Euro Touring Series » ETS 15/16 Rd1 Hrotovice Czech Republic

December 12, 2015

Chassis Focus – Jan Ratheisky

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Chassis – Xray T4 ’16
Motor – Muchmore (handout)
ESC – Muchmore (handout)
Batteries – LRP 5400 mah Stock Spec
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Savox
Bodyshell – MonTech Nazda2
Remarks – Reigning Formula Champion and ProStock title contender Jan Ratheisky is running the 2016 version of the T4 from the Slovakian manufacturer in the 13.5T class. His Pro Stock car (Jan is also running in Modified this weekend) is equipped with a floating steering servo system, medium C-hubs and a carbon chassis. The German is also using a mix of titanium and aluminium screws.

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December 12, 2015

Rheinard heads Coelho in Q2 at ETS Czech

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Marc Rheinard has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the season opener of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in the Czech Republic. Having ran a close opening qualifier last night with Ronald Volker but come up 2/10ths of a second short, the Tamiya driver would improve the Q1 pace by one second to top the times from the Xray’s of Bruno Coelho, the gap 4/10ths, and Alexander Hagberg. Despite setting the fastest lap, Volker would finish P4 ahead of Yokomo team-mates Meen Vejrak and Yannic Prumper.

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Top Qualifier in Hrotovice last year, Rheinard said ‘the beginning was good but I was a little slow at the end’. Passing Volker in the early part of the run having started behind the reigning champion, he continued, ‘Ronald tried to push me as his car improved which caused me to mess up a few laps’. Making no changes to his Much More powered TRF419 for Q2, the ETS’ most winning driver said ‘the Xrays improved a lot between Q1 and Q2’. Asked if their improvement would force him to make any changes he said ‘no’ but he would change to his second ‘fresher’ set of the championship’s new for Season #9 Volante controlled tyres.

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Commenting on his much improved Q2 performance, two mistakes in the first round leaving his with a P5, Coelho said a toe in adjustment left his LRP powered T4 ‘very good’. Swapping the top spot on the timing screens with Rheinard, the 2-time ETS race winner on asphalt said some traffic out of the chicane in the closing laps lost him ‘a few tenths’ and as a result ‘it was not possible to TQ’. Set to ‘just check over the car’ rather than make any changes he said, ‘I think the speed is there. I just need to do everything the same but end up 1st’.

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Despite opening qualifying with a P3 yesterday, Hagberg was much happier with his third in Q2. The Swede said his ORCA powered carbon chassis T4 was ‘better than yesterday’ following a front roll centre adjustment. While overall traction was better, the 2-time ETS carpet race winner said he had no traction on the first lap leading to a spin and if he can figure this out he can challenge for the TQ. While Volker would set the fastest lap of the race, Hagberg would be the only other driver to record a 12-second lap time runnng a 12.974 compare to Volker’s 12.972.

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Having not been 100% comfortable with his new BD7 2016 yesterday, Volker said they made two rear-end set-up changes for Q2 to get more traction but they had the opposite effect especially at the beginning. ‘(Losing) everything at the beginning’ of the encounter, he was happy he could show the car has good speed but added they need to work on getting greater consistency in terms of the traction over the 5-minutes.

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Making his ETS carpet race debut this weekend, Vejrak said after a ‘big mistake yesterday’ his focus was to put in a ‘safe drive’ to get good qual points. Describing his Yokomo as ‘a little hard to drive’, the Thai driver ‘need(s) more grip. Having tested at the Yatabe Arena in Japan in preparation for the event, and been happy with the new BD7, he said the traction is totally different here.

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Having crashed on the last lap in Q1 when on a Top 3 pace and ending up 13th, Prumper said he was nervous knowning he needed a solid run adding that was all the run was, ‘playing safe’. Having ‘almost no traction’ the German said he ‘didn’t have a good feeling’ with his BD7 2016 and his mechanic Toni Rheinard will switch it over from an aluminium to a carbon chassis for the next one.

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P5 in Q1, Schumacher’s Elliot Harper would back that up with seventh, with a run the British driver would describe as ‘not so good’. Changing from a Protoform LTC to a Speed 6 bodyshell, the ETS former Podium finisher said this left him with ‘huge understeer’. With this leaving him with no choice but to put in a safe run, he said with two ‘decent’ runs, he will in addition to reverting to his painted LTC body also try a few other changes for his penultimate heat. Behind Harper, former 2-time ETS Champion Jilles Groskamp was 8th followed by Formula Champion Jan Ratheisky with Tamiya’s Christopher Krapp completing the Top 10.

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In the second round of both Pro Stock and Formula qualifying, it was Formula Champion Jan Ratheisky who set the pace. In Pro Stock, the Xray driver would again head team-mate & reigning champion Marek Cerny while the ARC of Norway’s Helge Johannessen completed the Top 3. In Formula, Ratheisky beat the Tamiya of Christian Donath and Serpent of Steve Deblaere. Having TQ’d the opening round, Jitse Miedema would get a P4 in Q2.

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December 11, 2015

Volker sees off Rheinard in Q1

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Ronald Volker TQ’d the opening qualifier of Season #9 of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series, the Yokomo driver seeing off arch rival Marc Rheinard, the pair having swapped the top spot on the time screens throughout the encounter. Separated by just 2/10ths, the German’s pace left them well clear of Alexander Hagberg, a clean run leaving the Swede third fastest as many of the drivers in the top heat made mistakes. One driver to benefit from these mistakes was pre-race favourite Viljami Kutvonen, who running in the second fastest heat, would get a fourth for the first of the four scheduled rounds of qualifying.

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Declaring Q1 as the ‘important one’, Volker was happy to kick off the defence of his unbroken 5-season reign as ETS Champion with a TQ run saying ‘basically I drove the whole run with Marc’. Surprised by the gap he and Rheinard had over the others at the end, he said while his new BD7 2016 felt fast he struggled a little with consistency through the chicane section which leads onto the straight. Despite this he was still able to match Rheinard adding with a grin that it was nice to beat him by 2/10ths. Having changed his tyre prep for Q1 to try and get more comfortable with the feeling of his car he said for Q2 tomorrow they need to consider a set-up change. Team-mate Yannic Prumper was looking on target for a P3 but coming onto the straight to finish his qualifier an error meant he needed to be marshalled 1.5 metres from the loop. As a result he would end up 13th. Yokomo’s other star of the top heat Meen Vejrak made a good start to the qualifier running in the Top 3 until a mistake on his 4th lap which cost him 5-seconds.

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‘A good start but I’m disappointed to be 2nd by only 2/10ths’ was how Rheinard summed his performance. The Tamiya driver said at the start he ‘didn’t drive so good’ due to having a different position on the drivers stand for qualifying. Having expressed concerns over whether his TRF419 would maintain the pace it showed in practice over a full 5-minutes he said it ended up being ‘very good’. Looking to Q2, he said a ‘suprisingly strong Day 1’ was something to build on for tomorrow. Joining Rheinard in the top heat, it was not be a good start for team-mate Christopher Krapp as mistakes would leave him 14th.

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While most drivers would be happy to open qualifying with a Top 3 time, Hagberg was clearly frustrated by a lack of traction. ‘I just drove around cautiously while others crashed and got third’ said the Xray driver adding ‘there is no traction out there, it was like ice skating’. With only the 9th fastest lap time he said his ‘car was not fast’. Team-mate Bruno Coelho would post the fifth fastest time despite two mistakes. Unlike Hagberg, the Portuguese star was very happy with his car saying ‘I need to drive a little more easy and not mess up’. Young Dionys Stadler would make it three Xray’s in the Top 10 as he ended up P7.

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Having won the Mibo Cup race in Hrotovice 2-weeks ago and then struggled in practice this morning, Kutvonen said his P4 was ‘more than expected’. Awesomatix’ star driver, the Finn said they are slowly improving the set-up on his new A800 but added ‘we are 6-seconds off so its still not good’. Confident they have now found the right direction in which to go with the set-up, he will first discuss their options for Q2 with the car’s design Oleg Babich who is here to support the ETS debut of the Russian belt driven car.

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Despite putting his Schumacher in the Top 5 overnight, Elliott Harper described his P5 as a ‘shit run’. The World Championship podium finisher continued ‘I was third but had a stupid crash in the chicane’. Having felt his Mi5 Evo was rolling too much in the timed practice, the reigning British Champion went to a harder shock set-up for qualifying but said he went too much. With the car now ‘a little edgy to drive’, he said he needs to go back a little with the level of change made.

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Getting an 8th from the opening round, Viktor Wilck said while his new Serpent S411 ERYX 4.0 was ‘maybe a little better’ the result was only down to ‘a really safe run’. The former ETS race winner said the car is ‘floating too much’ as they ‘can’t find grip’. Needing the car to be more aggressive for it to have steering, the Swede said ‘we need to improve for tomorrow to have any chance’.

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Behind Wilck with the 9th fastest time despite a spin out, Jilles Groskamp is another driver to say he is struggling. The HPI Racing/HB driver said his PRO5 ‘feels like (it has) no rear traction’. Having tested with his team-mates in China to prepare for his first ETS race on carpet in 5-years, he said the car was good but here the traction is different. Having to drive the car perfect to get a good lap he said its not easy. The 2012 World Champion and recently crowned Euro Nitro Series Champion also believes another part of the problem is that his feeling for & experience of racing on carpet is gone. Behind Groskamp, French Champion Loic Jasmin completed the Top 10 ahead of Vejrak and Marc Fischer.

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In the Xray Pro Stock class, Jan Ratheisky, who at this same track two years ago became the first driver to win two ETS classes on the same weekend, would TQ the first qualifier. The German headed an Xray 1-2-3 from defending Champion Marek Cerny and Mike Gosvig while last year’s winner of the event Lars Hoppe, running in the second fastest heat, got fourth. In the first round of Serpent Formula qualifying, Dutch Xray driver Jitse Miedema posted a popular TQ run ahead of the Tamiya of Christian Donath and former Pro Stock Champion Alexander Stocker.

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December 11, 2015

Chassis Focus – Adrian Berntsen

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Chassis – Gizmo GZ1
Motor – Muchmore 4.5T
ESC – Muchmore Fleta Pro
Batteries – Reedy 5300 mah
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Bodyshell – Protoform MazdaSpeed 6
Remarks – Former ETS race winner Adrian Berntsen has made his return to international racing running the all new GZ1 platform from newly formed Danish company Gizmo. Designed by 2010 200mm European Champion Martin Christensen together with Steen Gravesen, the project which also involves fellow top Danish racers Martin Lissau has been in development for a long time. Exploiting the improvements made by the LiPo industry in the last years, the car has been designed around a “shorty” battery, the extra space enabling the motor to be mounted along the car’s centre line. This position in the car prevents the use of a standard single drive belt so the car has integrated two separate drivetrains, driven by two separate spur gears, which drive the front and rear wheels separately. The car utilizes high quality 3D printed parts, the new technologies allowing for lower costs without compromising quality. The side stiffening plates also work as bulkheads/differential support, so as to eliminate any kind of tweak when assembling the car. The actual car Adrian is running here is a pre-production car with all the parts being now definitive, although the car is not expected to go on sale until spring.

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December 11, 2015

Euro Touring Series Rd1 – Friday Action

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmaVYR4eIC0[/youtube]

Live results from be found on MyRCM here.

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December 11, 2015

Volker tops seeding from Rheinard & Coelho

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Ronald Volker is the top seed for qualifying at the opening round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series. Having set the pace in the first timed practice, the reigning champion would further improve his 3-consecutive lap time in the second & final run. Behind the Yokomo driver it was his long standing rival Marc Rheinard who would make the biggest improvement between rounds to go P2 just 0.067 of a second off. Having been second fastest in the CP1, Bruno Coelho would complete the Top 3 a further 1/10 behind. Making a return to the ETS, former race winner Adrian Berntsen would provide the biggest surprise of practice as he took his relatively unknown Gizmo chassis to the fifth fastest time behind former Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg.

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No stranger to setting the pace in Hrotovice, having a 100% winning record at the event, Volker said while he was ‘happy to top the times and start first (in the top heat)’ on the BD7 2016’s first ETS outing his car was still a little more difficult to drive than he would like. Very happy with the speed of the car and his lap times over the run, his last three laps counting as his seeding time, he still wants to make the car easier to drive for Q1. Although he would only end up 7th fastest, team-mate Yannic Prumper was happy with his BD7. The German said on the improving track, his car felt better but a heavy crash prevented a better time. Having just run 3-laps that was 3/10th slower than his CP1 time, 5-laps in he knocked a spring retainer off and needing to pit to have it fixed he couldn’t get a good time in.

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‘The car is good to drive’ was Rheinard’s reaction to the second timed practice. The Tamiya driver said running a wide rear end and rebuilding the shocks made his Much More powered TRF419 more stable. Only losing out on topping practice when Volker put in a late fastest 3-laps, last year’s Top Qualifier said he was not sure about the end of the run. The qualifiers are a minute longer than the 4-minute practice, and with his pace dropping off while Volker’s improved he is a small bit concerned. Planning to leave his car unchanged, the only thing he will change is his tyres having being alternating between two sets of the new for season 9 Volante ETS controlled tyres. Inbetween French drivers Lucas Urbain and Loic Jasmin, Rheinard’s TRF team-mate Christopher Krapp would end practice P9. P6 after the first practice, the German adjusted his shock shafts making them longer having suspected with them screwed in extra far following drilling of the shock end that they where causing it to clamp the ball. After the adjustment he said it caused the car to ‘drive like a boat’ so he will go back to the shorter set-up.

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A driver who finished out Season #8 of the ETS with two wins having made his championship debut at this event last year, Coelho said his T4 was ‘very good’ but the practice contained ‘a few driver mistakes’. For qualifying the 22-year-old said he plans to opt for running an ‘alu chassis for now’ in Q1 adding it ‘feels very good’. Only 5/100th off Coelho, team-mate Hagberg will also run an aluminium chassis saying it has more corner speed. The Swede complained of a tweak in the car when he ran it back to back with a carbon chassis in CP1 and with the feeling still there he feels it could be related to tyres. Having run the same set of tyres in both practices and planning to run them again in the first qualifier tonight he said he will ‘just find a way to drive it like that’.

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Having stopped competitive racing in 2014 after his win at ETS Gran Canaria so as to focus on his studies, Berntsen said he was ‘quite surprised’ by his pace. Running only his second race with Martin Christensen’s Gizmo chassis, the Norwegian said going to heavier rear diff oil in the CZ1 for CP2 had improved the car. With more corner speed and happy with the feeling of the car, the 22-year-old plans to run it unchanged for Q1.

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Completing the Top 6, Elliott Harper described his performance as ‘not too bad’. The factory Schumacher driver said they have done a lot of carpet testing including attending the Mibo Cup and this has allowed him to get a better understanding how his driving affects how the car works. Having made a lot of progress with set-ups and running an updated aluminium chassis this weekend which has more flex, that has also helped with giving the Mi5 Evo steering. Feeling that ‘the car rolls too much making it hard to feel the steering’ he will play with the shock set-up for the first qualifier.

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In the Xray Pro Stock class reigning F1 Champion Jan Ratheisky topped the seeding for Xray ahead of the Kyosho of Tim Benson. Winning his first ETS race last season in Luxembourg, Serpent’s Julian Borowski completed the Top 3 in front of defending champion Marek Cerny. In the Serpent Formula class, former champion Hebert Weber was quickest from David Ehrbar and Christian Donath with last year’s race winner Ratheisky fourth.

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December 11, 2015

Chassis Focus – Viljami Kutvonen

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Chassis – Awesomatix A800
Motor – LRP 4.5T
ESC – LRP
Batteries – MTB 5600 mah
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Awesomatix
Bodyshell – Bittydesign Striker
Remarks – Another driver with a new car at the ETS opener, Awesomatix’ Viljami Kutvonen is at his second official outing with the new A800. With the Russian manufacturer switching to a belt driven transmission, the main change is the actual layout of the car as it now sports a more conventional top deck system. Viljami is also using a center chassis stiffener, a LeeSpeed spur gear and an optional battery holder.

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December 11, 2015

Volker tops 1st timed practice at ETS season opener

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Ronald Volker has opened the ninth season of Yokomo Euro Touring Series at the top of the time sheets. The reigning champion set the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the first timed practice with his new Yokomo BD7 2016 heading the Xray’s of Bruno Coelho and Alexander Hagberg in the Czech Republic. An event which Volker has won during each of his five successful ETS title campaigns, the German was just 0.064 faster than Coelho, the Portuguese driver a much stronger package than 12-months ago when he made his ETS debut at the Hrotovice event.

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With Volker, like many of his rivals, running two cars during the 5-minute practice the German found the second to be more comfortable. Both aluminium chassis cars, he said the difference between them was just in their set-up and having identified the best one they will for the second seeding round run just the one car. Liking the layout Michal Bok and his father have created this year he said with the car ‘still too loose for [his] personal feeling, they needed to work on making it ‘more comfortable’ but overall he was happy to open the season with the fastest time.

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Back to back testing an aluminium and a carbon chassis T4, Coelho said ‘one is fast, the other is more consistent. Not giving away which was which, he said both cars felt ‘amazing’ but added ‘they’re not perfect so there is more to come’. Making his carpet racing debut here last year, just scraping into the A-Main, he said the track was a better layout for him this year with him describing the left side as technical and the right as ‘fast’.

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Also running two different chassis, Hagberg said his ‘2nd one was better’. Describing the track as having ‘surprisingly low traction’ adding he hopes it will come up, he said his preferred car had ‘a more aggressive set-up’ but stopped at giving away whether it was an carbon or alu chassis. Feeling the car is slightly tweaked he said ‘if we can find that (the tweak) it should be really good’.

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Only on his second battery in his new BD7 2016, Yannic Prumper was fourth fastest. The German has run just one car, using the free practice to break in a set of new for Season #9 Volante tyres. Making no changes to his car between runs, instead waiting for the traction to come up, the declared himself comfortable with the car on second run tyres. Able to focus on a 5-minute run rather than 3-laps, he believes he has a ‘really good’ pace. In the second & final seeding practice, he will us the track time to break in another set of tyres.

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‘Not as far off I though we would be’ was how Marc Rheinard summed up setting the 5th fastest time. A former winner in Hrotovice, the Tamiya driver said the free practice felt better than the timed run. Running an alu and a carbon car, the 4-time World Champion said the carbon chassis TRF419 had more grip but he couldn’t get three laps together and his time was from the alu car. Having attended the Mibo Cup race at the same venue at the end of last month, the German said he ‘expect Viljami to be faster’, the Awesomatix driver having won the event.

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Completing the Top 6 was Rheinard’s TRF team-mate Christopher Krapp. With this the start of his first full ETS campaign with Tamiya, the former Kyosho driver & ETS race winner said his car was ‘surprisingly good’. Attending the Mibo Cup as preparation for this weekend he said their performance then was ‘not really good’ and that Marc and himself together with Japan have done a lot of work since then to improve things. Adding that ‘the carbon chassis improved the car a lot’, he said it is a little loose on the rear and this is now what they need to work on. Behind Krapp, Yokomo’s Meen Vejrak, the returning Adrian Berntsen, Nicolas Lee and Schumacher’s Elliot Harper completed the Top 10.

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Predicted as a real dangerman coming into the 47th ETS race, Kutvonen would only manage 24th just behind another expected front runner Freddy Sudhoff. The factory Awesomatix driver who won the Mibo Cup convincingly with the Russian manufacturers all-new A800, said today he was ‘just missing traction compared to Mibo’. The Finn who feels the revision Volante have made to the tyre for the start of their roll out as the ETS controlled tyre is a big part of his issues. ‘Struggling with set-up’ he will try a ‘completely different set-up’ for the final practice adding ‘hopefully then we will be back in business’.

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Elsewhere with Serpent debuting their new S411 ERYX 4.0 in the Czech Republic, Viktor Wilck said things hadn’t started out well saying ‘it feels like (there is) no grip’. 15th fastest The Swede continued ‘it seems the grip is very low here so I will test a carbon chassis in the next one’. Team-mate Marc Fischer, a podium finisher here two years ago, was only 19th fastest.

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