Chassis Focus – Akio Sobue
Chassis – Infinity ProtoTC
Motor – LRP X20 4.5T
ESC – LRP Flow X
Batteries – LRP LCG 6400mAh Stock Spec
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – Japanese Infinity driver Akio Sobue is running his prototype Infinity touring car with the same basic setup that he used to win the recent opening round of the CETC. Changing only the front and rear upper links on his car to give them more angle to compensate for the lower grip and the different tires, the only other change he has made is to cut a slot on the front of the top deck to give the car more flex. Akio has also chosen to run the Stock Spec battery from LRP which is slightly heavier, for better balance and he because he also believes it is more consistent over the 5 minute run.
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Chassis Focus – David Perez
Chassis – Xray T4 2017
Motor – Hobbywing Xerun V10 4.5T
ESC – Hobbywing Xerun XR10 Pro
Batteries – EZ Graphene 6600mAh
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Futaba/Highest
Bodyshell – Protoform LTC-R
Remarks – Top Spanish racer David Perez has run many laps of the ASOGER track in Madrid with his Hobbywing powered Xray T4 2017. Coming into the event with his base setup, which is different from that used by his senior team mates, he has only made one change and that is removing bottom screws from the motor mount for more flex which makes the car better on used tires. Running his body very far forward for more initial steering, he is using a high Red Fox rear wing to keep the back in line. Like his team mates he is using the rear ARS system, without it David says the car is unstable through the fast chicane.
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Coelho caps of Day 1 with TQ run
Bruno Coelho has capped off the opening day of the Euro Touring Series in Spain with a TQ run in the first round of qualifying. Having topped practice, the Xray driver found himself behind the Infinity pairing of Akio Sobue and Marc Rheinard early in the qualifier but as their paced dropped off the reigning champion was able to move to the top of the timing screens to TQ by almost 9/10ths from Sobue with Rheinard third a further 4/10ths back. Never posing a real threat for a TQ run, Ronald Volker would open qualifying with a P4, the World Champion clearly frustrated he couldn’t match his rivals pace at the beginning of the heat. Finding himself in the second fastest heat, Jilles Groskamp would break up the finishing order of the top heat to post the fifth fastest time ahead of Alexander Hagberg.
‘The car was perfect, and like we expected it didn’t drop off pace so much’, was Coelho’s reaction. Winner of 2 of the 3 ETS rounds held on asphalt last season, he continued, ‘we tried different things over the practice with tyre prep and some other things and we arrived at a good point for qualifying. Its super good that we took the first qualifier and lets see if we can continue tomorrow’.
‘A good start for me and also the team’ was how Sobue summed up his performance. Describing a set-up change after controlled practice as making his ProtoTC ‘much better’ allowing him to set the fastest lap, the Japanese ace said ‘but it still needs something more’. Asked what he needs to improve he replied, ‘it was more aggressive but this made it use too much tyre and it started to push after 3-minutes, then Bruno was a little faster’.
Rheinard said, ‘I think that was a perfect start and there was another Infinity in second. We had 4 cars in the Top 8’. Running back over his run, the German said, ‘It started good but then started to push to the left because there are many left corners. I was just missing some steering but I think this was because my shocks were maybe too stiff. Otherwise I am happy to have a Top 3 already as well as with the team’s performance so far’.
Summing up his opening qualifier Volker said, ‘clearly its not what I wanted’. The Yokomo driver continued, ‘the problem is still there and we don’t have the perfect tyre prep. We lost time to our competitors at the start because of this. Also I wanted to be able to attack harder but I had a little understeer’. With work to do for Q2, he said, ‘there is a practice in the morning but we will have to see if the conditions are ok to get valuable information for helping us improve the car for Q2’. Compounding his disappointment, it was not a good round for the Yokomo team with Christopher Krapp on target for a Top 4 time before his BD8 shutdown with a lap to go and Nicolas Lee who was on for a Top 10 time had his car dump on the last lap.
With problems with his car in the faster of the two controlled practice costing him a spot in the top heat, Groskamp said, ‘It was of course hard being in the B group because you don’t know your pace. Viktor (Wilck) started ahead of me and I knew he was fast so I followed him. I caught him and passed him so I knew it was a good run’. On his Infinity ProtoTC, last year’s ETS Luxembourg winner said, ‘It is still lacking overall bite but I’m happy with 5th as I didn’t expect it after my problems in CP2 but I rebuilt the car as it was in CP1 and it was better’. Looking to tomorrow’s three qualifiers, he said, ‘I think it will be interesting to see how people are on used tyres’.
‘Not so bad, almost back to normal now’ was how Hagberg summed up completing the Top 6. He continued, ‘I was able to hang on with the quick guys at the start but then it dropped off at the end but we can work on that for tomorrow’. He concluded, ‘its a decent start’. Behind the Xray driver, VBC Racing’s Yannic Prumper got a P7 ahead of Naoto Matsukura, the Japanese driver doing well to make the Top 10 after crashing coming onto the straight early on in the heat.
In the Xray Pro Stock class, winner of the season opener Alexandre Duchet backed up his top seeding position by TQ’ing the first qualifier. The French Xray driver set the pace ahead the Schumacher of Dane Nicolai Lindegaard with Johannes Sperr completing the Top 3. In the Scorpion Power Formula class VBC driver Ivan de La Calle took Q1 ahead of Shepherd’s Olivier Bultynck and reigning champion Jan Ratheisky with championship leader David Ehrbar fourth.
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Coelho tops seeding at ETS Spain
Bruno Coelho goes into qualifying at ETS Spain as the top seed, the Xray driver capitalising on a faster track to top the final round of practice in Madrid. Second fastest in the opening controlled practice, the reigning champion bettered his 3-consecutive lap time by almost 1.3 seconds to top the times ahead of a trio of Infinity drivers lead by Akio Sobue. Fastest in CP1, Marc Rheinard would drop to fourth behind team-mate Naoto Matsukura having only improved his time by quarter of a second. Ronald Volker would complete the Top 6 behind a much improved Yannic Prumper who found 1.9-seconds.
Commenting on the final practice, Coelho said, ‘everything was OK. We didn’t change anything, we just checked over the car and as well as the three laps it felt like it will be good over 5-minutes’. Getting 4-minute practice runs, 2 free and 2 timed, looking to the longer qualifiers, the first of which will run tonight, he pointed out the cooler conditions of Q1 ‘could change the game’. Overall however he said he is ‘feeling confident with the car’ going into the four rounds of qualifying.
With CP1 going ‘not so good’ because his car was ‘too loose’, Sobue said making the rear of his ProtoTC wider and refreshing the shocks had resulted in a better car for second controlled practice, his deficit to Coelho 6/10ths of a second. The Japanese driver said while his 3-laps are OK he said after he is slowing which he feels is down to the car being too consistent and needing to be more aggressive. Planning to tweak his current set-up for Q1, unlike his team-mates who are running ARS, he said he tried it in an earlier practice and didn’t like the feeling.
Not happy with his set-up choice for CP1, Matsukura would copy Rheinard’s set-up for CP2 allowing him to outpace his team-mate. Switching to running ARS, the former World Champion said his Infinity was more stable but after 3-minutes it started to suffer from ‘a little push’. The reigning 1:12 World Champion said he wasn’t sure yet what it would be but he would make a change for Q1 to try lessen the understeer at the end of the run.
‘I rolled just after crossing the loop on the first lap and ended up out in the dust so I missed the chance for the best laps’, explained Rheinard after CP2. He continued, ‘the car still feels good and its been a good start for Infinity wth 3 cars in the Top 4’. With a timing fault delaying the timetable by over an hour, when asked about the issue of shadows on the track for Q1, the Warm-up Race winner said, ‘I think it will be far enough down that there will be no shadows but maybe then we will have the problem of the sun in our eyes’. In terms of set-up for the first qualifier he plans to run his ProtoTC unchanged and ‘check’ how it is over a full 5-minutes.
While looking a little bit sunburnt in the face, Prumper was looking much happier after his final practice. The VBC Racing lead driver said, ‘we made a couple of changes and it went in the right direction so finally I could get a good 3-laps’. With shocks the biggest change to the set-up, he added, ‘the last (of the three laps) was not perfect because of traffic but overall we improved the car a lot and it also had good pace to the end’.
‘Quite a stressful CP2’ was how Volker summed up his final practice attempt. The Yokomo driver said, ‘again the car was loose at the beginning because of tyre prep and I was also distract by a marshal walking which caused me to make a mistake’. He added ‘until the last minute I was not even in the top heat but the tyres & car came in at the end allowing me to get a time to make the top heat’. Coming into the first outdoor event just 1-point off Coelho after his win at ETS Germany, he continued, ‘we need to figure out the issue with the tyre prep so we have no trouble in the opening laps. We also need to check its not set-up related’.
Having struggled in free practice, Alexander Hagberg would set the 7th fastest time. Coming to Spain fresh from winning a fourth 1:12 European Championship title in the Netherlands, the Swede said, ‘Finally we were able to find a set-up to my liking. I am almost back to my basic set-up from last year’. Feeling he is now headed in the right direction with his car, the Xray driver added, ‘maybe its a disadvantage of not testing. It is so competitive these days it shows how important it is to be prepared but hopefully I will be on the pace before the end of the weekend’. Behind Hagberg, Christopher Krapp, Spanish talent David Perez and Naoki Akiyama completed the Top 10. Due to the large size of the the ASOGER track the Top heat will have 12 starters for qualifying with Nicholas Lee and Frederik Südhoff making it in.
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Video – Controlled Practice Rd2
Rheinard tops first controlled practice in Madrid
With the Yokomo Euro Touring Series making its first visit to mainland Spain this weekend, it was Marc Rheinard who got off to the best start with the Infinity driver topping the times in the first controlled practice. Winner of the ETS Warm-up race which was hosted at the large Madrid track last month, Rheinard was fastest over 3-consecutive laps from defending champion Bruno Coelho with fellow Xray driver & Spanish talent David Pérez completing the Top 3. Winner of the previous ETS encounter, the last of the season’s carpet races, Ronald Volker found himself only 9th quickest in CP1 having set the second fastest time in free practice. The World Champion put the time down to a change of tyre prep but happy with his Yokomo, he will revert to his previous tyre prep method for CP2.
‘Not a bad start for controlled practice’ was how Rheinard summed up his time – a 57.843 compared to Coelho’s 58.016. The German continued, ‘the track changed a lot compared to free practice and I didn’t think I was going fast. Everyone said it felt like less grip’. Only planning a tyre change for CP2, he said the basic set-up of his Infinity ProtoTC was good but due to his own error there was a small wheelbase adjustment he needed to make but otherwise he would leave it unchanged. A driver who has always been more keen on racing outdoors, the 3-time World Champion likes the ASOGER track saying, ‘the layout here is perfect. It looks easy but you if you overshoot it messes you up the next few corners’.
Championship leader Coelho is also a fan of the track saying ‘It is a super big track but it has some technical parts that still have good speed. I really like racing on asphalt’. On his T4, the Portuguese ace, who got to drive to this event from Lisbon rather than taking a flight, said, ‘the car works really well, we were waiting to see how it compares over a longer run and it worked very well’. Fastest in free practice, he added, ‘ok it dropped off a little towards the end but that is like everyone’. Describing the track as slower due to sun being at its hottest when CP1 findly ran after a delay cause by a timing computer failure, he said the 1-hour delay also effected the track. Asked about the new handout tyre Volante have prepared for the outdoor, he said, ‘the new tyre until now is very good. Every set is the same’.
‘I think my car is better on 5-minutes than 3-laps’ was Perez’s reaction after his impressive P3 pace. The 16-year however added, ‘but I think this was my best moment as my car is not as good in low temperatures and the difference will be bigger between me and the quick guys’. While not his home track, he said ‘I know it well’ and having done ‘more than 1500 laps’ of testing around the 318 metre long track he hasn’t had to change the set-up on his T4, which is the same as he used at the warm-up race.
Posting the 4th fastest time, Viktor Wilck described CP1 as ‘not too bad’ but added his Serpent felt loose. While the track had less traction due to the high temperatures, conditions he said his Project X4 is normally at its best in, he felt part of the loose feeling was down to set-up. For the second & final practice he said he will ‘try a new rear set-up to try and get more rear grip’. Asked about qualifying , the first of the four rounds being run tonight, the Swede wasn’t overly confident replying, ‘normally in the morning and evening we are not so fast’.
Making his first ETS appearance of Season #10, Jilles Groskamp set the 5th fastest time. The Dutchman said, ‘the 3 laps that counted were not perfect but the consistency over the run was good. The car feels good’. With practice running 4-minutes, but most other drivers running two cars in free practice as he ran just one, the Infinity driver said it was the first time to get an indication of everyone’s true pace but added ‘it wont be until qualifying that we get to see the real pace of everyone’ when its 5-minutes that count. Also in the Top 10 for Infinity was 2014 World Champion Naoto Matsukura. The Japanese driver crashed at the start of the run, but said a set-up change for the run wasn’t good and set to revert back to his free practice he expects to be ‘higher up’ the order in CP2.
Completing the Top 6 was former Gran Canaria ETS race winner Christopher Krapp. The fastest Yokomo driver for the round, the German described his time as ‘pretty descent’ adding ‘my 3-laps are not super fast but I am happy with my overall time for the full run’. A podium finisher at the Warm-up Race, he said, ‘the track is changing a lot each between morning and evening. The car is ok for midday hot track but we need to find a set-up for the other conditions’. Asked what the issue when the track is cooler he replied, ‘it is sliding in the rear. I have too much steering so I think we will try a diff change for the next one’.
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Track Focus – ASOGER
Name – Asoger RC
Country – Spain
Location – Getafe, Madrid
Host – Asociación de Getafe de radiocontrol
Surface – Asphalt
Direction – Anti-clockwise
No. of ETS Races hosted – 0
The Euro Touring Series kicks off its outdoor season with an all new addition to the calendar that takes the championship to mainland Spain for the first time. Situated in the city of Getafe, which is located south of the Madrid metropolitan area, the arrival of the the 250 plus ETS competitors marks the Asoger RC track’s first international event. Built in 2005, the 318 metre long track, came about after the Asociación de Getafe de radiocontrol made contact with the local Mayor leading to them being entered into a competition between local sporting organisations for funding. They won, taking them from racing in a local parking lot to having a very impressive track on what was formerly a soccer grounds. With the government funding paying for the laying of the track and the building of a perimeter wall, the club self funded the building of the rest of the required infrastructure. A club of 140 members, they continue to invest in developing the facility with new offices having been built this year under the drivers stand. For the future they also plan to build a permanent bar on the site. With the arrival of the ETS, the international status of the event has helped them attract additional funding from the Mayor. As a club, they membership covers all classes including nitro but it is touring cars which is the most popular class and when the track is open on weekends it attracts an average of 25 drivers. Over the year between national, regional and club races they organise around 20 events.
As a layout, World Champion Ronald Volker calls it a ‘wonderful layout’. The German added, ‘it is something different again to other tracks I have been to. For Modified it definitely is a lot of fun but for Pro Stock it might be a bit too big’. Asked what the key challenges of the track are, the Yokomo driver, who took part in the Warm-up event here last month, said the shadows from the evening sun could affect some of the qualifiers. He said the trees that run the length of the straight make it hard to see in the curbing at the end of the straight as the sun starts to set in the evening. In terms of the layout, he added the end of the front straight is difficult concluding ‘the left right left is key to a good lap’.
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