock class Marek Cerny also made it two from two but for the Czech driver the result not only gave him a home win for his Xray team but also allowed him to successfully defend his title. Re-igniting his title hopes with a win at the previous ETS encounter in Luxembourg, Cerny needed to TQ and win the season finale and not putting a wheel wrong all weekend he did just that. Repeating his domination of A1, Cerny would again win A2 comfortably over fellow Xray drivers David Nemcek and Kuba Simurda.

Ride Modified A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:05.460
2.(2) Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:09.055
3.(3) Ronald Volker (DE) – Team Yokomo – 17/5:09.247
4.(4) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray Racing Team – 17/5:09.455
5.(6) Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:09.841
6.(5) Yannic Prumper (DE) – Team Yokomo – 17/5:10.804
7.(8) Loic Jasmin (FR) – Team Yokomo – 17/5:11.043
8.(9) Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – 17/5:19.338
9.(10)Alessio Menicucci (IT) – Xray Racing Team – 16/5:02.735
10.(7)Akio Sobue (JP) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 16/5:02.981

Xray Pro-Stock A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Marek Cerny (CZ) – Xray – 15/5:00.302
2.(3) David Nemcek (SK) – Xray – 15/5:02.500
3.(2) Kuba Simurda (CZ) – Xray – 15/5:03.126
4.(4) Jan Ratheisky (DE) – Xray – 15/5:03.765
5.(5) Henrik Heitsch (DE) – ARC – 15/5:09.114
6.(10)Mike Gosvig (DK) – Awesomatix – 15/5:16.078
7.(6) Tobias Seidl (DE) – Team C – 15/5:16.159
8.(7) Kevin Homburg (DE) – ARC – 15/5:17.242
9.(9) Mustafa Alp (TR) – VBC Racing – 15/5:19.373
10.(8)Philip Tschupp (CH) – Serpent – 15/5:20.984

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July 6, 2014

Rheinard heads Tamiya 1-2 in opening ETS A-Main

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Marc Rheinard headed a Tamiya 1-2 in the opening A-Main at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series season, the Top Qualifier heading home a very evenly matched lead group from team-mate Viktor Wilck. While the race saw no changes of position among the Top 4, drivers had no time to let up with the pack covered by 1-second with Yokomo’s Ronald Volker finishing third followed by Xray’s Alexander Hagberg. The most significant moment of the race at the Hudy Racing Arena was a coming together between Jilles Groskamp and Yannic Prumper, the latter collecting the rear of the World Champion send both cars off onto the grass infield while in the battle for fourth position with Hagberg.

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Moving one step closer to registering his first overall win of the 2013/14 ETS season, Rheinard said ‘for sure it was good result’ but he said his prototype TRF418 didn’t feel as good as yesterday. The German said while the track was slower due to the sunny hot morning in Trencin, his car wasn’t the same left to right adding it was maybe just down to the set of tyres he had for the race. Very happy with his start, immediately pulling a few tenths on Wilck, he said the Swede made a good comeback and towards the end he was ‘just trying to keep (his) car on track’ to stay ahead of the very close bunch in which all four drivers ran also identical 18.3 second fastest lap times.

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Wilck said he was ‘just too slow at the beginning’ and his start was something he need to improve for A2. Like Rheinard, he too did not feel his car was as good as in qualifying describing the handling as ‘so so’. Suffering from understeer he hopes changes can be made to dial this out with A2 conditions set to be even warmer than A1.

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Winner of the season finale last year, Volker said the sunny conditions had left the track with very low grip and the difficult conditions made it impossible to not make minor errors. Describing the pace of the Top 6 as ‘identical’ he said you might caught up to the driver on a lap and then on the next lap as they make a minor error have to check-up and drop back again. With all the drivers pace so even, the four time ETS Champion said any advantage needs to come from the car and for A2 they will be trying to find something in his Yokomo’s set-up.

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Hagberg said again he struggled at little at the start of the run with his T4 improving as the race progressed. The swede said it was hard to make any progress in the race due to how close everyone was and it was going to take mistakes from the driver in front to find a way past. Saying it was great to see things so even this weekend, Volker having dominated the passed few races, he said for A2 he will just try to push that little bit harder.

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Setting the fastest lap of the race with an 18.297, Groskamp said his Orion powered Tamiya was ‘maximum good’ but not the result. Ending up 6th behind TRF team-mate Akio Sobue who had started behind him, the Dutch ace said he made a good start getting past Yannic Prumper from where he was slowly able to catch Hagberg. He said it was a ‘shame’ that Prumper made contact with him but the positive of the race was that he had finally got his car to be more consistent over the run with it still fast at the start with far less drop off in performance over the 5-minutes. Ending up 8th, Prumper took full responsibility for contact saying he braked too late.

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In the Xray Pro-Stock class there was also a win for the Top Qualifier with defending champion Marek Cerny taking full control of proceedings to win by a very comfortable margin from David Nemcek, who managed to get past Kuba Simurda early on. Joint championship leader Jan Ratheisky had a lonely racing finishing fourth in front of the Awesomatix of Mike Gosvig who had a good race coming through from 10th on the grid. In Formula, Olivier Bultynck took a very close win over back to back champion Ratheisky as Top Qualifier David Ehrbar, who set the fastest lap, had a tough race ending up 5th.

Ride Modified A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:06.860
2.(2) Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:07.074
3.(3) Ronald Volker (DE) – Team Yokomo – 17/5:07.310
4.(4) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray Racing Team – 17/5:07.868
5.(7) Akio Sobue (JP) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:09.934
6.(6) Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Tamiya Racing Factory – 17/5:13.708
7.(8) Loic Jasmin (FR) – Team Yokomo – 17/5:14.254
8.(5) Yannic Prumper (DE) – Team Yokomo – 17/5:17.199
9.(9) Viljami Kutvonen (FI) – Awesomatix – 17/5:18.311
10.(10)Alessio Menicucci (IT) – Xray Racing Team – 16/5:02.007

Xray Pro-Stock A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Marek Cerny (CZ) – Xray – 15/5:01.202
2.(3) David Nemcek (SK) – Xray – 15/5:03.083
3.(2) Kuba Simurda (CZ) – Xray – 15/5:03.353
4.(4) Jan Ratheisky (DE) – Xray – 15/5:06.624
5.(10)Mike Gosvig (DK) – Awesomatix – 15/5:09.485
6.(9) Mustafa Alp (TR) – VBC Racing – 15/5:10.653
7.(6) Tobias Seidl (DE) – Team C – 15/5:11.255
8.(7) Kevin Homburg (DE) – ARC – 15/5:12.095
9.(8) Philip Tschupp (CH) – Serpent – 11/3:54.462
10.(5)Henrik Heitsch (DE) – ARC – 8/2:44.161

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