Euro Touring Series

June 23, 2018

Chassis Focus – Lucas Urbain

Chassis – Awesomatix A800X
Motor – Muchmore Feta ZX V2 4.5
ESC – Muchmore Fleta Pro V2
Batteries – Silverback 6400 Siren HV
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Sanwa
Bodyshell – Protoform Type S Pro-Lite

Remarks – Having made the A-Main at ETS Andernach, Lucas is again enjoying a completive run on what is only his third ETS outing with Awesomatix. Posting a P4 run in the opening qualifier, he is running quite a few option parks on his A800X such as the dual bell crank steering, aluminium screws in the top deck and bulkheads with the drive shafts also optional upgrades. The most unusual thing about the car is the lack of sway bars which is the result of a suggestion from the cars designer Oleg Babich. Taking out the sway bars he suggested compensating with harder springs and having tried it Lucas said he like it and now some of the other team drivers are following the idea.

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June 23, 2018

Coelho takes Q1 at ETS Netherlands

Bruno Coelho has taken the opening round of qualifying at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Apeldoorn this morning. With qualifying originally scheduled for yesterday evening until light rain put a stop to the action at the Dutch track, the morning timing of Q1 didn’t slow the Xray driver in any way with him continuing to have a distinct advantage over his rivals. As in seeding yesterday it was Ronald Volker who would be the closest to Coelho, albeit the Yokomo driver being 4 & a half second slower over the 5-minutes. With things much closer between the rest of the field, Yannic Prumper would opening Round 5 of the championship with a P3 run just ahead of Lucas Urbain, Jilles Groskamp and Jan Ratheisky, them all covered by just half a second.

‘It was a very good qualifying. I felt good and the car is working very well’, was how Coelho summed up his TQ run. Looking strongly positioned to seal his third consecutive ETS championship title here on his first visit to Apeldoorn, he continued, ‘I could see Volker was not catching me in the beginning so I did not drive so aggressive. That is it really’.

Commenting on his first qualifying attempt, Volker said, ‘The car was easy to drive and I was able to make a clean run without mistakes but it cost me too much in understeer to have a single chance to fight with Bruno so I am satisfied to finish second ahead of Yannic’. The World Champion concluded, ‘we will make 2 or 3 changes for Q2’.

Prumper said, ‘my run was pretty good, I just had two slides in the middle of the run. Without these I could have got 2nd but 3rd is OK’. Asked what caused the slides, the Yokomo driver replied, ‘I don’t know where they came from but maybe I was over pushing or the tyres got hot, anyway I am still pretty happy with the run’.

‘It was exactly like I said yesterday. Bruno is in a different game but for the rest it is anyones game’, was Urbain’s reaction to Q1. The Awesomatix driver continued, ‘I missed a few times my lines and I lost out to Yannic and Ronald but I could have also ended up 9th given how close it is so I’ll take it (P4). The car is really good and it is forgiving if I get on the curbs so I making no changes’.

Former Apeldoorn winner Groskamp said, ‘It was a good run just Bruno is too fast’. The Infinity driver continued, ‘I was in third and it was very close but I had a few rough laps and lost 3rd to 5th. We waited so long to get the run done with the rain and now we have more dark skies so I am happy with it. I’m happy with my pace which is close to second. Its far from Bruno but that’s Bruno’. The former World Champion added, ‘I think I have to drive harder and take more risk. I went too easy at the beginning to save the tyres but it was so cold it didn’t effect the tyres’. He concluded, ‘I will keep everything the same and just hope there is no rain’.

Seeding in the second fastest heat, along with two of this season’s race winners Marc Rheinard and Alexander Hagberg, Ratheisky was delighted with his P5 performance. A busy driver, racing all three classes this weekend, the Xray driver put his improvement down to having more power. A fan of the track, the German said, ‘I surprised myself. I adjusted the power setting and it worked very well. I think I don’t touch the car just put on new tyres’. Opting to sit out Q1 of Pro Stock last night to save tyres, the first round of Formula saw the former champion get pushed onto the grass but he still managed 2nd behind Simon Lauter and ahead of Olivier Bultynck.

Managing to complete their opening qualifier last night, in the Xray Pro Stock class it was top seed Max Machler who took the TQ ahead of Awesomatix team-mate Olivier Bultynck. Former Champion Martin Hofer would take his Yokomo to P3. In the Infinity 40+ Masters class, which ran this morning, Infinity driver Beni Stutz TQd the first round ahead of ETS Spain winner Christian Drießle. Oliver Kaufmann completed the Top 3 ahead of championship leader Thomas Oehler.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

June 23, 2018

Video – Modified Qualifying Rd1

June 22, 2018

Coelho top seed on Apeldoorn debut

Bruno Coelho is the top seed for the fifth round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. The Xray driver’s debut at the track, he backed up his CP1 pace by knocking 6/10ths of a second off his fastest 3-consecutive laps. While the Top 13 drivers would all improve on the times from the first controlled practice, Coelho extended his advantage with Yokomo’s Ronald Volker again his closest rival only this time the advantage increased from 4/100ths to 2/10ths of a second. Behind them, Jilles Groskamp made a similar sized improvement in pace to Coelho to put his Infinity 3rd on the final seeding time sheets with Viktor Wilck improving one position to end practice 4th. Making it five different manufacturers at the front, Freddy Sudhoff found the pace that escaped him in CP1 to post the 5th fastest time ahead of Awesomatix team-mate Lucas Urbain. With Coelho looking good at the top of the times, the only remaining title challengers Marc Rheinard and Alexander Hagberg are going to have to qualify from the second fastest heat with Hagberg ending up 12th fastest three places ahead of Rheinard.

With Coelho the benchmark both over 3-laps and over the 4-minute duration of the practice runs, Volker said, ‘It was quicker over 3-laps that time but I am not that happy with the pace over 4-minutes.’ Heading back to his hotel for food before the first qualifier which takes place around 21:30 tonight following the morning rain writing off any running before lunch, he concluded, ‘I need to make a change for this so I have a better feeling for Q1’.

Winner on the ETS’ first visit to the Apeldoorn track in 2009, Groskamp said, ‘I changed the rear diff to softer and I had more rear traction so I could then drive the car how I wanted. It has good balance and its still fast’. The former World Champion continued, ‘I was surprised to get the 3-laps but the pace is also good for 5-minutes. I didn’t have practice here before the race like the others so after just 6 rounds of practice I’m happy’. He added, ‘I’m sure Bruno will be fast over 5-minutes but Ronald struggled with the rear (of his car). Anyway it is going to be very close qualifying’.

Wilck summed up CP2 with, ‘I still have the same issue. Fast at the beginning and then lose too much in the end’. Having changed the diff to try improve his Serpent, he said for Q1 he will try ‘a different shock set-up’, adding, ‘maybe it will be more loose at the start but hopefully it will be better to the end. The speed is there I just need more consistency over the run’.

Moving up as the lead Awesomatix with Loic Jasmin having been their fastest driver in CP1, Sudhoff said, ‘for some reason in the first controlled practice I lost pace. In free practice I was always in the Top 5’. The German continued, ‘I rebuilt the car for CP2 and it was back on pace’. Describing his car as having been ‘fast from the first battery’, asked if he found anything wrong with the car during the rebuild he replied ‘no’. Planning to run an unchanged car for Q1, he will ‘go for a clean 5-minute run’.

Urbain described his car as ‘one of the best cars I have driven around this track’. Only his third ETS outing for the Russian manufacturer, he said, ‘the car was good before but I didn’t show in the seeding times. Bruno is a little faster but I think after that it is anyone’s game. 3-laps today is not representative of everyones true pace. For me 5-minutes is what the car is best at. At the TOS (Tonisport Onroad Series) race here 2-weeks ago this was the issue but now the first 2-minute are ok and the last 3-minutes are really good. The track suits our car as our cars are also showing in Pro Stock’.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

June 22, 2018

Chassis Focus – Eric Dankel

Chassis – Mugen MTC1
Motor – Muchmore Fleta ZX V2 4.5
ESC – Muchmore Fleta V2
Batteries – Muchmore Impact 6400
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Highest
Bodyshell – Protoform Type S

Remarks – With its release announced earlier in the week, Eric is running the limited edition Team Edition version of Mugen’s MTC1. An exclusive kit offering from Mugen Seiki Europe, the car features a range of optional parts including the optional floating battery mount, lightweight front upper arm turnbuckles, lightweight wheel axles or as Eric put ‘all the titanium stuff’. In terms of set-up, he said the set-up is pretty much as he would use at his home track adding ‘because there is not so high bite here you don’t need to do strange stuff to stop it flipping’.

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June 22, 2018

Coelho tops CP1 at ETS Netherlands

After a rain delayed started to the day, it was Bruno Coelho who would top the first round of controlled practice on the Yokomo Euro Touring Series return to Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. The reigning champion’s first time to the track, with rain also hampering yesterday free practice, the Xray driver put in the fastest 3-consecutive laps ahead of free practice pace setter Ronald Volker with a time of 43.641 compared to Volker’s 43.682. Backing up Yokomo’s strong performance in free practice, Yannic Prumper would record the third fastest time ahead of the Infinity of Akio Sobue and Serpent of Viktor Wilck with Loic Jasmin’s Awesomatix completing the Top 6. As the only two remaining challengers to preventing Coelho from making it a hat trick of ETS titles, Marc Rheinard and Alexander Hagberg could only manage 9th and 11th in CP1 and will be hoping for better in CP2 in order to make the top heat for qualifying.

Summing up practice as going ‘very good’, Coelho added, ‘because we were never here before we had to change a lot to find a set-up. It was hard work but we got there’. The Portuguese ace was cautious about the weather conditions saying, ‘I hope the track doesn’t change too much between rounds with the wind and the rain but the but the car is working well so we will see’. Asked about plans to test anything in CP2, he replied, ‘we are on the point with the set-up but we always want more so we will use the track time try more things on the car’.

Commenting on his practice, Volker said, ‘it was fine but for CP1 I tried a different diff set-up. The balance was better but I had too much understeer so I will go back to the previous set-up’. Chasing his first win of Season #11, the German continued, ‘otherwise it is going well. I am there in contention along with my team-mates’.

Prumper was pleased with his practice form after making a ‘big change’ to his car in free practice. Describing the track as ‘one of the best in Europe’, the German said, ‘I copied Nicholas’ (Lee) set-up and it was a big improvement. After 5 or 6 laps the droop was too much but that is gone now after the change and my 5-minute pace is strong’.

‘The car is good now but before it was difficult’, was how Sobue summed up his CP1. The Japanese driver said he had struggled with his car getting loose but after both front and rear droop adjustments for the first of the two timed practices the car now has a ‘front to rear better balance’. Having raced here once previously as part of the Tamiya team, he admitted to finding the track ‘difficult’ highlighting the end of the straight has been causing him issues with him missing his lines either turning in too early and then too late the next time round. Team-mate Rheinard put his off pace time down to the fact he ‘did get the first three laps’. A three time ETS winner at Apeldoorn, he said ‘at the end the car is ok so I think the diff is too hard and that is why it is not good in the beginning. I will go softer (with the diff) for the next one’.

A former podium finisher at the track, Wilck said, ‘the feeling is OK for 4 or 5 laps but then the drop off is too much so I need to find something for this’. The Serpent driver added, ‘I might change the active toe-in or the diff. I’m not sure’. On a walk through the main pit area he said, ‘I am going to try to spy a bit’.

While Jasmin was happy with his 3-laps, the French driver was open that it wasn’t a true reflection of his pace. He said, ‘the first minute was good but then there is a drop off and the car starts getting loose. I need to find something to get more consistency’. A fan of the track and in particular the new finer asphalt since the last ETS visit, he said, ‘One idea I will probably try for my next run is to go with a softer diff’. Behind Jasmin, former winner of the race Jilles Groskamp posted the 7th quickest time ahead of Christopher Krapp, Jan Ratheisky and Lucas Urbain.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

June 22, 2018

Chassis Focus – Dominic Vogl

Chassis – Infinity IF14
Motor – Muchmore (handout)
ESC – Muchmore (handout)
Batteries – Muchmore 8200
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Savox
Bodyshell –Protoform Type S

Remarks – Infinity’s main charge in the Pro Stock category, Dominic is running their IF14 which he has upgraded with some common choice optionals. The kit standard plastic steering bell crank has been swapped out for the optional aluminium unit, the belts have been changed to low friction versions and the steel front outdrives have been replaced with the aluminium equivalent. In terms of car set-up, the Austrian said the car is the same as he ran it to 5th place at the last ETS on the tight technical Andernach, the only change being he is running a little less toe in.

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June 22, 2018

Track Focus – Apeldoorn

Name – AMCA Apeldoorn
Club – Auto Modelbouw Club Apeldoorn
Country – Netherlands
Location – Apeldoorn (90Km east of Amsterdam)
Surface – Asphalt
Direction – Anti-clockwise
No. of ETS Races hosted – 4 (2009, 2011-13)

After a four year break the Euro Touring Series is back at the wonderful Apeldoorn track in the Netherlands. First joining the championship in 2009 during Season #2 when the Dutch round alternated between it and the Heemstede track, after hosting the ETS for its second time in 2011 it then went on to host the race for the following two years. With the Netherlands no longer a stop on the calendar in 2014, changes within the host club AMCA (Auto Modelbouw Club Apeldoorn) made it possible in 2018 to return to the track that has always proven very popular with racers – this reflected in the 250 entries received for its return. Situated next to a BMX track, while the track appears the same to look at it did undergo a resurfacing a year after the championship’s last visit. Using a finer asphalt, the drying qualities of the super smooth surface are impressive as experienced this morning. With rain all morning meaning no track action, once it did stop just before lunch the track almost magically dried out allowing practice to start a lot earlier than anticipated. A club of well over 100 members, while tents are having to be used to accommodate pit spaces for the large entry this weekend, they have future plans to add additional roofed pitting area. The clubhouse recently had a roof added to the front to provide sheltered outside seating as part of the club’s ongoing facility improvements.

Winner on 3 of the previous four occasions, Marc Rheinard described the track as having a ‘good flow’ adding, ‘I like more technical tracks but for one of the big track this is one of the best’. Making his first visit to Apeldoorn, Bruno Coelho called it ‘very interesting’. Like Rheinard, the reigning champion said, ‘It has a very good flow and the car looks really good going around. I really like it’. While rain has limited his running, he is impressed at how quickly it dries saying, ‘the weather isn’t cooperating but it dries amazing and the traction comes up too’.

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