Euro Touring Series

February 2, 2018

Mächler TQ’s opening Pro Stock qualifier at ETS Daun

Max Mächler took a close opening Xray Pro Stock class qualifier at the Euro Touring Series second round in Daun, Germany. The Awesomatix driver went up against Xray pairing Mustafa Alp and Jan Ratheisky, all three taking turns at setting the TQ pace. Securing his first ETS win last season in Italy, Mächler would recover from an early mistake stop the clock with a 2/10ths of a second advantage over top seed Alp helped by the fact reigning champion & fastest man on the track Ratheisky also suffered an costly mistake on his 4th lap.

In the Scorpion Power System Formula class it was reigning champion David Ehrbar who would take the opening TQ. Third fastest in practice, the Serpent driver took Q1 by over 2-seconds from top seed Ben Cosgrove with Olivier Bultynck completing the Top 3. Having dominated the season opener, taking the win ahead of Ehrbar, Ratheisky isn’t having as good a start to his home round with him only 8th fastest in seeding and not improving much in the qualifier ending up 6th. With the entry for the new Infinity 40+ class more than double what it was in Vienna, Ozer Yürüm took the first of the four qualifiers ahead of Michael Spiering with Round 1 winner Miko Peter fourth quickest.

View complete event results here.

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February 2, 2018

Coelho takes opening qualifier

Despite getting quite out of shape on his third lap, Bruno Coelho has taken the opening round of qualifying at Round 2 of the Euro Touring Series in Germany. The Xray driver would recover to be the only one to make 19-laps, topping the times from top seed Ronald Volker who would have to open up to let his rival through. Behind, Alexander Hagberg would put in a strong second half to the 5-minute qualifier to complete the Top 3 ahead of Marc Rheinard. Making it a good start to the weekend in Daun for Xray, Marc Kaufmann took his example to the fifth fastest time ahead of a quick, but making too many mistakes, Yannic Prümper.

Summing up his TQ run, Coelho said, ‘I was lucky to stay in the race. I lost the rear at the end of the straight and touched the board. Luckily it was only a little touch so I could keep going. The car then got better and better and I forced a lot to catch Volker.’ The reigning champion explained, ‘the car is really good for 5-minutes but only in the beginning is not so good the first 4 or 5 laps its a little difficult but then its really good. We will play with the additive for tomorrow to get it better for the start of the run. The car is really good so we don’t need to change that’.

Leading away the opening heat, Volker said, ‘It started off good but then the car started to develop understeer more and more and I was not able to stay on top. I will make a set-up change to get more steering for Q2. I want the car a little more difficult to drive’. With many drivers suffering errors, the Yokomo driver said he had a clean run but added, ‘I had to open for Bruno and that lost me some time’.

Hagberg described his qualifier as ‘pretty good’. The Swede said, ‘It was a good clean run but the car took some time to come in but by the end it was very good’. Confident the car is up to the job, he will focus on tyres for tomorrow’s second qualifier saying ‘we need to work on the additive timing and then I think we will have a good car for all the 5-minutes’.

‘Not too good’ was how Rheinard summed up his P4. The Infinity driver continued, ‘like I said before I have no steering and no corner speed. It didn’t help that I also had 1 or 2 mistakes and lost a second but the main problem is the car is still too slow’. Asked what changes he might make to improve the car for Q2, he said, ‘maybe I will try a harder diff and also maybe a body mount more forward’.

‘My goal is to make the A-Main and this is good first step to that’, said a very happy Kaufmann on setting the fifth fastest time. Enjoying his best ever ETS qualifying at the season opener when he lined up 3rd for the Austrian round, the German said his car had ‘a bit of understeer’ but felt that was to his advantage. ‘I think maybe this was better because this is super difficult track and my car was easy to drive so I had no mistakes’.

Prumper said, ‘my car was quite good but I had too many mistakes’. He continued, ‘On the second lap I hit the barrier at the end of the straight and over the run lost about 6-seconds in mistakes. I think without this I would have been similar pace to Bruno’. He concluded, ‘the car is super good over 5-minutes, I just need to make no mistakes tomorrow’. Behind Prumper, Serpent’s Viktor Wilck topped the second fastest heat to get a P7 for the round.

View complete event results here.

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February 2, 2018

Video – Modified Qualifying Rd1

February 2, 2018

Volker top seed at ETS Daun

Ronald Volker is the top seed for qualifying at the Euro Touring Series in Daun, Germany, the Yokomo driver pipping early pace setter Bruno Coelho in the second of the two timed practices. Only sixth fastest in the first timed round, almost 6/10th off Coelho on two laps of the unique track layout, Volker would surprise even himself with his improvement turning things around to a 3/10th advantage over the reigning champion. With the track over a second faster over 2-laps, Yannick Prumper maintained his Top 3 pace, outpacing Marc Rheinard who was second quickest in the the first one. Behind Rheinard, Christopher Krapp would post the fastest time with Rheinard’s Infinity team-mate Akio Sobue completing the Top 6.

‘Actually I’m a little surprised at how much the car improved from the first one’, said Volker. The 5-time ETS Champion added, ‘I knew the car would be better but not by this much’. Changing to a harder diff and benefiting from tyres being on their second run he said, this ‘improved the balance and the grip a lot’. He continued, ‘I was only 6th or 7th in the previous practice but now I am pretty confident for the qualifiers. I will keep it the same for Q1. It was a good team effort with 1st, 3rd and 5th and Naoki (Akiyama) has better speed than 11th’.

Despite dropping off the top spot, Coelho declared his second run as ‘very good’. The Xray driver said, ‘on 5-minutes the car is very good so it is looking good. I’m confident for qualifying’. Asked about track conditions, he replied, ‘there was more grip mainly from the tyres but I think the track improved a little too but I feel it is getting more and more bumpy at the end of the straight and on the section you drive away from yourself. It’s difficult’. Running a new prototype motor from Hobbywing in his T4 and working on speedo set-ups to suit, he said they opted for the same speedo set-up as the previous run with him ‘happy’ with the feeling of the motor on the challenging track layout.

‘My car was too easy to drive’ was Prumper’s reaction after the final practice. The Yokomo driver continued, ‘It is good for 5-minute but I could push everywhere with no risk of crashing which is not great for a hero lap’. Planning to air on the side of safety for Q1, the multiple ETS race winner will make just a small change for qualifying to make the car slightly more aggressive. With his BD8 ‘still overweight’ he will remove weight from the car which by his own admission wont be a big change but should be a slight improvement.

Rheinard said the change in traction didn’t particularly suit his car. Describing his car as ‘starting to push too much’ and having also ‘lost some of its corner speed’. The German said, ‘between the first and the second run on the tyres their is a big difference in traction’. Putting most of the extra traction down to tyre, he added , ‘I think the track was much the same as before’. Looking to the first of the four qualifiers, Q1 taking place this evening, he said, ‘I will keep the car the same for Q1 and go for a good Top 10 result’.

‘Surprisingly high traction’ was Krapp’s summary of the final practice. The Yokomo driver continued, ‘It was not really better for me, the car pushed a lot. I didn’t want touch the set-up of the car but now I need to find more steering’. He concluded, ‘every run I feel I am better learning the track so I think everything should be good for qualifying’.

View the event image gallery here.

February 2, 2018

Coelho fastest from Rheinard in first timed practice at ETS

Bruno Coelho was fastest in the first of the two timed practice at Round 2 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Daun, Germany, this morning. The Xray driver topped the times from Round 1 winner Marc Rheinard having a 2/10ths of a second advantage over his arch rival. Behind, Yannic Prumper laid down his intentions early to complete the Top 3 on the uniquely shaped track with the margin a similar 2/10ths. Such is the size of the high speed layout at the holiday resort venue, seeding this weekend is being based on a driver’s best 2-consecutive laps rather than the traditional 3.

On his second weekend in Daun, having competed at the EOS at the same venue last weekend, Coelho summed up his first seeding run as ‘very good’. Coming into the weekend 3-points off Rheinard in the standings, he said, ‘The car was a little difficult to drive in the free practice but we were able to improve it.’ Running a prototype of Hobbywing’s upcoming 5 turn motor release, the Portuguese driver added, ‘we are working on the best speedo setting to use for the motor but the 5-turn is very nice for carpet. We will make a few more speedo changes for the next one’. Asked how traction is coming up he replied, ‘the traction is still strange and the track is a little bumpy but the biggest challenge is the layout for sure. I’m still finding it hard. It very challenging’.

‘Not too bad’, was how Rheinard summed up his performance. The Infinity driver continued, ‘the feeling of the car is good. My lap times are ok and consistent and my 2-laps that counted were not perfect so I think we are looking pretty good’. Running ‘pretty much the same set-up as ETS Round 1’ he has no plans to change anything for now adding, ‘the layout is the challenge and the important thing is to drive with no mistake’. With the majority of drivers using the second of their allocated Volante handout tyres in the first timed practice, having used the first set in the single round of free practice, he said the final timed practice would be a good idea indication of the field’s pace on used tyres.

Prumper described his practice pace as ‘quite good’ but added, ‘I just need to improve my driving’. Returning to Yokomo for the 2018 season after a lean 2017 season with VBC, the German continued, ‘the pace is there. The car is quite good, its easy and relaxed to drive so I will just refresh everything for the next one’. Like his rivals he said while happy with his car it was the track that was the biggest challenge this weekend concluding, ‘to go fast you have to take big risks. Its challenging’.

Posting the fourth fastest time, Alexander Hagberg summed up timed practice as ‘a lot better’ due to the grip having come up. Calling the track, ‘very challenging’ he said ‘you must drive clean’. The Xray driver continued, ‘the car is on the pace, I need to drive it better’. Working off the same set-up as the previous ETS encounter, the Swede concluded, ‘we will fine tune from there’.

Fastest in the free practice and just 0.017 off Hagberg, Christopher Krapp said the timed practice went ‘pretty well’. The Yokomo driver added, ‘All our cars except maybe Ronald’s are working well on our pretty standard set-up’. A former race winner, he continued, ‘there is not much time to adjust to this layout so I had a few driver errors and I will try to improve this. You take a lot of risks each lap, its more high speed than what you usually race. You need to be calm which I am good at, and this is what will get you good runs’.

Ronald Volker would complete the Top 6. Working on his own car this weekend following engineer Yukijiro Umino’s departure from Yokomo, he said, ‘I was breaking in my second set of tyres like most others but I didn’t feel as comfortable as on the first set’. Planning a tyre change for his second timed practice, he will also try running a slightly harder diff. He concluded, ‘We should be fine later when the grip comes up because that’s how its been before’.

View the event image gallery here.

February 2, 2018

Track Focus – Daun

Venue – Sporthotel & Resort Grafenwald
Race Hosts – ETS
Country – Germany
Location – Daun (180km West of Frankfurt)
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Carpet
No. of ETS Races hosted – 0

Racing RC cars in the hills of the German countryside in February initially sounded liked a bit of a daft idea but the discovery of the Sporthotel & Resort Grafenwalds is the perfect venue for a weekend racing retreat. Last weekend the small town of Daun was invaded by Offroad racers from around the world when it hosted the Euro Offroad Series and this weekend its the turn of the best touring car drivers in the world to go to battle at the holiday resort, the ETS drivers getting the bonus of waking up to a snowy day outside. With drivers living in holiday homes at the resort, the track is located in the venue’s 2,600 square metre sports hall which thanks to the configuration of its tennis courts has allowed for the creation of a track that doesn’t fit the usual rectangle layout. Covering an area of 830 square metres, the layout has also meant a very long lap is possible so much so that rather than 3-consecutive laps normally used for seeding now drivers will count only their best two laps. Featuring a 38 metre long straight, the centre section of the track stretches to 30 metres wide with the layout best described as ‘fast’.

Winner of the season opener in Austria, Marc Rheinard, describes the track as feeling ok to drive but feels it would be much better if it was run in the opposite direction. Run clockwise, he said, ‘I think it would be better the other way around. It would be easier for everyone and there would be less crashes but its the same for everyone so we have the make the most of it’. Asked why he doesn’t like the direction choice he replied, ‘At the end of the straight is a long sweeper. If you hit it your going to brake an arm and then there is the risk of cars coming across the track there from the hairpin if the hit the dot. I think the racing would be better the other way too because you could get a run on someone out of the sweeper and then you have a hairpin at the end of the straight into which to try and out brake and pass someone. In terms of the main challenges of a lap of the track he said, ‘The far away right side is not so easy to see. The right side is a technical point because you come full power in to a chicane.’

‘The track looks very good, it’s very fast and its completely different to what we normal race on’, was how reigning Champion Bruno Coelho summed up the track layout. He added, ‘For me the direction makes no difference. To run clockwise or anti-clockwise would make no difference for me’. Like Rheinard he agreed the right side chicane is one key element of the layout. He said, ‘the chicane is very fast and difficult. You are on full power and if you touch anything you will destroy the car. Its a place to get a lot of time but its very risky’.

Calling the layout ‘unusual’, World Champion Ronald Volker welcomed it adding. ‘which is not a bad thing because its new and challenging. It’s not only big but its a different shape’. Sharing the feeling of his fellow countryman that it would ‘probably better to run the other way around’ he added, ‘anyway its the same for all’. Picking his most challenging areas he highlighted the centre section and the two straights there. He said, ‘you run quite close to the boards and it very high speed’. The Yokomo driver also picked out the furthest away corners as being ‘tricky and hard to judge’. He said they provide a chance to gain time by running tight to the board but the risk was high as their is no corner dot. Both myself and Marc hit the same corner in practice’.

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February 1, 2018

Rheinard aims to extend lead with home win at ETS Daun

Having celebrated his first calendar year as an Infinity driver by claiming the electric touring car newcomers’ first ETS victory at the season opener in Austria, Marc Rheinard will be looking to extend his lead in the championship on home soil this weekend (2-4 Feb) in Daun, Germany. A brand new venue on the calendar, the holiday resort having successfully played host to the second round of Euro Offroad Series last weekend, Rheinard will be aiming to make it back to back victories at his home race. Winning Round 1 ahead of reigning ETS Champion Bruno Coelho and Ronald Volker, the championship’s most winning driver ended a two year drought of wins and also taking the TQ in Vienna came away with maximum points. That is how he wants to leave Daun on Sunday evening. Rheinard will be joined at the race by Infinity team-mate Akio Sobue, the Japanese diver aiming for a better performance than his 8th last time out.

Qualifying only 4th in Vienna, low by his winning standards, Coelho made the most of the situation to salvage a second after never getting on terms with Rheinard’s pace. Having won 5 of the 6 races last season however, the Xray driver will be determined to get himself back at the top after the 3-month break. Taking a podium in 4WD at the EOS, the Portuguese driver has remained in Germany for the week travelling to the nearby Arena 33 in preparation for the switch back to touring car. Team-mate Alexander Hagberg also joined him in testing and just missing the podium at the first round the Swede has his own point to prove this weekend. Interestingly Xray could have a third challenger for the win this weekend in the form of Viljami Kutvonen. The Awesomatix driver qualified 2nd in Austria but struggled in the finals and just recently announced that for 2018 he has departed the Russian manufacturer. The Finn for now is running under the EuroRC banner opting to run an Xray chassis this weekend.

With the most ETS title’s to its credit, Yokomo has gone through significant changes since Round 1 with the most significant being the departure of engineer Yukijiro Umino. Volker’s personal mechanic, the duo had enjoyed huge success including five ETS titles and the ultimate prize – becoming World Champions. Volker successfully ran himself at the DHI Cup and took the win, albeit with a number of key team drivers absent from the Danish event. The German also faces new opposition from within the team from a returning Yannic Prumper. The multiple race winner ran as a privateer at Round 1 using an Infinity but has since signed for Yokomo. Showing good speed on his debut at the DHI Cup finishing on the podium, a rejuvenated Prumper would go on to the win GP3F in France ahead of Volker and Rheinard and will want to prove he is back this weekend in Daun.

In Pro Stock and Formula the season opener saw Jan Rathiesky back in business with the former multiple champion taking the win and TQ in both classes. Team-mate and reigning Champion of the Xray Pro Stock class, Alexander Duchet didn’t have the best of starts to his title defence just making it into the A-Main by qualifying 10th from where he worked his way through to fifth. The Frenchman will be aiming for a lot better this time round. In Formula, reigning champion David Ehrbar had to settle for second behind Rathiesky so he will want to reverse his 3-points deficit this weekend.

Introduced at the season opener, the Infinity 40+ Masters class was brilliantly received and that is highlighted by the fact over 60 drivers have signed up for the Pro-Stock based class in Daun. Miko Peter took the first win ahead of Top Qualifier Christian Drießle and both are in action again this weekend. The new class for drivers aged 40 or more has even attracted ETS organiser Uwe Rheinard to get back behind the controls for the weekend.

November 1, 2017

ETS Austria in numbers

Having risen to become one of the toughest, most competitive & prestigious championship’s in the World over the last decade, the Yokomo Euro Touring Series entered into its 11th season last weekend in Austria. A brand new destination on the ETS calendar, Round 1 would take place in Messe Wien located in the historic Prater district of Vienna right next to the oldest amusement park in the world. Invited to be part of Austria’s biggest modelling show by the organisers of Modellbau Messe, the racing would prove a huge hit with the record 63,000 showgoers with the track surrounded by large crowds throughout the 3 days of competition. A great showcase for the sport, the season opener attracted just shy of 250 race entries from 27 nations and collecting data from each of the drivers at technical inspection here is a breakdown of driver’s preferences in chassis manufacturers.

As the reigning champions in both Modified and Pro Stock, it was Xray who proved the most popular brand of choice. Overall the Slovakian manufacturer’s cars were raced by 1 out 3 of the total entry with its biggest share being in Formula with 36 percent of racers. Sharing the honour of being the second most popular car in the Scorpion Power Systems backed class, with 13 percentage each, was VBC Racing and reigning Formula champions Serpent. Introduced to the ETS program in Season #5, 10 different brands made up the Season #11 opening grid.

The biggest class of the ETS with a grid of 115 cars in Vienna, compared to 72 in Modified and 60 in Formula, the Xray sponsored Pro Stock class saw Awesomatix as the second biggest manufacturer with 19 cars compared to Xray’s 33. Overall it is Awesomatix who is also the second biggest brand when all touring car class numbers are combined. Interestingly despite having announced the end of their famous TRF race team after the season opener last year, Tamiya is the 3rd most popular chassis in Pro Stock just ahead of Schumacher.

Filling the void left by Tamiya in the premiere Modified class, Infinity have made solid gains as they undertake their first ETS campaign as a manufacturer with them the second most popular brand in Modified behind Xray. Taking their first win in Vienna, overall the Japanese newcomer shares 3rd position as the touring car of choice with Yokomo and Serpent – each having 17 users. Xray having a substantial market share of 84 drivers overall with Awesomatix having 26. The Modified class is the biggest in terms of the number of manufacturers represented in the ETS with new additions Mugen, Destiny and WRC bringing the number to 14 different brands.

After a great start to ETS #11, drivers now have an extended break before another new venue awaits them when Sporthotel & Resort Daun in Germany plays host to Round 2 on February 02-04.