Coelho top seed on Apeldoorn debut

Update – With a rain shower striking just after 20:30, the decision has been made to call time on the rest of today’s action at Apeldoorn. Having already lost 6-hours to morning rain, rather than make the day any longer for drivers the top heat of Formula and all of the Modified groups will now run Q1 tomorrow morning.

Bruno Coelho is the top seed for the fifth round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series at Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.  The Xray driver’s debut at the track, he backed up his CP1 pace by knocking 6/10ths of a second off his fastest 3-consecutive laps.  While the Top 13 drivers would all improve on the times from the first controlled practice, Coelho extended his advantage with Yokomo’s Ronald Volker again his closest rival only this time the advantage increased from 4/100ths to 2/10ths of a second. Behind them, Jilles Groskamp made a similar sized improvement in pace to Coelho to put his Infinity 3rd on the final seeding time sheets with Viktor Wilck improving one position to end practice 4th.  Making it five different manufacturers at the front, Freddy Sudhoff found the pace that escaped him in CP1 to post the 5th fastest time ahead of Awesomatix team-mate Lucas Urbain.  With Coelho looking good at the top of the times, the only remaining title challengers Marc Rheinard and Alexander Hagberg are going to have to qualify from the second fastest heat with Hagberg ending up 12th fastest three places ahead of Rheinard.

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

Coelho tops CP1 at ETS Netherlands

After a rain delayed started to the day, it was Bruno Coelho who would top the first round of controlled practice on the Yokomo Euro Touring Series return to Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.  The reigning champion’s first time to the track, with rain also hampering yesterday free practice, the Xray driver put in the fastest 3-consecutive laps ahead of free practice pace setter Ronald Volker with a time of 43.641 compared to Volker’s 43.682.  Backing up Yokomo’s strong performance in free practice, Yannic Prumper would record the third fastest time ahead of the Infinity of Akio Sobue and Serpent of Viktor Wilck with Loic Jasmin’s Awesomatix completing the Top 6.  As the only two remaining challengers to preventing Coelho from making it a hat trick of ETS titles, Marc Rheinard and Alexander Hagberg could only manage 9th and 11th in CP1 and will be hoping for better in CP2 in order to make the top heat for qualifying.

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

Coelho extends ETS lead with Andernach win

Bruno Coelho has extended his points lead in the Yokomo Euro Touring Series, the Xray driver today becoming the first double winner of Season #11.  With the fourth round marking the ETS’ return to Motodrom Andernach in German, rain forecast for Sunday led to the decision to condense the event to run over two days. Initially it looked like Coelho’s first time to the tight technical track was going go give his rivals the opportunity to reduce his lead as he struggled to find a set-up for the layout.  Come qualifying however things changed with him TQ’ing the opening qualifying on Saturday but it was Q2 in the evening that ultimately decided the event.  On a TQ run, in what would be the rocket round, Naoto Matsukura touched the curbing on the last lap which was enough for the Infinity driver to hand Coelho the TQ by 5/100th of a second.  This all but decided the TQ, Matsukura starting today’s action by topping Q3 the time that was no match to the Q2 pace of the night before while Viktor Wilck claimed the final qualifier.  In the opening final, Matsukura clearly had the quicker car but he couldn’t find a way pass until a late mistake by Coelho made him open the door.  With both drivers making mistakes in A2 they finished as they started, meaning A3 wold decide it.  Again Matsukura pressured the reigning champion who jumped the curbing in the centre chicane which was his queue to take the lead but both cars touched, with Wilck coming out the main benefactor and taking the A3 win.  For Coelho luck was again on his side as his A2 win was the faster, giving him the overall win ahead of Matsukura while Marc Rheinard completed the podium ahead of Wilck.

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

Coelho resists another Matsukura challenge to take A2

Bruno Coelho resisted another challenge from Naoto Matsukura to take a tone to tone win in the second of the A-Mains at ETS Andernach.  Having let Matsukura through in A1 after touching the curbing, Coelho would have a moment in A2 also, but just beforehand Matsukura had dropped back with a moment of his own.  Right on the bumper of the Xray, the Infinity driver looked to make a late inside pass in the chicane but he went over the curb and rolled allowing Coelho to take it by close to 2-seconds.  As he did in the first encounter, Marc Rheinard would make up one position to complete the Top 3, this time ahead of Alexander Hagberg.

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

Matsukura gets by Coelho to take A1

Naoto Matsukura has taken the opening A-Main at the fourth round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Germany.  The Infinity driver would pressure Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho through the race eventually able to take an advantage of an error with one & a half minutes remaining.  Looking to have the quicker car, Matsukura would himself survive at early mistake when he ran wide on the straight with his car making clearly audible contact with the steel boards.  Dropping him back a little, the Japanese driver quickly got back with Coelho and when the leader touched the curbing and opened the door he went through for the win. Behind Marc Rheinard would get by Viktor Wilck to complete the Top 3 ahead of Freddy Sudhoff, with Wilck dropping back to fifth.

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

Coelho Top Qualifier at ETS as Wilck takes final qualifier

Bruno Coelho has claimed his 3rd consecutive TQ of the ETS season, the Xray driver securing pole position thanks to his two TQ runs yesterday at the Motodrom Andernach track in Germany.  With Naoto Matsukura taking Q3 this morning, but the time no match for last night’s Q2 time, it was only the Japanese driver who had the possibility to deny Coelho the No.1 spot.  With the track at its hottest and with only used tyres for Q4, the odds were stacked against Matsukura but a mistake on the first lap confirmed things.  Now the attention was on how they would line up behind the reigning series champion.  Marc Rheinard took up the pace but with 4-laps to go had a mistake, briefly moving Alexander Hagberg to the top, but Wilck would finish strong to take the round from Freddy Sudhoff and Hagberg.  The result meant Matsukura held onto his P2 starting position while Wilck moved ahead of Rheinard to secure third with Sudhoff completing the top half of the grid.

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

Matsukura leads Infinity 1-2 in Q3 at ETS Andernach

Naoto Matsukura led an Infinity 1-2 in the third & penultimate round of qualifying at the Yokomo Euro Touring Series this morning in Andernach, Germany.  Having missed out on the TQ last night in Q2 by 5/100ths of a second after touching the curbing on the last lap, Matsukura would claim his first ever TQ run of the ETS ahead of team-mate Marc Rheinard.  Despite being 3.6-seconds faster than Rheinard, the time was slower than that of Coelho’s Q2 time.  While Coelho would make a mistake on the opening lap and opted to pull in after the next lap, it is looking increasingly likely the championship leader is on target for the overall TQ.  With temperatures rising the track is expected to be slower for the final round with the only challenger Matsukura having now used all 3 of his allocated sets of tyres.  Behind Matsukura and Rheinard, Viktor Wilck backed up his Q2 result by again completing the Top 3 while Lucas Urbain put in a strong drive from the second fastest heat to post the fourth fastest time.

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