Video – Modified, Pro Stock & Formula Leg 1
Chassis Focus – Lucas Urbain
Chassis – VBC Racing Wildfire D07
Motor – Muchmore
ESC – Muchmore
Batteries – Silverback 6300 mah
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Bodyshell – PF LTC-R
Remarks – Top VBC driver Lucas Urbain is running an interesting version of the Wildfire D07 that features a new chassis that is thinner and with the motor position moved backwards. The top deck is also new to better pair with the different flex of the chassis. Longer shocks and higher shock towers from the VBC Ghost EVO and being used to obtain more traction on the low-grip surface.
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Sobue wins A1 as Volker & Coelho clash twice
Akio Sobue has won the opening A-Main at Round 4 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Austria this morning, the Tamiya driver benefiting from a widely anticipate clash between Top Qualifier Ronald Volker and the No.2 starting Bruno Coelho. Also benefiting from the incidents, Alexander Hagberg would challenge Sobue for the lead towards the end of the race but contact with the Tamiya 3-laps from the finish would leave the Swede to have to settle for second around difficult to overtake temporary fahr(T)raum track. Having fallen to fourth Volker would manage to get back past his Yokomo team-mate Yannic Prumper to complete the Top 3 while Coelho would pull off after his second clash with the German.
Having declared yesterday that his third place on the grid was probably the best place to be considering the history between the two starting ahead of him, Sobue said his passage to the front came a little quicker than expected as he took the lead on the opening lap. Having struggled in the final qualifying when in contention for the overall TQ after his TRF419 suffered on new tyres in the low traction conditions, the 20-year-old had old tyres on for A1 but said they may be at the end of their life as he struggled with slight understeer. Not a huge issue and able to see off the challenge of Hagberg he said the race was pretty straight forward. With no option to change to another set of tyres, for A2 he will run less camber adding he just hopes for a repeat of A1.
Hagberg said after ‘some dramas up front’ he was able to follow Sobue in second. With the track having slightly less traction than yesterday, the Swede said his T4 took time to come in and it was not until the end of the race that he was able to mount a challenge on Sobue. He said at this stage it was too late and while he did attempt a move he said there was also no room to overtake. Hoping for ‘more bite’ in A2 he said his car should be better from the start allowing him more time to force an error from Sobue.
A diplomatic Volker opened his comments on the race with praise for his BD7. Setting the fastest lap of the race, the reigning champion said ‘first of all my car was very good considering that the traction felt lower than yesterday but I could not show the pace because Bruno took me out early’. Recovering from the first incident he said he was able to catch Hagberg no problem, as his car was ‘way faster’ but he couldn’t find a way past as the Nitro Touring Car World Champion made no mistakes. Slowed by this he said ‘once Bruno caught my ass he took me out in the same spot ‘ as lap one. Describing the second incident as ‘pretty bad’ he added ‘I was able to run carefully behind Alex but Bruno just ran me over’. The 11-time ETS race winner added ‘blaming me aggressively that the second incident was my fault is bad sportsmanship and I hope he can do better in A2’.
Coelho was adamant the second incident was Volker’s mistake. The Portuguese driver said the German braked or got his car into a slide causing him to touch it. Describing the contact with Volker as ‘strange’, he said his decision to pull off having waited on Volker after both incidents surrounded confusion over a Stop&Go penalty that he understood was called for him but in fact was for another driver. He made opinion on this clear to race officials after the race suggesting to them that they call drivers by name rather than race number. Commenting on how his T4 ran in the race, the 21-year-old said it was ‘super good’ and he was looking forward to A2.
In the Xray Pro Stock A-Main, Top Qualifier Lars Hoppe took his ARC to a tone to tone win over the Xrays of Mike Gosvig and last year’s winner Jan Ratheisky. For reigning champion Marek Cerny, who just scrapped onto the back of the grid, his weekend didn’t improve as he finished 9th, 2-laps down on the winner. In Formula, the defending Champion checked out from pole position while all sorts of chaos broke out behind. In the end Jacques Libar, from sixth on the grid, took second in front of a wingless David Ehrbar.
View the complete event results here.
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Video – Modified Qualifying Rd4
Chassis Focus – David Ehrbar
Chassis – Serpent F110 SF2
Motor – Hobbywing 21.5 (handout)
ESC – Hobbywing (handout)
Batteries – Gens Ace 4200 mah
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Graupner
Bodyshell – MonTech F13
Remarks – Winner of ETS Round 3 in Riccione, David Ehrbar is carrying out the development of Serpent’s latest formula car running here at Fahr(T)raum a prototype shorter chassis that pairs with a pair of side electrics support plates. Everything else is stock, apart from the rear wing that comes from the previous version of the car.
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Chassis Focus – Viljami Kutvonen
Chassis – Awesomatix A700 EVO IIC
Motor – LRP
ESC – LRP
Batteries – LRP 5600 LCG
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Awesomatix
Bodyshell – Bittydesign MC10
Remarks – Top Awesomatix driver in the Ride Modified class, Viljami Kutvonen is running an updated version of the Russian car. Using a carbon chassis instead of the usual aluminium one, his A700 EVO also features new upper camber link plates that allow for finer tuning. Other new parts in rear steering arms, a front bumper and stronger body posts mounts. The swaybars are now black and laser engraved.
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Volker TQs ahead of Coelho at ETS Austria
Ronald Volker has claimed what is probably the most important pole position of this season’s Yokomo Euro Touring Series after the challenge from Tamiya’s Akio Sobue came to nothing in the final round of qualifying in Austria. His 17th time becoming Top Qualifier, last year’s winner of the fahr(T)raum hosted event would end Q4 second fastest 0.233 of a second off the Xray of Bruno Coelho. The TQ run would help Coelho to move ahead of Sobue in the final qualification ranking with the Portuguese star set to start directly behind Volker, the same order in which they lined up for Round 3 in Italy. A track where the majority of A-Main drivers agree overtaking will be ‘impossible’, Sobue starts third and could be perfectly placed should there be a repeat of the sparks that flew in Riccione.
While it was quickly apparent that Sobue, his only potential challenger for pole position, was struggling after a change of tyres, Volker still wanted to put his Yokomo top of the time sheets. The reigning champion said said it was all going well until the middle of the run when a number of incidents by other drivers caused him to fall out of his rhythm. With this allowing first Alexander Hagberg until a mistake and then Coelho to take up the TQ pace, Volker threw everything he had at it for the last lap in the hope it might be enough. Driving his BD7 ‘over the limit’ it would became the only car to do a sub 12-second lap with a very impressive 11.984 time but it wasnt enough to deny Coelho the TQ and second on the grid. Commenting in the race Volker, who saw off an intense challenge from his team mate Yannic Prumper last year, said ‘it is super difficult to overtake but Bruno is on fire so I will just try not to give him the opportunity to attempt a pass’.
Very happy to get a TQ, having been on a TQ pace at one stage in each of the four qualifiers, Coelho said his T4 was ‘super good’ at the end of the 5-minutes but was equally super bad at the start. Saying his and Volker’s cars are opposite to how they were in Italy, him now struggling at the start of the run, the 21-year-old feels his issue is tyre related ad he will try a different prep for A1. Asking about getting passed Volker, the World championship runner up not impressed by Volker’s attempts in Italy, he said it would be super difficult if not impossible as it is also very easy to drive defensively but ‘for sure I will try to pass’.
Sobue said his second set of tyres were ‘maximum not good’ and he would fit ‘very old tyres’ for the final. The 20-year-old, who has really impressed this weekend especially as his high profile team mate Marc Rheinard lines up an uncompetitive 8th on the grid, said while racing for the win would be very hard due to the nature of the track even though he wasn’t there he said if history was repeated between Volker & Coelho he was in the right place.
With his T4 unlike team-mate Coelho’s very strong at the start, Hagberg said the run was ‘super good’ until he made a mistake and hopped the curbs causing him to miss his line coming into the chicane. The Swede said his car should be good for the final but a quick car was one thing with the track offering little opportunities for overtaking unless the driver ahead makes a mistake.
Winner in Riccione, ending a 3-year winning hiatus, Yannic Prumper starts a disappointing fifth and joked he ‘hope(s) they all crash and (he can) take advantage’. The 21-year-old knows better than most how difficult it is to pass on the boards layout track having last year ran on the rear bumper of his Yokomo team-mate Volker without being able to find a way past. While his Much More powered BD7 was ‘a little better’ in the final qualifier as he again claimed P4 he said they plan to ‘go big or go home’ with a set-up change for tomorrow’s finals.
Securing his 3rd ETS A-Main appearance in as many years, one per season, Marco Kaufmann was delighted at achieving his best ever qualifying position with 6th on the grid. Making Xray the best represented manufacturer in the Ride Modified A-final, the German said he has been very happy with his T4 which is plenty fast as highlighted by the fact that even with mistakes in the final qualifying he still managed a P5.
Completing the grid will be Serpent’s Marc Fischer who starts 7th and whose new team-mate Viktor Wilck just scrapped on to the back of the 10-car grid on a tie breaker with HB’s Andy Moore. Starting between the two Serpents will be Rheinard and Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski, the event marking the former ETS Hobby Class Champion’s first Modified A-Main appearance.
In the Xray Pro Stock class while Jan Ratheisky and Mike Gosvig topped Q3 & 4 respectively it is ETS Czech Republic winner Lars Hoppe who took overall TQ. Having topped both of yesterday’s qualifiers, the ARC driver starts on pole position in front of the Xrays of Gosvig and Ratheisky. Nursing a shoulder injury that forced him to miss Italy, that doesn’t seem to be hampering the German too much. Defending champion and current points leader Marek Cerny he managed to turn around a terrible first day of qualifying, suffering a DNF and a DNS, by scrapping onto the back of the grid.
In Formula it was defending champion Ratheisky who resumed business as usual following his Round 3 absence. His third TQ in as many races, the Xray driver starts ahead of the Serpent of Rccione winner David Ehrbar with Gosvig and Italian Michele Romagnoli lining up in 3rd and 4th.
View the complete event results here.
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Euro Touring Series Rd4 – Saturday Action
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