Euro Touring Series

March 4, 2012

Krapps gives Kyosho its first ETS victory

Christopher Krapp

Christopher Krapp has secured both his and Kyosho’s first win in the Euro Touring Series after a thrilling second A-Main that saw the 19-year-old hang on to take his second win of the day and put the Gran Canaria victory beyond the reach of the World class field of drivers. Top Qualifier for the first ETS visit to the Spanish holiday island Krapp, who took the second A-Main ahead of Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard and Viktor Wilck, said it had been an ‘Awesome weekend with everything finally coming to together for him.’

Christopher Krapp

Driving his Orion powered Kyosho TF6-SP, Krapp saw off more intense pressure than in the opening main which he also won from Rheinard. Running on used tyres the German, who came to the race sitting third in the standings, had to contend with both Andy Moore and Viktor Wilck who each had fresh rubber for A2. Former World Champion Moore looked to have found a way to the front three laps from home but the pair touched causing chaos among the lead 5 car pack that also included Rheinard and Alexander Hagberg. Krapp managed to come out back in the lead while Rheinard, who was running fifth moved to second. Moore came off worst as he went from 1st to 5th.

Now a four car train, the leaders crossed the line just before the five minutes with Hagberg missing the cut by .026 of a second. A three way dash to the line Wilck, who set the fastest lap of the race, then had his TRF417 shutdown causing it to crash heavily into the track barriers. Badly damaging his car, the Swede is now in a race to get it ready for the final race of the day.

Hagberg

Hagberg, who was expected to have an advantage over Krapp on the used tyres, said he just didn’t have enough traction something he he could only attribute to the hotter conditions of the second leg. Just missing the cut to stay in the lead battle for one final lap, the Swede summed up the race by saying ‘I was too slow and unlucky I guess’. What started off as a great weekend for Hagberg, who TQ’d two rounds of qualifying to tie on points with Krapp, he said all he can do now is try to drive clean lines in the third A-Main and try to salvage a podium finish. With overall victory secured, Krapp will sit out the final race of the day meaning Hagberg will effectively start from pole and benefits from Volker’s forced withdrawal from the finals day which also leaves the spot behind him free.

Cerny

Although they have dominated the past two season’s of the ETS with Ronald Volker in Modified, Team Yokomo today claimed their first ever win in the Xray Pro Stock class as Czech racer Marek Cerný backed up his Leg 1 win with another in Leg 2 to secure his first international victory. Starting from pole position, Cerný survived an early challenge from Martin Hofer with the pair making contact. Hofer waited to give position back to the Yokomo driver but got collected by the chasing pack sending his Schumacher to the tail end of the field giving Cerný an assailing lead that he was never to loose. Starting seventh on the grid, Awesomatix’s Ivan Laptev drove a strong race setting the fastest lap on his way to second ahead of champion Hofer who got his Schumacher back up to third by the finish.

Ride Modified Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho/Orion – 17/5:18.810
2.(4) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 17/5:19.518
3.(7) Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya/Thunder Power – 17/4.59.491
4.(2) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/ORCA – 16/5:00.026
5.(5) Andy Moore (GB) – Hot Bodies/HPI Flux – 16/5:01.165
6.(9) Chris Grainger (GB) – Schumacher/GM – 16/5:05.221
7.(10)Eric Dankel (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 16/5:05.840
8.(6) Elliott Harper (GB) – Tamiya/Orion – 16/5:06.333
9.(8) Steen Graversen (DK) – Awesomatix/Thunder Power – 14/4:22.319
10.(3)Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – DNS

Xray Pro-Stock Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Marek Cerný (CZ) – Yokomo – 16/5:20.083
2.(7) Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 16/5:20.518
3.(2) Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 15/5:00.774
4.(3) Michal Orlowski (PL) – Tamiya – 15/5:04.810
5.(8) Carsten Madsen (DK) – Awesomatix – 15/5:05.345
6.(4) Javier Martinez (GC) – Hot Bodies – 15/5:09.590
7.(9) Felix Wiessmann (DE) – Yokomo – 15/5:09.609
8.(10)Alvaro Fernandez (ES) – Tamiya – 15/5:10.337
9.(6) Tony Streit (DE) – Xray – 15/5:12.038
10.(5)Toni Mateo (ES) – Tamiya – 9/3:07.892

View the complete results here.

View the event image gallery here.

March 4, 2012

Video – Mod & Pro Stock A-main Leg 1

March 4, 2012

Krapp wins first A-Main

Christopher Krapp

Christopher Krapp has won the opening A-Main of the Ride Modified class at the Euro Touring Series in Gran Canaria. The Top Qualifier drove the perfect race staying calm throughout to hold off a late challenge from World Champion Marc Rheinard with Alexander Hagberg completing the Top 3.

Leading from start to finish, Krapp described the race as a ‘pretty save run’. Able to see that Rheinard was closing him down in the latter part of the race the 19-year-old factory Kyosho/Orion driver said he just focused on staying calm and driving clean lines as he knew even if the Tamiya driver caught right up he still had to get around him. Aware that Hagberg, who starts right behind him on the grid, has a good car on used tyres the German racer thinks his own TF6-SP will be good enough to see off any challenge in the second A-Main.

Rheinard

Starting fourth on the grid, Rheinard was pretty upbeat following his second place finish. Very despondent after yesterday’s qualifiers, the German stayed on at the track to run in the open practice looking for a solution to the problem of his car getting airbourne on the main straight. With the help of his brother Toni, the Tamiya driver adjusted his line on the entry to the straight along with changing to a much lower power setting on his Speed Passion speedo and after this mornings A-Main was much happier with his TRF417. Also trying a different tyre prep, Rheinard was especially happy to find a way passed Hagberg but said with the Swede very fast in the closing stage of the race he was unable to have a proper go at trying to find a way pass Krapp for the win.

Hagberg

Hagberg said his T3 2012 struggled for traction at the start of the race on new tyres and this allowed Rheinard to get passed. As the run progressed the factory Xray found good traction and pace allowing the Snowbirds Champion to close back up to the top 2 but the Swede couldn’t capitalize admitting he made too many mistakes over the curbs which cancelled out any advantage his ORCA powered Xray had over Rheinard’s Tamiya. As he showed in qualifying yesterday, Hagberg’s car makes better use of second run tyres so he will be looking to mount challenge on Krapp early on in the 5-minute encounter in the hope of forcing the fight for the overall win to go to the third leg.

Finishing fourth from 7th on the grid, TRF’s Viktor Wilck could spring a surprise in the second A-Main as the Swede ran used tyres and so now has a brand new set of tyres at his disposal.

Marek Cerný

In the Xray Pro Stock class Yokomo driver Marek Cerný also convert his first ever TQ into a win. Setting the fastest lap of the race, the Czech driver cruised to a relatively easy win over the Schumacher of defending champion Martin Hofer. Starting sixth on the grid local driver and ETS regular Toni Mateo had a strong race to finish third.

Ride Modified Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho/Orion – 17/5:13.837
2.(4) Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 17/5:14.658
3.(2) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/ORCA – 17/5:15.364
4.(7) Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya/Thunder Power – 16/5:01.753
5.(5) Andy Moore (GB) – Hot Bodies/HPI – 16/5:02.504
6.(10)Eric Dankel (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 16/5:03.277
7.(6) Elliott Harper (GB) – Tamiya/Orion – 16/5:03.599
8.(9) Chris Grainger (GB) – Schumacher/GM – 16/5:07.047
9.(8) Steen Graversen (DK) – Awesomatix/Thunder Power – 3/0:48.628
10.(3)Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – DNS

Xray Pro-Stock Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Marek Cerný (CZ) – Yokomo – 16/5:14.560
2.(2) Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 16/5:14.936
3.(6) Tony Streit (DE) – Xray – 16/5:19.949
4.(10) Alvaro Fernandez (ES) – Tamiya – 15/5:03.223
5.(4) Javier Martinez (GC) – Hot Bodies – 15/5:03.553
6.(8) Carsten Madsen (DK) – Awesomatix – 15/5:05.709
7.(9) Felix Wiessmann (DE) – Yokomo – 15/5:07.549
8.(5) Toni Mateo (ES) – Tamiya – 13/4:25.272
9.(3) Michal Orlowski (PL) – Tamiya – 11/3:37.488
10.(7)Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 2/0:25.193

View the complete results here.

View the event image gallery here.

March 4, 2012

Volker forced to withdraw from Gran Canaria finals

Reigning Champion Ronald Volker has been forced to withdraw from the finals of the third round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Gran Canaria after his last remaining prototype LRP speedo shutdown during this morning’s practice final. Having dominated the opening two rounds of this season’s series, the German ace has endured a tough event on the Spanish island including destroying his spare car on Wednesday when a speedo failure resulted in the car failing to stop at the end of the main straight. Arriving at the event with five speedos, the factory Yokomo driver suffered four failures in pre-event testing forcing the Yokomo team to request extra units from LRP on Thursday. Unfortunately due to the location of the race the earliest a shipment could be landed was Monday leaving Volker no option but to pack up before the event had official started or use a speedo from a different manufacturer to at least get through qualifying.

Fitted with a Speed Passion speedo for official practice and the five rounds of qualifying, Volker secured third on the grid for the A-Main. However, due to contractual obligations the last remaining LRP speedo had to be fitted to the car for the final day of the event and in a heartbreaking moment for the entire Yokomo team, in particular Yukijiro Umino who traveled from Japan to engineer their star driver’s BD5WX, the German ace’s car shutdown after just 2 minutes of running in the practice final. Out of speedos, Yokomo team manager Robert Itoh informed race director Scotty Ernst that Volker would take no further part in the event.

With 3rd on the grid empty, this will give Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp, who makes his first start from pole position, and No.2 car of Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg some extra breathing space as they both seek to lay claim to their first ever ETS victory.

March 3, 2012

Krapp is Top Qualifier at ETS Gran Canaria

Christopher Krapp

Factory Kyosho driver Christopher Krapp is Top Qualifier for the third round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in the Spanish island of Grand Canaria after the 19-year-old German took the final round of qualifying to deny Xray’s Alexander Hagberg the honour on tie break. Each posting two TQ runs during the fifth rounds of qualifying, Krapp’s Q1 performance, which was the fastest 5-minute run of the day, secured the World finalist his first & Kyosho’s second ETS pole position in the A-Main of the premiere class.

Krapp Action

The final qualifier was expected to be a shootout between Krapp and Hot Bodies’ Andy Moore as both drivers had brand new tyres but three laps in the 2006 World Champion got it wrong at the end of the straight. Although he set the fastest lap of the round Moore opted to pull up and save his tyres for tomorrow’s finals in which he will start 5th. This looked to leave the way open for Krapp, but despite running on tyres he already used to top Q4 Hagberg was able to mount a serious challenge. Also chasing his first ever ETS pole position, the Swede was running very close on time with Krapp but on the final lap flipped his T3 2012 coming onto the main straight. Although the car land rubber side down Krapp took the round ahead of Ronald Volker to lay claim to the No.1 start number in tomorrow’s final.

‘Super Happy’ to be the first Kyosho Top Qualifier since Steen Graversen was on pole position for the first ever ETS race back in 2007, afterwards Krapp said he was surprised at how close it was between him and Hagberg but added he never paniced as he knew his car was good enough on new tyres to get the job done. Asked about tomorrow’s racing the World Finalist, who if he wins will be the first Kyosho driver to win an ETS race, said he just plans to keep his head down and give the best he can.

Hagberg grid

Hagberg said he was still very happy to be second on the grid after what was his best ETS qualifying performance. Having last month bagged his first big international race win when he won the Snowbirds in the US, he said he is confident he can race for the win and feels he has an advantage in that his car is still very competitive on the tyres’ second run as he showed this evening in the final qualifier.

Ronald Volker

Ronald Volker, who has seen his domination of the 2011/12 season halted this weekend, will start the A-Main from third on the grid. The reigning champion, who won the opening two rounds of this season’s series from pole position said is going to be tough race tomorrow and beating Krapp and Hagberg is going to be difficult. The German ace said his problem is in the later part of the runs as he is unable to match the pace of his rivals who just seem to get faster over the 5-minutes.

Behind the Top 3 a very fed-up looking Marc Rheinard starts fourth. Despite TQ’ing the third qualifier due solely to the fact he ran fresh rubber when all the other teams stuck with their first set of tyres, the World Champion is not really at the races here in Gran Canaria but in a rare occurance the former ETS champion has stayed on after qualifying to take part in open practice.

Marek Cerný

In the Xray Pro Stock class five different drivers claimed TQ runs and in the end a tie-break was also needed to determine who was Top Qualifier with Marek Cerný claiming Yokomo’s first pole position in the series’ biggest class ahead of defending champion and factory Schumacher driver Martin Hofer. Having made his first A-Main at Round 2 in Italy, former Hobby class champion Michal Orlowski will line-up third on the grid with his Tamiya ahead of the other local drivers Javier Martinez and Toni Mateo, the man responsible for bringing the ETS to Gran Canaria. In the Speed Passion formula class, Italian driver Maurizio Taddei is the top qualifier from Germany’s Andreas Mundt.

Ride Modified A-Main Grid
1. Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho/Orion – 310
2. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/ORCA – 310
3. Ronald Völker (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 306
4. Marc Rheinard (DE) – Tamiya/Speed Passion – 305
5. Andy Moore (GB) – Hot Bodies/HPI Flux – 305
6. Elliott Harper (GB) – Tamiya/Orion – 304
7. Viktor Wilck (SE) – Tamiya/Thunder Power – 304
8. Steen Graversen (DK) – Awesomatix/Thunder Power – 302
9. Chris Grainger (GB) – Schumacher/GM – 298
10.Eric Dankel (DE) – Yokomo/LRP – 297

Xray Pro-Stock A-Main Grid
1. Marek Cerný (CZ) – Yokomo – 308
2. Martin Hofer (DE) – Schumacher – 308
3. Michal Orlowski (PL) – Tamiya – 307
4. Javier Martinez (GC) – Hot Bodies – 307
5. Toni Mateo (ES) – Tamiya – 306
6. Tony Streit (DE) – Xray – 306
7. Ivan Laptev (RU) – Awesomatix – 304
8. Carsten Madsen (DK) – Awesomatix – 303
9. Felix Wiessmann (DE) – Yokomo – 298
10.Alvaro Fernandez (ES) – Tamiya – 296

View the complete results here.

View the event image gallery here.

March 3, 2012

Another TQ run from Hagberg

Alexander Hagberg

Alexander Hagberg put in another TQ run at the third round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Gran Canaria, the Swede topping the penultimate qualifier ahead of Ronald Volker and fellow countryman Viktor Wilck. The top three all benefited from fresher tyres with both Hagberg and Volker running brand new tyres while Vilck’s tyres had only three laps on them after he pulled up early in the previous qualifier following a roll.

Hagberg, who can now only be denied from securing Xray’s first overall TQ honours in the ETS’ premiere class by Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp, said his ORCA powered T3 2012 felt a little loose in the beginning but after a few laps started to work really well allowing him to better his TQ time from Q2 by almost 2 seconds.

Volker

Failing to finish his Q2 & 3 runs, Volker said he wasn’t able to match Hagberg as he couldn’t drive his BD5 WX as aggressively as he would normally like to but added the result should ensure he starts in a Top 3 position on the grid in tomorrow’s race.

Krapp along with Andy Moore are the only leading drivers left to run their second set of allocated tyres meaning the duo on paper are the only contenders for a TQ run in the fifth and final qualifier. With Krapp’s Q1 time still the fastest 5-minute run of the day, Hagberg will be hoping former World Champion Moore can pull off a TQ run as if Krapp tops the times he will get it on a tie break to take Kyosho’s second ever ETS TQ.

Fastest in Q3, Marc Rheinard didn’t finish his run after his Tamiya once again pulled off a somersault down the main straight.

View the complete results here.

View the event image gallery here.

March 3, 2012

Video – Qualifying Round 3

March 3, 2012

Tyre gamble pays dividend for TRF in Q3

Rheinard

The gamble to use the second of their two allocated sets of tyres in the third round of qualifying for the ETS in Gran Canaria paid dividends for two of the three Tamiya Racing Factory drivers as Marc Rheinard topped the time sheets ahead of team-mate Elliot Harper with Hot Bodies’ Andy Moore best of the drivers still running on their first set of Ride tyres.

Managing to post only the 8th & 5th fastest times in his opening two heats, World Champion Rheinard said using fresh tyres was the only chance he had at a TQ run this weekend and even with the fresh rubber his car did not feel good to drive. Harper found his TRF417 felt worse on new tyres for the first half of the run but by the middle of the run really came good and in the end the performance balanced out for a good overall result which the 18-year-old hopes should now ensure he lines-up on the grid for tomorrow’s A-Main. Viktor Wilck failed to capitalise on his fresh tyres after he caught a bump coming onto the main straight which sent his Tamiya TRF417 into a roll on lap 3 after which the Swede pulled up to save his tyres for Q4.

Stefan Chodzynski

Moore, who was second fastest in Q2, said he made a couple of mistakes but even without them he would not have had the pace to match either Rheinard or Harper. The third of the six scheduled qualifiers was to be a good round for British drivers with Stefan Chodzynski taking his HPI Flux Pro powered Hot Bodies TCX to an impressive sixth fastest time while Schumacher’s Chris Grainger made it four Brits in the Top 10 taking his Mi4CX to the 8th fastest time.

Alexander Hagberg

For the pace setters from the opening two qualifiers, Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp were content with fourth and fifth respectively for the third run as they still both have a fresh set of tyres to use. For Champion Ronald Volker his day continued to go downhill. The Yokomo driver was on a Top 3 pace on old tyres when his BD5-WX looked to have shutdown on the main straight before taking off again at full speed ending up under the race control platform. The German thinks the incident was caused by a radio glitch.

View the complete results here.

View the event image gallery here.