Video – Modified, Pro Stock & Formula A1
Chassis Focus – Viljami Kutvonen
Chassis – Awesomatix A800 “A”
Motor – LRP X20 4.5T
ESC –LRP Flow
Batteries – LRP 5600mAh “LCG”
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Highest
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R 2.0
Remarks – Having just secured his best grid position of the ETS season, Finnish ace Viljami Kutvonen is running the “A” version of the Russian made touring car which means he is using an aluminium chassis, the A800 coming with a carbon chassis as standard. His car also sports new, wider suspension arms that feature adjustable pivot balls to make it easier to adjust the car’s width. He is also using a new centre chassis stiffener which also doubles as a 65g weight.
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Volker completes quali clean sweep
Having wrapped up his first overall TQ of the current ETS season in the penultimate round of qualifying, Ronald Volker has completed the clean sweep in Wels, Austria. The Yokomo driver claimed a very close fourth & final qualifier ahead of an improved Alexander Hagberg with the Top 5 covered by just 0.834 of a second. Overall it will be joint championship leaders Bruno Coelho and Marc Rheinard who will line up behind Volker with Hagberg and Viljami Kutvonen completing the top half of the A-Main grid for the final carpet encounter of the season.
With nothing to be lost or gained in the final qualifier, Volker ‘just tried to repeat Q3 but with a clean run’, the German taking the third round despite rolling his BD7. Describing the run as having ‘started better’ with him ‘matching Bruno & Marc’s pace’ this left him ‘quite confident’. After a mistake from Coelho he then ‘took it easy, almost too easy’ admitting he didn’t know how close his rivals were until the end of the heat, the gap to Hagberg 4/10th of a second. With Q4 a confident boost that the car is now a match for his rivals at the beginning of the run, looking to the finals he said his approach would be to ‘try and not get caught at the start and maintain a gap’ over his pursuers.
Trying ‘something new’ in the final qualifier, Coelho said his car ‘did not work as well and (they) will go back’ to his Q3 set-up as it had ‘lost its edge’ over the initial laps. Predicting it will be ‘super difficult to overtake’, the three time ETS race winner said with his Hobbywing powered T4 ‘working very well’ he will fight for the win adding ‘we will see what happens’.
Third fastest in the final quali, just 0.029 off Hagberg, Rheinard said changes to his car meant it didn’t fade as quick towards the end of the run but push was still an issue. With his TRF team-mate Christopher Krapp, who will line up 9th on the grid, also using Q4 to test a different set-up Rheinard plans to copy his fellow countryman set-up for the opening final tomorrow morning. Looking to the finals, highlighting three of the new TRF419X had made it to the grid, he said the important thing for him was to maintain his run of carpet podium finishes before the championship moves outdoor but added with ‘Alex is fast now and Viljami too, it is going to be interesting’.
‘Was better’ was how Hagberg summed up changes to his car for Q4. The Xray driver said while his ORCA powered T4 was good at the end of the 5-minutes he felt he lost ground at the start and they need to get a better balance over the run. Confident they can get it good for the final, the Swede added with everyone so close he is looking forward to racing which he feels will be ‘interesting’. Admitting it is going to be difficult to pass without pushing someone out of the way he added it’s also going to be hard to drive clean with the field so tight.
Enjoying his best qualifying of the season, Kutvonen said ‘it feels good to be so close to the ETS Top 4’ pointing out they are the same group every race. Adjusting the rear toe and front spring on his LRP powered Awesomatix, the Finn said the changes made his A800-A ‘very good early on’ but at the end he had too much understeer and this is something he ‘hope to figure out’ a fix for going into the finals. Starting behind Kutvonen will be Marc Fischer in the new Serpent 4X followed by Tamiya’s Akio Sobue, Team Associated’s Juho Levanen, Krapp and Magnus Vassmar with the new Schumacher Mi6.
In both the Pro Stock and Formula it is the championship leader of both, Jan Ratheisky, who claimed the honour of Top Qualifier. After a P2 in Q1 of the Serpent Formula class, the Xray driver claimed the next three qualifiers to put his Xray X1 on pole ahead of Olivier Bultynck and Andreas Myrberg. In the Xray Pro Stock class his only TQ run in Q4 secured the winner of the season opener his second TQ bonus championship point of the season. Lining up behind the popular German will be Yokomo driver Valentin Hettrich and the Awesomatix of ETS Germany winner Tony Streit with reigning champion Marek Cerny fourth.
View complete event results here.
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Euro Touring Series Rd3 – Saturday Action
Live results from be found on MyRCM here.
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Chassis Focus – Andreas Myrberg
Chassis – Yokomo YR-10F
Motor – Hobbywing (handout)
ESC –Hobbywing (handout)
Batteries – ORCA 4800mAh
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Xpert
Bodyshell – Montech F13
Remarks – After a long racing hiatus, former top touring car racer Andreas Myrberg gets back behind the wheel running a Yokomo formula borrowed from his AME team driver Tobias Vogel. The car is pretty standard, only equipped with a lightweight aluminium rear axle and titanium screws, and fitted with a set of Montech wings.
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Video – Modified Qualifying Rd4
Volker secures first TQ of the ETS Season #9
Reigning Yokomo Euro Touring Series Champion Ronald Volker has claimed his first overall TQ of Season #9. The Yokomo driver, who holds the record for the most pole position starts in the championship’s history, claimed his 19th Top Qualifier honours by making it three from three in the penultimate round of qualifying in Austria. Taking the first two qualifiers after mistakes from Bruno Coelho, Volker would again benefit from problems for Coelho, the Xray driver clearly irate with the driving of Marc Rheinard with whom he shares the points lead in overall championship standings. Holding the top spot on the time sheets for almost 2-minutes, a great drive from Awesomatix’s Viljami Kutvonen would see him post the third fastest time behind Volker and Coelho, the Top 3 separated by 8/10ths of a second.
‘I’m very happy, not just with the overall TQ but also with how the car now works as we improved it big time’, was Volker’s reaction to Q3. After rolling his LRP powered BD7 on the third lap, he added ‘with the roll I didn’t expect to get a TQ run’. Dropping behind Rheinard after his roll, he was particularly pleased at being able to get back passed his long standing rival adding that would not have been possible in the previous two qualifiers. Having adjusted their tyre prep and made ‘a small change to the car (set-up)’, Volker said with the improved pace he ‘feel(s) now (he is) able to fight for the win’.
Having made his thoughts very clear to Rheinard as they came off the driver stands, Coelho said ‘4-minutes I was stuck behind Rheinard and nobody (referring to the race officials) saw this. He opened for me on the last lap. It is like a joke.’
Asked for his opinion of the qualifier, a calmer Rheinard who ended up with a P5 said, ‘Again it started OK but it pushed more & more as the run went on’. Having changed to a harder diff oil to try cure the problem he said this didn’t appear to have worked as at the end of the 5-minutes it was still the same as in Q2. Commenting on the exchange of words with Coelho, the Portuguese driver allegedly telling the 4-time World Champion ‘that is the last time you do that to me, next time I take you out right away’, Rheinard said ‘I was struggling in the chicane and when I went to let him go he hit the wall by himself’. He continued ‘I also opened at the end of the straight to let him go but he wasn’t close enough’.
Describing his run as ‘the most consistent run (he has) ever driven’, Kutvonen was happy with his driving. Changing the geometry of his Awesomatix A800’s roll centres he said the car was ‘super stable’ while still having good corner speed. Happy to have been ‘so close to the top’, he said they ‘need to try to do something to find extra pace’ but he was not yet sure what that would be.
Posting another P4 run, Alexander Hagberg was ‘surprised (he) was so far off the TQ (time) as the car felt really good’. The Xray driver added ‘maybe the car is now too stable so we will work on the steering for the next one. We need to improve it but I think we are heading in the right direction’.
Completing the Top 6 was Juho Levanen, the factory Team Associated driver helped by Serpent’s Marc Fischer pulling a wheel off his new 4X while on a potential Top 4 run. Playing with chassis flex, the traction not as high as he had expected, the Finn said making his TC7 flex more had improved it a lot for Day 2. Suffering bad luck in Q2 with his time hampered by cars crashing in front of him, he plans to leave the car unchanged for the final qualifier. Feeling it is fast enough to make the A-Main he said he doesn’t want to take any risks as a 12th in Q2 means he needs a strong final qualifier. Behind the former ETS race winner Christopher Krapp took 7th followed by Dionys Stadler, Naoto Matsukura and Loic Jasmin.
In the Xray Pro Stock class it was ETS Germany winner Tony Streit who TQ’d the 3rd round, his Awesomatix the third different brand to top the time sheets in Wels. 1/10th of second behind the German was Norway’s Helge Johannessen with Jan Ratheisky completing the Top 3. Ratheisky would post a 2nd TQ run in the Serpent Formula class ahead of former Touring Car ace Andreas Myrberg and the Serpent of the manufacturer’s new designer David Ehrbar.
View complete event results here.
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Pit Focus – Freddy Sudhoff
Team: Awesomatix
Neighbours: Mad Max (front), Viljami Kutvonen (left)
Charger: LRP Pulsar Touch Competitions
Tools: LRP
Setup Tools: Hudy Setup System, Hudy QuickTweak, MMP tweak plate, Hudy downstop gauge
Car Stand: Hudy
Lipo Bag: LRP
Transport Bag: HPI trolley bag
Features: LRP Activator, 1Kg M&M’s bag, LeeSpeed spurs, double sided tape, MMP parts tray.
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