Euro Touring Series

July 22, 2016

Chassis Focus – Max Machler

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Chassis – Awesomatix A800
Motor –Muchmore (handout)
ESC –Muchmore (handout)
Batteries – LRP 7500mAh Stock Spec
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Futaba
Bodyshell – Protoform Speed 6
Remarks – Awesomatix team manager Max Machler is running an updated version of the A800 that features a linear steering system which will soon be available as an option part. He is also using pre-production wider front & rear hubs that increase the Russian designed car’s track width.

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July 22, 2016

Coelho holds overnight TQ in Slovakia

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Euro Touring Series champion elect Bruno Coelho completed the perfect day at the season finale in Slovakia as he claimed another TQ run in the second round of qualifying leaving the Xray driver to hold the overnight TQ. Having TQ’d the opening qualifier from outgoing champion Ronald Volker, the second time of asking Coelho topped the times ahead of his only remaining title rival Marc Rheinard however the German’s hopes of sharing the ETS title with the Portuguese ace now looking like increasingly unlikely due to both having used two their sets of tyres while others have a new set still at their disposal for tomorrow’s remaining two qualifiers. Also on new tyres, Freddy Sudhoff would complete the Top 3 just ahead of Alexander Hagberg who was the quickest driver on second run tyres. On used tyres, Volker would suffer an ‘unnecessary roll’ which would leave him with a P16 for Q2 but some consolation for the German is that he still has a new set for tomorrow. After a strong P3 in Q1, Yannic Prumper was again on a good time leading the second fastest heat until he put his VBC on its roof opting to pull off once marshalled.

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‘Did what we needed to do, the car was perfect’, was how Coelho summed up Q2. Running new tyres on his T4, he said ‘the track was a little slower than expected’ but he was ‘still able to do faster lap times’. Bettering his Q1 pace and able to go 17-laps, 1.7-second clear of Rheinard he hopes the time will be enough should someone TQ Rounds 3 & 4 tomorrow. Having used both his sets of the Volante handout tyres, he said for tomorrow he must ‘just wait to see how the remaining qualifiers work out with the drivers who still have a new set’.

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Rheinard said after his unexplainably bad car in Q1 they got two cars ready for second qualifier. Having checked over his first car after it spun out in the first round, he said on the warm-up lap it did the exact same thing. Changing to his spare car, he said ‘at least it was drivable’ allowing him to put a P2 on the board after his earlier DNF. Not sure what the issue is with his ‘better car’, he will for Q3 copy across the set-up to the spare car but added as the cars feature different chassis plates he is not sure how it will work. Despite also being on new tyres, Rheinard’s best lap would be 2/10ths off that of Coelho. The fastest Tamiya in Q1, Christopher Krapp would complete the Top 10 in Round 2 choosing to save his second set of tyres for tomorrow.

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Still not feeling right, Sudhoff said while he had new tyres on his Awesomatix for Q2 he felt he had also managed to further improve his A800. Missing out on 17-laps, he said the changes while making it faster left the car ‘a little more edgy to drive’ adding ‘that its the only weak point now’. Planning to make some changes for the morning’s Q3, he said his ‘own energy should be higher after a good night’s sleep’. Faster of the two Awesomatix’ in the first round, Viljami Kutvonen would post a P8 time on used tyres.

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Best of the drivers on used rubber, Hagberg said his Xray ‘was very good but faded too much at the end’. Happy with his T4 on used tyres the Swede will use his second set of new tyres to ‘try to move up the grid’, him currently holding third overall in the qualifying standings. Hagberg’s team-mate Marek Cerny, the outgoing Pro Stock champion who has made the switch to the premier Modified class, backed up his Q1 Top 10 performance with another to post the ninth fastest time.

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Having struggled with his Xray in Q1, Team Infinity driver Jilles Groskamp posted a P5 time on partly used tyres. Commenting on the first qualifier, the ETS Luxembourg winner said, ‘I had zero traction and thought maybe I made a tyre prep error. I couldn’t believe the car was so bad’. Pulling off half way through after he rolled, the 2012 World Champion used the same set of tyres for Q2 only this time he changed both his tyre warmer settings and his prep. Having to open to allow Rheinard through, losing 2 to 3 tenths of a second which was enough for a Top 3 finish, the Dutch ace was still ‘super happy with 5th on old tyres’ adding the result put him ‘back in the game’ with it ‘nice to still have a new set of tyres for tomorrow’.

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A driver to gamble on pulling off at the start of Q1 to save tyres, Viktor Wilck would only get a P6 admitting himself he ‘expected more’. The Serpent driver said his Project 4-X was ‘at the beginning a little loose and at the end had way too much push’. Running a Top 3 pace he said the car’s drop off caused him to fall back to sixth adding ‘it was the same at the Euros, it loosing too much at the end (of the run)’. Asked what changes he could make for Q3 to cure his understeer, the Swede, ‘I’m not sure at the moment’.

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‘A shit load better than the first one’, was how former British National Champion Olly Jefferies described his run to P7 in Q2. The Xray driver said he ‘couldn’t get around the track in the first one’ adding ‘I think the rear right tyre was dead as it just kept swapping ends’. ‘Just switch(ing) to another set of tyres’, his T4 was ‘9-seconds faster’. Looking to tomorrow he said, ‘I think my car is good on used tyres’ but he will take a closer look at the other set of tyres to figure out the problem adding the hot conditions of Q1 would really show up a bad tyre.

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In the Xray Pro Stock class having impressed with a P3 in Q1, Marco Siegenthaler went two better to take his Xray to a TQ run. Behind the Swiss driver would be Noah Asendorf also driving an Xray with Yokomo’s Nico Catelani, last year’s Hudy Arena Top Qualifier, completing the Top 3. In the Serpent Formula class, already crowned back to back champion Jan Ratheisky reversed the order of Q1 to TQ ahead of David Ehrbar. Dutch Team Infinity driver Jitse Miedema would take third driving an Xray ahead of Roche driver Olivier Bultynck.

View the complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

July 22, 2016

Chassis Focus – Elliott Harper

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Chassis – Schumacher Mi-6
Motor –LRP X20 4.5T
ESC –LRP Flow
Batteries – LRP 5600mAh
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – Current British National Champion Elliott Harper is running the Schumacher Mi-6 equipped with titanium turnbuckles, Core-RC titanium screws and front double joints.

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July 22, 2016

Chassis Focus – Olivier Bultynck

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Chassis – Roche Rapide Formula
Motor – Hobbywing (handout)
ESC – Hobbywing (handout)
Batteries – LRP 4300mAh
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servo – Futaba / Evo
Bodyshell – Protoform PF15
Remarks – Racing for the Hong Kong based company Roche, Olivier Bultynck is here in Trencin running a Rapide Formula equipped with a number of prototype parts. Fitted with front and rear MonTech wings and an optional 2.25mm thick chassis plate, his car features new damper tube link positions as well as a new battery brace with a more forward positioned shock link which makes the shock longer. The front upper and lower arms are also 1mm shorter so as to make the front end 2mm narrower.

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July 22, 2016

Video – Modified Qualifying Rd1

July 22, 2016

Coelho takes opening qualifier at ETS Finale

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Bruno Coelho has taken the opening qualifier at the season finale of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Slovakia. With qualifying brought forward due to forecast rain that thankfully didn’t arrive in Trencin, Coelho was top seed for qualifying after setting the pace over yesterday’s 5 rounds of free practice and had no problems carrying that form through to qualifying. Initially followed by team-mate Alexander Hagberg until a small error, Coelho would top the time by almost a second from outgoing champion Ronald Volker. Only 18th fastest in practice which put him in the second fastest heat Yannic Prumper would put in a great Q1 performance to complete the Top 3 ahead of Viljami Kutvonen and Hagberg. Needing to TQ to stand a chance of sharing the ETS title with Coelho, Marc Rheinard would retire from the first of the four qualifiers after suffering a spin, the Tamiya team struggling with today’s extra hot track conditions.

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Chasing a third win of the season to cap off an ETS title winning campaign, Coelho described his Q1 performance as ‘a very good start’. The only multiple race winner this season, the Xray driver continued, ‘we ran the car the same as yesterday and it again worked very well even though the asphalt temperature was super high’. He added, ‘the traction was lower but it was the same for everyone’. Pleased that, ‘Alex had super good pace’ until his error, the Portuguese ace plans to run his Hobbywing powered T4 unchanged for the day’s second & concluding qualifier.

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‘Decent start to Q1’, was how Volker summed up his performance. Eliminated from the title chase in Luxembourg, the Yokomo driver was ‘happy to match the pace of Bruno & Alex’ but added his LRP powered BD7 started to develop ‘a little too much understeer over the 2nd half (of the qualifier)’. Looking to ‘try fix that for Q2′, the German said ,’I didn’t push too hard as I didn’t want to destroy the tyres’, drivers getting 2 sets for the four qualifiers, and he was ‘OK with P2’ as a result.

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Running a prototype VBC this weekend which feature different material arms, Prumper said the car was ‘for sure a big step forward on the previous car’. With Carven Chow making the trip to Slovakia to support the Hong Kong manufacturer’s star driver, a change from a 3 to a 2.5mm swaybar for Q1 would give the car ‘a lot more steering’ with Prumper adding while making it ‘a little loose’ he was still ‘in control’ of it. By far Prumper’s most promising showing since his switch from Yokomo to VBC, his time 8/10ths of a second off old team-mate Volker, the former ETS race winner plans to ‘keep everything the same’ for Q2.

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Kutvonen described his P4 as ‘pretty good’ before pausing and adding ‘actually better than expected’. The Awesomatix driver continued, ‘normally in hot weather we struggled but we have done a lot of work on this as a team and its getting better’. Making a dampening set-up change after practice he said this had made his A800 ‘better now’. Happy that both he and team-mate Freddy Sudhoff have ‘found the right direction’ in terms of set-up the Finn plans to continue his testing program with more changes for Q2. Suffering a body tuck on the opening lap, the Round 4 podium finisher said, ‘I need to fix that so it doesn’t happen again’.

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‘My car was really good but I made a mistake after the straight’, was how Hagberg summed up his P5 before adding ‘shit happens’. Describing the error as ‘very costly at this level’, the Swede said the plan for the next qualifier is to leave his T4 as is and cut out the mistake.

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Not feeling well within himself, Sudhoff said of his on track performance he ‘improved car a lot from yesterday (when his) pace was off a lot to Viljami’. Copying his team-mate’s set-up allowing him to post the sixth fastest time, the German said this improved the car but a contributing factor was that ‘I also found my rhythm’. For the his next outing he will ‘fine tune the set-up more to his driving (style)’.

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With Rheinard pulling off after his spin having completed just 4-laps, Christopher Krapp would be the top Tamiya in P7 with World Champion Naoto Matsukura 10th with his TRF419X. Having missed Luxembourg, Krapp said ‘I’m kind of happy with P7 but in terms of the car I’m not happy’. The former ETS race winner continued, ‘yesterday in practice our car was good but we had a problem in the hot conditions. Compared to the practice conditions today is like starting from zero’. With the car suffering, ‘understeer and oversteer’, the German said, ‘other cars handling it (hot conditions) better and we need to work on finding something’. Behind Krapp outing Pro Stock champion Marek Cerny was 8th fastest followed by the Schumacher of Elliot Harper. Elsewere Round 5 winner Jilles Groskamp would pull over after rolling his Xray onto the grass half way through the qualifier while Serpent’s Viktor Wilck immediately played the tyre game pulling over immediately after crossing the start line.

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In the Xray Pro Stock class, the top 3 times would come from the second fastest heat with Patrick Gassauer topping Q1. Behind the Team Magic driver, Xray’s Tom Krägefski was second fastest followed by Marco Siegenthaler. Fastest in the top heat, already crowned champion Jan Ratheisky would get P4 ahead of Olivier Bultynck. In the Serpent Formula class David Ehrbar set the pace followed by Ratheisky and Bultynck.

View the complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

July 22, 2016

Track Focus – Hudy Racing Arena

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Name – Hudy Racing Arena
Country – Slovakia
Location – Trencin (120km NE from capital city of Bratislava)
Host – Hudy/Xray
Surface – Asphalt
Direction – Anti-clockwise
No. of ETS Races hosted – 3
Previous Winners –Bruno Coelho (2015), Marc Rheinard (2014), Ronald Volker (2013)

For the fourth year in succession the Hudy Racing Arena in Slovakia plays host to the season finale of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series. Widely regarded as the world’s greatest RC facility, the Xray/Hudy owned track first opened its doors to international racing when it welcomed the ETS in 2013 with Ronald Volker taking the win to cap off the successful defence of his inaugural ETS Modified title. Located in the city of Trencin, most drivers flying to Vienna airport in Austria and making the 2-hour drive, the track was built in 2006 on the grounds of a former soccer stadium. The impressive 25,000 square metre facility also includes the factory of both Xray, Europe’s only true r/c car manufacturer, and tool & accessory manufacturer Hudy but it is the Arena which commands most of the facility. In addition to the facility, the Hudy’s have ensured services at the track are also top quality with an excellent local restaurant brought in for the weekend as well as a local barista to ensure great coffee for the over 300 racers who have travelled the world for the now traditional end of season event & celebrations, a party at the track on Saturday night always popular.

While the 320 metre outdoor asphalt track with its 75 metre long straight that covers a depth of 28 metres hasn’t changed in 12-months the view from the driver’s stand has. Set to add a fourth track, two indoor tracks already in place, a new structure has literally popped up across from the main straight. Completing the full set of track options, the building which is the same size as the existing indoor arena area will house two covered dirt offroad tracks. A covered as opposed to an indoor track, the new structure will have open sides in which completely separate 1:8 and 1:10 dirt tracks will be built. The current plan is to have the building completed before winter but the intention is the track will only be used during the late Spring to early Autumn months.

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July 21, 2016

New champion(s) to be crowned at ETS Finale

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Following five years of having the same champion in Ronald Volker, the Yokomo Euro Touring Series will crown a new champion or champions this weekend (22-24 July) at the Season #9 finale at the Hudy Arena in Slovakia. In a season that has produced 4 different winners in the Volante Modified class over the five rounds to-date, Volker’s quest for a sixth consecutive title came to an end last time out in Luxembourg when the Yokomo driver missed out on an essential podium finish. With championship returnee & former champion Jilles Groskamp taking the win it was the two that joined him on the podium that are left to battle for the title. Finishing 2nd behind Groskamp and ahead of Bruno Coelho, former champion Marc Rheinard needs a perfect weekend in order get back the title he last held in 2010 but even if he does he will have to share it. Third in Luxembourg, Coelho is so far the season’s only double winner and if Rheinard was able to equal that feat at what is the home track of the Xray driver it would mean that for the first time in ETS history there would be joint champions. One of the most competitive seasons with no single driver or manufacturer dominating, the reason the top prize may have to be shared is that both drivers counting rounds including the number of TQ’s are identical in all tie break scenarios.

A driver who burst onto the scene once last season’s ETS moved outdoors, Coelho has the advantage of the fact he will be champion no matter how Rheinard performs. However as this will be Xray’s first time to win the title in the premiere class, the Portuguese star will want the Slovakian manufacturer to enjoy the full title glory and not have to share it with 3 time champion manufacturer Tamiya. Having already given Xray its first Euro Offroad Series title this year when he took the 4WD crown, Coelho also has the benefit of home advantage although that didn’t prevent Volker from taking the Hudy Arena hosted European Championships title recently. Another feat Xray will like to have all to themselves is the fact that Coelho’s crown will make them the first manufacturer to hold all three ETS titles in one season with Jan Ratheisky having already got the job done in both the Xray Pro Stock and Serpent Formula classes.

A driver who normally excels when the odds are stacked against him, for Rheinard the weekend needs to go his way from the start as the bonus championship point for the TQ is essential to the ETS’ most winning driver’s chances of what would surprisingly be only his second ETS title.

Outside of the title chase, Volker is not travelling to Slovakia to make up the numbers and clearly frustrated by driving standards in Luxembourg will be out looking for nothing less than victory as a warning to his rivals that he means business for the upcoming World Championships in China. Relishing the environment of his new surroundings at Team Infinity and having claimed his first ETS win in 7-years, Groskamp is another driver who will be out to make a statement at the Hudy Arena ahead of the World Championships. The 2012 World Champion also has the benefit of running an Xray at the very same track on which it was largely developed. Concluding a season in which he was overshadowed by his team-mate Coelho, Alexander Hagberg would like to finish off a campaign that has produced Top 4 finishes in 4 of the 5 races by claiming the top step on the podium. Another former ETS race winner looking to end the season on a high and boost his World Championship prospects is Christopher Krapp. Having missed Riound 5 this will be the Tamiya driver’s first outing since his podium finish at the Reedy Race of Champions. With Groskamp a very welcomed ETS returnee in Luxembourg, this weekend will see another returning World Champion in Atsushi Hara, this being the iconic Japanese driver’s first ETS outing in two years