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June 21, 2013

Groskamp & Tironi confirmed for ENS Austria

JillesENS

Reigning Electric Touring Car World Champion Jilles Groskamp will contest next weekend’s (June 28-30) Euro Nitro Series race in Graz, Austria, the Shepherd driver one of a number of World class factory drivers set to battle it out for the 200mm Touring Car win at the Stöhr-Ring track. Another confirmed entry for the second race of the ENS ‘Pilot Series’, is Capricorn driver & World Championship podium finisher Francesco Tironi who together with reigning Italian National Champion Giorgio de Felici will be looking to complete a clean sweep of the all new series for the Italian company who at Race 1 earlier this month at the Hockenheimring in Germany took a convincing win with Eric Dankel.

Continue reading the announcement here

June 19, 2013

On the Grapevine – Traiskirchen

On the Grapevine - Traiskirchen

Last weekend I traveled to Austria where the Yokomo Euro Touring Series set down at the unique Traiskirchen track for the penultimate round of the world famous championship with a great air of anticipation & excitement as four of the best drivers in the business came to town with a chance of making the title fight go to next month’s season finale at the Hudy Arena in Slovakia. While the series has established itself as a must do event for the world’s best drivers and manufacturers, an incident packed Leg 2 of the A-Main highlighted just how important an ETS win has become to the drivers. The most fraught 5-minutes of racing in the series’ six seasons of existence, the outbreak of raw emotions that ensued following four key incidents, while not a great advert for our sport, showed the intensity at which these guys perform. While the faces of the involved drivers after Leg 2 sent out a clear message that myself & my white notebook would be best off leaving them alone, I think the tension clearly showed these are not just guys ‘playing with toy cars’ but competitive sportsmen who have a passion for what they are doing. Don’t get me wrong I would not like this to become a regular occurrence but like any sport when there is a bit of drama it does create some extra buzz. I am glad to report that come the prize giving the drivers were exchanging hand shakes and admitting that things said in the heat of the moment where just that. Ultimately Marc Rheinard took the win in Austria from Ronald Volker to set the stage for a thrilling show down to the 2012/13 ETS between the two great German rivals.

Continue reading On the Grapevine here

June 18, 2013

Watered Down Racing?

I was fortunate to spend a day last week at another sporting event in the UK. One which was interrupted throughout the day by rain showers. During one of the numerous showers, during which the event was stopped, I thought about how the rain also affects our sport. Racing outdoors, which forms the majority of the important races in almost every R/C class, always has the potential to be affected by the weather. Obviously, some classes, such as the offroad classes, can be less affected, but generally a change in weather means a change in set-up, a change in attitudes and often, a change in results. Of course, we’d all love to have facilities like this weekend’s ETS venue in Austria, or the ROAR Nationals track in Texas – an “outdoor” track with a roof!

Continue reading Oli’s column here

June 17, 2013

Joakim Nicolaisen wins Nordic Championships

The Nordic championship is a yearly race with drivers from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland attending. This year Denmark was supposed to arrange the meeting, but after a while Norway got the event, with the Oslo Modellbilklubb hosting it. The event was supposed to be a 2 day event with qualifying on Saturday and finals on Sunday. But with the weather that was showing, and the usual Norwegian weather, everybody agreed to make it a 1 day event. After practice Thomas Holmesland was fastest and set the pace for the event. In the first qualifying heat both Oskar Fjeld and Joakim Nicolaisen was driving incredible fast, and with no errors being done Joakim set a good qualification round. This was his TQ run.

Continue reading the report here

June 17, 2013

Daniele Ielasi joins Capricorn

Capricorn have announced the signing of 2008 1/10th World Champion Daniele Ielasi. The deal is effective immediately and the former Shepherd driver will compete in the 1/8th and 1/10th European Championships as a Capricorn driver. The Italian had this to say about the deal:

I would like to thank the complete Shepherd family for our excellent cooperation and for the good job they made in the past years. We always had and will have a good relation and it was really a pleasure to be part of this great team. I know that this kind of change in the middle of the season is not easy to manage but after a long and careful consideration I have to take this hard decision. From now on I will be part of the Capricorn team as a driver for the 1/10 and the 1/8 car. I’m sure that my experience will give a new improvement and I’m very happy to be part of the best Italian drivers in the same Capricorn team with an Italian car and Italian engine.

Source: Capricorn [capricornrc.com]

June 16, 2013

Rheinard wins, title to be decided at Hudy Arena

Rheinard wins in Austria, title to be decided at Hudy Arena

Marc Rheinard has won the penultimate round of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series ahead of Ronald Volker meaning that the two great rivals will battle it out for the overall title at the season finale at the Hudy Arena in Slovakia next month. After the chaos of Leg 2, the closing race in Traiskirchen was a much calmer affair with Top Qualifier Rheinard seeing off the close attention of Yokomo drivers Yannic Prumper and Volker to take the leg and the overall win which he needed to keep his title hopes alive.

View our complete event coverage here.

June 16, 2013

Hagberg wins chaotic Leg 2 in Austria

Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg has won what has to have been the most chaotic race in the history of the Euro Touring Series with the level of tension among the main contenders in the pits requiring a chainsaw to cut through it. After a change of weather saw cars sliding around in Leg 1, conditions were back to normal for Leg 2 and initially the race started well with Top Qualifier Marc Rheinard leading the way from Yannic Prumper and Ronald Volker, but on lap 4 the Yokomo pair clashed in what was the first of a number of incidents that have tempers running extremely high in Austria. One of the few happy faces in the pits at the end of the race, Hagberg took the win from fellow Swede Viktor Wilck with Martin Hudy, who started 9th completing the Top 3, with all three drivers admitting afterwards that they had got lucky by staying out of trouble.

View our complete event coverage here.

June 16, 2013

Volker masters dramatic condition change to win A-1

Starting from 3rd on the grid in the first A-Main of the Yokomo Euro Touring Series in Austria, Ronald Volker best mastered a dramatic change in track conditions to move to the front of the field after a thrilling opening two laps. A change in weather that saw the arrival of light rain caused a sharp rise in humidity at the roof covered Traiskirchen track making the asphalt surface more like the ice skating ring which the building normally houses. Such was the change that laps times where almost 2 seconds off the pace seen in qualifying. Once in front Volker cruised to an easy 3-second win over team-mate Yannic Prümper who held off a challenge from Top Qualifier Marc Rheinard.

View our complete event coverage here.