Euro Touring Series

June 29, 2019

Chassis Focus – Freddy Sudhoff

Chassis – Awesomatix A800X Evo (MMCX2)
Motor – Hobbywing G3 4.5T
ESC – Hobbywing Xerun XR10 Pro G2
Batteries – Team Silverback 6400 Siren-HV
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M17/MKS HBL SL575
Bodyshell – ZooRacing DBX

Remarks – Running his Middle Motor Awesomatix A800X Evo ‘Fabulous’ has enjoyed great speed here at AMCA Apeldoorn showing his rival the way in practice and backing that up with P2 in qualifying. His car is equipped with the latest Progressive Spring System called PSS which changes the characteristics of the unique Awesomatix leaf springs. Additionally he installed the SPR08 bodyshell support set in front of the car to improve front end grip and generate a smoother handling under acceleration.

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June 29, 2019

Coelho to start ETS Netherlands from TQ

Bruno Coelho will for the second year running start from the TQ at ETS Netherlands. Where the Xray driver last year claimed his third championship title in succession, he secured this year’s overall TQ at Apeldoorn when topped the times for a third time in the fourth & final qualifier which took place in very hot conditions. The only one who could have denied Coelho the TQ, Sudhoff was always going to be up against the conditions as not only did he need to TQ the round but he also needed to beat Coelho’s Q2 time which was held in much cooler conditions. At the end of the 5-minute Coelho would have 1.5-seconds in hand over the Awesomatix driver who starts second. Behind it will be Christopher Krapp who will line up followed by Alexander Hagberg and Championship points leader Ronald Volker.

With the entire pits struggling with the heat, Coelho said, ‘That was a hard qualifier, such hot temperature now’. The World Champion continued, ‘I couldn’t force a lot. I had to make sure I didn’t overheat the tyres so I tried to drive as smooth as possible and it was a good fight with Freddy’. Looking to the finals, the first of which takes place this evening, the Portuguese ace said, ‘It’s going to be very interesting. Freddy and me are very similar pace so I expect him to push hard at the start. I might have to defend but I will be trying to pull away. I hope it is a little cooler for A1. Now it is too hot’.

‘That was a stress test on material and driver out in this heat’, was Sudhoff’s reaction to Q4. With the fastest lap of the round, he added, ‘the car felt good for the first minute and a half but then it start to slide a little more. I lost the time compared to Bruno i the second half’. Asked about his game plan for A1, the German replied, ‘we tried a slightly different for that one (Q4) so we’ll go back to the set-up of the previous one for the final. It is quite a flowing track but there are some braking points to dive in’.

Summing up qualifying, Krapp said, ‘Im happy with third in the grid as it was the best I could do’. He continued, ‘I was kind of unhappy with the car that one. We made a change and it was loose in the rear. We changed too much. Now it is unstable but it has too much oversteer. I will use my Q3 set-up for A1 and just race it out’.

Retiring from the final qualifier, Hagberg said, ‘we changed the set-up quite a bit and it didn’t work out so we will revert to previous set-up and try to fight for the podium’. Asked the potential for overtaking, the Swede replied, ‘the track is really wide so it should be possible. It’s a difficult track and easy to make a mistake and miss your line. It is one track on the championship where overtaking is really possible’.

Commenting on his starting position, Volker said, ‘It was tight on points for P3 but I came out the worst of it and ended up 5th which is disappointing’. The Yokomo driver added, ‘almost everyone was on new tyre (in Q3) so it was clear to see what pace everyone is at. To open with a P3 in Q1 and 3rd fastest again in the last one but on end up P5 is a little frustrating. You can’t do much from 5th on the grid’.

In Pro Stock it is going to be Olivier Bultynck who will lead away the field. With three different winners in the opening three rounds it was all to play for in Q4 and the Belgian delivered being the only driver to run 19 laps in the hoy conditions. Behind him, Frederik Mikkelsen will line up 2nd followed by Dominic Vogl. In Formula, Championship points leader Simon Lauter extended his lead by a point for his efforts in securing the TQ. Taking two qualifiers he starts in front of David Ehrbar and Jitse Miedema who took a qualifier each. In 40+ Masters, Toni Mateo will lead away the A-Main field from Andreas Weyhoven and Trygve Berntsen. In 17.5 Stock, Marwin Riedelbauch took the final two qualifiers to secure the TQ from Daniel Pöhlmann and Tobias Baumbach.

View complete event results here.

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June 29, 2019

Chassis Focus – Wojciech Rozwadowski

Chassis – Capricorn TE04
Motor – LRP X22
ESC – LRP Flow X
Batteries – R1 8000mAh
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Tesla
Bodyshell – Zooracing DBX

Remarks – One of the more rare cars in the modified class, Polish driver Rozwadowski is running the latest car from the Italian brand in the ‘High Response’ version. The car also offered as a ‘High Grip’ kit and there is also the option to buy the parts separately should you wish to change between versions. One feature of the car is the included quick release shims which mean changes can be made easily without the need for stripping the car. Rozwadowski said the car is designed with durability in mind although the compromise is extra weight.

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June 29, 2019

Sudhoff hits the top in Q3 at ETS Netherlands

Having set the benchmark high with his pace in practice, top seed Freddy Sudhoff finally hit the top in qualifying at ETS Netherlands as he TQ’d the third round. The Awesomatix driver would be the only one to make 21-laps as the temperatures rose at the Apeldoorn track, the German’s gamble to not run new tyres in the morning’s Q2 not paying off. One used tyres for Q3, Bruno Coelho is the man on target to take the overall TQ due to his Q2 time which was over 5-seconds quicker and with the track going to be super hot again for the fourth and final qualifier it looks a big ask for Sudhoff to deny the champion from start on pole for the second year in succession. Behind Sudhoff, Christopher Krapp was second fastest from Alexander Hagberg and Nicolas Lee with Swiss driver Carl Friedrich Groessel surprising everyone with P6 for the round ahead of Marc Rheinard and Ronald Volker.

Reacting to his TQ run, Sudhoff explained, ‘It was a pretty good run with almost no mistakes but the gamble didn’t pay off because the track is super hot now’. The ETS Spain winner continued, ‘I hope I can stay second overall (on the grid) in the last one because from there I can fight with Bruno for the win’.

Summing up his effort, Krapp said, ‘I’m happy with second actually. The weather played our card. The car is still too stable but because of this I was able to push it harder in the hotter conditions’. Already looking to the final, the first of which will take place this evening and the second tomorrow morning, the Yokomo driver said, ‘tonight and the morning are going to be cooler for the A-Main and this is a disadvantage for me we need to work on improving the car for the cold, or lets say cooler condition because it is still going to be warm’.

Asked about his run Hagberg replied, ‘It was a clean run but I struggled a bit on the hotter track for traction’. Holding P4 on the grid with one qualifier to go, the Xray driver continued, ‘I will change the car for Q4 and try to go faster’.

Setting the fourth fastest time, Lee said, ‘the beginning started good but the car pushed a lot in the end’. The Singapore driver continued, ‘now I’m in the A-Main so I can make for changes. I have been safe with the set-up I am running so I think for the last one we will try something aggressive’.

Leading the Infinity challenge and holding 8th on the grid, Groskamp said, ‘I’m very happy to come back into the Top 10. I have been struggling at other ETS races. I know I know this track but the set-up is totally different with the weather’. The former World Champion continued, ‘I got 7th on old tyres (Q2) and 5th now on fresh tyres. We have a little more trouble with tyres overheating. I am testing more and more old parts against new prototype parts. I want to race well of course but I am using this race to test a lot. We are all struggling but I am happy with my own driving performance’.

Embarrassing some top drivers with his P6, Groessel put the performance down to an improved shock set-up on his Yokomo. The 17-year-old said that while his first lap was a little conservative after that the rest of the run was ‘really good’ and ‘really clean’. Looking to the final qualifier he said he my go further with the shock change he made but would review the temperature closer to the time.

In Pro Stock Awesomatix team manager Max Mächler became the third different driver to top a qualifier. The ETS Daun winner was fastest from Tobias Vogel and championship leader Simon Lauter with former ETS race winner Vasco Christiaanse fourth. In Formula it was a similar story as David Ehrbar TQ’d the round ahead of reigning champion Jan Ratheisky and Olivier Bultynck.

View complete event results here.

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June 29, 2019

Coelho again in Q2

Bruno Coelho claimed another TQ run in the second round of qualifying at the Dutch ETS in Apeldoorn this morning, this time the Xray driver topping the times from Awesomatix’s Lucas Urbain. Having taken yesterday evening’s opening qualifier, Coelho quickly pulled clear of Freddy Sudhoff, the top seed gambling to begin the day on used tyres which after 5-minutes left him P4. On new tyres, the main challenger to Coelho on the clock would come from Urbain and Alexander Hagberg but with a fastest lap 2/10ths up on everyone else the reigning Champion always had a decent margin in hand. For a time Ronald Volker looked on target for another Top 3 until he suffered a mechanical just after the 2-minute mark while on his second set of tyres. It would be Hagberg who would complete the Top 3 5/100th off Urbain after he got stuck behind Jilles Groskamp for a number of laps towards the end of the heat.

Reacting to his TQ, which thanks to the cool morning conditions is expected to stand as the fastest time, Coelho said, ‘we worked a lot on the car yesterday evening in the free practice and again this morning. We had good steering but were looking for corner speed and now we got that’. Lying second in the current points standings to Volker, the winner of last years Apeldoorn encounter said, ‘I think we are already now on the limit of the car but for the next one we will make small, small changes’.

‘I didn’t crash which was nice’, said Urbain, who rolled out of the TQ position in Q1. The Frenchman continued, ‘It was a bit underwhelming and Bruno pulled a gap. I expected to be able to challenge Bruno as in the morning the car is really good but I didn’t have enough steering. Our goal was to challenge Bruno and now we have failed twice. It is going to be hard to come back now as that was the fastest heat so need to beat him twice and in a faster time. Plus I have only one set of tyres left but the tyre advantage here is not as big as other tracks.’

Having opted on sitting out Q1 yesterday evening, Hagberg said, ‘Everything was going well. I was fighting for the TQ until I caught a slower car, Jilles, and he blocked me for three lap. At the end it cost me 2nd place’. With the advantage of having a new set of tyres for the remaining two qualifiers, the Swede said, ‘I have new tyres every run so it is easier to focus on driving. It was a bit of a gamble (to sit out Q1) but let’s see how it pays off’.

‘Pretty good for used tyres’ was how Sudhoff summed up Q2. He added, ‘the car felt really good and balanced after we made small changes this morning in free practice. I have 2 sets (of tyres) for the last two qualifiers. The next one needs to be super good to beat Bruno but my pace is better in the heat’. Asked if it was a big gamble to run used tyres in Q2, the ETS Spain winner replied, ‘Q3 will still be cool enough, that’s why I gambled’.

Posting the 5th fastest time from the second quickest heat group, Yannic Prumper explained, ‘I ran new tyres and got a good time because many others were on old tyres’. The Infinity driver added, ‘the car was quite good. Yesterday it was not good but we changed the wheel base. There was no real difference in the feeling but the times were better. I will keep it the same for the next one and I have only one new set of tyres left so I need to see when I will run them’.

Completing the Top 6 with his Awesomatix, Loic Jasmin said, ‘It was a good result. The first two minutes was really good but then the car started to push. I had to change my lines and the last minute was hard. Still I got a P6 so I’m happy’. Looking to Q3, the multiple French National Champion will makes changes to try and get the car to run more consistent over the 5-minutes.

In the Scorpion Power System Formula class, it was Simon Lauter who took his Tamiya to a TQ run ahead of Q1 winner Infinity’s Jitse Miedema and the Shepherd of Olivier Bultynck. In the Xray Pro Stock class Austria Dominic Vogl was took Q2 from Frederik Mikkelsen and Bultynck who took the opening qualifier yesterday. Daniel Pöhlmann made it two out of two in the Stock 17.5 class and in the Infinity 40+ Masters class Trygve Berntsen topped the second round from Q1 pace setter Toni Mateo.

View complete event results here.

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June 28, 2019

Video – Modified Qualifying Rd1

June 28, 2019

Coelho takes opening qualifier at ETS

Bruno Coelho has taken the opening round of qualifying at Round 5 of the ETS in the Netherlands, the Xray driver fastest from the dominant force in practice Freddy Sudhoff. Starting behind the top seed after team-mate & No. 2 seed Alexander Hagberg opted to sit out Q1, Coelho was able to take advantage of mistakes from both Sudhoff and his Awesomatix team-mate Lucas Urbain to take a slightly surprise TQ run given Sudhoff’s advantage in practice. Having seeded 8th, Ronald Volker was to complete the Top 3 ahead of Yokomo team-mates Christopher Krapp and Nicholas Lee with Urbain rounding out the Top 6 from Jilles Groskamp.

‘For sure it was a good round and as expected Awesomatix were very strong’ said Coelho. ‘I was able to fight with Freddy and Lucas but then Lucas had a mistake so it was only me and Freddy. I saw then that he had a small mistake and this gave me a little space to breath which I could manage to the end’. While pleased to end the first official day of the event with a TQ, 3 more qualifiers on tomorrow schedule, the reigning Champion and winner of last year’s Dutch encounter said, ‘we still have a lot of work to do. I only made 3-laps in the final practice so we lost track time there but from the laps I did do we ran the same set-up with a few tweaks. Now we find the same pace as this was an improvement for sure but it is not the best it can be’. Looking to Saturday’s action, he commented, ‘the morning should be the fastest the track will be so it’s important one but our car was good this morning so lets see’.

‘I can only blame myself’, said Sudhoff. The ETS Madrid winner continued, ‘The car was still pretty but I had a huge problem with the shadows’. With the setting sun creating shadows at the end of the track but also hard on drivers eyes, the German said he wore his sunglasses to prevent his eyes watering up but the glasses were to dark for the shadows. ‘It was so dark I messed up at the end of the straight several times’. Still happy with his car, he concluded, ‘I will do better tomorrow’.

Setting the fastest lap of the opening qualifier and finish 1-second off Coelho, Volker said, ‘It’s not far off TQ but we have to make some sensible changes to find the little bit we are missing’. The multiple ETS Champion added, ‘it was a great run for the team with a P3, 4 & 5. It was a great team effort but we have homework to do tonight to get a good set-up. We have a practice in the morning before Q2 so we will use that to try what ideas we come up with after our talk tonight.’

Krapp said, ‘we are still a little behind the game but position wise it was not to bad with 3rd, 4th and 5th’. He went on to say, ‘to be honest I don’t know what to do but tonight we will talk as a team and then try something during practice but the issue is that the car is just still to stable’.

Summing up his first effort, Lee said, ‘It was alright, I thought I could have driven better’. The Singapore driver added, ‘The end of the straight was very hard because of the shadow and I missed my lines’. Like his team-mates, he also highlighted the car’s stability as the main issue he faces concluding ‘I hope we can find something more in the car for tomorrow’.

‘I went full retard. I knew I was in the lead and pushed too hard, shit happens’, explained Urbain who was right in the mix until the final minute. Hitting the right hand curbing at the end of the straight he said, ‘I can blame the shadows but I was driving full punch and the way it rolled I couldn’t save it. I have the tortoise sticker on my car for a reason, today I totally earned it’. Happy to have been in the hunt for the TQ, the French driver was looking forward to his second opportunity tomorrow saying, ‘my car is even better in the mornings so I can go for it again then’.

In the other classes, it was Pro Stock top seed Olivier Bultynck who took Q1 ahead of Tim Benson with Dane Frederik Mikkelsen completing the Top 3. Formula saw No. 5 seed & Infinity driver Jitse Miedema get the better of the Serpent of top seed & former champion David Ehrbar. Championship points leader & reigning Champion Jan Ratheisky set the third fastest time. In 40+ Masters, Toni Mateo from Gran Canaria maintain his practice topping form to TQ the first one ahead of Andreas Weyhoven and Werner Schmitzer. Daniel Pöhlmann took the max points in the first 17.5 Stock qualifier from top seed Tobias Baumbach and Chris Betts.

View complete event results here.

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June 28, 2019

Sudhoff top seed in Apeldoorn

Freddy Sudhoff is the top seed in Apeldoorn for the the penultimate round of the ETS. With the second of the two seeding rounds taking place during the hottest part of the day, the seeding was to be based off the opening controlled practice with the Top 17 places remaining unchanged. Even with the mercury on the rise, Sudhoff maintained his status on the slower track topping CP2 by 2/10ths from Bruno Coelho who hit issues and completed just 4-laps. While he will run the No.6 in qualifying, Christopher Krapp managed the close the gap on the hotter track as he set the third fastest time of CP2 ahead of Yokomo team-mate Ronald Volker. With the track around 3/10th slower, Alexander Hagberg will line up second for this evening’s opening qualifier ahead of Coelho, Nicolas Lee, Lucas Urbain and Krapp.

Summing up his final practice run, Sudhoff said,’the track was hotter so the car was a little more loose in some corners but the pace was still quite good and and could still focus fully on driving’. Looking to Q1, the Awesomatix driver said, ‘It might be difficult. With position of the sun now there are shadows at the end of the straight which is going to make it hard to see the curb or your line but in my car I am feeling good for qualifying’.

Asked how he was feeling going into qualifying, Hagberg, who set the 5th fastest time for CP2, said, ‘we made a set-up change for CP2 and it wasn’t better so we will revert to the CP1 set-up for Q1 but I ready to try flight for the TQ’. Expecting the track temperature to remain similarly high to that of CP2, the Swede added, ‘Tyre management is going to be important. It is going to be a question of who has the strongest finish not the strongest start which is pretty exciting’.

Xray team-mate Coelho said, ‘I only got the 3-laps because we had some issue on the car so I couldn’t try what we changed for the CP’. The World Champion continued, ‘the first laps were good but it is about the 5-minutes and we didn’t get to test this. A lot of people are the same pace but Freddy is a little faster so we will see’. Asked about the high temperatures he replied, ‘It is going to be very hard on the electronics, tyres and car. I hope everything survives’.

Krapp said, ‘I actually improved over 5-minutes which is good. We slightly improve the car but it’s still the same story as before, we are a little behind and need to find something’. With the expected hot track for Q1, the former ETS race winner added, ‘in the hot conditions it is more open, as everyone drops a lot. So overall it looks not that bad, we are just a little behind but we are making small improvements all the time’.

View complete event results here.

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