Euro Touring Series » ETS 13/14 Rd4 Mattsee Austria

May 10, 2014

‘From Race Control’ – Day 2, Qualifying/Lower Finals

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Day 2 of the inaugural fahr(T)raum hosted fourth round of the ETS has 3 rounds of qualifying on the schedule. With two of the four rounds counting, for some drivers today will also see them run the first of their three finals with lower Mains planned for later in the day. The second day of action will conclude with the ‘Dash for Cash’ which on the US boards style track is sure to provide plenty of action. Red RC will again broadcast all of today’s action live on the Youtube channel which can be viewed here

May 9, 2014

Euro Touring Series Rd4 – Friday Action

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4yfRuHtSVE[/youtube]

May 9, 2014

Volker TQs opening ETS qualifier in Austria

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Ronald Volker has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the fourth round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Mattsee, Austria. Having set the pace in practice at the fahr(T)raum event to lead away the top heat of qualifying, the Team Yokomo star was the only driver to do 24 laps of the unforgiving US style track but the defending champion faced a stern challenge from Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard. Setting the TQ pace for a time Rheinard would post the second fastest time, just missing out on 24-laps, with TRF team-mate Viktor Wilck third. Fading light made for challenging conditions for the top modified drivers, Volker’s Yokomo team-mate Dominik Fleischmann who was fastest in the final practice particularly struggling in the difficult light.

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‘An interesting Q1’ was how Volker summed up the first of the weekend’s four scheduled qualifiers. The German said due to the conditions, the tent covering the track compounding the low light levels, he struggled over the first minute of the run. Eventually able to find his rhythm he said he worked on catching Rheinard and once ahead set his focus on keeping the run clean, a lot of drivers falling fowl of the boards. Very happy with his BD7, having done little to the car over the opening day, he said it was nice to end Day 1 with a TQ run already in the bag and he is looking forward to racing the remaining qualifiers in better lighting. An early finish to qualifying planned for tomorrow.

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Rheinard was pleased to show his TRF418 is competitive but at the same time was slightly frustrated at having been so close to a TQ run. Only 6th fastest in practice, the 3-time World Champion had to start Q1 in that position which he said was enough to put him out of his rhythm a few times over the run. Describing it as ‘not a bad start’, the ETS’ most winning driver said he knows the pace is there and this is a big confidence boost for tomorrow. The result will also mean he starts second right behind his arch rival Volker for Q2.

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Wilck said he was ‘happy enough with (his) pace’ adding that his TRF418 was ‘for sure better on used tyres’. A few small mistakes at the start of the run meant he had to let his team-mate Rheinard by adding to the lost time but looking to tomorrow the Swede said he should be in good shaped helped too by a better starting position.

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Setting the fourth fastest time Yannic Prumper said his Much More powered Yokomo had some under steer at the start but it improved over the run. Admitting to struggling with low light, he had one crash while lapping traffic adding all things considered 4th was an ‘OK’ start to qualifying. Asked if he would change the car due to the understeer suffered he said for Q2 he would most likely stay as is as it wasn’t anything to major.

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‘Had a chance of a top 3 but messed it up’ was Alexander Hagberg’s summary of his qualifier. Ending up 5th after a crash of his own doing, the Round 2 race winner who currently sits second in the championship standings, said he improved his ORCA powered T4 from practice and all that needs working on for tomorrow is his driving.

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Completing the Top 6, Marc Fischer also felt he was on target for ‘an easy Top 3’. Switching to a softer rear diff and lighter shock oil on his S411 ERYX 3.0, the factory Serpent driver said the changes made the ‘car really good’. Feeling the conditions were already too dark he said for sure it was his own mistake that cost him a good opening qualifier.

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Andy Moore had trouble seeing too but just the top right corner due to Fischer’s stance on the drivers stand. Finding this a distraction to getting into a good rhythm, Fischer leaning slightly forward as he drives, he said his TCXX was better than final practice and said he hopes tomorrow he can continue to keep making steps in the right direction.

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In the Xray Pro Stock class, championship leader Jan Ratheisky TQ’d the opening qualifier ahead of Tobias Seidl with practice pace setter Marek Cerny third. It was the perfect first day for Ratheisky, the Team Xray driver also TQing Q1 of Formula ahead of VBC Racing’s Olivier Bultynck.

Ride Modified Round 1 Qualifying – Top 10
1. Ronald Volker – Team Yokomo – 24/5:12.113
2. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya Racing Factory – 23/5:00.351
3. Viktor Wilck – Tamiya Racing Factory – 23/5:03.099
4. Yannic Prumper – Team Yokomo – 23/5:03.685
5. Alexander Hagberg – Team Xray – 23/5:04.531
6. Marc Fischer – Team Serpent – 23/5:04.578
7. Andy Moore – HB – 23/5:07.922
8. Magnus Vassmar – Team Xray – 23/5:08.752
9. Freddy Sudhoff – Awesomatix – 23/5:09.104
10.Takayuki Kono – Tamiya Racing Factory – 23/5:10.201

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

May 9, 2014

Fleischmann fastest in final ETS practice, Volker is top seed

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Dominik Fleischmann pulled a surprise fastest 3-consecutive laps in the final practice at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series but thanks to a faster time in the first timed practice it is Ronald Volker who is the top seed for qualifying, the first of the four scheduled qualifiers taking place tonight at the fahr(T)raum hosted event in Mattsee, Austria. Pulling off to save tyres for qualifying, Volker was third fastest for the second practice behind Serpent’s Marc Fischer.

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‘Perfect’ was how Fleischmann described his run as he improved by half a second on his earlier time to get within just 0.121 of Volker’s pace. The Yokomo driver said a combination of getting more used to and confident with the boards together with ‘trying to copy Ronald (Volker’s) driving style gave him the improved time. Having changed nothing on his BD7, he said he has no plans to touch it for Q1 saying hopefully it will again be as good as it was in the final practice.

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Volker said he used TP2 to scrub in his tyres for the opening qualifier and that was the reason for him pulling off after two & a half minutes. The defending champion said everything felt good leaving him feeling pretty confident going into qualifying and he will run his LRP powered BD7 as is. Team-mate Yannic Prumper also used the run to scrub in new tyres pulling off after 3-minutes. While the German ended up dropping back to 7th in the ranking having been 3rd after the first practice, he said his MuchMore powered BD7 felt good and for qualifying he believes he is in pretty good shape as the full 5-minutes start to count.

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Ending up 3rd fastest in the qualifying seeding, improving on his first time, Fischer said it was the track rather than his car that was the reason for the better time. Suffering from a little understeer in TP1, he said changes made to cure this had actually made the problem worse and for Q1 he will just revert to his earlier setup for a safe run.

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The biggest improvement of the final practice came from Xray’s Alexander Hagberg who posted the 4th fastest time. The Round 2 race winner said changes in addition to reverting back to his free practice roll centre set-up had improved his ORCA powered T4, one of the key changes being a switch to progressive shock springs. Pleased to have improved the car the Swede said it still needs work with him looking to try and get the car to rotate better through the corners.

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In the Tamiya camp, Viktor Wilck and Marc Rheinard both again used the timed practice to scrub in another set of the controlled Ride tyres. Both improving on their earlier times to improve one position each to 5th & 6th fastest respectively, they seemed relatively coy about their performance, Wilck adding that they would ‘see where we’re at in qualifying’.

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For Awesomatix’s Freddy Sudhoff it was a very short second practice as he crashed heavily at the end of the straight on his first lap. The German said initially he thought the crash was due to a radio glitch but on looking at the A700 back in the pits it appears a clip that connects the front shaft to the gear that drives the diff came out causing the shaft to come out. Leaving the car two wheel drive under breaking the car spun out crashing heavily backwards into the track boards. While a number of parts broke in the crash Sudhoff said it doesn’t appear that the car got tweaked but he said having made a number of set-up changes he could really have done with the track time to see how they effected the car.

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Ending practice 9th fastest, HB’s Andy Moore said he hoped the run was the start of them going in the right direction. Struggling in earlier practice runs he said TP2 was a culmination of set-up changes they tried over the day and it seems to have improved things. Although he has HB team manager Hiroyuki Kasuya on hand which he said is a huge help, the former World Champion said having no team-mate is a real disadvantage as its difficult to build up data when you have no one to help with trying out potential set-up ideas. Moore has also been trying a number of new parts they have developed since the World’s Warm-up last month.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

May 9, 2014

Volker tops 1st timed practice at ETS Mattsee

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Following a 2-month break, in the first practice of the four round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series defending champion Ronald Volker made his intentions clear setting the fastest time from Serpent’s Marc Fisher. An all new event on the ETS calendar, the Yokomo driver looks to have got to grips rather quickly with the unique track in Mattsee, Austria, being over 1/2 a second faster than his rivals over 3-consecutive laps. Volker’s team-mate Yannic Prumper completed the Top 3 around the US boards style track that thankfully it was decided on Tuesday to cover with a very large marquee meaning the many heavy rain showers today have not interrupted proceedings.

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Describing the track as ‘totally different to anything’ he has raced on before in the ETS, Volker said its an interesting challenge and he is really enjoying it. With the ‘driver stand position, asphalt and racing in a tent all new experiences’, the German said the layout of the track, which was created by rivals Marc Rheinard and Viktor Wilck, is good to drive. Pleased with the performance of his LRP powered BD7, the 9-time ETS winner who hasn’t had a win since the season opener on carpet said he will run his car as is for the final timed practice. With his ‘car working good’, he said his focus will instead be on just completing a full error free run adding that even the smallest of contacts with the boards can easily lead to a broken car.

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Driving his Viper powered S411 ERYX 3.0, Fischer said his pace was ok despite the car suffering from a little understeer. Commenting the track the German said while it is a bit on the small side it is fun to drive adding that ‘the tent was a good idea’. Today’s rain showers, had the track not been covered, would most certainly have meant little or no track action. Looking for more steering and traction, for TP2 he plans to stand up the front shocks as well as switch to a heavy rear gear diff to see if this improves his outright pace adding that right now the car should be ‘ok’ over 5-minutes as it is quite safe.

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Having ran two cars back to back in each of the free practice runs, for the first timed practice Prumper opted to run his aluminium chassis BD7. While the carbon chassis car was outright faster, together with his mechanic Toni Rheinard they have opted for the ‘really comfortable’ feeling of the aluminium chassis which for 5-minutes around the boards track is a better option. Trying a softer shock oil for TP1 like that used by team-mate Volker, he felt it didn’t suit his driving style and so for the final practice he will revert to a heavier oil.

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Setting the fourth fastest time, Dominik Fleischmann described his run as ‘quite good’. His first time racing on a boards track the German Yokomo driver said he really likes it and he was ‘pretty satisfied’ with his car and his performance. Finding the rostrum a little low, he said ‘they made the most of the space’ and for the next run his focus is on consistency rather than speed feeling a flawless 5-minute run between the boards for qualifying is going to be challenging.

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‘So far so good’ was how Freddy Sudhoff summed up his 5th fastest time. The factory Awesomatix driver said they ‘continue to make big improvements on asphalt’ adding the latest changes have really been a step forward. Very competitive on carpet, to get the car better on asphalt this weekend they are running new hubs which help make the car narrower. Also testing carbon versus aluminium chassis plates he said so far he is favouring the latter. Giving the car more steering he said it also gave him a more consistent car over the duration of the run. Only his second time to race on a boards track he said the layout seems easy but ‘when you try to get a super fast time it’s in fact very challenging’.

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Having been responsible for putting down the track layout, Tamiya’s Viktor Wilck was pleased with his work but said the gap to Volker was ‘crazy’. Running in a new set of the championship’s Ride tyres in the first timed practice he said hopefully on the second run, his intentions being to use them in Q1 later tonight, they will give him some of the speed he is lacking, his gap to second fastest Fisher being less than 2/10ths. For the final practice he will again use the track time to scrub in another set of tyres for qualifying. Overall he said he was pretty happy with where his TRF417 is at. Marc Rheinard who was seventh fastest just behind his team-mate reported a similar situation. Having not been to an ETS race for some time, the cars designer Kiyo Suzuki has made the trip over from Japan to Mattsee to support his TRF squad this weekend, Japanese team driver Takayuki Kono also making the trip.

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Better known for his 1:8 Onroad nitro exploits, Italy’s Nicola Marrone posted the 8th fastest time. Owner of Hot Race tyres, the company that will provide the tyres for the World Championships later this year, he said he was happy with his run and his Yokomo chassis. Running new tyres for TP2 he will try a used set to compare the difference so as to decide his tyre options for qualifying.

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Unfortunately university commitments meant Round 3 winner Adrian Berntsen has not made the trip to Austria this weekend but Xray’s Round 2 winner Alexander Hagberg has. The Swede posted the 9th fastest time ahead of fellow countryman Magnus Vassmar saying he is ‘struggling a little with understeer’. Happy with his T4 in free practice he said a change to the roll centres and rear diff for the first timed run didn’t suit the track but planning to revert back for the last practice he said it should be good again. Describing the track as ‘very unforgiving’ he said its very easy to tweak the car so he prefers corner dots but with it being the same for everyone he said he has just got to deal with it.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

May 9, 2014

Track Focus – fahr(T)raum

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Track Name – fahr(T)raum
Country – Austria
Location – Mattsee
Host – fahr(T)raum
Surface – Asphalt
Direction – Anti-clockwise
No. of ETS Races hosted – 0

Round 4 of the Euro Touring Series is not the typical type of event that the electric touring championship has become world famous for. This weekend drivers find themselves racing in the small market town of Mattsee in Austria on a temporary parking lot track but the coming about of the event was itself not a typical process. Situated on the grounds of fahr(T)raum, a museum that pays homage to Porsche car company founder Ferdinand Porsche, the race came about following a request from Porsche’s grandson Ernst Piech. A keen modeller himself, Piech wanted to bring a modelling event to the museum he set-up to tell the story of his grand father, putting the idea to Michael Klausner who owns the MK Racing model shop in nearby Salzburg. Klausner immediately suggested applying for a round of the ETS and now today over 250 drivers from around the world have descended on the museum for three days of world class racing.

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A week ago one would have been forgiven for doubting any kind of racing would be possible other than offroad as the asphalt on which the separate level track and pits now stand was not even laid. Originally planned to be an outdoor event, a question by Piech to ETS organiser Uwe Rheinard as to what would happen if it was to rain for the event meant that despite it being a wet day drivers are still running. With Rheinard answering that rain would result in drivers sitting around rather than racing, Piech didn’t want to have such a scenario and so on checking the weather forecast for the event earlier in the week on Tuesday the 50 X 15 meter track was housed inside a huge marquee mirroring the one that had been erected for the pit area.

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While many racers were skeptical of how the freshly laid asphalt would work drivers have been pleasantly surprised by how quickly the grip levels have come up with most drivers admitting to enjoying driving the track. Having originally planned a fast flowing track layout, during the construction it was decided to change it to a more US styled boards track layout. Involved in the building of the track, Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard said that while its ‘maybe a little narrow for racing its really good to drive on’. Xray’s Alexander Hagberg had similar views describing the track as ‘different but interesting to drive on’. Standing for Scotty Ernst to announce this weekend’s action, making the trip over the United States to attend his first ever ETS, Charlie Suangka said the track is very similar in layout to the big carpet indoor tracks he attends in the US but he said while the layout is technical it has a good flow to it and he is looking forward to the weekend ahead.

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