Euro Touring Series

October 26, 2018

Chassis Focus – Olly Jefferies

Chassis – Schumacher Mi6 EVO
Motor – Hobbywing 5.0T
ESC – Hobbywing Xerun XR10 Pro
Batteries – EZ Power 6.600 mAh Graphene
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Highest
Bodyshell – Protoform Type S

Remarks – New Team Schumacher signing Olly Jefferies is having his ETS debut with the British company’s Mi6 EVO. Having only raced it once last week with different tires, the Brit declared himself pretty happy with how his race started given the lack of experience. His car is equipped with a number of option parts, such as front double joint CVDs, an aluminium chassis and ultra-short shocks.

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October 26, 2018

Volker fastest in CP1 at ETS season opener

The first of two rounds of controlled practice are complete here in Vienna and in the Modified class it is Ronald Volker, running the all new Yokomo BD9, who was quickest over 3 laps ahead of Bruno Coelho, Freddy Sudhoff and Yannic Prumper. The German driver said that he continued to switch cars between practice runs and has now settled on the car with the standard rear suspension having also tried the RTC system. Feeling ‘very comfortable with the balance and corner speed’, he plans to only make minor changes going forward in order to improve the car in mid corner.

With times that close it will be for sure interesting.”

Bruno Coelho

Reigning ETS Champion Bruno Coelho was 2nd fastest, less than 100th of a second behind, enjoying a ‘very clean round’. Pointing out that the times are very close at the front, the top 14 covered by 1 second, the Xray driver said ‘with times that close it will be for sure interesting’.

Awesomatix team driver Freddy Sudhoff declared his CP1 run a ‘decent start for the weekend’ with the ‘car already good from the first run. Aiming to now only fine tune his setup he said the most important thing here ‘is to be consistent because of the layout, a simple crash could lose you a lot of time’.

Practice is one thing, qualifiers are always a bit different.”

Simon Lauter

In the Xray Pro Stock class, new Awesomatix signing Simon Lauter was happy with his first timed practice run, saying ‘pretty good, lap times fast. Its the same for 4 minutes no problem’. The German was nearly 3 tenths ahead of reigning class champion Jan Ratheisky in 2nd with Max Machler, Tim Benson and Frederik Mikkelsen completing the top 5 for the round.

In the Scorpion Formula class Andreas Stiebler, running the Hawx F1 car, topped the times with Jan Ratheisky again 2nd, with fellow Xray driver Matej Dobnikar in 3rd. Running a Carisma chassis, British driver Ben Cosgrove made a welcome return to the ETS putting in the 4th fastest time in front of Max Weffers, Simon Lauter and Jacques Libar.

The Infinity 40+ Masters class saw former Pro Stock Champion Alexander Stocker top the timesheet by over a second from Marcus Askell in 2nd and Mirco Thallheimer, Lasse Ilvessalo and current Champion Thomas Oehler completing the top 5. In the new for 2018/19 Yokomo Stock class Daniel Pöhlmann, driving an Awesomatix is the man to beat edging out Kevin Sparbier and Krystian Kopacki in CP1.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

October 26, 2018

Track Focus – Messe Wien

Track Name – Messe Wien
Club – Kroni RC
Country – Austria
Location – Vienna
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Carpet
No. of ETS Races hosted – 1

The 12th season of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series kicks off this weekend in Vienna, Austria as part of the ‘Modellbau 2018’ hobby exhibition at Messe Wien in the heart of the city. Hosting the opening round for the first time last season, this popular venue sees the track situated amongst many other exhibitors including slot cars, train, planes, drift cars, crawlers and much more. Expected to attract some 50,000 visitors over this holiday weekend, the track has this year been prepared well ahead of the event with the build starting last Friday with the Kroni RC crew from Wiener Neudorf, led by Andrea and Rene Kronsteiner. Due to the surface of the hall, which has cabling channels running at intervals along its entire surface, the floor had to have wooden plates laid to give a flat surface upon which the ETS Carpet would be placed. Similar to last year the race track covers an area of 34 metres long by 20 metres wide, with the pitting area off to one side.

Since taking his 3rd consecutive ETS title last season, Bruno Coelho has also won his first World title in South Africa, when asked his impressions of the track the Portuguese ace said ‘its ok, maybe too narrow’. He continued ‘Normally the track is wider, but it looks good and has a good flow’ but also felt that it may be very difficult to pass on. Last year’s winner, Marc Rheinard echoed those sentiments, but added ‘what track isn’t hard to pass on these days’. Also liking the track layout he described it as ‘technical with some long corners, so a good mix’ but did point out that the centre chute away from the drivers stand has a tricky curb that stands away from the corner and so you have to drive out wide to be sure you don’t hit it.

The new season of the ETS also sees a number of changes over last year. From a technical point of view, and one of the most talked about rule changes, is the minimum weight of the race ready bodyshell, which has been set at 90 grams. For race classes this year we see the addition of a new 17.5T touring class, using handout Muchmore motors and there will also be a 40+ ranking within the regular Formula class. Also new is the addition of bump ups for all classes, which will see all lower finals with 8 cars and so for leg 1 of the triple mains, the top 2 drivers from each final will progress up, with only 1 bumping up from the B-main to make an 11 car A-main. This will set the grids for the remaining 2 legs of mains.

Image Gallery

July 15, 2018

Video – Modified A-main Leg 3

July 15, 2018

Video – Pro Stock A-main Leg 3

July 15, 2018

Video – Formula A-main Leg 3

July 15, 2018

Video – Masters 40+ A-main Leg 3

July 15, 2018

Hagberg & Orlowski complete podium at ETS season finale

Alexander Hagberg and Michal Orlowski completed the podium at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series season finale this afternoon in Slovakia. While Bruno Coelho wrapped up the overall win in A2, the ETS Champion opted to run the third A-Main at Hudy Arena after not being 100% happy with his car in A1 & 2 and again he lead home another stagnated Top 3. Winning by his biggest margin of the three encounters, Coelho would finish 1.8-seconds up on Hagberg with the result securing Xray another 1-2 finish at their home track. For Hagberg, today’s 2nd place would also help him to move ahead of Yokomo’s Ronald Volker in the final end of season standings to finish 3rd overall behind Marc Rheinard, the Infinity driver having another difficult weekend. Finishing A3 over 2-seconds back on Hagberg, Orlowski would cap off an impressive weekend by securing his first ever ETS podium. Having started his career in the ETS but moved over and becoming a star and champion of the Euro Offroad Series, today’s result should see the Schumacher driver return to his roots and become a contender for the title of both disciplines next season.

Unusual for Coelho to wrap up the win in A2 and then run A3, today’s win his fourth of the season, Coelho ran it on this occasion having had slight issues with traction in the early part the opening to A-Mains. He explained, ‘we couldn’t throw away the opportunity to check the car in race conditions’. Running a number of warm-up laps and even doing a practice start, he said, ‘everything felt good this time. After A1 we adjusted out additive strategy but it still wasn’t perfect so we made a set-up change for this one and it worked’. Originally putting his loose car in A1 down to having made contact with the barrier in the final qualifier and damaged something, he said, ‘I think the weather was the main problem. We had a lot of sun today and it was sunny too for A1 yesterday but it was cooler the days before’.

With the winners of Pro Stock and 40+ also decided after A2, the big attention of A3 was on Formula. With a clash between Top Qualifier Olivier Bultynck and Jan Ratheisky in A1 handing Simon Lauter the win, Bultynck would get the job done in A2. This put the Shepherd driver up against the Tamiya driver and Ratheisky’s Xray for the overall win going into A3 but once again they would make contact. With Ratheisky getting passed Bultynck on the first lap, they would make contact with the Belgian forced to wait and give back the position but more contact was to follow and it was Lauter who was the benefactor. Winning the Main from Bultynck, Lauter claimed his first ETS win with Bultynck and season Champion Ratheisky each side of him on the podium. In Pro Stock, winner Alexander Duchet was joined on the podium by A3 winner & Xray team-mate Ratheisky with Tim Benson third. In 40+ new champion Thomas Oehler could sit out A3 allowing Beni Stutz to come through for the win but overall it was Italian Roberto Fabiano who finished 2nd with ETS Spain winner Christian Drießle completing the Round 6 podium to secure second overall in the championship.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.