Red RC » Eoghain O Briain

August 8, 2016

Kurzbuch setting practice pace at 200mm Worlds

Simon Kurzbuch is setting the practice pace at the 200mm Nitro Touring Car World Championships in Gubbio, Italy. The reigning 1:8 World Champion sits top of the time sheets from pre-event favourite Dario Balestri with 8 of the 12 rounds of free practice at the Miniautodromo Internazionale M.Rosati track completed. A driver with limited experience in the 1:10 class, Kurzbuch took his Shepherd to the fastest three consecutive laps in this morning’s opening practice bettering the fastest time of the first official practice day set yesterday evening by Balestri’s Capricorn. With no clear advantage holder so far in terms of outright pace, the top 6 so far made of drivers representing 6 different manufacturers, the separation is only 0.156 of a second. For reigning champion Alexander Hagberg his title defence has not started out well with the Xray driver finding himself 56th fastest of the 120 starters.

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July 25, 2016

Hagberg & Viljami end season with 2nd podium

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With new champion Bruno Coelho already wrapping up the win in A2, the final A-Main encounter of the 2015/16 Yokomo Euro Touring Series Season at the Hudy Arena would see Alexander Hagberg and Viljami Kutvonen cap of their seasons with a second podium finish. Leading away the field in A3, former race winner Hagberg would take a straight forward win to secure his first asphalt podium finish having last finished on the podium indoors at Round 2 in Germany. Having only secured his first ETS podium finish at Round 4 in Italy, Viljami was made to work a little harder for 3rd overall in Slovakia with Ronald Volker shadowing his every move before an attempted pass by Luxembourg race winner Jilles Groskamp tapped both drivers into a spin. This left Viljami to take an easy second with Yannic Prümper completing the Top 3 – a position that was to secure the VBC Racing driver 4th overall, his best result of the season. An intense battle for 4th in the leg would see Marc Rheinard punt Volker into the grass coming out of the second last corner. Crossing the line-up fourth as Volker’s Yokomo sat on the grass, the Taimya driver was later given a time penalty to put him behind Volker who was classified 8th.

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July 25, 2016

Coelho caps off ETS title victory with 3rd win

Having clinched the Yokomo Euro Touring Series title yesterday when he claimed his third TQ of the season, Bruno Coelho today capped off his title winning campaign with a third win. Winning one of the most static A-Mains in the ETS’ 51 race history yesterday, not one position change taking place over the 5-minutes, Coelho again headed an Xray 1-2 to wrap up an early win at the Hudy Arena in Slovakia. While up front the race was a repeat of A1, after initially looking like another 10 car procession the race came to life as Ronald Volker tagged Viljami Kutvonen as the pack backed up behind the Awesomatix driver. Surviving the tag to maintain third the Finn would later spin out at the end of the straight, him reporting afterwards he felt he got a bad set of tyres highlighting his 7th place starting team-mate Freddy Sudhoff being 4/10th a lap faster than him. While Volker, who said his car was ‘amazing’ would recover two of the positions lost after his contact with Viljami, an attempt to pass to Marc Rheinard for third ‘didn’t work out’ dropping the outgoing champion to P6. A much improved Rheinard would hold on to third followed by Yannic Prumper and the Serpent of 9th place starter Viktor Wilck.

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July 23, 2016

Coelho wins static A1

Bruno Coelho took an easy win of a completely static A1 final at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series season finale at the Hudy Arena, with not one pass being executed over the 5-minutes as the 10 cars finished exactly as they qualified. Top Qualifier Coelho made an early break over Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg allowing the newly crowned champion to cruise to a 1.3 second victory. 1.9-seconds back from Hagberg, Awesomatix’s Viljami Kutvonen completed the Top 3 with the Finn having no problems fending off the Yokomo of Ronald Volker. The only attempted pass of the race came from Yannic Prumper as the VBC driver tried to find a way passed Team Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp but the German couldn’t get it done.

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July 23, 2016

Kutvonen takes final qualifier, Coelho is Top Qualifier

In a bit if a surprise, Awesomatix’s Viljami Kutvonen took the final round of qualifying at the season finale of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series but it is newly crowned champion Bruno Coelho who will start the A-Main at the Hudy Arena from pole. With only Hagberg with an outside chance of denying Coelho his X TQ of the season by taking the fourth & final qualifier, Kutvonen caught them all by surprise as he gambled on saving his second set of tyres for the run. Only a 16-lap run due to the extra hot conditions of the midday run, the Finn outpaced Ronald Volker by just 2/10ths of a second with Hagberg only a further 4/10th off despite both being on used tyres. With a P4 in Q1, the result puts Kutvonen 3rd on the grid behind the Xrays of Coelho & Hagberg and ahead of Volker & Jilles Groskamp.

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July 23, 2016

Coelho is new ETS Champion

Bruno Coelho is the new Yokomo Euro Touring Series Champion, the Portuguese ace ending Ronald Volker’s 5-year reign over the World famous championship on only his second attempt. The title marks a number of firsts with it Xray’s first title in the ETS’ premiere class and the first time one manufacturer has claimed a clean sweep of titles with the Slovakian manufacturer having already taken the Pro Stock and Formula titles. As a driver Coelho also becomes the first driver to win both an ETS and Euro Offroad Series title a claim he can add to his already impressive feat of being the only driver to win races in the ETS, EOS and Euro Nitro Series. While Volker was eliminated from the title race at the previous round in Luxembourg, Coelho still had to deal with the possibility of having to share the title with Marc Rheinard. With the former champion needing to take the overall TQ to keep that slim chance alive, the third round of qualifying at the Hudy Arena would decide the title as Coelho’s team-mate Alexander Hagberg topped the penultimate qualifier while Rheinard could manage only a P8, leaving the Tamiya driver likely to finish runner-up for the sixth consecutive season, only a win tomorrow by Volker able to demote him.

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July 22, 2016

Coelho holds overnight TQ in Slovakia

Euro Touring Series champion elect Bruno Coelho completed the perfect day at the season finale in Slovakia as he claimed another TQ run in the second round of qualifying leaving the Xray driver to hold the overnight TQ. Having TQ’d the opening qualifier from outgoing champion Ronald Volker, the second time of asking Coelho topped the times ahead of his only remaining title rival Marc Rheinard however the German’s hopes of sharing the ETS title with the Portuguese ace now looking like increasingly unlikely due to both having used two their sets of tyres while others have a new set still at their disposal for tomorrow’s remaining two qualifiers. Also on new tyres, Freddy Sudhoff would complete the Top 3 just ahead of Alexander Hagberg who was the quickest driver on second run tyres. On used tyres, Volker would suffer an ‘unnecessary roll’ which would leave him with a P16 for Q2 but some consolation for the German is that he still has a new set for tomorrow. After a strong P3 in Q1, Yannic Prumper was again on a good time leading the second fastest heat until he put his VBC on its roof opting to pull off once marshalled.

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July 22, 2016

Coelho takes opening qualifier at ETS Finale

Bruno Coelho has taken the opening qualifier at the season finale of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Slovakia. With qualifying brought forward due to forecast rain that thankfully didn’t arrive in Trencin, Coelho was top seed for qualifying after setting the pace over yesterday’s 5 rounds of free practice and had no problems carrying that form through to qualifying. Initially followed by team-mate Alexander Hagberg until a small error, Coelho would top the time by almost a second from outgoing champion Ronald Volker. Only 18th fastest in practice which put him in the second fastest heat Yannic Prumper would put in a great Q1 performance to complete the Top 3 ahead of Viljami Kutvonen and Hagberg. Needing to TQ to stand a chance of sharing the ETS title with Coelho, Marc Rheinard would retire from the first of the four qualifiers after suffering a spin, the Tamiya team struggling with today’s extra hot track conditions.

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