Ronald Volker snatched a thrilling last lap win in the opening A-Main of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series season opener in the Czech Republic. Starting second behind Marc Rheinard, the Yokomo driver would recover from a slow start to the race and helped by an uncharacteristic roll from the Top Qualifier force a pass on the 4-time World Champion in the final hairpin that sent onlookers crazy. With just the chicane to negotiate, Volker would win by 0.339 of a second from Rheinard, the Tamiya driver clearly dejected by his rivals overtake. Running a somewhat lonely race Alexander Hagberg completed the Top 3 followed by Xray team-mate Bruno Coelho who he got by when the Portuguese driver made a mistake 8 laps into the 23-lap encounter.
‘I couldn’t be happier. I have never celebrated a single A-Main win more than this’ was how Volker summed up the race. The meaning of the win for the new BD7 2016 was none more clear than the reaction of its designer & engineer to Volker Yukijiro Umino whose jump for joy could very well have secured him qualification for the high jump at the 2016 Olympics. Commenting on his slow start to the race which gave Rheinard a healthy early lead with the race looking like a foregone conclusion, the reigning Champion said ‘I struggled with the rear of the car in the early minutes’. With the lack of rear grip obvious to onlookers, he continued ‘I have to give credit to Bruno for his very fare driving over the first few laps’. With Coelho’s mistake giving Volker and his improving car the opportunity to try to close the 1.5-second gap to Rheinard he said as he pushed hard setting the only 12-second lap of the race and ‘suddenly Marc made a mistake and (he) was close enough to put pressure on him’. With the car getting more predictable and feeling his car was quicker in the right section of the track he said the gap to Hagberg was also big enough ‘to give the pass a shot and it paid off’. With a night to sleep on and enjoy his A1 win, he said for A2 tomorrow they need to discuss tyre prep so as to have a better opening pace.
Looking like he got the break he wanted as a struggling Volker held up Coelho, a dejected Rheinard said ‘I lost the race myself with the roll on the straight, this was enough to let him catch me’. On the move itself, Rheinard who having also TQ’d this race last year but ended up 4th in the final result, said ‘I went into the last corner too safe trying to bring home the win’. Still somewhat stunned by the pass, he said his TRF419 got a little loose but was still drivable pointing out again that he was solely to blame for throwing away the win.
Hagberg was not happy with his race to 3rd. The frustrated Swede said ‘I had no traction so I had no chance to challenge the others’. Coelho, who hinted his patience behind Volker was more a fear of being taken out by the by tail happy Yokomo, said like Rheinard that he ruined his own race with a mistake. Behind Coelho, Dionys Stadler would finish fifth benefitting from the retirement of Yannic Prumper who had been battling with Coelho for fourth.
The opening A-Main of Pro Stock and Formula would see Top Qualifier Jan Ratheisky take the wins but the German was made work hard for them both. In the Serpent Formula encounter, the Champion appeared to have checked out but he too rolled his Xray coming into the main straight. Although he was already closing in this would set the stage for VBC team driver Olivier Bultynck to get right with Ratheisky with them interlocking wheels as they battled it out but Bultynck came off worst on the penultimate lap to finish second 6/10ths back.
The Xray Pro Stock race produced a great battle between Top Qualifier Ratheisky and reigning champion Marek Cerny, the Xray team-mates going at it until contact at 1-minute to go turned the race on its head. With Cerny having to wait on Ratheisky following his failed pass, the Czech driver would get consumed by the pack ending up 8th while ARC driver Helge Johannessen took second just ahead of Spanish Yokomo driver Toni Mateo who came through from 10th on the grid.
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Marc Rheinard will start the A-Main at the opening round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in the Czech Republic from pole position. The Tamiya driver claimed the overall TQ despite Ronald Volker putting in a second TQ run in the final qualifier. With the fastest time of the four rounds which was set in Q3, this would give Rheinard the tie breaker and secure him his first pole since Round 2 last season in Muelheim-Kaerlich. Starting behind the long standing German rivals will be Bruno Coelho, the Xray driver having been on target to top the final heat and secure second on the grid until he rolled as the heat entered the final 2-minutes. Runner-up behind Volker in Hrotovice last year, Alexander Hagberg starts 4th with 2014 podium finisher Yannic Prumper completing the top half of the grid.
With his TQ coming to little last year as he finished 4th, Rheinard is determined to opening his 2015/2016 ETS campaign with a win. Having changed to his second set of tyres for the final qualifier, he said the fresher set which only ran one round of practice did not have as good a pace as the first set. Planning to switch back to first set, A1 being their sixth run, he said this should give him back the steering he was missing in Q4. Asked about the finals, the championship’s most winning driver replied that while Volker is fast, ‘Bruno was pretty fast in the last one (qualifier)’, hoping this plays to advantage if Coelho can mount a challenge on Volker allowing him to break clear at the front.
Have changed to his second set of tyres a round earlier than Rheinard, Volker said going back to his first set of tyres had made his new BD7 2016 more like it was in Q1 with him able to lay down the fastest lap. Also making a shock set-up change to make the rear more stable, an issue he complained of even after TQing the opening heat, he said it did improve things leaving him unsure what to change for A1. Running on Rheinard’s bumper during the final heat, he said ‘even without Marc blocking me for a few laps I probably wouldn’t have been fast enough to beat his Q3 time’. Also acknowlegding Coelho’s performance saying he ‘showed great pace in the last qualiifier’, Volker said ‘it won’t be easy in the sandwich between them (Rheinard & Coelho)’ but he would still ‘try to go for the win’.
Not sure how he flipped his T4 in the last qualifier but thinking he has touched the dot, Coelho again said his car was ‘perfect’. Only 6/1000ths off Volker’s fastest lap, the winner of the final two rounds of last ETS season said ‘I like finals more than qualifying’. Making his carpet racing debut at this event last year qualifying 8th and finishing 6th he continued, ‘I could finish 1st or 10th but my car is really good so I am ready to fight for the win’.
With his final qualifier ruined on the second lap when he made a mistake at the chicane, Hagberg said he didn’t like a set-up change he made for the run and will revert back. Unable to get used to feeling the changes brought about, the Swede wasn’t comfortable driving the car. Feeling with the old set back on the car it will be good enough to run with the three starting ahead of him he will ‘take it easy and see what happens up front’ adding ‘I hope there is the possibility to overtake’.
Making ‘a lot of changes’ to the set-up on his Yokomo, Prumper said they made it ‘a bit more difficult (to drive) but faster’. From 5th on the grid he said a good result was going to be difficult but added ‘let’s see what happens’. Asked if he would make any changes for A1, his mechanic Toni Rheinard responded that they would be using the finals as practice for February’s second Round in Germany and would be trying different things each leg. Behind Prumper, Dionys Stadler will start an impressive 6th after putting in a great final qualifier in which he was fourth fastest from Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski. Unfortunately for Orlowski he would lose out on the final spot on the grid on a tie break with hotly tipped pre race contender Viljami Kutvonen who is giving the Awesomatix A800 its ETS debut.
For the Serpent Formula and Xray Pro Stock A-Mains it is the same driver that will start up front, Jan Ratheisky. The Formula Champion wrapped up the overall TQ for that class by setting the pace for a third time in the final qualifier. Behind last year’s race winner, the Q1 topping Xray of Dutch driver Jitse Miedema starts second followed by Christian Donath and former multiple Pro Stock Champion Alexander Stocker. Last year’s ETS Luxembourg winner Olivier Bultynck completes the front half of the grid. In Pro Stock defending champion Marek Cerny finally topped the times at his home event to secure second on the grid ahead of Q3 winner Tom Krägefski, who as the only person who could deny Ratheisky the overall TQ was 3rd fastest in the deciding qualifier.
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Chassis – Associated RC10 TC6
Motor – Reedy Sonic 4.5T
ESC – Reedy
Batteries – Reedy 5000 mah
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Futaba
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – Canadian driver Keven Hebert is in attendance here in Hrotovice running an interesting Hybrid version of the American made car which features the suspension parts, the shocks and part of the steering system that will equip the newly announced TC7. Having not received the rest of the car in time for the event he is still using the layout and transmission from the TC6. With Associated not producing an aluminium chassis for the TC6, he is using an Avid one, and the only other option parts used are a titanium screws set and the front double joint driveshafts
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Marc Rheinard repeated his morning’s qualifying performance at the opening round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series, the Tamiya driver putting in a second & faster TQ run in the third & penultimate qualifier at the Czech Republic event. Again fighting it out over the 5-minutes with Xray’s Bruno Coelho, both just 8/10th shy of making 24 laps, the gap at the end would be a much closer 0.025 of a second. Making it a carbon copy of Q2, Alexander Hagberg continued as Mr. Consistent as he again was 3rd fastest in front of last night’s Q1 pace setter Ronald Volker.
Putting himself on target to repeat the overall TQ he claimed in Hrotovice last year, Rheinard said ‘I struggled at the beginning with some bad lines and jumped the curbs twice’. Settling into his rhythm, the 4-time World Champion said pulling clear of Volker he was then able to focus on driving his own race. Dropping to second as a result of ‘Hagberg and Coelho pushing each other’, he said on hearing race director Scotty Ernst announce he dropped off the top spot he put in a ‘big push’. Getting back onto the TQ pace, he added ‘I almost threw it away on the last lap with a big mistake over the curbs that cost me 2/10ths’. Managing to break into the 12-second lap times for the first time in Q3 on 5-run old tyres, the only change he will make to his TRF419 for the final qualifier, Volker the only one who can deny him the overall TQ, is to change to his second set of one run old spec Volante tyres.
Giving reaction to his third qualifier, Coelho said his T4 was ‘perfect’ with the Portuguese driver also happy to have run the 5-minutes without mistakes. Putting his 2/100ths of a second shortcoming down to ‘maybe nerves on the final lap’, the electric offroad World Champion said taking the fight for the TQ with Rheinard down to the final lap showed they are right in the hunt for the win. 1.3-seconds back, team-mate Hagberg declared ‘I was too slow’. Making a mistake on his first lap he would have to open up for Coelho but planning to make his T4 ‘a little more free’ for the final qualifier, he said he hoped that would put him ‘back in the fight’.
Changing to his second set of tyres for Q3, Volker said his car lacked steering and felt off balance. Having changed set-up for Q2 and struggled over the start of the run, they reverted the car back to its Q1 topping set-up but on the new tyres the German said the performance was a big step backwards. The Yokomo driver said while happy to be going into the final qualifier still in the hunt for the overall TQ was good but added ‘we really need to find something now to deny Marc the TQ’.
Behind Volker were his team-mates Yannic Prumper, Meen Vejrak and Loic Jasmin. Changing from an aluminium to a carbon chassis on his new BD7 2016, Prumper said it ‘was a little improvement’ but they still need to make the car a lot better. Lacking corner speed he said the will try his ‘basic set-up’ for Q4. Vejrak, who finished ahead of Prumper in Q2, was on target to do that again but made a last lap error that cost him over a second. Safe for the A-Main start, the Thai driver will for the final round make the same switch as Prumper did and try a carbon chassis.
Jasmin said switching to a softer rear spring on his BD7 gave him more steering and although he hit the curbing a few times and had to open up to let Rheinard pass, overall it was his best run of the event. Finally comfortable with the car, the French driver said he needs to pull everything together for the final qualifier with the A-Main still a possibility.
Making it three Xrays in the Top 10 with the 9th fastest time behind the Tamiya of Christopher Krapp, British team driver Olly Jeffries said a simple rear wing change had transformed his T4. Having spent the lead up to the weekend testing at the Hudy Arena, he said there they ran a wing with a gurney flap and the car was really good. On arriving at the ETS track however he found himself struggling for grip but admitted that when you’re having problems the first thing you do is remove the shell put it under your pit table and look at what could be wrong with the chassis. On the suggestion of his mechanic last night, this morning they decided to change the wing having run out of ideas for set-up changes and immediately they were half a second a lap quicker. With his P9 Jeffries is hopeful he can do enough in the final qualifier to join his team-mates on the A-Main grid.
In Pro Stock Tom Krägefski denied his Xray team-mate Jan Ratheisky from claiming an early TQ when he topped Q3 ahead of the pace setter of the opening two qualifiers, with Helge Johannessen completing the Top 3. In the Serpent Formula class, Ratheisky also goes into the fourth & final qualifier vying for the overall TQ having backed up his Q2 TQ win a second in Round 3. Fellow Xray driver Jitse Miedema, who topped the opening round, is the only one who can prevent the Champion from starting his title defence on pole position.
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Chassis – Yokomo BD7 2016
Motor – LRP X20 4.5T
ESC – LRP Flow
Batteries – LRP 5600 mah
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Highest RC
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – Reigning Champion Ronald Volker is at his first ETS outing with the BD7 2016, the main new feature on the Japanese car being a lowered transmission and lower CG. His car is equipped with an aluminium chassis, harder springs and titanium screws.
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