July 28, 2019

Coelho unchallenged in A1

Bruno Coelho took an unchallenged tone to tone win in a re-run of the opening A-Main at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series Season Finale in Slovakia this morning.  Originally scheduled for yesterday but stopped half way through when it started to rain and the rest of the day was cancelled, drivers faced an earlier than usual 08:30 but starting from the TQ it didn’t cause the newly crowned Champion any issues as he took the win over Ronald Volker by over 1-second.  For a time it looked like Coelho’s Xray team-mate Alexander Hagberg might make a race of A1 but the Swede came undone with the first of two mistakes at the same point on the track.  First allowing Volker through to second, the second error allowed Christopher Krapp through to complete the Top 3 with an incident on the last lap dropping Hagberg to 9th.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

---

July 27, 2019

Weather interrupts finals at ETS Slovakia

After baking in the heat for the first two days of the event, today rain showers interrupted the running of the finals at the ETS Season Finale in Slovakia.  Having run all four rounds of qualifying in anticipation of rain arriving, the rain arrived overnight delaying the start and then when things did get underway subsequent showers meant further delays in getting through the timetable.  While getting the first round of A-Mains completed for most, during A1 of the Volante Modified the rain arrived caused it to be stopped with over 2-minutes to go after which the skies would open.  Despite efforts to dry the track, overcast conditions meant it was going to take too long to dry to be able to resume racing for the day and and at around 17:30 the call was made that racing would resume tomorrow.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

---

July 26, 2019

Hagberg TQs final quali to secure P2 at ETS Slovakia

Alexander Hagberg has TQ’d the final round of qualifying at the ETS Season Finale in Slovakia, the result giving the Swede second spot on the grid behind Xray team-mate and newly crowned Champion Bruno Coelho.  Having wrapped up the overall TQ with a trio of TQ runs, Coelho would lead away Ronald Volker in Q4 but all the attention was on Hagberg and Lucas Urbain as they had new tyres for the final round.  Initially it was Urbain’s Awesomatix that set the pace, the Frenchman opening with a blistering fast 16.941 lap but quickly that pace faded with Thimo Weissbauer moving to the top of the timing screen.  Soon however Hagberg took charge and he stayed there to post the fastest time of the day ahead of Coelho, the cooler night conditions allowing him to be the only driver to make 18 laps of the reverse layout Hudy Arena track.  Again so close to Coelho, their pace on new or used tyres pretty much equal, Volker would conclude qualifying with a P3 which is where the Yokomo driver will start tomorrow’s finals.  Crossing the loop fourth fastest, Urbain will start in that position with Christopher Krapp completing the top half of the grid.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

---

July 26, 2019

TQ in Slovakia gives Coelho ETS title No.4

Bruno Coelho has taken the overall TQ at ETS Slovakia and with it his fourth consecutive Euro Touring Series title.  Only Yokomo’s Ronald Volker could mathematical end the Xray driver’s reign over the Championship but he needed to go into the Season #12 Finale A-Mains as the Top Qualifier.  With Coelho taking the first two qualifiers, Q3 was a decisive run for both drivers but again it was the final lap that would be Volker’s undoing as he again handed it Coelho.  While Coelho will aim to cap of his successful title campaign with his 5th consecutive win at the Hudy Arena, Volker will try to hold on to his 2nd place from Alexander Hagberg and Lucas Urbain who go into the fourth & final qualifier with the advantage of still having a new set of tyres.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

---

July 26, 2019

Volker loses Q2 to Coelho on final lap

Coelho made up just over a tenth of a second on the final lap to make two out of two by just 0.069 of a second.  Starting directly behind Coelho after the Xray driver took the opening qualifier, Volker went into the final lap looking like he had done enough with Coelho facing traffic but a slow lap from the Yokomo driver handed it to the reigning Champion.  A significant loss for Volker, who needs the overall TQ to go into the Mains here at the Hudy Arena with any chance of deny his rival yet another ETS title, the German must now ensure he plays the perfect tyre strategy for the final two qualifiers, Q4 set to be the rocket round due to expected cooler conditions.  Behind the two World Champions, Lucas Urbain set the third fastest time followed by Christopher Krapp, Elliott Harper and Marco Kaufmann.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

---

July 26, 2019

Coelho takes Q1 on reverse Hudy layout

Bruno Coelho has taken the opening qualifier at the Season Finale of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series but the Xray driver had to work hard for it against title rival Ronald Volker.  With uncertain weather conditions for the next two days, mainly the high risk of thunderstorms, it was an earlier start than usual to qualifying with all four rounds scheduled to be run today (Friday).  Another change to format for the closing race of the season is the track layout, Race Director Scotty Ernst making the announcement at the start of yesterday’s  practice that the event would run in the clockwise direction.  While the direction change has been met with mixed views, Coelho got the best from his car in the extreme heat to go fastest from Volker by 3/10ths of a second with Alexander Hagberg completing the Top 3 ahead of Awesomatix pairing Lucas Urbain and Loic Jasmin.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

---

July 22, 2019

Kurzbuch secures 4th ENS title with another Aigen win

Simon Kurzbuch has secured the 2019 Euro Nitro Series title after claiming his fifth consecutive win at the hillside Aigen track in Austria.  Travelling to the third round of the Euro Nitro Series on the back of his first win of the season at Round 2 in the Netherlands, the Shepherd driver collected maximum points taking the TQ and win ahead of reigning champion Dario Balestri.  With the demise of Dominic Greiner, who came into the weekend just 1-point off the Swiss ace, Kurzbuch becomes Champion of the ENS for a fourth time.  In the Round 3 encounter, it was the Infinity pairing of Balestri and Carmine Raiola who were the only ones to trouble Kurzbuch in the 45-minute Saturday night final.  Raiola was to lead for a time until he hit traffic, literally, and had to pit for body repairs.  With Kurzbuch and Balestri having the same tyre strategy but in reverse order, the latter going for all four tyres in the first stop and just the outside in the second, as the race came to a close it looked like we might see a repeat of the thrilling finish to the 1:10 A-Main.  In the end Kurzbuch calculated things perfectly crossing the line 9/10ths of a second in front of his long standing rival while Raiola came home third to complete the podium.  Off the podium, Toni Gruber would finish 4th ahead of Merlin Depta with Rick Vrielijnck rounding out the Top 6.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

---

July 22, 2019

Leino lifts ENS title with 3 out 3 wins

Teemu Leino is the 2019 Euro Nitro Series Champion, the 2016 champion securing back to back 1:10 titles today for Infinity with a thrilling win over team-mate & outgoing Champion Jilles Groskamp.  Securing the TQ in Austria with a dominant performance in all four qualifiers, the Finn looked like he was going to continue that form in the final but in the final 5-minutes Groskamp made an impressive charge for one of the closest finishes in ENS history.  With Leino holding a steady 2-second gap for much of the race, last year’s Aigen winner hunted him down bringing the gap down to 2/10th as they crossed the line.  Having won the opening two rounds of the Championship in Italy and the Netherlands, Leino third consecutive win secures him the title with the perfect campaign.  While the two Infinity drivers the class of the field, it was Shepherd’s Melvin Diekmann who completed the Round 3 podium after battle with team-mate Thilo Tödtmann ended when he hit gearbox issues.  France’s Quentin Leroux had a good race coming from P8 to 4th over the 45-minutes ahead of Rico Kröber who had bumped up to the 12th and final spot on the A-Main from the B-Final.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

---