Euro Touring Series

April 7, 2019

Chassis Focus – Freddy Sudhoff

Chassis – Awesomatix A800X Evo (MMCX-2)
Motor – Hobbywing G3 4.5T
ESC – Hobbywing Prototype
Batteries – Team Silverback 6300 Spiral-G
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/MKS HBL SL575
Bodyshell – Protoform Type S

Remarks – Finally getting the win he has come so close to achieving on multiple occasions, Freddy Sudhoff’s Awesomatix A800X Evo is the same base car as that used in Daun at the previous round of the series but with the carbon middle motor chassis. Looking to adapt to the cold and low grip conditions this weekend, Freddy, along with mechanic Max Machler focussed on the car’s roll centres and flex.

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April 7, 2019

Sudhoff finally joins ETS winners club

He has come close in the past but today Freddy Sudhoff delivered on years of promise to finally take his first ETS win and add his name to the championship’s exclusive Winner’s Role of Honour. Having secured his first ever TQ yesterday in Spain, the Awesomatix driver converted that into his first win with a repeat dominant performance in A2, again ahead of Ronald Volker. A hugely popular win for ‘Fabulous Freddy’, the Round 3 win also marks the first for Awesomatix in touring car’s premiere category and puts their long time lead driver now firmly in title contention. The first outdoor races of the ETS season, Sudhoff’s success is also a significant boost for the Russian brand who previously struggled against their rivals on asphalt. Finishing runner-up at the Asoger RC track today, Volker retains his championship lead but it is down to a single point with Sudhoff’s maximum points haul moving him up to second spot. With reigning champion Bruno Coelho having a tough weekend following his win at the previous round, ending up 7th, the podium was completed by Viktor Wilck ahead of Infinity team-mate Marc Rheinard.

‘Again amazing. The car was better than the first race. I felt super confident and just completely focused on driving’, was Sudhoff’s reaction on winning A2. He continued, ‘After one and a half minutes I had made a gap and was just trying to stay in my rhythm and not think what the outcome would bring. Four years ago I was close (to the overall win) in Hrotovice but to get the first win on asphalt is better because in the past we had issues on this surface. Finally now we can deliver on carpet and asphalt’. With team-manager Max Machler describing his driver’s win as the culmination of ‘7-years of hard work’, Sudhoff acknowledged Machler’s input. He said, ‘I have to thank Max for his work on my car. At this level of competition you can not win on your own, you win as a team’.

Seeing off the challenge of Marc Rheinard to win A3, Volker summed up the race weekend by saying, ‘First of all congrats to Freddy. It was a well deserved win. I couldn’t challenge him today’. The only driver to podium at all three races to date, the Yokomo driver said, ‘I have to be happy with finishing P2 and to still be leading the championship. On Thursday our performance on asphalt was very promising and the car felt awesome. I have to thank Hayato Matsuzaki for his help. We just need to work on set-up to make it better for changing conditions but I’m very positive for the rest of the season on asphalt’.

‘It been a long time since I made an ETS podium so I am happy for that’, was Wilck’s reaction to his first podium since joining Infinity’. The Swede continued, ‘since practice we improve the car little by little and it seems to work good in lower grip’. Asked about his incident with Rheinard in A2 he said, ‘be braked for Ronald but I didn’t brake in time. It was an accident not intentional’. Ending up with a P3 which he backed up with another P3 in A3, he concluded by saying, ‘the Awesomatix was a little too fast here but for sure I am positive for the rest of the ETS season’.

‘Not my day’ was how Rheinard summed up the finals. He continued, ‘Qualifying was good and the first A-Main started good until I had a problem with the tyres. In the 2nd one I got taken out which meant the last one didn’t really matter. A weekend to forget but one positive is that the pace was there’.

Spain was to prove a happy hunting ground for longtime ETS racers with Jitse Miedema making ‘a dream come true’ when he took both his and Infinity’s first ever Formula win. Qualifying second, the Dutch driver secured his first overall win in the best way possible when he took the A2 victory ahead of class master Jan Ratheisky. The multiple champion and race Top Qualifier came back hard at Miedema putting him under intense pressure until he attempted a pass and got too close to the boards and got stuck in the turn. Winning A3, Ratheisky would finish 2nd with last year’s winner Olivier Bultynck completing the podium.

In Pro Stock, Simon Lauter moved clear at the top of the points table as he wrapped up maximum championship points early with another win from the TQ spot in A2. His second win of the season, the Awesomatix driver was joined by team-mates Bultynck and Dominic Vogl on the podium. Winner in Daun and coming into the weekend as joint championship leader, last year’s race winner Machler could only manage 7th, a result the German will be hoping is one of his dropped rounds come the end of the season. In the 17.5 Stock class, Tobias Baumbach made use of his TQ to win A1 & 2 to take the win while victory in A3 for Luis Moreno gave him the runner-up spot with championship leader Daniel Pöhlmann completing the Top 3. The only class to go to A3 to decide the winner, 40+ Masters came to a battle between Top Qualifier Toni Mateo, winner of A1, and Alexander Stocker, winner of A2. Under pressure from Stocker, Mateo would roll on the curbing and with his car sitting on its roof the entire field went passed. Stocker won the race ahead of Beni Stutz for his third win of the season while Stutz completed the podium behind Mateo.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

April 7, 2019

Video – A-main Leg 2

Modified Class

Pro Stock Class

Formula Class

Stock 17.5 Class

Masters 40+ Class

April 7, 2019

Chassis Focus – Viljami Kutvonen

Chassis – Mugen MTC1
Motor – LRP X22 4.5T
ESC – LRP Flow X
Batteries – LRP 6400 Graphene 3
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Highest
Bodyshell – Zoo Racing

Remarks – Viljami Kutvonen is running the 2019 Performance Kit on his Mugen MTC1 here in Madrid. The car features aluminium c-hubs which makes the car more precise and consistent on all different tracks and conditions. A new linkage mounted along the centre line of the car, combined with a new top deck give the car more more flexibility only along the x-axis, the result being that it is easier to drive while more precise.

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April 7, 2019

Chassis Focus – Simon Lauter

Chassis – Awesomatix A800X Evo (MMCX-2)
Motor – Muchmore (Handout)
ESC –Muchmore (Handout)
Batteries – LRP 8000mAh
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/SRT
Bodyshell – Zooracing DBX

Remarks – Dominating Pro Stock here in Madrid, Simon Lauter is running the A800X Evo from Awesomatix. The car uses new low friction belts in combination with the low friction pulleys and similar to Freddy’s car utilises the carbon middle motor conversion set. The car has a set of Awesomatix alloy screws on the top side of the car and the package is completed with a Zooracing DBX shell.

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April 7, 2019

Video – A-main Leg 1

Modified class

Pro Stock class

Formula class

Stock 17.5 class

Master 40+ class

April 7, 2019

Chassis Focus – Ronald Volker

Chassis – Yokomo BD9
Motor – LRP X22 4.5T
ESC – LRP Flow X
Batteries – LRP 6400 Graphene 3
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17/Highest DLP650
Bodyshell – Protoform Type S

Remarks – Running a car that was built for him by Yokomo designer Hayato Matsuzaki, Ronald’s car features a prototype of the Japanese manufacturer’s RTC system. Ronald said the new design has been created for better durability and to offer more toe gain options. Also different on the car is the reversing of the ESC and receiver positions to adapt the weight balance on the left side of the car. While weather conditions over the weekend made for challenging conditions, Ronald was very positive with the cars pace and performance during Thursday’s free practice before the rain interrupted the weekend’s schedule.

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April 7, 2019

Sudhoff dominates A1 at ETS Spain

Freddy Sudhoff put in a dominant performance in the opening A-Main this morning at Round 3 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series. Starting from a career first TQ, the Awesomatix driver immediately pulled clear of the field in the cold conditions helped by a slow starting Ronald Volker from second on the grid who stacked the field up behind him. Marc Rheinard would be the only one to find away passed the Yokomo, driving around the outside of his fellow countryman. Setting about chasing down Sudhoff, Rheinard would unexplainably spin off the track at the loop, dropping him back into the clutches of Volker and Christopher Krapp with a second spin at the end of the straight allowing both to go by to battle it out for second as Rheinard struggled with his car and dropped to last. Afterwards the Infinity driver said everything on the car appeared fine so the only other explanation he could think off was a possible issue with his set of tyres. Seeing off the challenge of his team-mate Krapp, Volker would hold onto second with Akio Sobue fourth, almost 3-seconds back.

Commenting on the first A-Main encounter, Sudhoff said, ‘I was a little but lucky Ronald dod not have pace at the beginning and blocked the field’. He continued, ‘It is very cold this morning so the first few laps it was loose in the rear but after 2-minutes it was stable. The car is performing awesome and if I need more speed it is there’. Looking to A2 when he could potentially claim his first ever ETS victory, the German said, ‘I will try to do the same thing but it is more than 2-hours away so its going to be a new track and another new challenge’.

‘I have mixed feeling about this one’, was Volker’s reaction after A1. The championship leader continued, ‘I suffered with rear grip the first few laps which was the complete opposite to Marc so I couldn’t fight him. After 2-minutes the rear grip came in and luckily I was able to stay second. I can’t be too unhappy with the result given how the car was at the start and I’m happy Christopher now has a good car too and could finish P3. We had a good battle’. The former World Champion added, ‘we might have a set-up issue when it is very cold but A2 will have a little sunshine which should help warm things up. We will consider our tyre prep near to the race time’.

Starting from 7th on the grid, Krapp said, ‘I am happy to get a good run after a not so good qualifying. The car and driver were not on point’. Losing out on the win here in Spain last year on the tie break, the German added, ‘we changed a bunch of things on the car and went more in the direction of Ronald’s set-up but I also drove much better than yesterday. I would have liked more from the race as I think my pace now is better than 3rd’. He concluded, ‘I hope more stuff happens in the next one’.

In the first of the Pro Stock A-Mains it was also a dominant win for Top Qualifier Simon Lauter as the Top 3 finished as they started, Olivier Bultynck second and Dominic Vogl third. In Formula, pole sitter Jan Ratheisky lost traction on the first corner allowing the Infinity of Jitse Miedema through for an easy win ahead of the Serpent of former champion David Ehrbar as Ratheisky battled for third with Spain’s Ivan Lopez who got the better of the reigning champion.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.