Euro Touring Series

June 7, 2014

Surprise Q4 as Volker completes clean sweep

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The final round of qualifying at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Luxembourg threw up a bit of a surprise as the Tamya team failed to capitalise on having new tyres leaving Top Qualifier Ronald Volker to complete a clean sweep. Going into Q4 Jilles Groskamp and Marc Rheinard were the only front runners to have held back their second set of tyres with Volker even predicting his long time rival to top the qualifier. Instead the two World Champions struggled with Volker running on used tyres able run his fourth TQ run even with a spin on his last lap. 1.5 seconds behind, Groskamp would claim second with Rheinard third and Volker’s French Yokomo team-mate Loic Jasmin fourth.

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A clearly surprised Volker said the weather, which after a hot day had started to cool down, helped those on used tyres with there being less of a disadvantage over new but still he never expected to finish ahead of the two Tamiya Racing Factory TRF418s. Delighted to maintain his reign at the top of the timing sheets right through from the first practice, setting another fastest lap in Q4, he said he hoped he can carry that through to tomorrow’s finals. Commenting on his last lap error, which lost him over a second, he said it was due to a simple loss of concentration and other than this it was a’ good clean, safe run’.

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Set to start 2nd on the grid, Rheinard was even more surprised by his lack of pace on new tyres saying he was ‘shocked’. Describing his Much More powered chassis as having ‘zero feeling’, he said this resulted in him suffering two spins. Asked why he lacked the performance everyone expected he said that the only explanation is the set of tyres which after the 5-minutes of running still looked like brand new. Asked if he felt he could do anything about challenging Volker in the finals he said ‘always I look forward to try and battle for the win but I think I will need to look back to try and keep 2nd’. He said for tomorrow he isn’t looking for a winning car but just one that he could enjoy driving.

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The star of the weekend here at Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”, Lucas Urbain missed out on second on the grid on a tie break with Rheinard but said he was happier to start behind the 3-time World Champion than ahead of him. Matching the rear tyres of his used tyres for the qualifier, having matched the used fronts for Q3, the French driver said they felt good but he threw away a Top 3 for the round when he made a 6-second mistake just before the half point. Only his second time to make the A-main at an ETS, his first being in 2010 in Kastellaun, he was delighted to register VBC Racing’s first appearance in the championship Modified A-Main. Commenting on the race and knowing the track better than most as it’s his local circuit, he is a little concerned about the starts as his 3rd place on the grid puts him on the inside. With the outside offering ‘huge drive’ in the sweeper he expects to have to defend his position immediately from Groskamp who starts fourth.

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Groskamp said considering his lack of pace in practice yesterday and his disastrous opening run he was ‘actually pretty happy with fourth’. Like Rheinard, he said his second set of tyres had no feeling and he was happy to salvage a second for the round. The reigning World Champion said he hoped they could find something so that at least he could try to battle for a podium at the track where in 2009 he won his first European Championship title. Lacking confidence in the car, the Dutch ace said he hopes they can find something that makes it work adding ‘there is a lot in tyres’.

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Completing the top half of the grid will be Viktor Wilck who was fifth fastest in the final qualifier. Behind the Swede, Multiple French National Champion Jasmin will line up sixth ahead of Xray’s Alexander Hagberg whose title hopes look to have come to an end this weekend. Another manufacturer making its first ETS A-main appearance is Team Durango thanks to Elliott Harper who managed to secure 8th on the grid ahead of the third first time A-mainer Team Magic, 18-year-old nitro racer Leo Arnold who has made a big impression and will start 9th ahead of the Kyosho of former race winner Christopher Krapp.

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In the Xray Pro Stock class, defending champion Marek Cerny posted his third TQ run of the event to take the honour of Top Qualifier for the ETS’ biggest class for a 7th time. The Xray driver will start ahead of the ARC of top German 1:8 nitro onroad racer Lars Hoppe. The top half of the grid is made up of five different manufacturers with Danish teenager Mike Gosvig’s Awesomatix securing third followed by the Schumacher of former Champion Martin Hofer and the Serpent of Julian Borowski. For championship leader Jan Ratheisky, who has three wins to his credit this season, the event has proved a tough one with him qualifying only 7th. In the Formula class it has been a good debut for Serpent’s David Ehrbar as he secured the TQ from VBC Racing’s Oliver Bultynck and newly crowned back to back champion Ratheisky.

Ride Modified A-Main Grid
1. Ronald Volker (DE) – Yokomo – 310 pts
2. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya – 305
3. Lucas Urbain (FR) – VBC Racing – 305
4. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Tamiya – 304
5. Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya – 303
6. Loic Jasmin (FR) – Yokomo – 302
7. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray – 300
8. Elliott Harper (GB) – Team Durango – 299
9. Leo Arnold (FR) – Team Magic – 298
10.Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 296

Ride Modified Round 4 Qualifying – Top 10
1. Ronald Volker – Yokomo – 16/5:06.730
2. Jilles Groskamp – Tamiya – 16/508.246
3. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 16/5:08.501
4. Loic Jasmin – Yokomo – 16/5:08.572
5. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 16/5:09.281
6. Elliott Harper – Team Durango – 16/5:09.756
7. Oliver Bultynck – VBC Racing – 16/5:10.550
8. Nicolas Schwendimann – Team Magic – 16/5:11.487
9. Freddy Sudhoff – Awesomatix – 16/5:11.570
10.Andy Moore – HB – 16/5:11.740

Xray Pro Stock A-Main Grid
1. Marek Cerny (CZ) – Xray – 310 pts
2. Lars Hoppe (DE) – ARC – 307
3. Mike Gosvig (DK) – Awesomatix – 306
4. Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 305
5. Julian Borowski (DE) – Serpent – 300
6. Gilles Choque (LU) – Xray – 299
7. Jan Ratheisky (DE) – Xray – 299
8. Henrik Heitsch (DE) – ARC – 299
9. Max Machler (DE) – Awesomatix – 296
10.Joe Streff (LU) – Xray – 289

Xray Pro Stock Round 4 Qualifying – Top 10
1. Marek Cerny – Xray – 14/5:06.083
2. Mike Gosvig – Awesomatix – 14/5:06.774
3. Martin Hofer – Schumacher – 14/5:07.473
4. Gilles Choque – Xray – 14/5:07.524
5. Julian Borowski – Serpent – 14/5:07.850
6. Henrik Heitsch – ARC – 14/5:09.237
7. Lars Hoppe – ARC – 14/5:10.049
8. Max Machler – Awesomatix – 14/5:10.171
9. Jerome Meile – 14/5:10.455
10.Kuba Simurda – Xray – 14/5:10.887

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

June 7, 2014

Euro Touring Series Rd5 – Saturday Action

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June 7, 2014

Video – Modified Qualifying Rd3

June 7, 2014

Chassis Focus – Leo Arnold

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Chassis – Team Magic E4RS II Evo
Motor – Orion 4.5
ESC – Orion
Batteries – Orion
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servo – Spektrum/Savox
Bodyshell – A Plus Speed 30B

Remarks – On a new venture in to the world of electric touring car racing with Team Magic, the French Nitro driver is having a good time here in Luxembourg running his Orion powered E4RS II Evo. The car sports a few key options, such as the TM 3D flex system, which Leo set to confer the minimum flex to the chassis, metal gears in the rear differential and aluminium pulleys on the spur gear axle. He is also using 1mm shims below the upper deck as this gives him a more precise, easier to drive car.

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June 7, 2014

Volker claims 15th ETS TQ in Luxembourg

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Team Yokomo’s Ronald Volker marked his 30th Euro Touring Series participation with his 15th overall TQ of the championship when, despite running on used tyres, he topped qualifying in Luxembourg for a 3rd time. Having been the class of the field in Q1 & 2 on new tyres, Volker oversaw a much closer challenge in Q3 to take the round by almost 1-second from the new rubber shod Tamiya of Viktor Wilck. Switching car for the penultimate qualifier turned around the fortunes of Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp who, having struggled to make the Top 10, was able to produce a Top 3 run just ahead of new Team Magic signing Leo Arnold and Team Durango’s Elliot Harper.

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Pleased to claim what is becoming somewhat of a given at all races he competes at recently, Volker was delighted to claim a TQ run running on used tyres putting a lot of the performance down to a change of settings on his LRP speedo for the run. Choosing a ‘milder’ setting, both due to being on used tyres and the hotter track conditions, the German who moves a step closer to retain a fourth consecutive ETS title, said this paid off giving him ‘way more confidence out of the corners’. Planning to leave the car as is for the final qualifier, the 10-time winner predicts his arch rival Marc Rheinard, with whom he clashed here during the 2009 European Championship, to take the round and second on the grid due to the Tamiya driver still having new tyres.

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Setting the fastest lap of the round, Wilck said he messed up on the very first lap. Although he was able to make back up the half second he lost to Volker, getting his Tamiya up on two wheels through the chicane later in the 5-minutes cost the Swede the chance to capitalise on his second set of Ride tyres. Having been the fastest driver on used tyres in Q2, Wilck will make small adjustments to his set-up to account for running on the tyres for a second time but asked if he could complete a Tamiya 1-2-3, team-mates Rheinard and Groskamp both having new tyres to run, he said he didn’t expect to be able to beat Volker.

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Having been struggling for overall traction describing it ‘like driving on ice’, Krapp said out of desperation and the fact he was ‘lost’ as to what to do he switched to his second TF6 chassis for the qualifier. A ‘super soft’ chassis, he said he thought it wouldn’t be good and he had no idea that such a set-up could work as well as it did. Admitting he also had the benefit of new tyres, he said the result has taken him from being nowhere to being in contention for a spot in the A-Main and for Q4 his goal will be to work on bettering his other 12th spot score.

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A driver better known for his on-road nitro racing efforts, 18-year-old Arnold is enjoying a good start to his new electric racing deal with Team Magic. The French driver who did two separate pre-testing days at Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”, said he has a very good feeling with the car. Having used both his sets of allocated tyres in the opening two qualifiers his run to fourth was more impressive due to the fact it was made in used tyres. Looking for a little more steering on the Orion powered E4 RS EVOII he plans to try running softer shock oil in Q4.

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Setting the fifth fastest time on new tyres, Harper described the run as ‘average’. Changing his shock set-up for the qualifier so as to get more steering from the DETC410 he said it made the car aggressive and he had to adapt to his driving to be consistent rather than being able to push. Currently holding potentially his first A-Main starting position in the ETS since joining Durango, for the last qualifier he will revert back to the set-up he ran in Q2.

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Completing the Top 6 was Capricorn team driver Kyle Branson. Another driver better known as a nitro racer, the Englishman who was running in the second fastest heat alongside Krapp and Arnold, was on target to top that heat until on the last lap when his car lost power costing over 1-second. Unsure as to what caused the sudden loss of power for the final qualifier he will fit a new motor.

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In the Xray Pro Stock class Marek Cerny backed up his Q2 performance with another TQ run, this time ahead of the Awesomatix of Danish racer Mike Gosvig. Schumacher’s Martin Hofer completed the Top 3 followed by the ARC of Q1 pace setter Lars Hoppe. In Formula, Serpent’s David Ehrbar claimed a second TQ run again from VBC Racing’s Q1 winner Oliver Bultynck with Xray’s newly crowned class champion Jan Ratheisky third.

Ride Modified Round 3 Qualifying – Top 10
1. Ronald Volker – Yokomo – 16/5:06.817
2. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 16/5:07.779
3. Christopher Krapp – Kyosho – 16/5:10.113
4. Leo Arnold – Team Magic – 16/5:10.561
5. Elliot Harper – Team Durango – 16/5:10.645
6. Kyle Branson – Capricorn – 16/5:11.192
7. Andy Moore – HB – 16/5:12.874
8. Jilles Groskamp – Tamiya – 16/5:13.164
9. Hayato Matsuzaki – Yokomo – 16/5:13.292
10.Nicolas Schwendimann – Team Magic – 16/5:13.729

Xray Pro Stock Round 3 Qualifying – Top 10
1. Marek Cerny – Xray – 14/5:04.437
2. Mike Gosvig – Awesomatix – 14/5:04.512
3. Martin Hofer – Schumacher – 14/5:05.099
4. Lars Hoppe – ARC – 14/5:05.441
5. Juian Borowski – Serpent – 14/5:07.411
6. Max Machler – Awesomatix – 14/5:07.558
7. Jan Ratheisky – Xray – 14/5:07.815
8. Henrik Heitsch – ARC – 14/5:08.437
9. Wolf Brickenkamp – Xray – 14/5:09.194
10.Joe Streff – Xray – 14/5:09.343

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

June 7, 2014

Chassis Focus – Elliott Harper

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Chassis – Team Durango DETC 410
Motor – Orca 4.5
ESC – Orca
Batteries – Orca
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – The British driver is running an out of the box example of the new TD touring car which he just built Wednesday night before setting off for Luxembourg. Even in terms of setup, he is using a standard configuration, the only noticeable things being the addition of weights to the front end and the dremeling of the c-hub steering travel stops to allow for a bigger steering angle.

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June 7, 2014

Volker gets spun but still takes Q2

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Even after being spun round by Marc Fischer, Ronald Volker was still able to take the second round of qualifying at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Luxembourg. Another glorious day at Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”, the result which was 1.6 seconds off his Q1 pace set in cool conditions looks set to give the Team Yokomo driver his 15th overall TQ of the championship as conditions for Q3 & 4 are expected to be hotter making for a slower track. Behind the reigning champion, local French star Lucas Urbain backed up his Q1 performance with another strong showing, second enough to secure VBC Racing driver a spot in the A-Main. The second of the four qualifiers would see a big improvement from Alexander Hagberg as his Xray took third ahead of the Tamiya of Jilles Groskamp, the Top 4 all having the benefit of using new tyres.

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‘Luckily I got away with that one’ was Volker’s response to his Q2 run referring to his incident with Fischer. Coming up on the Serpent driver at the track’s famous Laguna Seca corner with 1-minute to go, as they exited the corner down the hill Fischer having looked to let the BD7 through would clip the back of it causing Volker to do a complete 360 degree spin. Losing in the region of a second & a half in time, Volker was glad to survive the ‘small incident’ adding that his wider line through that corner may have been what caught Fischer out. Describing his car as feeling slower than yesterday’s Q1, he said the lap times were still good. Running his second set of allocated qualifying tyres, the only change the German made was to his LRP speedo trying a smoother setting. With it hard for his rivals to now deny him the overall TQ, for Q3 he plans to make further speedo changes having found that changing the settings depending on whether running new or used tyres helped a lot with getting a better time from used tyres.

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Urbain said he knew his Wildfire D06 would be good in the conditions of this morning’s first qualifier and so he chose to use his second set. Having done all his practice runs on new tyres he said he knew exactly how the car would react and he was ‘super happy’ with his performance which puts him in with a chance of having his best ETS A-Main starting position. Opting to run no warm-up lap he said the car worked perfectly with it again very easy to drive. Playing safe through the corkscrew staying off the curbs up the hill he said there is more to come from the car and now that he has two strong qualifiers to his credit he can push harder for the next two.

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Staying on after qualifying last night to avail of open practice, Hagberg said they managed to improve his T4 quite a bit by adding more chassis flex. Describing the car as ‘better’ today he said the changes made had given him more traction but added he himself was also a big factor as he drove better today. Using up his second set of controlled Ride tyres, he said now they need to look at what to do for running the car on used tyres for the last two qualifiers.

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Having only ran two laps yesterday in Q1, Groskamp was another to take advantage of new tyres. Having to move position on the driver stand he said for the first few laps this bothered him a little but once he got his bearings he was OK. Describing his Orion powered TRF418 as being ‘a lot better’ than it had been throughout practice he said driving wise he can improve a lot. Still to run his second set of tyres, the World Champion said while he will make a few small changes for Q3 his main focus is on his driving feeling that there is time to be gained from that.

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Setting the fifth fastest time, Tamiya team-mate Viktor Wilck took the honour of being the fastest driver on used tyres. The Swede, who was also fifth fastest in Q1, said despite running his tyres for a second time at the start of the run his TRF418 was ‘OK in the beginning’ but that pace dropped out a lot by the end. With a brand new set of tyres at his disposal for Q3 & 4, he said he needs to decide on a strategy for when would be the best time to run them.

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Also running used tyres Marc Rheinard said his Tamiya ‘felt OK at the beginning’ but he lost time through a mistake at the chicane and then having to let the faster Urbain through. The ETS’ most winning driver he said the difference between new and used tyres is pretty big but with one set of new tyres left he said he should be able to capitalise on them for a good run from the remaining two qualifiers.

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For a number of drivers the remaining two qualifiers are going to be critical, Fischer being one of them. Pulling up in Q1 to save tyres after two crashes, using his second set in Q2 he wasn’t able to capitalise on them either. On hearing that Wilck, on used tyres, was ahead of him on pace he pushed harder but his car was super difficult to drive leading him to taking his S411 ‘grass cutting’. On recovering it was at the start of the next lap that he had his incident with Volker. Surprised at how quickly Volker caught him having hoped to let him passed on the main straight he said he pulled over out of the corkscrew but expecting Volker to be much faster onto the straight he just pulled across on him to early tagging him into the spin which he said was ‘for sure my fault’. Finishing 19th fastest, for Q3 he said ‘I don’t know what but for sure we need to change something’. Another driver to have a second bad run was Andy Moore, HB’s former World Champion again getting a DNF. Having trouble still with getting his car to track correctly on the straight after an off and the dirt on his tyres causing him to spin a number of times the British driver pulled off on Lap 8. Fellow countryman Elliott Harper would also pull off after he put his Durango on its roof in the corkscrew on lap 3 after catching the curbing. With the marshal unable to get to the car as other cars went through the corner after losing so much time he opted to head for the pits early.

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In the Xray Pro stock class defending champion Marek Cerny TQ’d Round 2 from Martin Hofer and Lars Hoppe. Cerny said last night he got caught out by the choice of oil in his shocks as conditions got cooler than expected but leaving in the same oil for Q2 his T4 worked much better for the conditions. Pleased with his run the Czech driver plans to leave the car as is for the third qualifier. Former Champion Martin Hofer said his Schumacher ‘feels nice to drive’ but he had too many driving mistakes and that is ‘not good enough’. Having taken Q1 last night Lars Hoppe said his ARC went from’Perfect’ yesterday to suffering from a little understeer today leading to a ‘little mistake’ at the end straight. Putting the change down to running on the tyres for a second time he will reduce the rear toe in to try and get back some of the steering.

Ride Modified Round 2 Qualifying – Top 10
1. Ronald Volker – Yokomo – 16/5:05.221
2. Lucas Urbain – VBC Racing – 16/5:06.428
3. Alexander Hagberg – Xray – 16/5:06.702
4. Jilles Groskamp – Tamiya – 16/5:07.723
5. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 16/5:07.862
6. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 16/5:08.991
7. Loic Jasmin – Yokomo – 16/5:09.236
8. Nicolas Schwendimann – Team Magic – 16/5:09.551
9. Freddy Sudhoff – Awesomatix – 16/5:09.591
10.Magnus Vassmar – Xray – 16/5:11.223

Xray Pro Stock Round 2 Qualifying – Top 10
1. Marek Cerny – Xray – 14/5:04.783
2. Martin Hofer – Schumacher – 14/5:05.642
3. Lars Hoppe – ARC – 14/5:06.316
4. Mike Gosvig – Awesomatix – 14/5:08.185
5. Henrik Heitsch – ARC – 14/5:08.346
6. Jan Ratheisky – Xray – 14/5:08.520
7. Juian Borowski – Serpent – 14/5:08.666
8. Gilles Choque – Xray – 14/5:08.870
9. Max Machler – Awesomatix – 14/5:09.484
10.Philip Tschupp – TOP Racing – 14/5:09.484

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

June 7, 2014

From Race Control’ – Day 2 Qualifying/Lower Finals

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It is a beautiful morning here in Luxembourg for Day 2 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series at Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”. On the cards today for drivers is three rounds of qualifying with the best 2 of 4, the opening qualifier taking place last night, to count. Following the conclusion of qualifying, drivers who don’t make the A-Mains will complete the first of their three Main Legs. The day will close with the now traditional running of the Saturday night Dash for Cash. All of today’s action can be followed live here.