Teams ready for battle in Hrotovice
The opening round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series was all about one driver and one team with Ronald Volker dominating proceedings to give Team Yokomo their first ever win in the series. In the weeks since Kastellaun the opposition have been busy trying to ensure this is not repeated with Volker admitting himself he expects a much tougher challenge from Tamiya and Xray here. Having enjoyed his first nitro race after traveling to Hong Kong recently where he raced 200mm, the German said the wide open track here this year in the Czech Reublic is also going to make it a very close affair with no challenging corners in which to give any particular driver or car a distinct advantage over the opposition. Last year the track here in Hrotovice was one of the most technical with lap times in the region of 18 second compared with the 12 seconds being run in early practice today.
The big news for Round 2 is the arrival of Tamiya’s all new TRF417. The car replaces the 416 which brought Tamiya two consecutive World titles and three Euro Touring Series titles with just three cars present here for their Tamiya Racing Factory squad. Marc Rheinard and Viktor Wilck had their first taste of the new chassis at the Tamiya Fair event in Shizuoka, Japan, last week where they did some demo races before traveling to the Yatabe Arena for a full day of proper testing. In addition to picking up their new hardware the pair also agreed new contracts that will see them each continue to race for Tamiya for a further two years. The youngest and newest member of the team, Elliot Harper didn’t travel to Japan, his car been shipped to the UK where he spent the week building it. Having his first run with the 417 in this morning’s practice the teenager said the car already feels really good.
Xray launched their new T3 ’11 at the opening round last month and while they finished 1-2 in Pro Stock they were less than happy with their performance in the premiere class with only Alexander Hagberg making the A-Main. Not ones to sit around, the Slovak company gathered its team at its factory in Slovakia where Hagberg, Teemu Leino, Martin Hudy and Francesco Martini spent the last few days testing on their indoor carpet test track. Hagberg who last week won the Nordic Championships said the test was very productive and the entire team are confident they have found the reason for their lack of pace and he is hopeful of a much better showing here in Hrotovice.
Although they enjoyed 2 cars in the final at Kastellaun Hot Bodies factory driver Andy Moore was not one of them and the former World Champion has used the time between races to try and get the TCX chassis better suited to carpet. Focusing on different shock set-up he said it transformed the car back home where he enjoyed a win in the second round of the competitive Ardent Raceway Winter series. Much happier with the car he hopes the set-up will transfer to the different blue carpet that is being used here this weekend. Freddy Sudhoff was the top Hot Bodies driver in Germany and he is hoping for a similar performance this weekend targeting a podium finish, having just missed out last time at Round 1.
Another who just missed out on a podium having ended up on the same points as Sudhoff and Wilck, who claimed the third spot, Juho Levanen is making his debut with the full production version of Team Associated’s new TC6. The Finn, who spent Wednesday snowboarding before departing for Czech yesterday, said the car has a number of slightly different parts to the pre-production one he raced at Round 1 with the shocks being totally new. Although there was no racing for him to try out the car he did conduct some testing which he said proved very productive.
Making a welcome return to the series here is factory Kyosho driver Christopher Krapp. Unable to attended Kastellaun due to work commitments the young German, who was one of the stars at the World Championships earlier this year, gets his campaign underway this weekend. Having been busy racing electric off road for the last four weekends Krapp said he has had to use the morning to readjust his driving style but his TF-6 feels good thanks to some carpet testing he did last month back in Germany.
Elsewhere there are two interesting changes in terms of cars being used by Steven Wiess and Michal Bok. Having struggled to get to terms with the BD5 Wiess has left the team and is running a privateer this weekend running a TOP Racing Photon. The German said he will race a number of makes of cars and hopes after a difficult season he can get back on track for 2011. Michal Bok who has run Tamiya in recent times moves to Yokomo after his company MIBO Sport became the distributor for the Japanese company here in the Czech Republic.
One entry that is very worthy of a mention is that of father and son pairing of How-Jiang and Dominic Quek who have traveled all the way from Singapore to race in the ETS. How-Jiang said they have been following the ETS on Red RC and thought it looked like a really nice series to race in, so as a present to his son Dominic who only turned 8 on Wednesday they decided to take in the race here in Hrotovice as part of a European holiday. How-Jiang is in for a busy weekend as he will race himself in Pro-Stock while Dominic races in both the Xray Pro-Stock and the Speed Passion Hobby classes.
Today’s schedule is made up of four rounds of controlled practice followed by the first of five round of qualifying for all classes.
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