[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20EiLNi2Rrg[/youtube]
Here is a video from the 3rd round of the Pro Stock practice which features lady racer Emma Lundgren as well as Rasmus T. Nielsen and other action from the 4th heat.
After four of the five rounds of practice the drivers are really starting to look good around the carpet track here in Denmark. First to run each round is the Hobby class, which was introduced to give club racers the chance to take part in the same event as some of the sports biggest names, and it is Poul Damgaard that has jumped to the top of the times sheets with his Xray T2 008 demoting Axel Thoms to second.
In Pro Stock Palle Hornum is setting the pace from Nicolai Nielsen with Corally driver Rasmus T. Callesen having produced his best run to go third fastest ahead of Dutchman Ronald Arts who says he is still settling into driving a Pro Stock car having previous raced Mod. Hornum has been making just small changes to his car with each run and this strategy appears to be working well. Serpent driver Nielsen says his car his working well but a cold has him feeling a little under the weather.
Jilles Groskamp continues to set the pace in Mod over 5 minutes but in terms of lap times it is his Tamiya team mate Viktor Wilck who is quickest with a time of 14.13 which he recorded in the fourth run. Marc Rheinard is the next fastest man on the lap charts 2/10th off the Swede with Groskamp next up. Both Groskamp and Rheinard are the only two in the Modified top 10 to not have set their fastest lap times in the most recent run.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhSZy816AjA[/youtube]
Here is another video from the second round of the Mod practice which features local Kyosho team driver Steen Graversen, Dutch driver Jilles Groskamp and Joel Myrberg from Sweden.
Jilles Groskamp will officially represent Speed Passion for the remainder of the racing season. In the pit area here at the 2nd round of the Much More backed ETS, the top International Tamiya driver confirmed to us that he has agreed a deal with Speed Passion to supply him with motors for the rest of the year. Jilles has run the Hong Kong made motors since the beginning of the season but only inked a deal at the TITC in Thailand 2 weeks ago that will also see the Dutch driver race Speed Passion at this year’s World Championships.
The second round of free practice had been completed here in Vejle and drivers are starting to settle in to what they are generally describing as a very fast track. In Modified Jilles Groskamp continues to set the pace. The Tamiya driver tried a different armature during his second run to try and fine tune his motor for the long straight. All the modified runners appear to be working on getting the best combination of top speed and run time with one or two worried about making time come qualifying. Associated team driver Joel Myrberg lost all drive on his TC5 which he believes was down to a problem with his rear diff but the fast Swede was much happier with his car on the second outing. Normally preferring a technical track Joel admitted to liking fast layout of the track here. Second on the timesheets currently is local Johnni Andersen at the controls of his Yokomo BD.
In the biggest class here this weekend, Pro Stock, it is Palle Hornum and his Xray that are setting the pace over Serpent S400 pairing of Nicolai Nielsen and Ronald Arts from the Netherlands. Axel Thoms heads the Hobby class with his Corally over the Xray of Evan Jepsen.
Two interesting competitors in the second round of the ETS are female competitors Emma Lundgren and Christina Thisted-Hoeg. Emma is one of the youngest competitors here this weekend and she is doing a solid job in the Pro-Stock Class. Christina, better known as the girlfriend of top international Danish racer and Kyosho team driver Steen Graversen, is racing in the Hobby class and should have no problems getting a good set-up from her mentor!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xcF6JdW_GM[/youtube]
Video from the first round of practice in the modified category showing Team Associated driver Joel Myrberg and Tamiya team drivers Jilles Groskamp and Marc Rheinard.
Upon arrival at the first day of the Much More backed ETS event this morning, the drivers present were greeted by a beautifully presented, large and challenging track. After registration and the handout of the tires, Checkpoint stock motors and great looking event t-shirts, the first practice got underway. First to make their way tentatively on the track this morning was the Hobby class (27 Turn), followed a number of heats of Pro Stock running the handout motor and finally the modified guys got their run.
The first round of practice heats are now complete and the drivers have 4 more opportunities to fine tune their cars ahead of the 4 qualifiers. Its too early at this stage to say who is truly setting the pace but in Modified practice Jilles Groskamp was the quickest in his practice run with his Tamiya TRF416 and for Pro Stock the early pace setter was Jan Van Steeg.
You can follow the results, brought to you by BBK timing, in the right hand site of our site, just below the sponsors logos.
We are here at the 2nd round the Much More backed European Touring Seres that takes place this weekend in Vejle, Denmark and during a break in preperations we managed to sit down with one of the ETS organisers Scotty Ernst to talk about this exciting new series.
Red RC – Your probably best known as the man behind the great IIC event in Vegas but now you are promoting a new series in Europe called the European Touring Series. Can you tell us more about the ETS?
Scotty – The ETS is an exciting new series that I am working on with Uwe Rheinard who is a well known face in European racing because of his two sons Marc and Toni. The idea for the series came about last year when I was commentating at a race in Europe where myself and Uwe discussed the concept of a series of friendship races.
Red RC – You are a very handy man at the controls of an r/c car so how did you end up going from top racer to top race promoter?
Scotty – After years of announcing races at my own race track, Trackside Hobbies, I learned to really enjoy announcing races, as well as orgainising them and after attending a number of races around the US, I felt that they could be organised better and done with more detail. My first event away from my home track was the IIC in 2005 and its basically snowballed from there.
Red RC – This weekend you are in Denmark for Round 2 of the European Touring Series. Any predictions for this race?
Scotty – I’m confident everyone will walk away from this event having had a memorable experience racing with us. Rene Hovgaard and his team have done a perfect job assembling a top class venue that we are privelaged to bring the Much More backed ETS to. Regarding the serious stuff its obviously a tough one to call, I have to say Viktor Wilck is riding the highest of the drivers who are here with his win at the DHI Cup earlier this year and a strong showing at the TITC in Thailand 2 weeks ago.
Red RC – In addition to Denmark, the series will also visit the Netherlands, Austria and Germany. What made you choose these particular countries?
Scotty – The first year we wanted to run at venues which had the organisation and infrastructure to allow us to showcase what our series is about and give the ability to reach as many racers in as many different countries as possible.
Red RC – Do you have any plans to expand the series in the future and what other countries you would like to see added to the ETS schedule?
Scotty – We definitely want to move the series to eventually cover every area of Europe. The one place I really want to bring an event to is the UK, we had hoped to do it this year, but for logistical reasons we couldn’t. With Andy Moore, the current World Champion being from the UK, and the country having such a good following of touring cars, it will be great to have an event there.
Red RC – We have heard rumours that there are certain members of the industry opposed to the ETS. Surely a professionally run and well promoted series like the ETS is a good thing for our sport?
Scotty – I’ve also heard of people in the industry objecting to our series and unbelieveably working to try to cause our series to fail. This is quite dissapointing for me that people could be so short sighted when all we want our series to do is to raise the profile of our sport and thus encourage more participation. Its only a minority of people that have this view so our plans continue unaffected.
Red RC – As the International ‘Voice of RC Racing’ you travel around the world bringing your legendary commentary to races. Got any interesting plans for all those air miles you’ve clocked up?
Scotty – I use them to go on vacation with my family and also to take my eldest daughter Sarah, who also races, to events around the US.
Red RC – Finally if you had the power to change one single thing about our sport what would it be?
Scotty – That as we get older and we can still race against the young guys. But seriously I wish there was some way we could expose this awesome hobby to the masses of the World to make this hobby grow larger than any of us could fathom.
