Ronald Volker is the top seed for qualifying at the sixth & final round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Slovakia with his rivals unable to better the time set by the defending champion in the first of the two timed practice runs. Also topping the 2nd practice, with a 3-consecutive lap time that was half a second slower than his earlier run, the Yokomo driver will lead away the top heat in qualifying with his team-mate Yannic Prumper, who also failed to improve on his opening time, starting behind him. Having posted the fourth fastest time in P1, Tamiya’s Viktor Wilck was fastest of the drivers to improve in P2 as he posted the 2nd quickest time behind Volker which will rank the Swede third for qualifying ahead of team-mate & title contender Marc Rheinard.
Volker said he was not surprised at being slower in the second practice as they expected this due to the high temperatures. Despite the slower pace, the German said his LRP powered BD7 was still well balanced but having made a mistake in both his practice runs he said even with a good car the track is still challenging and going for a clean 5-minute qualifier ‘will not be so easy’. In terms of set-up, Volker said while his car feels better today than yesterday, they may look at making some very minor changes based on information they gathered running in the cooler conditions yesterday evening.
Team-mate Prumper posted the 3rd fastest time in P2, the German saying a small droop change made by his mechanic Toni Rheinard made his BD7 roll too much and for the opening qualifier he will revert to how the car was in P1.
Improving his time by 5/10ths, Wilck said his TRF417 was a little better following a change to a lighter shock oil and a change of tyre additive. The Swede said he will stick with the same set-up for the first qualifier adding that it is all down to what set of tyres he gets as he felt the sets of tyres he used in his two practice runs felt quite different.
Despite failing to improve on his P1 time, a time he was not pleased with when compared to Volker’s blistering pace, Rheinard looked a lot more relieved after P2 having discovered the front right double joint CVD on his Tamiya was extremely tight. The German said this would ‘for sure’ have effected the car particularly in the high speed corners adding that he hopes this is the reason for him being over one second off his arch rival Volker over just three consecutive laps. Starting behind the 3-time World Champion will be HB’s Andy Moore whose second practice only lasted little over 3-minutes after a tyre came unglued.
Making a huge step forward in terms of pace Team Xray’s Magnus Vassmar went from being 10th fastest in P1 to setting the 6th fastest time overall making him the top Xray seed going into qualifying. The Swedish driver said a combination of a lot of small changes to his T4 had ‘finally’ given him the feeling he was looking for from the car. The changes made the car much easier to drive and improved its rotation in the corners. Although the rear of the car may be now a little too loose he said the direction he has taken with the set-up is much better and he will stay the same for Q1 as he is confident over 5-minutes it should be good.
Getting bumped back to 7th by his Xray team-mate, Alexander Hagberg said he is ‘still too slow’ with the suspension geometry change he made for P2 ‘not really any better’. Planning to revert to his regular base set-up for the first qualifier he said he will try instead to focus on doing as good an run as possible and hope it gives him a solid points haul for the opening round of 5 qualifiers.
Starting ninth, behind Serpent’s Marc Fischer who improved slightly on his P1 time, factory Awesomatix driver Freddy Sudhoff was very happy with his second practice which was half a second faster than his earlier run. With new parts arriving for the A700 last night with the car’s designer Oleg Babich, which help prevent torque steer on the all shaft drive chassis, Sudhoff said the car is getting better and better as they find what is the best combination of using the new parts with regular parts on the car.
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Ronald Volker has made his intentions very clear at the season finale of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series at the amazing Hudy Racing Arena in Slovakia, the Yokomo driver topping the first timed practice by a massive 4/10th over 3-consecutive laps from team-mate Yannic Prumper with title rival Marc Rheinard over a second off Volker’s blistering pace in 3rd. With Volker and Rheinard here to battle it out to become champion of this the sixth season of the ETS, the scenarios are simple. For Rheinard to deny Volker a third consecutive title, he must win anything less and irrespective of where his fellow German finishes on Sunday the title stays with Yokomo. Should qualifying go the way of Volker, securing him the bonus championship point for TQ honours, and even if Rheinard can pass him for the win then second would still be enough for Volker to defend his title so ultimately the pressure is on the Tamiya driver.
Having been content with his pace yesterday in open practice, today the first of two time practice runs left Rheinard clearly stunned by Yokomo’s pace. ‘I don’t know where he makes up the time’ was how Rheinard summed up Volker’s pace. Running a fastest lap which is 4/10th fastest than Rheinard’s best, the former 3-time World Champion said having thought they were in touch with the Yokomos yesterday, today ‘the gap is huge’ and he has no idea what he can do to find the pace.
While Rheinard had a certain look of defeat on his face after the first time practice, Volker had a quiet air of confidence about him. Having yet to win an outdoor ETS race in the series 33 race history, Volker summed up his run with ‘we’re doing well’. Describing the track as ‘the perfect track for racing Mod Touring Car’, he added that there was ‘no better place to host the ETS Finale’. Having found a ‘good set-up’ in yesterday’s open practice he said the balance of his BD7 is perfect. Happy with the performance of the car in the hot midday conditions he said for the final practice he will run the car as is but with the opening two qualifiers set to take place later this evening he said they will probably have to make a change to suit the cooler conditions.
Describing the track as ‘amazing to drive’ adding that he really likes the technical layout, Prumper said his BD7 was really difficult for the first 2-laps something he is putting down to the particular set of handout Ride tyres he ran. After 4 laps the 19-year-old said the car was really good and other than freshening up the shocks and diff he will stay the same for the second timed practice, the best of the two counting for a reseed of the drivers for qualifying.
The only other driver apart from the two title contenders to win a race this season, Vikor Wilck set the fourth fastest time. The Tamiya Racing Factory driver tried a different additive which he said on the hotter track was no better than what he ran in the morning’s open practice run. The Swede said at the beginning of the run this TRF417 feels ‘actually OK’ but then thee tyres go off causing the car to develop understeer. Asked what he plans to try for his next run the Gran Canaria winner said the ‘Yokomos were way too strong’ adding that ‘even if they improve the car he’s not sure its going to be enough to close such a gap’.
Having ‘essentially wasted a day yesterday’ due to a problem with a prototype Sanwa radio he was using, HB’s Andy Moore was very happy to post the 5th fastest time. Having had his regular Sanwa radio shipped from the UK overnight, the 2006 World Champion said today he feels like he is at the races and back on the same page as everyone else. Generally happy with his TCXX he said he will use the final practice to try a few small changes which he hopes will bring him that bit closer to the lead pace.
Completing the Top 6 was Alexander Hagberg. Team Xray’s lead driver said he is struggling a little. Knowing the track better than most, this being Xray’s development track, the Swede said his T4 feels good to drive but on the time sheets it’s too slow. Feeling that the car is maybe too easy to drive he said for the next practice he will run a different suspension geometry. Team-mate Marco Kaufmann took his example of the T4 to the 8th fastest time just behind the Tamiya of Thomas Pumpler. The 19-year-old is happy with the consistency of his car but looking to find a little more corner speed he will adjust the front anti-dive for his next practice.
Serpent’s Marc Fischer took his S411 to the ninth fastest time, the German describing his performance as ‘so so’. He said his car is good after 2-minutes but he needs to get it to work right from start adding that his rivals pace from the first lap is ‘awesome’. Feeling that his problem is tyre additive he said the difficult part is deciding which one is the best one to use.
In the Xray Pro stock class Marek Cerny set the pace from Danish driver Mike Gosvig with Dominic Vogl third. The Czech driver who leads the championship standing, and barring all but a disaster should be become champion of the series biggest class on Sunday, described his Xray T4 as ‘perfect’.
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Name – Hudy Racing Arena
Club – Private Track
Country – Slovakia
Location – Trencin (120 km North East of Bratislava)
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Asphalt
No. of ETS Races hosted – 0
The greatest R/C venue in the World, there is simply no other way to describe the Hudy Racing Arena in Slovakia. Built in 2006 on the grounds of a former soccer stadium, the massive 25,000 square metre facility also includes the factory of both Xray, the only true r/c car manufacturer in Europe, and Hudy but it is the Arena which dominates the grounds. Hosting its first international event this weekend as it plays host to the season finale of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series, the complex houses three tracks and from the moment racers drive in the main gate they can’t but be immediately impressed by what they see before them.
For the ETS it is the outdoor asphalt track that is being used while indoors there is another asphalt track and a carpet offroad track which this weekend had been cleared to make space for extra pitting area for the near 250 entries. In typical Hudy fashion everything about the Arena has been meticulously thought out with the first word out of every driver this morning being ‘amazing’. In terms of racing on the track, Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard said it is really nice but to go fast is quite hard due to the high speed chicane and end of the straight, which isn’t actually straight, making the breaking point difficult to get right each time.
Used mainly as a development track by Xray along with hosting Xray Challenge races, the Arena is open every Wednesday to the public for practice although the number of racers in the surrounding area is not particularly high. While the complex is already impressive it is set for further development with the addition of a cover dirt offroad track which Juraj Hudy said will be similar to the Padova track in Italy. This addition is expected to start construction later this year and is set to be ready to host its first race next year.
The story behind how Juraj Hudy and the journey his company took to his current location is very interesting. Located about 100 metres behind the Arena is a little row of garages on a back street where Juraj rented Unit No.1 in 1989 when communism ended in what was then known as Czechoslovakia. From there he started making parts for slot cars which he sold mainly to the United States through a friend of his who had emigrated there. Building up to two employees in the small unit, as he started to make drive shafts for Serpent, both these workers are still with the company which today employs 80 people. While working for yourself in communist times was not allowed, Juraj used to make 1:8 Onroad cars in his flat before he officially became self employed producing about 10 of these hand built cars a year. Out growing the ‘shed’ they then moved to a bigger unit in the town of Trencin which in turn they out grew as they expanded their product line which now includes the FX Engine brand. In the now ultra high-tech factory, the original machine which he started out with in Unit No.1 is still in use in amongst the computer controlled CNC machines.
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