Euro Touring Series

October 17, 2009

Tamiya bounce back as Wilck takes Q3

The Tamiya team have bounced back in the third qualifier here in Kastellaun with Viktor Wilck heading Marc Rheinard at the top of the time sheets with a new TQ run. Having looked in real trouble in second qualifying, the team’s return to form was a result of some unusual outside assistance in the form of top Pro Stock racer Alexander Stocker. Stocker recommended a number of changes, getting stuck in himself by making the series of small adjustments on Rheinard’s TRF416X. Wilck, who is running the 416WE he used at the European Championship with most of the X modifications, did his own wrenching but both drivers were much happier with the changes that made the cars much easier to drive and back into contention for overall TQ honours.

Juho Levanen

Third fastest and retaining the provisional overall Top Qualifier spot, Juho Levanen was really pleased with his Associated but said he messed up the run driving too cautiously over the latter part of the 5-minute run. Top Xray for the round was Elliot Harper who recorded the fourth fastest time, but the British driver said his T3 was on the edge. Next up was Q1 pace setter Yannick Prumper with former full factory Associated driver Joel Myberg, who is now driving an Xray, completing the Top 6.

Pro Stock scrutiny

In Pro Stock Alexander Stocker notched up his second TQ run despite losing the front anti-roll bar out of his Hot Bodies. A good run by Russian Tamiya driver Ivan Laptev, who is making his ETS debut this weekend, saw him post the second fastest time ahead of Xray’s Matthias Lang.

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October 17, 2009

Levanen goes top in German

Juho Levanen

Juho Levanen has moved into the provisional Top Qualifiers position in Kastellaun, German, after taking his Associated TC5 to a new fastest time in the second round of qualifying at Round 1 of the Xenon Racing Euro Touring Series. After a disappointing first heat, the two time European Champion recorded 26 laps in 5:06.491 to top the round from Xray pairing of Elliot Harper and Alexander Hagberg. The Finnish ace said he was much happier with the run but admitted his car is not the fastest but he is managing to keep the wheels on the ground while others are traction rolling.

Elliot Harper

16-year-old Harper said that grip levels continue to increase making it more and more difficult with each run to keep the car on four wheels. Suffering a roll himself during Q2, the British driver said he is not sure what to try next to cure a problem that is plaguing all the front runners. Hagberg is one driver who seems to have found something that works but the Swede’s second run was hampered by traffic.

Viktor Wilck

Finishing fifth, behind Ronald Volker’s Yokomo, Viktor Wilck managed a new outright fastest lap of 11.404 despite his Tamiya suffering chronic traction roll. With team-mates Marc Rheinard and Q1 Top Qualifier Yannick Prumper both experiencing the same difficulty, the Tamiya team appear to be most affected by the super high grip. Wilck said they have some small ideas they will try for the third round of qualifying to try and get them back in the hunt for TQ honours. Former World Champion Andy Moore had such bad traction roll he pulled his Hot Bodies in after 3 minutes.

In Pro Stock Yokomo’s Martin Hofer set a new fastest time to top the second qualifier ahead of Q1 top qualifier Alexander Stocker. The German, who had a poor opening qualifier, lowered his BD5 and glued up the tyre walls resulting which he said transformed the car allowing him to record 25 laps in 5:06.454. Hofer also switched to a new preproduction GM Racing speedo which he said gave him better top speed. Delighted to set a very impressive new fastest lap for Pro Stock with a 11.755, Stocker wasn’t so happy with himself in the run saying, ‘Car was pretty good, driver was pretty bad. Setting the third fastest time was Daniel Wohlgemuth. Runner up in last season’s ETS, the German described the run as good but said his Xray T2 ‘009 was on the edge. He will make changes to reduce the steering and also plans to run heavier shock oil.

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October 17, 2009

Prumper takes opening qualifier

Yannic Prumper

Current European Junior Champion Yannic Prumper has gotten his 2009/10 Xenon Racing Euro Touring Series campaign off to a strong start by topping the opening round of qualifying here in Kastellaun, Germany. The young German TQ’d the first qualifier ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and Yokomo team driver Ronald Volker.

Copying the set-up used by his Tamiya/Speedpassion team-mate Marc Rheinard to record the fastest lap time of yesterday’s practice, Prumper said his modified TRF416 was on the limit in terms of traction rolling but steady driving allowed him to keep the car rubber side down to clock at 26 laps in 5:10.227. The 16-year-old will not make any set-up adjustment for the second of the five qualifiers but with the best two to count he may run his second set of new tyres next time out to try secure early his place in the A-Main.

Opening his account with second spot, Hagberg said his car had the potential to take the TQ for the round and it was his own driving that cost him the top spot. With the track grip levels increasing this morning, the Swede started off the run very cautiously but once he pushed he found his new T3 was not as on edge as he was expecting.

Ronald Volker

Volker said his LRP powered BD5 had understeer, but this made the car very easy to drive in the high traction conditions. Describing his run to the third fastest time, he said the trick now is to find a comprise set-up between a very easy to drive car and one which wants to traction roll. The former European Champion will now concentrate on making changes to the front end of his car.

World Champion Rheinard took the fourth fastest time after his Tamiya traction rolled a number of times. The winner here last year, the German said new tyres might help things but the biggest improvement will be found in changing his driving style. Looking at the time sheets fifth fastest man Juho Levanen said ‘that sucks’. Having changed the set-up on his TC5 from yesterday, the factory Associated driver got caught out by the extra traction this morning resulting in his Reedy powered car spending a lot of time on two wheels. The Finn will revert to yesterday’s set-up for his next outing. Young British star Elliot Harper completed the Top 6 followed by European 200mm Champion Dirk Wischnewski.

Alexander Stocker rocking the all orange shell

In Pro Stock Alexander Stocker TQ’d the round by the narrowist of margins. Heading home yesterday’s pace setter Matthias Lang, the German pair were seperated by just .027 of a second. Stocker said he had to drive with extreme care and couldn’t push at all or his Hot Bodies would flip. Aiming for a hat trick of Kastellaun wins, the former ETS Champion will change the steering ackerman and glue the walls of the control Xenon tyre for Q2. Lang, who lost two seconds as a result of a driver error, said his Xray T3 was really on the edge and plans to try a different tyre additive and moving the shock positions. Having qualified 36th at this event last year, Tamiya driver Mike Treder was very surprised to find himself third on the time sheets. The young German said he drove a steady run in the tricky condition and was delighted with the reward.

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October 16, 2009

Perfect day for new Xray at ETS opener

Xray couldn’t really have asked for more today as their new T3 topped the practice time sheets for the opening round of the 2009/10 Xenon Racing Euro Touring Series in both Modified and Pro Stock. In the final session of the day Alexander Hagberg and Matthias Lang each posted the fastest runs of the day in their respective classes.

Swede Hagberg just missed out on a 26-lap run stopping the clock at 5:00.943 but declared himself very happy with his day. Having only made one change to his new Xray all day, adjusting the position of the shocks, he said the car is very easy to drive and he is looking forward to getting down to the serious business of qualifying in the morning. Knocked off the top of the time sheets despite improving his time by 6 seconds (25/5:02.897) Juho Levanen said his Associated was close to traction rolling during the round. The Finn feels he is closer to Hagberg’s pace but a couple of incidents meant this was not reflected in the overall time. Making it three different makes of cars at the top of the time sheets Viktor Wilck was best of the Tamiya drivers. The Swede said changes to his TRF416WE had made little difference to the car and his best run of the day was down to him driving with extreme care although he did still traction roll once.

Although not featuring strongly on the overall time sheets Marc Rheinard and Ronald Volker are both happy with their pace. Rheinard laid down a new fastest lap with an 11.547 in the final session and is not too worried ahead of tomorrow’s heats. Volker has not been showing strongly on the time sheets because he was running two cars in each session so as he can try back to back set-up changes. The factory Yokomo driver said he is happy with his pace but did say his car is very near the edge in terms of traction rolling.

Perfect day for new Xray at ETS opener

In Pro Stock, Andernach ETS winner Matthias Lang ends practice as the pace setter having knocked Alexander Stocker off the top of the time sheets with a 24-lap run in 5:04.121. The SMI Motorsport driver has been given a new Xray’s T3 chassis for the event and is very happy with his new drive describing it is a ‘big step forward’. The German said he has found a good set-up and plans to leave the car unchanged for the opening qualifier tomorrow morning. Having suffered ‘intense traction roll’ in the fourth practice session, Martin Hofer found a better set-up for his Yokomo in the final run to be classified third fastest just 3/100th ahead of Daniel Wohlgemuth.

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October 16, 2009

Levanen ups practice pace

Team Associated factory driver Juho Levanen has upped the pace here in Kastellaun taking his TC5 to top of the time sheets in practice. Recording 25 laps in 5:08.373, the Finn said a fresh set of tyres made the car more consistent to drive. Although slower on lap times, overall the result was better and he is hoping a second run on the same set of tyres will bring more speed. In terms of chassis set-up Levanen plans no changes as he feels he would only be chasing the changing conditions as it comes up to full traction levels.

Having set the pace after three rounds of practice Alexander Hagberg and team-mate Martin Hudy failed to improve their times. Both said their new T3 chassis continued to feel really good but Hagberg had his run ruined when the centre belt turn inside out. The Swede believes this was cause after contact without car caused the battery to move and hit the belt. Hudy described the round as messy as he made contact with a number of traction rolling cars one of which caused his bodyshell to tuck under.

Michal Bok

Big movers for the round where Czech driver Michal Bok and young gun Yannic Prumper. Bok found the new speed by gluing up the walls on the control Xenon Racing tyres while harder front & rear roll bars gave Prumper a less aggressive car. Bok will now try the same roll bar as Prumper for the final practice while Toni Rheinard’s protege will change shock oil on the Tamiya to try make it more stable over the corner dots.

Alexander Stocker

In Pro Stock, Hot Bodies driver Alexander Stocker improved on his pace to stay top of the pack. Despite improving his time by almost 2 seconds, his gap over his rivals has been narrowed significantly with Daniel Wohlgemuth closing to within a second, following a strong fourth session. Last season’s Euro Touring Series runner up, the Xray T2 009 driver said going from 450 to 500 shock oil had improved the car and now he plans to increase the weight to 550 for the final round.

Tommy Bergfeldt

Sweden’s Tommy Bergfeldt, who is sporting a new look, managed the third fastest time after making big changes to the set-up on his Hot Bodies. The reiging DHI Cup Champion, who says he much prefers this year’s track layout to the one used in 2008, is making his debut with new sponsor Advanced Electronics and described the new speedo from the Swedish company as ‘awesome’.

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October 16, 2009

New Xray sets early pace in Kastellaun

Alexander Hagberg

Xray’s new T3 chassis is setting the early pace here in Kastellaun at the opening round of the Xenon Racing Euro Touring Series with the new car holding the Top 4 placings after 3 of the 5 practice runs. Over 5-minutes it is Alexander Hagberg who posted the fastest run putting with 25 laps in 5:08.422. In terms of lap times it is again Xray on top with lead factory driver Teemu Leino producing a best time of 11.751 with the next best time coming from fellow countryman Juho Levanen at the controls of his Associated TC5.

Hagberg who was running the basic kit set-up on his T3 said the car felt really good. Running a 5.5 motor this is Hagberg’s first LiPo race and he is enjoying the reduced work load the new batteries offer. With the traction continuing to increase the Swede plans to make some small set-up adjustments for the final two practice runs. Less than a second adrift of Hagberg, Martin Hudy is very happy with both his early pace and that of the new car. Only his second outing in the ETS, Hudy featured strongly on his series debut in Budapest last season finishing on the podium and describing the track as ‘great’ he should feature in Sunday’s A-Main. Finishing on the podium here last year, Freddy Sudhoff was next up ahead of British team-mate Elliot Harper. Sudhoff is finding the new car so much easier to drive and is confident of being back on the podium on Sunday.

Fastest non Xray driver at the moment in fifth spot is Tamiya Racing Factory driver Viktor Wilck. The Swede said his 416WE feels ‘so, so’ and he plans to try heavier shock oil next time out. Asking last year’s Kastellaun winner Marc Rheinard how he was getting on, his response was straight to the point, ‘I’m not driving good’. Pitting next to the Tamiya pairing is Hot Bodies lead driver Andy Moore. Asked about his third run the former World Champion replied, ‘I know now what not to try’, referring to set-up changes he made that resulted in his car traction rolling.

Martin Hofer

In Pro Stock it is last year’s winner & former Champion Alexander Stocker who sets the pace from Martin Hofer. Hofer is normally found mixing it in Modified but the Team Yokomo driver was talked into switching by Stocker and another of Pro Stock’s leading driver Daniel Wohlgemuth at the 2008/09 ETS Finale in Andernach back in July. Slovak driver Zdenko Kunak, who is competing in both Modified and Pro Stock, was third fastest ahead of ETS race winner Matthias Lang.

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July 19, 2009

Groskamp & Rajki crowned 08/09 ETS Champions

Jilles Groskamp and Balint Rajki are the 2008/2009 Muchmore Euro Touring Series Champions. The titles went right down to wire at the final round here in Andernach, Germany, with the Modified title actually ending in a points tie between Groskamp and current World Champion Marc Rheinard who was today’s race winner. With identicial counting results and race TQ’s, they had to be seperated by qualifying positions handing Groskamp back to back titles. Having TQ’d and won the opening Leg of the A-Main Viktor Wilck looked set to claim his first ETS race win and to deny Rheinard the chance to challenge for the title but the former DHI Cup Champion made a slight mistake in the second final allowing Rheinard to win both legs and the final thanks to his faster race time. Before race officials had reached a tie break decision the Tamiya/Speedpassion took the tie break into their own hands literally as they used Rock, Paper, Scisscors to decide. The result was to go the same way with the Dutch star’s scissors being better than Rheinard’s Paper! On collecting his Champion’s trophy, Groskamp said he was delighted to retain his title and for Tamiya who took 1-2-3 in the standings with Tamiya Junior driver Yannick Pruemper finishing third overall.

In Pro Stock a single point decided the title with Rajki coming back from a poor qualifying to take it from Daniel Wohlgemuth who came here as the series leader. The Hungarian National Champion qualified only ninth for the final but put in two great drives to finish second one place ahead of Wohlgemuth. The Round 5 victory went to Top Qualifier Matthias Lang who was delighted to claim his first major race win but the day belonged to Rajki as he added his first international title to his CV. In the second Leg of the A Main, which was won by Thomas Musial, cruel luck befell defending Champion Alexander Stocker when a drive shaft broke on his Xray while he was leading. With the dust settled the overall championship Top 3 for the 2008/2009 ETS Pro Stock class was Balint on 298 points, Wohlgemuth on 297 and Stocker on 294.

So the second edition of the Euro Touring Series, which was once again supported by Muchmore, Speedpassion and Hot Bodies, has been another great success with 288 drivers registering points during the series’ visits to Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary and Poland. The series produced some great racing not just between the big names of the sport but also the future of the sport. Emerging talent Yannic Pruemper took his first international win in Poland where we also had our youngest ever competitor Maciek Kajko who was just 4 and a half. With the emphasis on having fun and bringing together r/c racing enthusiasts from across Europe, the two men behind the ETS, Scotty Ernst and Uwe Rheinard, are already planning the 2009/2010 series which they tell us is going to be bigger and better. Red RC have really enjoyed bringing you live coverage of each ETS race and to making many new friends along the way. We look forward to returning to Germany in October when the third edition gets underway with the Kastellaun indoor race.

Modified final race results
1. Marc Rheinard – 19pts
2. Viktor Wilck – 19pts
3. Jilles Groskamp – 16pts
4. Ronald Völker – 12pts
5. Steven Weiss – 11pts
6. Christopher Krapp – 11pts
7. Freddy Südhoff – 10pts
8. Martin Hofer – 5pts
9. Mario Sowka – 4pts
10.Patrick Gassauer – 3pts

Pro Stock final race results
1. Matthias Lang – 18pts
2. Balint Rajki – 17pts
3. Daniel Wohlgemuth – 16pts
4. Thomas Musial – 12pts
5. Steffen Still – 10pts
6. Alexander Stocker – 9pts
7. Meik Niemann – 9pts
8. Rob Janssen – 7pts
9. Martin Schmidt – 7pts
10.Michael Kiesewetter – 5pts

Hobby class final race results
1. Joachim Krapp – 18pts
2. Sebastian Kroh – 16pts
3. Markus Arenz – 16pts
4. Joachim Altenhof – 15pts
5. Thomas Lanwert – 13pts
6. Karl-Reiner Mürder – 12pts
7. Peter Hanna – 7pts
8. Andrzej Rozycki – 6pts
9. Andreas Hummel – 5pts
10. Tim Rudersdorf – 1pts
11. Jacek Kajko – 1pts
12. Urzsula Pyzel – 0pts

Hobby class Junior final race results
1. Andre Schäfer – 18pts
2. Frederik Tobiasch – 17pts
3. Christian Schlösser – 14pts
4. Christopher Buchner – 13pts
5. Marcel Klappert – 13pts
6. Elena Hummel – 10pts
7. Nino Triandafilidis – 9pts
8. Michal Orlowski – 7pts
9. Maximilian Schlösser – 7pts
10.Maciek Kajko – 3pts

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sq59JmhsXs[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqQSQfSBRdc[/youtube]

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July 19, 2009

Dutch racers show their appreciation

They have been the biggest supporters of the Euro Touring Series since it inception two years ago travelling to all the races and today the ‘Dutch Guys’ made a presentation to the two men behind the electric touring car series. Last year during the ETS’s visit to the MACH track near Amsterdam, Series promoters Scotty Enrst and Uwe Rheinard were presented with a very unique custom painted pair of wooden clogs. Today the large contingent of over Dutch racers & supporters again showed their appreciation for the series by presenting Scotty and Uwe with their own custom painted touring car shells. Completely airbrush painted the shells feature the ETS logo on the bonnet and the wording Uwe/Scotty for President in the rear window.

Thanking the Dutch racers for their loyality to the series Scotty said, ‘When Uwe and I started the series last year we wanted to bring a fun and entertaining series to the racers of Europe. Of course competition was important but also the friendship factor of this hobby was equally important. As the Series progressed last year we made such great friends from throughout Europe who believed in us and believed in our ideas. One country that embodies the spirit of the ETS and has travelled to nearly all of the races in both seasons is the Netherlands. They again surprised us with this wonderful presentation and this appreciation is what drives us to strive to make the ETS the best series possible.’

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