A video from the 3rd and final Modified A-main that saw Marc Rheinard gifted the win following the battery dump of Jilles Groskamp and Viktor Wilck in the closing stages. The end of the video also includes an interview by Scotty Ernst with Modified event winner Groskamp.
With the Modified honours already tied up after the first two legs by pre-event favourite Jilles Groskamp one might have expected the third leg of the A Mains to be a simple formality that would bring the event to a close, but that was not to be the case. Viktor Wilck made a blistering start from 3rd position on the grid chased down by Tamiya team-mates Groskamp and Marc Rheinard. The trio were locked in battle right until the last lap when Groskamp dumped allowing Rheinard into second, then dramatically coming up to the last corner Wilck also dumped allowing the former World Champion to just pip the Swede to the line by 9/100th of second while Groskamp crawled across the line just ahead of Luke Van Essen to take third. This result gave the Tamiya Race Factory team their second consecutive ETS podium lock out.
With Round 3 of the Euro Touring Series complete its currently Jilles Groskamp that leads the Modified standings from Germany’s Marc Rheinard and Denmark’s Steen Graversen while in Pro Stock Nicolai Nielsen from Denmark heads Dutch pairing Jan Van Steeg and Jan Mekenkamp. Another successful ETS meeting the seres now moves to the Andernach track in German where both Euro Touring Series Champions will be declared.
A video from the 3rd and final Pro-Stock A-main which saw Jimmy Maddison take the win, while George Spitteler took the overall.
The Pro Stock A Main couldn’t have come to a more exciting climax with Jimmy Maddison taking the Leg 3 victory from George Spitteler but it was the latter that secured the overall win on tie break. The race kicked off with Chris Van der Hagen leading from TQ man Vasco Christiaanse but the pair touched allowing Maddison and Spitteler to take up the battle for the race win. Spitteler pushed the DHI and ICC Champion hard but made an error in the final quarter of the race luckily landing rubber side up but this was enough to allow Maddison to cruise to the win but this may also have been the undoing of the Schumacher driver. Taking the win Maddison and Spittelers both had the same results to count towards the final standings which meant EFRA’s ruling was called into play. This states that the time from the drivers best result is counted with the driver with the faster time getting the win. With Spitteler doing a 5:16.00 run and Maddison a 5:17.31 it was local racer Spitteler who was declared overall winner of the Much More backed event.
A video from the 2nd Modified A-main that saw Jilles Groskamp wrap up the overall event win.
The second leg of the Modified A-main has ended and it was Tamiya International driver, and leg 1 winner, Jilles Groskamp that took victory and with it overall honours for Round 3 of the Much More backed Euro Touring Series. Shadowed for the entire 5 minute race by a very much on form and man of the moment Hugo Van Den Berg, the two Dutch drivers were never more than a second apart and over the opening laps the Xray driver looked set to make a move on the leading Tamiya TRF416 but never fully committed. At one stage the top four qualifiers were in a high speed train but in the midfield Viktor Wilck and Serpent’s Bart Wubben clashed leaving the leading pair to break clear. Continuing their fight right to the flag Groskamp looked very relieved coming down from the rostrum showing that Vd Berg really had the pre-event favourite under pressure. Groskamp wants to do the hat trick but Vd Berg also wants to put his name on the international map and is as equally determined to win Leg 3.
There was a thrilling Leg 2 A Main in Pro Stock with George Spitteler eventually taking the win from Jimmy Maddison. At the start of the race pole sitter and Leg 1 winner Vasco Christiaanse saw his chances of tying up the overall dissapear when he rolled on the straight first time round. This left Nicolai Nielsen, Jimmy Maddison and Spitteler to have an intense battle for the win but three & a half minutes in Maddison touched Nielsen sending the leader onto the grass and allowing Joffrey Persijn and Chris Van Der Hagen through to fight out the lead. Further drama came on the penultimate lap when the leaders touched, Vd Hagen coming off worst with Maddison nipping through to take second, a result that leaves him and Spitteler tied on points at the top of the table, one point ahead of Christiaanse. All three will now battle it out for the overall ETS Round 3 victory which should make for a thrilling climax to the Dutch event.
The first leg of A Mains is just over and its our Top Qualifiers who have taken the opening victories at the 3rd round of the ETS but both were made to work hard for it.
In Modified, Groskamp lead all the way but was pushed hard by both Hugo Van der Berg and his very fast starting team-mate Marc Rheinard. Vd Berg was the real star of the race as the local Xray driver put Tamiya’s two international stars under pressure. A slight mistake at the Omega corner ended Vd Berg’s challenge for the lead but a great battle for the second spot ensued as he swapped paint with Rheinard which went on until the penultimate lap when Vd Berg tried an ambitious move on the former World Champion launching his car into the air and onto the grass. This allowed Bart Wubben’s Serpent through to take the final podium placing just in front of Swede Viktor Wilck.
Pro Stock saw a great early battle between Vasco Christiaanse and Chris Van Der Hagen but the latters race came to an end when his body caught up in the front wheel. Christiaanse said afterwards that himself and Vd Hagen are so evenly matched its going to be very close in the next two finals and in an attempt to get a slight edge he is gearing up his Shin edition Kyosho TF5 Stallion. Second in the Leg 1 A Main went to Joffrey Persijn while Jimmy Maddison took the final podium placing after a great recovery drive. On the opening lap going onto the back straight away, the Englishman caught the grass dropping back to last position almost half a lap in arrears of the leaders, but the Schumacher ace worked his way back through the field to take a well deserved third.
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