Video – Mod, Pro Stock & Formula A-main 2
Volker pulls off the perfect start to ETS Season #7
Defending Yokomo Euro Touring Series Champion Ronald Volker pulled off the best start possible to Season #7, the Yokomo driver taking the overall win with another faultless win in Leg 2 of the A-Main in the Czech Republic. Chasing a fourth consecutive title in the World famous championship this season, the win is the German’s ninth ETS career win and the fourth year that he has won the season opener. Having won Leg 1 from Marc Rheinard, he again headed home the Tamiya driver in Leg 2 with Yannic Prumper completing the Top 3.
Having topped every element of the weekend, heading both free & timed practice and then all four rounds of qualifying, Volker said they achieved the goal they had set themselves coming into the weekend. Describing qualifying as being particularly tough here in Hrotovice with Alexander Hagberg and Freddy Sudhoff both pushing him hard, he said while from the outside taking the win might have looked easy it took a lot of hard work. Thanking Yukijiro Umino for his continued support and car preparation, he said they did a lot of preparations for the race such as attending the MIBO Cup and this paid off. Asked about his Leg 2 race, Volker said he pushed really hard at the start and again he was helped by problems for drivers behind. With a gap of over 2-seconds he reverted to taking a more cautious approach to the faster corners. While this was a slower way round the track knowing it would lose him time he said that with no mistakes the gap was too big for Rheinard to close down by the finish.
Rheinard who based on his recent performance here at the MIBO Cup would be more than happy to leave the Czech Republic with a second place, said his TRF418 was really good but again the gap to Volker after the start was just too much to close. Congratulating his great rival on what he said was a ‘well deserved win’ he said the weekend turned out more positive then expected and he is looking forward to be a lot stronger for Round 2 of the ETS in Germany in January. With two second place finishes to his credit and both Hagberg & Sudhoff having another bad race in A2, the 3-time World Champion looks best positioned to take the second step on the podium at the trophy presentations.
Having run 2nd for the opening four laps a mistake from Hagberg left him to finish 8th while Sudhoff who made a ‘fair’ pass on the Swede to move up to second on lap 5 caught a corner dot four laps later at the end of the straight and flipped his Awesomatix. After that a coming together with Xray’s Marco Kaufmann left ‘Fast Freddy’, him setting the fastest lap of the race, to finish 9th. Holding third Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura would retire from the race on lap 17 with a broken rear drive shaft.
In the Xray Pro Stock class the winner will be decided in the third A-Main after Schumacher’s Martin Hofer took the win. Top Qualifier Jan Amser lead the way for over half the race but on 17 lap of 23, the former Champion forced his way to the front with an impressive pass. For Leg 1 winner Marek Cerny his challenge came undone on lap 11. Applying huge pressure on Amser’s Serpent, the Xray driver would roll his Xray in front of the drivers rostrum leaving him to finish 5th. In the Formula class, the third A-Main will also decide who leaves the Czech Republic as the new championship leader. Roman Pichler took his TOP Racing chassis to the win over the VBC of Olivier Bultynck with Leg 1 winner Thomas Pumpler bringing his Speed Passion F1 home third. Top Qualifier Asmer didn’t have a good race ending up 4th after some early mistakes. Like Pro Stock, four drivers go into the final race with a chance of the overall win.
View the complete event results here.
View our event image gallery here.
A-Main Leg 2 Results
Ride Modified A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Ronald Völker (DE) – Team Yokomo – 25/5:04.971
2.(4) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya – 25/5:05.383
3.(7) Yannic Prümper (DE) – Team Yokomo – 25/5:10.346
4.(6) Marc Fischer (DE) – Serpent – 25/5:10.530
5.(9) Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya – 24/5:01.065
6.(10)Julian Borowski (DE) – Serpent – 24/5:02.336
7.(8) Marco Kaufmann (DE) – Team Xray – 24/5:02.538
8.(2) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Team Xray – 24/5:02.995
9.(3) Freddy Südhoff (DE) – Awesomatix – 24/5:07.186
10.(5)Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Team Yokomo – 16/3:17.135
Xray Pro Stock A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(3) Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 23/5:01.669
2.(1)Jan Asmer (DE) – Serpent – 23/5:02.236
3.(4) Tobias Vogel (DE) – Team Xray – 23/5:02.517
4.(5) Bernhard Bopp (DE) – HB – 23/5:02.691
5.(2) Marek Cerny (CZ) – Team Xray – 23/5:03.030
6.(10)Philipp Neudinger (AT) – Awesomatix – 23/5:05.992
7.(6) Max Mächler (DE) – Awesomatix – 23/5:06.920
8.(7) Mike Gosvig (DK) – Awesomatix – 23/5:07.544
9.(9) Kuba Simurda (CZ) – Team Xray – 23/5:10.365
10.(8)Henrik Heitsch (DE) – ARC – 11/2:28.911
Chassis Focus – Henrik Heitsch
Chassis Name – ARC R10 2013
Motor – Muchmore (handout)
ESC – Muchmore (handout)
Batteries – LRP
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servos – Sanwa
Remarks – Henrik Heitsch is running the new R10 2013 from ARC, putting the car into the Pro Stock A-main. The car sports a new 2.25mm thick chassis plate, shorter big bore shocks, floating servo mount as well as harder plastics. Having run the car for a few months in prototype form, he has developed a setup that he can use for indoor, outdoor, large and small tracks and has made little or no changes to the car since coming to the Czech Republic apart from working on tire prep.
Image Gallery
Video – Mod, Pro Stock & Formula A-main 1
Volker handed easy Leg 1 win
Ronald Volker was handed a relatively easy win in the opening A-Main at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series this morning in the Czech Republic after the two drivers starting behind him clashed on the opening lap. A coming together between Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and Awesomatix’s Freddy Sudhoff allowed Volker to take a 1.3 second win over Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard with Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura completing the Top 3.
Top Qualifier for the race, Volker said having been handed breathing space on the opening lap he just focused on maintaining that gap for the rest of the 5-minute encounter. Describing his Yokomo BD7 as a little tricky he said he had some bobbles which focused him to tidy up his driving so as not to allow Rheinard to get to close. While his great rival did close the gap to 8/10ths of a second, Volker was able to respond and get the gap to over 1-second. Chasing his ninth ETS career win today, Volker said his objective for the next one is to get another good clean start.
Rheinard described his race as ‘OK’. The 3-time World Champion said even though he got lucky on the first lap, starting from fourth on the grid is too far back to be able to mount a serious challenge on Volker as the gap is already too hard to close. Although he did make some in roads into Volker’s lead a mistake over the corner dots extended the gap to 1.4 seconds and with only a minute to go Rheinard said he gave up not wanting to risk his second place.
Setting the fastest lap of the race as he recovered from the first lap contact with Hagberg, Sudhoff summed up the race by saying ‘tough luck as always’. Getting down the inside of Hagberg who ran wide, he said he was really happy with his start but at the next corner the Swede came down his inside flipping the Awesomatix. Describing his A700L EVO as ‘super fast and super consistent’, Sudhoff said hopefully for Leg 2 he will get the opportunity to fight with Volker for the win.
Hagberg took full responsibility for the incident saying it was ‘my mistake’. As an aftermath to the coming together with Sudhoff, the Xray driver suffered further contact with himself and fellow country man Viktor Wilck both suffering body tucks which dropped them to the back of the field. Hagberg would eventually finish 8th while Wilck decided to pull up after 4 laps. Posting a faster lap time than the winner, Hagberg said everything should be fine for Leg 2.
In the Xray Pro Stock class defending champion Marek Cerny headed an Xray 1-2. There was drama just before the start for Top Qualifier Jan Asmer after he suffered a problem with the electrics in his car. While the Serpent driver still made the race, Race Director Scotty Ernst delaying the start, Asmer had to borrow a car but the speedo of that car was only set at 75% power so he did not have any race pace with Cerny going to the front on Lap 2. Challenged hard by Schumacher’s Marin Hofer, who set the fastest lap of the race, the Czech driver got the break he needed on the start of lap 12 when the former champion rolled his Mi-5 coming on straight. This allowed Tobias Vogel through to 2nd where the German would stay to the finish.
An entertaining Formula race saw a very popular win for well known Austrian Touring Car driver Thomas Pumpler. Starting from 5th on the grid, he took his Speed Passion chassis to victory over defending champion & Top Qualifier Jan Asmer with TOP Racing’s Roman Pichler completing the Top 3.
View the complete event results here.
View our event image gallery here.
A-Main Leg 1 Results
Ride Modified A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Ronald Völker (DE) – Team Yokomo – 25/5:04.152
2.(4) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya – 25/5:05.541
3.(5) Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Team Yokomo – 25/5:06.610
4.(3) Freddy Südhoff (DE) – Awesomatix – 25/5:08.420
5.(6) Marc Fischer (DE) – Serpent – 25/5:09.330
6.(7) Yannic Prümper (DE) – Team Yokomo – 25/5:13.212
7.(10)Julian Borowski (DE) – Serpent – 24/5:01.282
8.(2) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Team Xray – 24/5:01.561
9.(8) Marco Kaufmann (DE) – Team Xray – 24/5:03.526
10.(9)Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya – 4/1:00.250
Xray Pro Stock A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(2) Marek Cerny (CZ) – Team Xray – 23/5:03.446
2.(4) Tobias Vogel (DE) – Team Xray – 23/5:04.326
3.(3) Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 23/5:04.558
4.(6) Max Mächler (DE) – Awesomatix –23/5:05.998
5.(5) Bernhard Bopp (DE) – HB – 23/5:07.409
6.(7) Mike Gosvig (DK) – Awesomatix – 23/5:07.511
7.(8) Henrik Heitsch (DE) – ARC – 23/5:08.162
8.(9) Kuba Simurda (CZ) – Team Xray – 23/5:08.442
9.(10)Philipp Neudinger (AT) – Awesomatix – 23/5:08.665
10.(1)Jan Asmer (DE) – Serpent – 22/5:02.108
Chassis Focus – Martin Hofer
Chassis Name – Schumacher Mi5 Prototype
Motor – Muchmore (handout)
ESC – Muchmore (handout)
Batteries – GM Racing
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servos – Sanwa
Remarks – Former Pro Stock Champion Martin Hofer is running a version of Schumacher’s Mi5 with a number of prototype parts which are being evaluated for future release. A new chassis plate with different carbon is stiffer despite being thinner material than previous while new even shorter shocks, now lower than the car’s wheel line, and lower shock towers help lower the car’s centre of gravity. Combined with a new motor block which brings the motor more to the centre line and a new steering system and carbon steering block arms allow the car to be pushed harder without it wanting to flip.
Image Gallery
