Video – Modified, Pro Stock & Formula A3
Prumper ends 3-year winning hiatus in Italy
Yannic Prumper ended a 3-year winning hiatus today when he headed a Yokomo 1-2 on the return of the Euro Touring Series to Italy. Last winning an ETS encounter in 2012 when he took victory at the season finale in Traiskirchen, the German claimed his third ever ETS win today in Riccione thanks to his A1 winning race time. Going into the third A-Main as one of three drivers who could take the overall win, second would secure him the top step in the podium, his A1 time giving him the tie break over A2 winner Meen Vejrak. Vejrak’s ETS first podium finish, the first asphalt race of Season #8 would also see Xray’s Bruno Coelho claim his first podium of the championship, the exciting Portuguese driver gaining a lot of new supporters with his efforts over the weekend. For defending champion Ronald Volker the event would end a 15-race, 3-year, run of podium finishes for the Yokomo driver as he finished 4th overall. Top Qualifier in Italy, the bonus point for pole position means with half the season complete Volker still maintains his lead in the points standings.
‘Finally after 3-years of being so close its worked out’, said a very happy Prumper. Starting from third on the grid behind Volker and Coelho, the 21-year-old said while he had no idea why his Muchmore powered BD7 was better than the previous two mains he also ‘got lucky when Bruno had a slide at the beginning (of the race)’. Allowing him through to second on the opening lap, Prumper would hold position until a recovering Coelho attempted a pass on the penultimate lap but contact would result in a body tuck yet again scuppering an exciting climax to the race. With a body tuck also ruining the prospect of a great battle between Volker and Coelho in A1 maybe its time the structure of bodyshells needs to be looked at. On the final lap Coelho would let Prumper resume position, the winner complimenting his competitor afterwards for showing ‘great sportsmanship’. Putting him right in the championship hunt as he sits just one point off Volker, Prumper said he is already looking forward to Round 4 in Mattsee in three weeks time pointing out it was a strong track for him last year as he made Volker work hard for the win there.
Happy to claim his first ETS podium finish and be part of a Yokomo 1-2, Vejrak was at the same time a little frustrated he never got the chance to race with his team-mate for the overall win in A3. Starting fourth behind Prumper, an out of shape Coehlo would make contact with his BD7 sending him off the track and back to last. Setting the fastest lap of A3 he said while his car was ‘really good’ the time lost on the first lap was too much to make up. His first ETS outing of the 2014/15 season, the 2012 Nitro Touring Car World Champion said the weekend has shown he has made a big step forward with driving the Yokomo. With the result putting him in the mix in terms of the overall championship he confirmed he will now contest the rest of the ETS season.
Struggling in A3, having had one of the strongest cars over the opening laps of the previous two mains, Coelho said his T4 was ‘super strange’ for the closing race adding that the crash with Volker on the last lap of A2 must have broken broken something as he ran the same set-up. Although the weekend still marked the championship newcomer’s first podium finish, he said ‘it is disappointing to know you have the best car and when all is perfect others prevent you from doing your job’. While the 21-year-old said he doesn’t really know what to expect at the next round in Austria, the event run on rather unique track, he will prepare the best he can and see what happens.
With ‘nothing to win or lose’, Volker switched cars for A3 saying they decided after struggling in the early laps of A1 & 2 to go with his second BD7 and ‘just give it a shot’. The 11-time ETS race winner said the car was better with it have ‘good rear traction’ from the start adding the set of tyres & weather, it much hotter for A3, may have contributed to the improvement. Describing his 4th overall as ‘lucky’, given the previous mains, he said the result was a copy of his arch rival Rheinard’s when the Tamiya driver TQ’d but ended up fourth in the final. Happy for his two team-mate’s success, the four time back to back champion said today’s result throws the championship wide open. He continued with ‘Yannic as well as Bruno and Vejrak now contenders I think its going to create a lot of interest in the rest of the season’. Having come to Italy joint leader of the championship Marc Rheinard would finish 5th overall a result that drops the Tamiya driver to third in the standings 2-points behind Prumper.
Also decided in A3 was the Formula A-Main. Having messed up the start in A1, recovering to finish 2nd and then having a bad A2, Top Qualifier David Ehrbar would win A3 to give Serpent’s F110 SF2 its first overall ETS victory. Behind the German, A2 winner Martin Hofer would claim 2nd overall for Yokomo while Italy’s Michele Romagnoli, who took A1, would complete the podium. With defending champion Marek Cerny wrapping up the Pro Stock win in A2, the third final would see Hofer win to finish runner-up. Surprising everyone when he TQ’d the opening qualifier Team C’s Johannes Sperr capped off a great weekend as he completed the podium at Road Race Riccione RC Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
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Video – Modified & Pro Stock A2
Vejrak handed dramatic last lap A2 win
Meen Vejrak sits perfectly poised to claim his first ever Yokomo Euro Touring Series victory as the Thai driver was dramatically handed a last lap A2 win when Top Qualifier Ronald Volker ran into the back of race leader Bruno Coelho on the final run down the main straight. Having got past team-mate Yannic Prumper earlier in the race, Vejrak was able to slip through the chaos with three corners to go to take the win half a second from a recovering Coelho while A1 winner Prumper completed the Top 3.
With Coelho and Volker also making contact in the opening A-Main as the former tried a pass on the defending champion, Coelho this time round made an impressive pass on the Yokomo driver stick and looked to be on his way to check out for the win. With Volker’s car improving, with 2-minutes to go he started to close the gap on the leading Xray. Right with the Portugese driver, on the final run through the sweeper Volker would get a better run on his rival but half way down the straight he would spectacularly end up rear ending the white T4.
Giving his reaction to the incident Coelho, ‘I think I made a great overtake on him (Volker) and then I only try to defend and do nothing stupid but on the last lap he crashed me. There was no way to pass me in that place’. One of the most exciting drivers to emerge in top flight international electric touring car racing in recent years, the 21-year-old said ‘at least I still managed to get second so the overall win is still on and for sure I will go for it in A3’. The overall win is now a three way battle but even with a win in the closing leg Coelho needs to run a faster ran time than Vejrak’s A2 winning time or if Prumper can get second he must beat the A1 winning time.
Getting a 10-second penalty for causing the incident and going to Coelho’s pits immediately afterwards to apologise and take the full blame, Volker said ‘I feel absolutely terrible and know I made the wrong decision’. He continued ‘I knew it was risky because of the bump before the sweeper but I gambled and got the perfect line onto the straight but I wasn’t prepared for the speed difference and collected Bruno, I can fully understand Team Xray being mad at me. It was not intentional and in hinesight I should have settle for second not just in terms of having a chance for the win today but in terms too for the overall championship’.
‘Car is improving and so is my luck’ joked Vejrak after the race. The former Nitro Touring Car World Champion said he was doubly lucky. Improving his car for the second A-Main by again changing back to the rear arms he ran in qualifying and fitting a more flexible top deck, he said having got by Prumper a broken sensor cover, which allowed the motor timing to change, left him lacking straight like speed but luckily the motor kept running. Focusing on keeping Prumper behind on the last lap he said all of a sudden he was leading. Describing his BD7 as ‘perfect’ he said other than fit a new motor sensor cover he would run it as is confident he can now race for a win on true performance.
Prumper said a bad line over the bump unsettled his car causing him to hit the curbing onto the straight allowing Vejrak through. Able to come back at his team-mate he said he did have enough to try for a pass. While a second place finish could secure him the overall win he said due to the race time tie breaker he has no choice but to go for the win in A3. Behind the Top 3, Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard would finish 4th followed by Alexander Hagberg with Freddy Sudhoff completing the Top 6.
In a more sedate second A-Main of the Xray Pro Stock class Marek Cerny took the win to claim his second overall win of the Season #8. Behind the defending champion, Christian Donath would finish second having got by the Yokomo of former champion Martin Hofer. In Formula, Hofer would take the win from Roman Pichler and Marco Donadelli as A1 winner Michele Romagnoli and Top Qualifier David Ehrbar had a difficult race.
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Euro Touring Series Rd3 – Sunday Action
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Video – Modified, Pro Stock & Formula A1
Prumper wins action packed A1 in Italy
Yannic Prumper has won an action packed opening A-Main at Round 3 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Italy, the Yokomo driver heading a somewhat unexpected Yokomo 1-2 from team-mate Meen Vejrak. From the start it was an action packed race as Top Qualifier Ronald Volker and the no.2 starting Xray of Bruno Coelho made contact on lap 3. With Coelho coming off worst and dropping to the tail of the field while Volker continued to lead clearly struggling, the German would then put his Yokomo on the grass allowing five cars through. Posting the fastest lap of the race, once in front Prumper took control followed by Vejrak while the ever spectacular Coelho worked his way back to the front to finish 3rd, followed by Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg. Suffering his third incident of the race when he rolled after contact with championship title rival Marc Rheinard, Volker would eventually finish up 7th. Unfortunately after a good start by HB’s Jilles Groskamp his race would come to a sudden end when the former World Champion collected the Tamiya of Christopher Krapp, his replacement at TRF, which after crashing slid from the middle section of the track and into the path of the fourth placed PRO5, the high speed contact breaking both cars.
‘A very good start to the day’ was how Prumper summed up the first A-Main. Describing his Muchmore powered BD7 as ‘a little loose for the first few laps’, putting that down to running on new tyres, he said after that the car was ‘very good’. Catching up his team-mate he said he the then ‘got unlucky’ as Volker made a mistake letting him to go into the lead and with no pressure from Vejrak the race was pretty straight forward thereafter. The 21-year-old, who came into the weekend sitting joint third in the standings with Hagberg, is clearly fired up by the prospects of claim his first ETS win his Austria in 2012.
Continuing to turn around his weekend after qualifying started out with two DNFs, Vejrak was pleased with second from his best ETS starting position of fourth. Running a different rear arm on his Scorpion powered BD7, he said it gave him more steering but during the race the wind started to cause the car to get loose and he never got to opportunity to take the fight to his team-mate as he played safe to maintain second. Playing catch-up in terms of setup as he needed to run the car unchanged in the final two qualifiers to be sure of getting two finishes, he said he will further change the car for A2 as he looks for more forward traction.
‘Unlucky’, that was Coelho’s reaction to finishing third. A welcomed addition to the championship, this season being his first campaign, the Portuguese star said ‘I overtook Ronald (Volker) but he he put me out’. Describing his LRP powered T4 as ‘super good’ he declared A2 will be better and ‘next time I will make the pass stick’.
Giving his view of the incident Volker said ‘Surely it’s not how I wanted to start the day’. ‘Bruno pushed hard and tried to pass me around the outside but in my opinion he was not far enough ahead for me to give up the corner and unfortunately he suffered a body tuck’. The championship leader said ‘I lacked overall traction from start to finish and I had a hard time just getting around the track’. Still in the lead, he said through the long right hander he got out of shape touching the paint and it was this that cost him the win. Hoping his traction issues were only due to his first set of tyres he said hopefully for the next one the second set will be fine.
‘I improved from 6th to 4th so the race was OK’, was Hagberg’s reaction to the race. Running third for a time he said a little mistake lost him that position and had it not been his team-mate Coelho he would not have opened up so much. Describing his T4 as ‘alright’ over the 5-minutes, the Swede said he is ‘pretty optimistc’ for A2 that he can again move up places through the race.
From 8th on the grid Freddy Sudhoff would finish 5th. The HB driver said a set-up change made after qualifying gave him a car that better suited his driving style. Trying a pass on Hagberg at the end of the straight the German said he locked up hard and after that his tyres were done. Behind Sudhoff, France’s Loic Jasmin would complete the Top 6.
In the Xray Pro Stock class Marek Cerny would take an easy tone to tone win. The Xray driver was never troubled over the 5-minutes as won by over 2-seconds from the Yokomo of Martin Hofer while Team C’s Johannes Sperr completed the Top 3. In Formula, Top Qualifier David Ehrbar made a mess of the start allowing Hofer to lead. Caught in traffic the German would be pushed out onto the grass allowing Michele Romagnoli to the front where he would stay to win from a recovering Ehrbar.
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Volker claims 16th ETS TQ in Italy
On the return of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series to Italy it is Ronald Volker who will start on pole position, the Yokomo driver claiming his 16th overall TQ of the championship at the Road Race Riccione RC Circuit Marco Simoncelli. With only Bruno Coelho a possible challenger to the defending ETS champion becoming Top Qualifier at the third round of the championship, a mistake by the Xray driver in the fourth & final qualifier allowed Volker to record his third TQ run of the weekend. Despite losing over 3-seconds, Coelho would still post the second fastest time and the only driver to truly challenge Volker this weekend he will start his first asphalt ETS appearance from 2nd on the grid setting the stage for an exciting head to head dual in tomorrow’s triple A-Mains. Having come into the weekend as joint leader of the championship with Marc Rheinard, Volker moves one point ahead now and with his arch rival starting fifth that advantage looks likely to grow. While Rheinard had his best round in Q4 recording his only Top 3 run the same couldn’t be said for his new team-mate & reigning World Champion Naoto Matsukura and the Japanese ace will line-up on the B-Main grid on his TRF debut in the ETS.
Confident Coelho would not be able to better his Q1 in order to deny him the overall TQ, Volker used the final qualifier to test a set-up change and despite being on used tyres said his LRP powered BD7 was better than the previous run on new tyres. With better overall balance the German said he was able to push harder pointing out that despite Coelho, who started directly behind him, being on new tyres the Portuguese driver was only closing the gap a little until his error. Looking to tomorrow’s finals he said he hoped he could bring home the win but added it wont be easy as he expects Coelho to push even harder than he did in qualifying. His first TQ start since winning the his fourth title in Luxembourg last season, when asked about the track for racing he said normally big tracks are not good but here there are 2 or 3 spots where a different line is possible which could be used to set-up a pass on the exit of the corner.
‘Car was super fast & super good but I made a mistake’, was Coelho’s take on the closing qualifier. Last October’s World Championship runner-up, the 21-year-old is very confident for the finals saying ‘for sure I can fight with Ronald (Volker)’ for the win. His first ETS race on asphalt, he said he has the car to win and he will leave his LRP powered T4 unchanged adding ‘it is just down to him to drive it tomorrow’.
Starting third on the grid will be Yannic Prumper. While the Yokomo driver didn’t get to make the most of his second set of tyres in the final qualifier suffering a spin out on lap 4, the German is ‘quite confident’ for tomorrow. Having suffered a boost problem in Q3 a call to Muchmore’s Mr. Jang indicated that the problem was caused by the overheat protection. Originally planning to fit a new motor & speedo, mechanic Toni Rheinard instead fit a fan to the motor and for Q4 everything ran with no problems. Describing third as a good position to be if something happens between Volker & Coelho, he said the big thing for him is to be starting ahead of Alexander Hagberg with whom he is currently tied for third in the championship standings.
Having started out qualifying with two DNFs, Yokomo’s Meen Vejrak managed to turn things around and secure his best ever starting position of 4th thanks to another strong run in the final qualifier. Leaving his BD7 unchanged as he didn’t want to take any unessecary risk the Thai driver posted the fourth fastest time ahead of team-mate Loic Jasmin, a result that would also put the French driver into the A-Main. Having conducted a lot of testing back in Thailand since his last ETS outing last season the former nitro World Champion said his driving style is now better adapted to the Yokomo and that is reflected in his improved competitiveness this weekend. Preferring to run his own set-up rather than follow that of Volker or Prumper, who have different driving styles, he said together with Yokomo team-manager Robert Itoh they have a few ideas they will try for A1 in the hope of improving the car.
Commenting on his Q4 performance Rheinard said his TRF419 ‘feels OK’ for the first 7 or 8 laps but then just loses 3/10th of a second a lap which is the same problem he’s been suffering all weekend. With ‘no pace for the Main’, the championship’s most winning driver said all he ‘can hope for is trouble up front so that he can sneak through’. Not the weekend the Round 2 winner had hoped for, TRF’s newest signing Christopher Krapp will join Rheinard on the grid as he scraped into 10th position with a 6th in the final qualifier.
Going into the final qualifier holding provisional 4th on the grid, Alexander Hagberg was ‘very disappointed’ with his closing qualifier. The Swede was on a strong run but ‘messed up’ on the penultimate lap which dropped him to 9th for the round and he got bumped back to 6th on the starting grid by Vejrak and Rheinard. The Xray driver said while he hopes to be able to finish higher in the final he said a podium would now be difficult ‘but that’s how it is sometimes’.
Making his debut for HB in Riccione, Jilles Groskamp will start the finals seventh ahead of team-mate Freddy Sudhoff. With the high quality field, a number of big names finding themselves in the B-Main, the Dutch driver said for his first race with HB’s new PRO5 7th in qualifying was ‘overall a good start’. Making an ‘extreme set-up change’, going in the completely opposite direction to before, he said while it ‘absolutely didn’t work’ he was happy that it showed changes make a difference to how the car reacts. For the final the plan is to use each main to test further set-up and build up data for future races. While disappointed for long time HB driver Andy Moore who has struggled all weekend he said ‘getting two drivers in the final is good for the new car’.
‘Super happy to be in the A-Main on asphalt again’, that was Sudhoff’s reaction to qualifying 8th. Although he made the A-Main on the asphalt surfaced Mattsee round in Austria last season, he said not counting that it has been a while since he has made the A-Main grid at a big outdoor race. The German said over the last two qualifiers they ‘tried a lot of stuff’ of which ‘some worked and some didn’t’ but as a result they had found a good direction in which to go for tomorrow and he is confident they can find better pace for the final.
For the Xray Pro Stock A-Main it will also be the defending champion who starts on pole with Marek Cerny claiming his second overall TQ of Season #8. The Xray driver produced a third TQ run in the fourth and final qualifier ahead of Martin Hofer, a result that will see the former champion start 2nd. Christian Donath’s Tamiya will line up third with Q1 pace setter Johannes Sperr’s Team C securing fourth on the grid.
In Formula, David Ehrbar secured Serpent’s first TQ of the season thanks to his Q1 pace as Martin Hofer backed up his Q3 run to take the final qualifier leaving the two German’s tied on points.
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