Euro Touring Series

February 1, 2014

Clean sweep for Hagberg, Prumper to start 2nd

Alexander Hagberg

Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg has completed a clean sweep of qualifying at ETS Round 2, the Swede topping the fourth & final qualifier in Germany ahead of Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper who will start tomorrow’s finals from 2nd. Having wrapped up his first overall TQ in Q3, the Swede used the last run to try a small set-up change which he said afterwards made his ORCA powered T4 2014, as if he needed it, even easier to drive. Backing up his claim was the fact that the ‘Ice’Berg’ was the only driver to maintain his 13.6 fastest lap time pace while his opposition reported track conditions as being slower.

Volker

Having felt he made progress in Q3 when he finished a close second to Hagberg after a set-up change to his Yokomo, Ronald Volker had a disappointing final qualifier. Over 5-seconds off the pace of Hagberg, he could only manage 4th for the round and further disappointment for the 3-time back to back defending champion was that he would also lose out on 2nd on the grid on tie break with team-mate Prumper. With his car ‘sliding around’, he said it felt more like drifting than racing and he believes this might be down to a bad set of tyre. As a result he will try a different set of tyres for the opening leg of the finals.

Freddy Sudhoff

Securing fourth on the grid, thanks to his results in the opening two qualifiers, Freddy Sudhoff had a tough end to his day but the Awesomatix driver said the aim for tomorrow is to be the best of the rest, referring to everyone behind Hagberg. Pulling up in Q3 after a coming together with Prumper, in the final qualifier he had a screw come out in the rear suspension bracket causing the rear left suspension to collapse 2-minutes into the run. Having made a few changes to his car, he said of the laps he did he was happy that while the track was slower he is confident he has a better car for the finals.

Marc

Another driver to retire from the final qualifier was Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard who will started 6th in the final. A crash at the chicane resulted in a broken servo casing causing the German to stop after just 6 laps. Having tried a completely different set-up as a last resort for the qualifier, he said the car was way too slow. Claiming 3rd in Q4, his best points finish, team-mate Viktor Wilck will start ahead of Rheinard after he secured 5th on the grid.

Pro stockGrid

In the Xray Pro Stock class Top Qualifier Marek Cerny wasn’t able to pull of a clean sweep. Making an adjustment to his anti-roll bars as a test for the final he said it left the rear end of his T4 very loose. Posting the third fastest time the defending champion will revert back to his Q3 set-up for the final. Q4 would go to fellow Xray driver Valentin Hettri ahead of Awesomatix’ Oliver Franke. This puts Hettri second behind Cerny with Franke starting third. Winner of the season opener in the Czech Republic Jan Ratheisky, who is TQ for Formula, will start from only 7th on the grid.

A-Main Grids/Qualifying times – Round 4
Ride Modified A-Main Grid
1. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Team Xray – 310 pts
2. Yannic Prümper (DE) – Team Yokomo – 306
3. Ronald Völker (DE) – Team Yokomo – 306
4. Freddy Südhoff (DE) – Awesomatix – 304
5. Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya – 303
6. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya – 302
7. Dionys Stadler (DE) – Awesomatix – 299
8. Patrick Gollner (AT) – Yokomo – 297
9. Eric Dankel (DE) – Awesomatix – 295
10.Tim Wahl (DE) – Team Xray – 294

Ride Modified Q4 times
1. Alexander Hagberg – Team Xray – 22/5:04.708
2. Ronald Völker – Team Yokomo – 22/5:07.452
3. Yannic Prümper – Team Yokomo – 22/5:09.743
4. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 22/5:10.150
5. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 22/5:10.210
6. Eric Dankel – Awesomatix – 22/5:10.283
7. Dionys Stadler – Awesomatix – 22/5:11.381
8. Oliver Bultynck – VBC – 22/5:11.912
9. Tim Wahl – Team Xray – 22/5:12.740
10.Steen Graversen – Awesomatix – 22/5:12.760

Xray Pro Stock A-Main Grid
1. Marek Cerny (CZ) – Team Xray – 510 pts
2. Valentin Hettrich (DE) – Xray – 507
3. Oliver Franke (DE) – Awesomatix – 506
4. Tobias Vogel (DE) – Xray – 505
5. Andreas Myberg (SE) – Xray – 502
6. Steffen Leinburger (DE) – Awesomatix – 501
7. Jan Ratheisky (DE) – Team Xray – 501
8. Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 499
9. Tobias Seidl (DE) – Schumacher – 499
10.Markus Kreder (DE) – VBC – 498

Xray Pro Stock Q4 times
1. Valentin Hettrich – Xray – 21/5:14.653
2. Oliver Franke – Awesomatix – 21/5:15.070
3. Marek Cerny – Team Xray – 20/5:00.165
4. Andreas Myberg – Xray – 20/5:00.215
5. Markus Kreder – VBC – 20/5:00.628
6. Tobias Seidl – Schumacher – 20/5:01.518
7. Jan Ratheisky – Team Xray – 20/5:02.280
8. Lars Hoppe – ARC – 20/5:02.603
9. Daniel Wohlgemuth – Schumacher – 20/5:02.616
10.Michael Kiesewetter – VBC – 20/5:03.517

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February 1, 2014

Chassis Focus – Elliott Harper

Sat-HarperDETC410-2

Chassis Name – Durango DETC410
Motor – ORCA
ESC – ORCA
Batteries – ORCA
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servos – Sanwa
Remarks – Multiple Worlds Finalist Elliott Harper is making his international debut with the production version of the Durango DETC410. Using the event as testing for the car on carpet he is currently playing with the car’s flex, using the centre mount screw on the top deck, as well as working with the car’s track width. Currently struggling with the consistency over 5 minutes he will continue to work on setup alongside Durango team mate Michal Orlowski.

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February 1, 2014

Hagberg claims first TQ honours in ETS

Xray TQ

Alexander Hagberg has claimed both his and Xray’s first ever overall TQ of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series’ premiere class. Dominating proceedings at the second round of the championship, the Swede put in yet another impressive run in the penultimate qualifier at the German event as he again topped the times from defending champion Ronald Volker. While Hagberg kept his joy of securing pole position for tomorrow’s Ride Modified A-Main under wraps, leading one onlooker to come up the rather catchy title of ‘Ice’berg’ for the Swede, there was plenty of reason for celebration among the Xray team as it would prove to be an all Xray affair. With a record 362 entries in Muelheim-Kaerlich, the Slovakian manufacturer’s cars will start all three classes from the No.1 spot on the grid. Defending Pro Stock Champion Marek Cerny completed a hat trick of TQ runs to put his T4 2014 on pole for the ETS’ biggest class while Jan Ratheisky secured the overall TQ in Formula with an Xray prototype.

Hagberg

Taking his only ETS win so far in Poland 2-years ago when he won from 3rd on the grid, Hagberg said he was ‘very happy’ to secure his first TQ adding it is ‘always an advantage to start first’. Hoping to capitalise on his pole position, he is confident he has the car to get the job done. Starting second on the grid at the season opener he will be hoping he can avoid the outcome of the Czech race where he ended up finishing 8th. Clearly happy with the feeling of his ORCA powered T4, having left his set-up untouched over the past two days, he did hint that he might use the final qualifier to try a slightly different set-up with a view to the Mains.

Volker

Enjoying his most competitive qualifier in Q3 getting to within .256 of Hagberg, Volker said he was ‘really glad to get second’. After a poor opening qualifier, backing up his second fastest time in Q2 secures at worst 3rd position on the grid for the driver with the most number of ETS TQs (12). Set-up changes to his LRP powered BD7 2014 helped make a ‘minor step forward’ but the European Champion added they need to keep that progress going to get themselves in a competitive position for the finals.

Yannic

Yokomo team-mate Yannic Prumper ended the round 3rd fastest. The 2-time race winner, who posted the fastest lap of the round, was in contention with Hagberg to TQ the round topping the timing screens for three laps but in the last minute a coming together with fellow German Freddy Sudhoff dropped him back. Blaming Sudhoff for the incident, the Awesomatix driver pulling up a lap later having cost himself a potential Top 3 run, he said he opted against changing his set-up after Q2. With his BD7 fast at the start of the run he said he doesn’t know what changes he could make to improve the car in the final minute when he said Hagberg has a clear advantage over his rivals.

Rheinard

Posting the fourth fastest time 3 seconds off the TQ pace, Marc Rheinard said for the first minute his Tamiya TRF418 is ‘good’ with the ‘lap times OK’. After that he said it ‘suddenly pushes’ no matter what he changes on the set-up. With Much More owner Mr. Jang travelling to Germany to act as mechanic for the ETS’ most winning driver, Rheinard said he is giving him free reigning on his car to see if he can come up with ‘some crazy set-up’ that might give them some chance of at least battling for a podium finish preferably ahead of title rival Volker.

WilckA

Despite trying another shock position change and some flex screw adjustments on his Tamiya, Viktor Wilck said the car felt pretty the same as in Q2. The Swede would post the 5th fastest time ahead of new Awesomatix signing Eric Dankel who completed the Top 6 with his best round of qualifying.

Hara

Having thought he was making progress when he posted the 7th fastest time in Q2, Atsushi Hara said he went the wrong way with the set-up on his Yokomo. Managing only the 11th fastest time, he said the changes made the car push more and he will revert to his previous set-up for the final qualifier maybe just going with a softer shock oil.

Marek Cerny

In the Xray Pro Stock class Cerny had his closest challenge yet with fellow Xray driver Tobias Vogel finishing just 4/1000ths behind the 19-year-old Czech driver. Like Hagberg, Cerny has dominated the weekend so far and taking Q3 secures him his 5th overall TQ honours of the championships.

Jan

Winning the opening round of ETS in both Pro Stock and Formula, then driving for Serpent and becoming the series first double class winner, Jan Ratheisky is the class of the 67 car Formula field this weekend toping all three qualifiers by a very comfortable margin with his under-wraps Xray chassis.

Qualifying times – Round 3
Ride Modified Q3 times
1. Alexander Hagberg – Team Xray – 22/5:5:05.629
2. Ronald Völker – Team Yokomo – 22/5:06.373
3. Yannic Prümper – Team Yokomo – 22/5:07.416
4. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 22/5:08.632
5. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 22/5:08.793
6. Eric Dankel – Awesomatix – 22/5:10.971
7. Dionys Stadler – Awesomatix – 22/5:11.052
8. Oliver Bultynck – VBC – 22/5:12.002
9. Tim Wahl – Team Xray – 22/5:12.096
10.Steen Graversen – Awesomatix – 22/5:12.208

Xray Pro Stock Q3 times
1. Marek Cerny – Team Xray – 21/5:14.480
2. Tobias Vogel – Xray – 21/5:14.484
3. Jan Ratheisky – Team Xray – 21/5:15.090
4. Oliver Franke – Awesomatix – 20/5:00.282
5. Andreas Myberg – Xray – 20/5:00.652
6. Martin Hofer – Schumacher – 20/5:00.940
7. Steffen Leinburger – Awesomatix – 20/5:01.006
8. Daniel Wohlgemuth – Schumacher – 20/5:01.486
9. Philipp Hagnauer – Yokomo – 20/5:02.131
10.Valentin Hettrich – Xray – 20/5:02.232

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February 1, 2014

Chassis Focus – Alexander Hagberg

Sat-HagbergT4-9

Chassis Name – Xray T4 2014
Motor – ORCA
ESC – ORCA
Batteries – ORCA
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servos – KO Propo
Remarks – Alexander Hagberg is running the standard T4 2014 with a number of optionals mounted such as the double CVDs on the rear and the aluminium steering rack. In terms of setup Alex has changed nothing to the car since arriving in Mulheim Karlich, having tested extensively at the Hudy Arena prior to this event, both venues using the same carpet. He says his driving style suits this track which features a lot of 180 turns plus it helps that the Xray rotates really good in the corners. On the rear of his Protoform Speed 6 body he is using the stiffer version of the standard downforce rear wing which he says flexes less and therefore gives him more traction.

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February 1, 2014

Hagberg again in Q2

Hagberg

Alexander Hagberg continued were he left off yesterday in Germany by getting Day 2 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series underway with another impressive TQ run. Dominating yesterday’s proceedings topping practice & the opening qualifier, this morning the Team Xray driver set the pace in Q2 by a massive 4-seconds. Closest to the Swede was defending Champion Ronald Volker, who benefited from a late mistake by team-mate Yannic Prumper, with Awesomatix’ Freddy Sudhoff again completing the Top 3.

Hagberg

Running his ORCA powered T4 2014 the same as he did in Q1, Hagberg said he has a ‘really good feeling’with the car. With ‘good steering the entire run’, he said the car gets better towards the end while the ‘others lose steering’. With 2 from 4 round counting, meaning one of his rivals would need to TQ Rounds 3 & 4 to have any chance of denying him his first overall ETS TQ honours, he said the plan is to just keep the next two runs clean and ‘see what happens’.

Volker

Having had a tough opening qualifying, ending up only 8th, Volker was happy with second saying it was important quali points but added his pace was no where near fast enough. Having rolled twice in Q1, the Yokomo driver went for a safe set-up for Q2 but said this left him with ‘too much understeer’. Describing Hagberg’s pace as ‘impressive’, he said for Q3 they will try a different set-up to try and get some of the pace they are missing but said if they do improve it is going to be ‘hard to catch Alex’.

Freddy Sudhoff

Having reduced the rear bump steer on his A700 after Q1, which he said made little difference, Sudhoff described his run as ‘pretty consistent’. ‘Still lacking pace’, the German plans to change car for Q3. Having run a production car, he will switch over to the prototype that lead to the latest version of the impressively engineered Russian car. With just a few small differences between the two cars, he said the main reason he will try the prototype is because it has a slightly stiffer chassis plate which hopefully will give him the little bit extra he is looking for.

Wilck

Changing shock position and to different springs on his TRF418 for Q2, Tamiya Racing Factory’s Viktor Wilck set the fourth fastest time. The Swede said while the changes made the car ‘maybe a little better’ he was still struggling with understeer. Planning to try a few further set-up changes for the next qualifier to try and get his car to turn in better, he said ‘everyone mid pack is having the same problem’.

Yannic Prumper

Running closest to Hagberg on pace until a mistake in the chicane with just half a minute to go, Prumper would drop to 5th for the round. Describing his BD7 2014 as good in the beginning he said by the end of the run it was starting to push but added the mistake was completely his ‘own fault’. The only driver to get close to Hagberg’s fastest lap time, running a 13.664 compared to a 13.628, Prumper said he needs to change something for Q3 to make the car more consistent over the full 5-minutes.

Marc

Fitting a geardiff into the front of his Much More powered Tamiya, Marc Rheinard said it made the car feel worse than yesterday. Setting the 6th fastest time, the 3-time World Champion will go back to a spool for the next qualifier and try a different set-up to get the steering he is so badly lacking but added he is running out of things to change.

Hara

Setting the 7th fastest time, Atsushi Hara described his Yokomo as ‘better compared to Q1’. Running thicker diff oil, the Japanese ace said it made the BD7 more consistent but that it was ‘still not fast enough’. Happy with the consistency of his lap times pointing out the similarity of his best and worst lap times, he said he needs to find more overall traction. To try and achieve this he is set to change to thicker shock oil.

Qualifying times – Round 2
Ride Modified Q2 times
1. Alexander Hagberg – Team Xray – 22/5:5:02.902
2. Ronald Völker – Team Yokomo – 22/5:06.976
3. Freddy Südhoff – Awesomatix – 22/5:07.140
4. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 22/5:07.788
5. Yannic Prümper – Team Yokomo – 22/5:08.377
6. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 22/5:09.174
7. Atsushi Hara – Yokomo – 22/5:10.287
8. Tim Wahl – Team Xray – 22/5:10.437
9. Dionys Stadler – Awesomatix – 22/5:10.801
10.Juho Levanen – Team Associated – 22/5:11.095

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February 1, 2014

‘Race Control’ Day 2

F1 Grid

It is Day 2 of a busy second round of the ETS with qualifying the main order of the day in Muelheim-Kaerlich. A problem with power at the track this morning resulted in a 45-minute delay to proceedings which have just got underway with Q2 of Formula. This will be followed by the Ride Modified class which also has 3 rounds of qualifying today. Having run two rounds of qualifying last night, the Xray Pro Stock drivers will have just two qualifiers today. Once qualifying is complete the day will conclude with the first leg of triple Mains that all drivers get, running up to and including the C Finals.

February 1, 2014

Video – Modified Qualifying Rd1

January 31, 2014

Day 1 belongs to Hagberg

Hagberg

Day 1 of the second round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series belonged to Alexander Hagberg, the Team Xray driver backing up his practice pace with a very convincing TQ run in the opening round of qualifying at the German event. With even Marc Rheinard complimenting the Swede’s performance calling it ‘impressive’, Hagberg’s closest challenger was Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper who was some 1.8 seconds adrift. While Freddy Sudhoff completed the Top 3, it was a tough start to qualifying for defending Champion Ronald Volker as the Round 1 dominator managed only the 8th fastest time.

Hagberg

Having come close to a TQ run at the season opener where he qualified second overall, Hagberg said he was ‘really happy’ at how the day had gone. Confident after the first timed practice that he had a good car for the event after extensive pre-race testing at the Hudy Arena, he said his ORCA powered T4 is ‘really good and just gets better’ as the run goes on. Taking a few laps to get established at the top of the timing monitors, he said his car was ‘maybe not the fastest in the beginning’ but added that this was ‘not necessarily a bad thing’. Have changed little or nothing in terms of his set-up over the day the former ETS winner said he will continue to leave everything as is for the morning’s second qualifier.

Yannic Prumper

Another former race winner, Prumper described his run to the second fastest time as a ‘good start’ to the Mülheim-Kärlich event. The 20-year-old said he didn’t push focusing instead on making sure he put in a safe run. Looking to tomorrow’s action, the German said he would like to try and find some more steering but added he wasn’t sure what to change, an uncertainty that might be fuelled by his team-mates performance.

Sudhoff

Finishing 1.8 seconds off Prumper’s time, the same time difference that separated the top two, Awesomatix’ Sudhoff said his run was ‘pretty good (with) no mistakes’. Describing the gap to Hagberg as ‘pretty big’, the Round 1 podium finisher said he is missing 1/10th of a second a lap which he hopes he can find once he discusses potential se-up options with the car’s designer Oleg Babich.

Ronald Volker

Volker said his car was too edgy at the start which resulted in him rolling the LRP powered BD7 2014 on the first lap. Trying to make back up the 3-seconds lost, the European Champion then suffered a further roll saying he just pushed too hard. Feeling they improved the car over how it was in practice, the 3-time back to back champion said ‘a few small changes (are) still needed’. Happy with his lap times, he added he needs to ‘get it all together’ for the next one.

Marc Rheinard

In the Tamiya camp the response to how their runs to the 4th & 5th fastest times had a strong similarity. Happy with how his TRF418 started the 5-minute qualifier, Rheinard said it just start to push more & more with each lap. Having Volker behind him for the closing part of the heat, he said this highlighted clearly how bad the understeer is. Wilck summed up his lack of steering very simple with ‘understeer understeer’. Asked what possible solutions they had to finding more steering, Rheinard said he will spend the night thinking it over but added they have to come up with something if he is to try and capitalise on what he believes could end up being a tough weekend for his arch rival Volker.

Dionys Stadler

While it was a bad opening qualifier for new Awesomatix signing Eric Dankel, the German suffering a steering problem in the warm-up that left him unable to make the start, their young driver Dionys Stadler stepped up to the mark. Running in the second fastest heat, having been 16th fastest in practice, he took his A700 to the 6th fastest time. The 17-year-old changed to the floating front diff along with changing rear diff oil which he said made the car a lot less aggressive to drive. Clearly pleased with his run he said he has no intentions of changing anything going into Q2.

Hara

On what has been a busy weekend of announcements, first the announcement of a deal with Yokomo for touring cars and then today’s official announcement that he will race S-Workz in offroad, Hara’s return to the ETS saw him open qualifying with the 13th fastest time. One of the biggest stars of the sport, he said after really good opening laps he started to push too hard causing his tyres go off more quickly. Describing his lap time as more competitive, he joked he still has ‘3 more practices to get ready for the final’. Planning to adjust his own steering inputs, saying he needs to be more smooth, he will also make a change to his set-up to try and make the front end a little less aggressive at the beginning of the 5-minutes.

Marek Cerny

While Hagberg headlined the Ride Modified class, in the Xray Pro stock class it was his team-mate Marek Cerny who dominated the day. Fastest in practice, the defending champion TQ’d the opening qualifier from Awesomatix driver Steffen Leinburger. The largest class in the ETS, with this weekend attracting over 200 entries, they also completed their second round of qualifying which was again taken by Cerny this time from former race winner Oliver Franke. Winner of the recent DHI Cup, Franke had a poor start finishing only 11th fastest but in Q2 a combination of car set-up and driving helped him to get within 8/10ths of Cerny. In the Formula class, Round 1 winner Jan Ratheisky took the opening qualifier over Dai Sakaguchi and former champion Herbert Weber.

Qualifying times – Round 1
Ride Modified Q1 times
1. Alexander Hagberg – Team Xray – 22/5:5:04.310
2. Yannic Prümper – Team Yokomo – 22/5:06.100
3. Freddy Südhoff – Awesomatix – 22/5:07.894
4. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 22/5:08.312
5. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya – 22/5:09.218
6. Dionys Stadler – Awesomatix – 22/5:11.071
7. Patrick Gollner – Yokomo – 22/5:11.378
8. Ronald Völker – Team Yokomo – 22/5:11.652
9. Juho Levanen – Team Associated – 22/5:11.890
10.Viljami Kutvonen – Awesomatix – 22/5:12.348

Xray Pro Stock Q1 times
1. Marek Cerny – Team Xray – 21/5:13.431
2. Steffen Leinburger – Awesomatix – 21/5:14.933
3. Tobias Vogel – Xray – 20/5:00.984
4. Valentin Hettrich – Xray – 20/5:01.648
5. Tobias Seidl – Schumacher – 20/5:01.908
6. Andreas Myberg -Xray – 20/5:03.109
7. Alexander Stocker – Xray – 20/5:03.989
8. Bernard Bopp – HB – 20/5:04.596
9. Jan Ratheisky – Team Xray – 20/5:04.696
10.Michael Kiesewetter – VBC – 20/5:04.778

Xray Pro Stock Q2 times
1. Marek Cerny – Team Xray – 21/5:13.568
2. Oliver Franke – Awesomatix – 21/5:14.333
3. Valentin Hettrich – Xray – 21/5:14.872
4. Andreas Myberg -Xray – 20/5:00.366
5. Martin Hofer – Schumacher – 20/5:01.205
6. Jan Ratheisky – Team Xray – 20/5:01.402
7. Markus Kreder – VBC – 20/5:01.821
8. Max Machler – Awesomatix – 20/5:01.910
9. Tobias Vogel – Xray – 20/5:02.139
10.Daniel Wohlgemuth – Schumacher – 20/5:02.516

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