Ratheisky continues reign in Pro Stock & Formula
Having stamped his authority in qualifying on both Pro Stock and Formula yesterday, Jan Ratheisky continued his reign over both classes this morning by taking victory in both A1 encounters. The German took a very easy win in the Xray Pro Stock class after an early mistake from Tamiya driver Simon Lauter gave him the chance to break clear of the field. With Lauters’ mistake unsettling the field, the Awesomatix of 5th place starter Max Mächler would find its way into second. Yokomo’s Martin Hofer would work his way through the field from 8th on the grid to complete the Top 3 just ahead of reigning champion Alexandre Duchet who started last.
In the Scorpion Power System Formula encounter, Ratheisky didn’t have as easy a win with reigning champion David Ehrbar keeping him in his sights throughout. Making his first A-Main appearance British driver Luke Lee would complete the Top 3, the finishing order the same as they lined up at the start. Olivier Bultynck was the biggest mover getting 4th from 7th on the grid ahead of former champion Herbert Weber. In the new Infinity Masters Touring class, a Pro Stock rules based class for drivers 40 plus years old, Top Qualifier Thomas Oehler looked all set to take the win until a mistake on the penultimate lap which allowed Christian Drießle through for the win with the Top 3 completed by Miko Peter.
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Rheinard cruises to A1 win ahead of Coelho
Marc Rheinard cruised to an easy win in the opening A-Main at the ETS season opener in Vienna this morning, the Infinity driver leading home Bruno Coelho and Ronald Volker. Top Qualifier for the race, the German got a break on the opening laps as the pack bunched up behind a slow starting Viljami Kutvanen who then came under attack from Marco Kaufmann. While they battled, Rheinard further extended his lead while contact between Kutvanen and Kaufmann allowed fourth place starter Coelho to take up the chase but with the pair matching lap times Rheinard maintained the gap to win by 2.5 seconds. With the Kutvanen/Kaufmann incident forcing the following pack to take evasive action, Volker would tag the rear of Alexander Hagberg resulting in an exchange of words afterwards. Hagberg came off the worst his car jumping the boards and needing to be marshalled as Volker continued behind Kaufmann whom he would eventually get passed to salvage a 3rd from his P6 starting position.
Reacting to his win Rheinard said, ‘It was a perfect start. For me it was important to get a good first lap and try to get a gap. Viljami struggled so that gave me a good lead but then when Bruno moved into second I thought I might have a problem because he had good pace in Q4 but we were the same speed. One lap he would be a 1/10 quicker then the next lap I would be a 1/10 quicker so I could control the race to the finish’. Reverting back to the tyres he used in Q3 for the opening A-Main he said despite them now having done 4 runs he plans to stick with that set again for A2 adding, ‘I will just try and get the same start as before’.
After struggling in qualifying, Coelho summed up the first final by saying, ‘that was good’. The reigning champion continued, ‘ Marco and Viljami crashed together and I could overtake them both but because they had been battling at the beginning I lost too much time to Marc and knew once I was in second I couldn’t catch so I was just managing the race to the end’. On his T4 performance the Xray driver said, ‘today it is more balanced but it is slower than yesterday’. With challenging for the win always going to be difficult from 4th on the grid, the Portuguese driver believes it is going to be ‘almost impossible to catch Marc’.
Summing up his race Volker said, ‘the warm-up lap was terrible, I could not get rear grip but as the race went on it got better but I also adapted to the behaviour of the car having so much steering’. The Yokomo driver continued, ‘I put a lot of pressure on Marco and finally could make a pass. It seems then I was faster than the guys ahead of me but P3 was the maximum I could do’. Setting the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap, asked about the incident with Hagberg the World Champion said, ‘there was nothing I could have done different and after checking the video I am definitely not agreeing with Alex’s opinion. There was just a bunch up between Viljami, Marco and Bruno. Giving his view of the incident, Hagberg, who would finish 9th, said, ‘I tried to take care not not hit the drivers in front but he drove straight into me. I don’t know why he did but I came off worse than him and he continued’. Behind Volker, Kaufmann would hold off Kutvonen for fourth while Olly Jefferies completed the Top 6.
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Video – Modified A-main Leg 1
Video – Pro Stock A-main Leg 1
Video – Formula A-main Leg 1
A clean sweep for Rheinard as he TQs final qualifier
It was certainly Marc Rheinard’s day today in qualifying at the opening round of the ETS with the Infinity driver pulling off a clean sweep by topping all four qualifiers. Having wrapped up his first overall TQ in over a season in the penultimate round of qualifying, the German didn’t have the same outright pace as before but swapped the lead with Bruno Coelho until the reigning champion went flying off the track. In the end Rheinard would TQ by half a second from Alexander Hagberg with Viljami Kutvonen third quickest ahead of Akio Sobue. Having set the fastest lap Coelho would cross the line with the fifth fastest time, the Portuguese driver still not happy with his car. Changing set-up every round but with the car still loose in the rear he said the only conclusion they can come to is that the issue is tyre related adding that they had come across the issue previously during testing at the Hudy Arena. In terms of the grid Coelho starts fourth behind Marco Kaufmann who finds himself the surprised best Xray qualifier. The only driver to beat Coelho last season, Ronald Volker starts P6 behind Hagberg with the A-Main grid in Vienna completed by Christopher Krapp, Akio Sobue, Olly Jefferies and Yannic Prümper.
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Ratheisky opens ETS season with Pro Stock & Formula TQs
Jan Ratheisky is the Top Qualifier for both Pro Stock and Formula at the opening round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Austria. The former champion of both classes and only driver to win two classes on the same weekend of an ETS, the Xray driver secured his pole position double in the third of the four rounds of qualifying. Having taken the opening two qualifiers, the German continued his form into the second half of the day with a third TQ run in the penultimate qualifier to secure his first pole position in 8 races. The last time he took an overall TQ was on the same weekend he wrapped up the Season #9 Formula championship title. In Pro Stock it will be Simon Lauter who will be Ratheisky’s main challenger off the start line with the Tamiya driver taking the final qualifier from the second fastest heat to jump ahead of Mustafa Alp who will line up third. Former DHI Cup Pro Stock champion Tim Benson ended qualifying fourth for Serpent with Awesomatix pairing Max Mächler and Olivier Bultynck completing the Top 6. For reigning champion Alexandre Duchet, who had a fairytale ETS debut at the season opener last year, it has been a tough qualifying with the Frenchman just making the A-Main cut, qualifying his Xray 10th.
In the Scorpion Power System Formula class, Ratheisky made it a clean sweep of qualifying taking all four rounds. Defending champion David Ehrbar was to be the closest challenger finishing P2 in three of the runs and the Serpent driver will be hoping he can do something about his rivals domination in tomorrow’s finals. British driver Luke Lee secured himself third on the grid with his Xray ahead of Infinity team driver Jitse Miedema and Matej Dobnikar. A Season #10 title contender Team Shepherd’s Olivier Bultynck will start 7th on the grid before the season finale winner Benson.
In the new Infinity Masters Touring class, TQ runs in Q3 & 4 will see Thomas Oehler as the first ever Top Qualifier with Q2 pace setter Christian Drießle lining up second. Having taken the opening qualifier Hungarian driver Miko Peter will start third ahead of Austria’s Christian Stöckl.
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