Euro Touring Series » ETS 14/15 Rd5 Luxembourg

May 30, 2015

Chassis Focus – Nico Catelani

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Chassis – Yokomo BD7 2015
Motor – Muchmore (handout)
ESC – Muchmore (handout)
Batteries – LRP 5800 mah
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Tesla
Bodyshell – MonTech Nazda3
Remarks – Italian talent Nico Catelani is running a pretty much straight out of the box Yokomo at the ETS in Luxembourg and is using it to good effect taking the TQ in the opening round of Pro-Stock qualifying. The only upgrades on the BD7 2015 are front double joint driveshafts, rear aluminium driveshafts and titanium screw set.

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May 29, 2015

Chassis Focus – Yannic Prumper

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Chassis – Yokomo BD7 2015
Motor – Much More 4.5
ESC – Much More
Batteries – Much More 6000mAh
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servo – Hitec/Sanwa
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – German Yokomo driver Yannic Prumper is running a very standard version of the BD7 2015. The only upgrades fitted to the car are front double joint, rear aluminium driveshafts and a set of titanium screws.

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May 29, 2015

Hagberg takes cold opening qualifier in Luxembourg

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Alexander Hagberg has topped a very cold opening round of qualifying at Round 5 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Luxembourg. A day which was affected by rain, the Xray driver topped the late qualifier from Yokomo’s Ronald Volker and Tamiya’s Marc Rheinard, the three covered by 2/10ths of a second. With track conditions dry but extremely cold for the first of the weekend’s four scheduled qualifiers it was Hagberg’s team-mate Bruno Coelho who set the early TQ pace. Starting second behind top seed Volker, the Portuguese driver would catch the German but on passing him would clip the curbing and put his car on its roof. Continuing for one more lap once marshalled the always spectacular driver would then opt to pull off to save his tyres having lost almost 3-seconds due to his mistake.

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With an outside chance of the overall ETS championship title, Hagberg was delighted with his performance saying ‘the car was brilliant’. Driving ‘too careful at the beginning’ of the run, the Swede said once he started to push his ORCA powered T4 it felt ‘super’. Feeling there is even more in the car if he pushes it harder he added ‘I will not change anything for tomorrow’.

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Having a ‘bad second lap’, spinning after clipping the corner on the way up the hill to the track’s feature corner, Volker said he wasn’t too unhappy to end up with a P2 for the opening qualifier. The reigning champion, who could bring his title tally to five this weekend, said after his mistake Coelho was ‘right on (his) tail’. Opening the door for his new rival, with whom he has had clashes at the previous two ETS encounters, he said when Coelho hit the curbing he got lucky it didn’t cost him more time. He continued, the fact that he had to open the door in the first place cost him the TQ. Putting his early mistake down to the cold temperature adding he needed to pay more attention to the conditions, the German said with his LRP powered BD7 easy to drive he may make a small set-up change for Q2 to try and add a little more steering.

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Losing 4/10th to Volker on the opening lap after overshooting his entry in the Laguna Seca corner, Rheinard said once Coelho exited proceedings he was surprised to find himself in the mix. The newly crowned Reedy Race Champion said his Much More powered TRF419 ‘felt safe but I didn’t feel I was fast’. Describing his pace for the qualifier better than practice he said it was more a case that his rivals had got slower more than him making a big step forward in performance. Putting his car top of the time screens he said he lost it again when he clipped the curbing preventing him from getting on the power and it was this that cost him a shot at the TQ his gap to Volker just 0.013.

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Fourth fastest Yokomo’s Yannic Prumper struggled with his BD7 in left corners, the banked sweeper at the end of the straight causing him particular problems. Running the car the same as yesterday having only changed radio, the Italian ETS race winner was to discover afterwards an issue with the steering end points and will now revert back to his Sanwa M12 for the remainder of the event.

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Another to go top of the timing early in the round, Meen Vejrak would finished the qualifier 5th fastest. Claiming his first ETS podium finish in Italy, the Yokomo driver said his Scorpion powered BD7 was a lot better after they discovered an issue with a new bodyshell. Changing the body for the final practice he said afterwards he noticed even though they made no body post adjustments the new shell was sitting nose high – the rear of the body formed slightly than both of his other shells. While the car started off well, the Thai driver said it started to develop understeer adding they need to work on a set-up that gives a more consistent car over the 5-minutes.

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Completing the Top 6, Viktor Wilck said he was lucky not to put his Serpent on the grass off the start line. Starting the top heat last he said a combination of the cold conditions and sitting on the line for so long, the Swede said his tyres took a few laps to get up to temperature. Once they did the Serpent driver would set the fastest lap saying his S411 was ‘really good’. On hearing he was running a Top 3 pace he said he pushed a little too hard leading to a mistake through Laguna Seca that cost him over a second but based on how the car is working he is confident for tomorrow’s three qualifiers.

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Posting the seventh fastest time, HB’s Jilles Groskamp felt his driving didn’t make the most of his ever improving car. Encouraged that his Orion powered PRO5 was a lot closer to the pace than in Riccione and Mattsee, he said after ‘a long and cold day’ at the track he hoped with a good sleep tonight he would drive the car to his potential tomorrow. Team-mate Andy Moore would take his Hobbywing powered PRO5 to the 10th fastest time behind young Spanish Xray talent David Perez and the VBC of local track hero Lucas Urbain.

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In the Xray Pro Stock class, Italian Yokomo driver Nico Catelani TQ’d the opening round from the Team Magic of Patrick Gassauer by 4/100th of a second. Just over 1/10 back defending champion Marek Cerny would complete the Top 3 ahead of title rival Lars Hoppe whose ARC posted the fastest lap. In Formula, Jan Ratheisky’s quest to wrap up a 3rd consecutive title this week started off perfectly as he TQ’d Q1 from Xray team-mate Mike Gosvig with local Jacques Libar third.

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May 29, 2015

Euro Touring Series Rd4 – Friday Action

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9InhTgIvIM[/youtube]

Live results from be found on MyRCM here.

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May 29, 2015

Chassis Focus – Bruno Coelho

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Chassis – Xray T4 ’15
Motor – LRP 4.5
ESC – LRP
Batteries – LRP 6000 mah
Tires – Ride (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – Xray’s Bruno Coelho is running a pretty standard version of the T4’15 at Round 5 of the ETS. The Slovakian made car is only fitted with the routine option parts run by the team, such as aluminium steering arms, low friction belts, steering carbon stiffener and graphite suspension arms. In addition to these it uses a titanium screw set.

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May 29, 2015

Volker tops free practice as rain haults proceedings

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Rain haulted proceedings at Round 5 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Luxembourg just as controlled practice was due to get underway at Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”. Having started off a dry day, allowing two rounds of free practice to be completed, the heavy rain left race organisers with no choice but to stop the event with the free practice times now expected to determine the reseeding of the qualifying heats. The free practice times would produce no surprises with last year’s race winner Ronald Volker fastest from team-mate Yannic Prumper. Behind them Xray’s Bruno Coelho completed the Top 3 in front of Marc Rheinard.

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With drivers having completed 5-rounds of free practice yesterday Volker, having used two cars in each of those runs, today said he focused on running a single car to get into a good rhythm for 5-minutes. Feeling his LRP powered BD7 was working ‘quite well’, the German said while it was ‘good’ to be at the top the times sheets it was only free practice and not a true picture of where his rivals are really at.

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Running Hitec’s new Lynx radio for the first time this weekend, finding the switch from Sanwa to take a bit of time to adjust to, Prumper said his Much More powered BD7 was really good yesterday. Adjusting the rear droop, adding more for today, the 21-year-old said the change had left it a little slow to start off and for when proceedings do get back underway he will go back to the same as he ran yesterday.

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Coelho said his T4 was ‘super fast but not consistent’. Although he raced 1:8 nitro here aged 11, the track then not having its feature Laguna Seca corner, the Portuguese ace said he was still trying to learn what he described as a ‘super fun but difficult’ layout. Changing to a painted signature colour scheme bodyshell for the last free practice round in preparation for using it the rest of the event he said it mounts slightly further back on the car and this has caused him to lose a little steering. As a result he will have to revert back to his white practice bodyshell.

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Runner-up to Volker here last year, Rheinard said while his Tamiya was ‘OK’ in the last practice overall things had not started off so good. Fresh from winning a record 5th Reedy Race of Champions title last weekend in California, he said while the car is safe to drive it is understeering in the fast corners. Looking to further change his set-up once action resumes, when asked about the rain changing the track he said a much little shower yesterday had little effect on the traction levels him predicting it ‘should be fine’.

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Fifth fastest, Alexander Hagberg reported the opposite issues to team-mate Coelho. The Swede said, ‘I think my car is pretty consistent but not super fast’. He continued, ‘the car is good but I need to find more steering for the fast stuff as it is just a little too slow’.

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Serpent’s Viktor Wilck would complete the Top 6, the Swede saying it’s ‘all going well’. Running the same set-up he ran at the ETS in Mattsee and at the Reedy Race, he said even though the track here is totally different his S411 feels really good. Running both of the morning’s free practices on used tyres, he is confident that on new rubber he has the pace to run close to Top 3 pace.

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Behind Yokomo’s Loic Jasmin, Jilles Groskamp would post the 8th fastest time. A driver who has great memories of the track as it was where he won his first European Championship 6-years ago, the HB driver said things were already going a bit better than the previous two ETS outings. Happy with his first run of the day, the Dutchman changed to a heavier diff oil for the second but while his PRo5 was faster over a single lap it was less consistent and he will go back. New to the team, who have also recruited Freddy Sudhoff this year, the 2012 World Champion said the team has really started to gel now. With all the drivers running off the same ‘good base set-up’ he said having lost their way in Mattsee they are now making smaller ‘fine tuning’ adjustments between rounds and that is paying dividends.

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Sudhoff would record the ninth fastest time describing his early performance as ‘not so bad’. Having tried a number of shock set-up changes on his PRO5 he said ‘some worked good, some worked bad’ but they had helped the team to find a good direction in which to go with set-up. One of a number of drivers coming directly to Luxembourg from the Reedy Race, he said going from the small tight Tamiya Raceway to here couldn’t be more contrasting and he was still trying to fine tune his driving style to the huge track.

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First time Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg” visitor Meen Vejrak rounded out the Top 10. The Yokomo driver said his BD7 improved a lot after many set-up changes over the 7 rounds of free practice. Having struggled with no traction he said it while he was still working to find more compared to yesterday it was now a lot better. Still learning the track he said its right side is proving quite difficult to master.

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May 29, 2015

Track Focus – Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”

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Track Name – Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg”
Country – Luxembourg
Location – Luxembourg City
Host – Luxembourg Model Car Club (LMCC)
Surface – Asphalt
Direction – Anti-clockwise
No. of ETS Races hosted – 1 (2014)

After a very successful first visit to Mini Circuit “Ville de Luxembourg” last year the ETS returns to what is undoubtably one of the best tracks in Europe. Famed for its Laguna Seca corkscrew style corner which has an elevation of approximately 2-metres the layout is hugely popular with drivers and for a country of only half a million people its a track revered by racers across the World. Run by the Luxembourg Model Car Club (LMCC), the 310 metre long track was built in 1999 after the club reached a long term agreement to rent a plot of land from the City of Luxembourg. Unfortunately for the last 5-years however the track has been operating on somewhat borrowed time. The City has earmarked the parcel of land on which the track is located for mixed development with plans already drawn up that include housing, shops and a train station. Thankfully however for the club and the ETS, the green light to start the groundwork for the development hasn’t yet been given meaning drivers can at least for now continue to enjoy this great track.

In addition to the corkscrew, the scale of which can only truly be appreciated by walking it, the track also features a 10 degree banked corner at the end of the main straight. Undergoing an infield redesign in 2007, in 2013 the track surface was polished using 1mm steel balls and last year drivers felt this left the track with low traction. Commenting on the traction this time round, reigning ETS Champion Ronald Volker said it was now better. Having wrapped up his fourth consecutive title here last year, the Yokomo driver said it as a ‘great track’ and ‘it is still one of the best in the World’. Volker’s team-mate Meen Vejrak, who is on his first visit to the track, replied ‘it’s totally different’ when asked what he thought of the track. Describing it as ‘really fun’ to drive the Thai driver said it was difficult, having always raced on flat tracks, to get used to the elevation changes.

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