Euro Touring Series

April 8, 2016

New in the Pits – Serpent

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The full Serpent team is in attendance here at the ETS in Wels, with their top drivers Wilck, Fisher and Borowski debuting a completely new platform called 4X. Conceived by the newly appointed touring car designer David Ehrbar, the car features a completely new decoupled, pull-rod suspension system that uses two separate shocks to take care of the downtravel and the roll respectively. Designed to work without a top deck, the layout also features a very low center of gravity and an inverted steering system – the brackets facing towards the rear of the car – which allows for a more consistent Ackermann angle throughout the whole travel. Also completely new, the suspension arms and hubs use the pivot ball system and are completely identical for both front and rear end.

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April 8, 2016

Track Focus – ‘Modellbau Wels’

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Name – Modellbau Wels
Host – ETS
Country – Austria
Location – Wels (200km West of Vienna)
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Carpet

The Euro Touring Series visits the small northern Austrian city of Wels for the first time as Round 3 takes place as part of the country’s biggest Hobby Exhibition ‘Modellbau Wels’. A host venue for the Euro Offroad Series for the past two years, the large hall allocated to the ETS has allowed for the building of what is the biggest track of the three indoor carpet races that make up Season #9. 34 metres wide, the track has a dept of 24 metres and is also one of the bigger builds of the season. While the hall has a very fresh asphalt floor, service cable tunnels meant it was not possible to race directly on the surface and in order to ensure the perfect flat ground on which to lay the carpet the area was first covered with tongue & grooved OSB boards.

In terms of the track layout, which was changed to run in less common clockwise direction during the Thursday build, joint championship leader Marc Rheinard described it as ‘pretty nice’ adding with the many 180 corners it has ‘a few nice passing spots’. Asked about the surface due to the carpet being mounted on wood, he said ‘I expect less grip than the last round (Mulheim) due as floor being harder underneath. In both Germany and the Czech Republic the track was laid directly onto a rubber sports flooring.

Reigning champion Ronald Volker described the layout as ‘different than the normal’. The German said the difference was not only the direction but also the mix of corners which was ‘something new’ and made it ‘interesting and challenging’. The only slight criticism he had was in relation to the driver’s stand which he said due to the extra 4-metre dept of the track was ‘too low’.

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April 7, 2016

All equal as ETS resumes at new Austrian venue

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With the opening two races producing different winners and those drivers now sharing the lead at the top of the Volante Modified class standings, the Yokomo Euro Touring Series resumes this weekend after a six week break. Round 3 will present somewhat of a neutral ground for the resumption of the championship battle as the ETS makes its first visit to Wels, Austria. Taking over the date previously filled by the Euro Offroad Series at the Modellbau Wels hobby show, this year over 20,000 vistors will be treated to seeing the World’s best touring car drivers battle it out for glory. The final indoor race of the ETS’ ninth season, Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard and Xray’s Bruno Coelho will be looking to wrap up the first half of the season with a points advantage over their rival.

After kicking off the ninth season of the ETS with a strong win in the Czech Republic, Rheinard couldn’t repeat that performance on his home event. In Germany, the former race winner was no match for the Xrays of Coelho and Alexander Hagberg with Coelho claiming his first carpet victory in Mulheim ahead of 2014 winner of the event Hagberg. The 4-time World Champion will be hoping his TRF team’s latest development of the upcoming 419X release will allow him to take the fight to the very much on form Xray team.

Since the last ETS encounter, Coelho has gone on to take victory at the prestigious TITC race in Thailand and Hagberg travels to Austria on the back of claiming a third consecutive 1:12 European title last weekend. Behind the championship leaders, Hagberg sits equal on points with defending champion Ronald Volker, and having forced Round 2 to be decided in A3 eventually taking second, the Swede will be hoping to go one better come Sunday evening. Rising Xray talent Dionys Stadler will also be looking to build on his impressive double A-main start to the season.

Even by their own admission it has been a difficult start to the defence of their sixth title for Volker and Yokomo. Volker missed out on the podium to Rheinard in Germany and needs to fight back this weekend if he is to stand a chance of going for an unprecedented 7th consecutive title in the sports most competitive championship. Another set back for the Japanese team is the departure of Yannic Prumper, who since Round 2 has made the switch to VBC Racing. The signing of the multiple ETS race winner is a big commitment from VBC and, this the first time he’s the lead driver for a factory effort, the German will be more determined than ever to be in the mix for the win.

Another high profile driver change for Round 3 is the return of Freddy Sudhoff to Awesomatix. After a tough time at HB, Sudhoff will be aiming to revive his ‘Fast Freddy’ title. While it will be the popular German’s first time with the Russian manufacturer’s belt drive A800, Finnish ace Viljami Kutvonen has already shown the potential of the car putting it in the A-Main at the opening two rounds. The Awesomatix team already travel to Austria on a high after Tony Streit took a very popular win in the Xray Pro Stock class in Mulheim where Bernhard Bopp also made the podium.

In Pro Stock it is Czech winner and Round 2 runner-up Jan Ratheisky who holds a strong lead in the standings from Xray team-mate & reigning champion Marek Cerny. Behind them, ARC’s Helge Johannessen completes the current Top 3. Ratheisky also leads the way in the Serpent Formula class from Olivier Bultynck and after TQ & wins in the opening two races will be looking to continue his perfect run.

February 7, 2016

Video – Mod, Pro Stock & Formula A3

February 7, 2016

Coelho claims 1st carpet win at ETS Germany

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Bruno Coelho has claimed his first carpet win of the Euro Touring Series, the Portuguese driver leading an Xray 1-2 at the second round of the championship in Germany. Starting the weekend by securing his first TQ on carpet, the 2-time asphalt ETS race winner would flip in A1 handing team-mate Alexander Hagberg the win but a faultless A2 would set the stage for a showdown in the deciding third leg. While clearly having improved his pace for A3, Hagberg would push Coelho hard but the Vice-World Champion had enough in reserve to cement the win. In what was somewhat a battle of the second division such was Xray’s pace all weekend, it was Marc Rheinard who would claim the final step on the podium. The result means Coelho now moves into the joint lead of the championship standings with Round 1 winner Rheinard. Even though he would get passed Rheinard in A3, Ronald Volker would finish fourth with the result marking the Yokomo driver’s first time to miss the podium on carpet since he began his current 5-consecutive seasons reign as ETS champion.

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‘Super good’ was how Coelho summed up his 3rd ETS win, this weekend being only his 8th outing in championship. Describing his new Hobbywing powered T4 as being ‘good all weekend’, the 22-year-old said ‘This race was a big step forward for me on carpet. Last year I finished 8th and now I managed to get the TQ & win. I want to congratulate the whole team as we got four cars in the final, finished 1-2, won Formula and made the podium in Pro Stock’. Commenting on A3, he said ‘For sure he (Hagberg) pushed much more but I was still comfortable with my car and he didn’t ever get close enough to try to pass’. Finishing off his rookie season very strong winning the final two outdoor rounds to end up 3rd overall and now a competitive force on carpet, he said he was looking forward to carrying that momentum into the final indoor event on the calendar in Austria in early April.

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Making a set-up change for A3, Hagberg said this ‘improved (the) car a lot’ and he ‘felt (he) finally had a car to challenge for 1st place but didn’t really find a place to overtake’. Finishing second having dominated the event in 2014, he ‘wished (he) had changed the car earlier’. With himself and Coelho ‘setting the pace from the start (of the event)’ the Swede said he was ‘very happy with how the team worked together’ to achieve and maintain this and he feels they go into the final carpet round in very good shape.

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‘In the end that was all we could do this weekend’, was Rheinard’s view of the weekend. Having opened the season with a strong win and won the Muelheim-Kaerlich event last year, the 4-time World Champion said the weekend was far from their expectations but added he was ‘still happy to finish on the podium’. Admitting Xray have a ‘good car’, the ETS most winning driver said they have the big advantage of being able to test extensively at the Hudy Arena on the same ETS carpet. With his TRF team making a big step forward for Round 1 with the TRF419, he said what he had this weekend was not as good as before with the feeling of the car taking a step backwards adding ‘we have a lot of work to do to be ready for the next race’. Asked about A3, he said he was lucky to finish 4th as a contact with the barriers while trying to fend off Volker left him to run the rest of the race with a cracked C-Hub, with him luckily able to hold off team-mate Akio Sobue to get 3rd on the tie break with Volker.

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Once the master of carpet races with victory for the German a foregone conclusion at the start of the weekend, Volker said he was ‘definitely a bit disappointed as 3rd was possible but the 3rd final was not enough’. Feeling they ‘didn’t realise their full potential as in Hrotovice’ he continued that while ‘the new car is amazing on carpet’, him winning easily ahead of Hagberg and Coelho at the DHI Cup, he said they still haven’t cracked the ETS carpet. With the ETS organisers leaving the track in place and offering the drivers the opportunity to do a day’s testing tomorrow, Volker is hopeful the test will help them put that right.

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In the Xray Pro Stock class, A3 would also be the decider after Top Qualifier & A1 winner Tony Streit made a mistake in A2 giving Mike Gosvig the win. With Gosvig having a fraught opening few laps putting the Dane out of contention, it was now a battle between Streit and Ratheisky for the overall win. Leading for 16 of the 20 laps from the ETS Czech winner, Streit would get out of shape with the lost momentum enough to allow Ratheisky to go to the front. Leaving the two drivers tied on points, Streit’s perfect run in A1 was faster giving the German his second ever ETS win after a four year wait. Making it a great weekend for Awesomatix, having failed to get any cars into the A-Main at the season opener, Bernhard Bopp’s A800 would complete the podium. With Ratheisky having wrapped up the Formula win in A2, leg 3 would be won by Olivier Bultynck, giving him second on his debut with Roche with Serpent’s David Ehrbar claiming the final step on the podium.

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View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

February 7, 2016

Euro Touring Series Rd2 – Sunday Action

Live results from be found on MyRCM here.

For viewers in Germany you can install the free browser addon YT Unblocker or ProxTube to allow you to view the live stream.

February 7, 2016

Guest Photographer – Michal Orlowski

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In the first of what we hope will be a regular race weekend feature, Red RC set factory Schumacher driver Michal Orlowski a small challenge at Round 2 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series. Handing him over one of our Nikon D4 cameras, we asked the 14-year-old to come up with a selection of 12 photos. With some tuition from our chief photographer Ricky Acciari this is what Michal shot (well he shot 100s of photos with Ricky selecting these as his best). Turns out the European 4WD Offroad Champion has a pretty good eye for photos.

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