Indoor season starts in northern Germany
The fourth round of ETS Season #14 2021/22 is up next and will lead us to the city of Neumünster, located in the northern part of Germany (60km from Hamburg). After three outdoor races, the fourth round will kick of the indoor season on the famous black ETS carpet. The new built track of Chuck`s Raceway awaits all racers is looking superb – a guarantee for some great days of ETS racing at the highest level!
ETS Tires – the black gold!
ETS RD4 will see at least two tire debuts! We will see drivers using the new Matrix Rubber Indoor tires for the first time in all touring car classes, and in the same moment we are excited to see the Formula cars racing on foam tires (also produced by Matrix) for the first time ever at the ETS. During testing, both tires worked really well, and we expect them to perform great here during the whole weekend!
Offroad cracks going Onroad
We will see some big names from the world of Offroad racing attending the fourth round of the ETS in Neumünster. Schumacher top factory driver Michal Orlowski will be one of them, but as he was racing a lot of ETS races in the past years (and all three of the current season in the modified class) he is not the biggest surprise on the list of entries.
The Swedish 1:8 scale Offroad Super Star and 2016 IFMAR World Champion David Ronnefalk will attend the race and we are happy to welcome him back after he raced one ETS in February 2019 in Daun where he showed a great pace in the Modified B-main. He just announced his departure from his long term chassis sponsor Hot Bodies some weeks ago and now he has freshly signed up with Awesomatix concerning Onroad racing! We are looking forward to have him with us in this thrilling stage of his professional RC racing carreer as his future main sponsor for 1:8 scale Offroad is not decided until now.
I’m really excited to attend an ETS race again. This time will be different from my earlier showings as I come with way better prep and also with a top of the line platform. Looking forward to be a part of the Awesomatix team there and you can be sure I’m going to give it everything!
David Ronnefalk, Team Awesomatix
We are also happy to welcome the Mugen Seiki sponsored Kilic Brothers Berkan and Burak. They will make their ETS debut with Berkan racing ProStock and Burak lining up in the modified class. Both are very successfull in their 1:8 scale Nitro Buggy programmes and at the TOS in Neumünster they showed that they can also wheel a touring car. They will receive maximum support from their chief mechanic and father, Abdullah, and the rest of the Mugen Onroad team!
Let`s see how the Offroad cracks will perform on our black ETS carpet!
Many Entries for ETS RD4
The ETS crew is happy to see so many entries for the race in Neumünster. The whole team of Chuck`s Raceway has put in a lot of work and attention to detail to create a fantastic track – they really deserve this high number of entries. Everything is ready to go, and we are pretty sure that racers will like the facility in Neumünster.
But now it is time to take a closer look on the different classes, the list of entries, and what to expect from drivers and teams at ETS RD4 Season #14 2021/22 in Neumümster, GER.
Matrix Modified
Who will dominate on carpet?
It is always important for the teams to get a smooth transition from outdoor to indoor racing. The first indoor race is the chance for everybody to attack one more time during the season as some drivers favour carpet racing over asphalt. This time we will see Xray running their all new X4 touring car for the first time on carpet after they had a very strong debut in Apeldoorn. Another driver to watch will be Mugen`s Ronald Völker as he will also race on carpet for the first time (at the ETS) after his switch from Yokomo to Mugen Seiki. All these different debuts can be a great chance for Marc Rheinard, as he is used to his Awesomatix car on carpet since the race in Daun 2020 where he was fighting for the win with Völker.
Völker`s first indoor ETS for Mugen Seiki
With Mugen Seiki we have another team facing a debut at ETS RD4 in Neumünster where Ronald Völker will race his first ETS on carpet for his Japanese chassis sponsor. Völker`s sheet of ETS results for Mugen Seiki is looking excellent right now with two wins (Arena33) and a second place (Apeldoorn) to his favour. He is leading the championship ahead of Rheinard and Prümper right now and he will push hard to extend his lead to win another ETS title at the end of the season.
As Völker is a real ace on carpet, we will have a special eye on him and his Mugen Seiki ride. During the last TOS race in Neumünster, which was a so called “Inofficial ETS Warmup” (on a different layout), Völker finished second behind Coelho and they raced each other very close once again. Völker then took the win only one week later at the TOS in Augsburg and with this in mind we can almost be sure to see some amazing racing at the front of the Matrix Modified class during ETS RD4 with Völker in the mix!
Can Rheinard take the win for Awesomatix?
One of the drivers with the biggest goal to win must be Marc Rheinard. With his last ETS win coming from October 2017 (!) where he won for Infinity at the season opener in Vienna, Rheinard is suffering from a long period without stepping on the top spot of the podium. But at the last indoor ETS in Daun (February 2020), he looked very strong and finished second behind Völker after some epic battles in the finals. This must give a lot of confidence to Rheinard, and we can expect him to be on fire in Neumünster. He is 7 points behind championship leader Völker, and he needs to fight back in some way now.
Rheinard will lead the Awesomatix team with Lucas Urbain, Thimo Weissbauer, Michele Manzo, Tim Wahl and many more. Each and everybody of them can make the A-Main as the Awesomatix team is one of the strongest forces at the ETS. At the last TOS race, Rheinard showed a good pace and was on the same level with Bruno Coelho and Ronald Völker to finish third overall!
Big attention on the Xray X4
The Xray team has gained a lot of attention with their strong X4 debut in Apeldoorn. As it is never easy to deliver a win in the first race with a completely new car, Bruno Coelho did an amazing job in the Netherlands with his TQ and win. Alexander Hagberg was also running on a great pace – he just made one small mistake and had no kind of racing luck during the weekend. With Antoine Brunet also making the A-Main in Apeldoorn, the new Xray X4 showed his potential directly out of the factory. With the switch to carpet it will be interesting to watch the Xray team in Neumünster when they will use the X4 for the first time at an indoor ETS.
As we are sure about Xray preparing well for this race, everybody likes to see on which level of pace they will compete against all the others. RD4 will also be an important race for Bruno Coelho as he (and Hagberg) missed the first two races of the season. To keep any chances alive, Bruno must deliver another strong result in northern Germany. But after he was able to win the TOS race at the same venue three weeks ago ahead of his closest rivals,Völker and Rheinard, he will travel to Neumünster with a huge boost of confidence! Coelho will see his teammate Alexander Hagberg also returning from a USA trip in a good form as Alex finished second at the US Indoor Champs in Cleveland last week!
Is Team Yokomo ready for a win?
The Yokomo team is on the move and showed some great results during all three outdoor races of the actual season. Yannic Prümper scored two podiums (3rd at RD2 & RD3) and is sitting in third position of the championship right now. His teammate Christpoher Krapp is fifth overall and showed constant performances as well. Loic Jasmin finally found his way back into the A-Main again in the Netherlands and showed the car`s potential to go fast. But somehow, the team was missing that little extra to fight for the overall victory this season. Can they find something on the car to win an indoor race?
With former ETS race winners Krapp and Prümper, the quality of drivers is in the team for sure and it is only a factor of time until a big win will happen for Yokomo again. After a long abstinence from the ETS (caused by the world wide pandemic), Yokomo` s Singapore based factory driver Nicolas Lee will strengthen the forces of the team at ETS RD4 with his speed and setup knowledge!
Xray ProStock
The Awesomatix empire strikes back
After a long time without a win in the Xray ProStock class (last win from Dominic Vogl in July 2019), the Awesomatix team finally got it done again with Simon Lauter taking an epic win in Apeldoorn. Simon won the race in an impressive way after great battles with Mugen Seiki driver and TQ Tim Benson. After this win, Simon took another win at the Pegasus Masters race in Piding (Germany) where a lot of fast drivers kicked off the carpet season some weeks ago. Lauter is now 5 points behind championship leader Alexandre Duchet (Xray) and he seems to be the only shot for Awesomatix remaining in the hunt for the ProStock title.
The Awesomatix touring car is always super strong on carpet and we can be sure about a strong presence of car and team in Neumünster. With Lauter, Mächler, Hofer, Donath, Bultynck and Kretschmer there is a lot of quality on the list of entries – will we see another win for the Russian brand? TAwesomatix team manager and factory driver Max Mächler was able to win the TOS race at the same venue and showed that the team will be a serious contender et ETS RD4.
Xray`s Duchet leads the championship
After winning the first two races of the season, Xray`s Alexandre Duchet finished only fifth in the Netherlands – a result that nobody expected from Duchet as he was so dominant before. But sometimes not everything went to your favour in RC racing. Something Duchet can be happy about is the fact, that his car was really fast in Apeldoorn, and he just messed it up by himself with simply having too many mistakes in his runs. But the French Xray driver will travel to Neumünster still leading the overall championship by 5 points from Lauter and by 6 points from his teammate Jan Ratheisky. Another Xray driver, Lukas Ellerbrock, is sitting fourth overall and the whole team will do everything to win the prestigious Xray ProStock title once again at the end of the season. The new X4 touring car will be in use by the team in Neumünster and after a strong debut in the Netherlands they will put some serious work into the cars setup for carpet racing as well. ALexandre Duchet finished second beghind Awesomatix driver Max Mächler at the TOS race in Neumünster at the end of November.
Benson, Jung, Lindegaard, Mikkelsen & Co.
Together with the strong line-ups of the big Xray and Awesomatix teams we will see the smaller teams and one man shows in Neumünster too. There are a lot of fast guys in the ProStock class, and it is always a hard fight for the A-Main spots. As this will not change on carpet, we are looking forward to thrilling qualifying heats and finals in Neumünster at ETS RD4.
Tim Benson (Mugen Seiki) had a fantastic race in Apeldoorn and was able to TQ the race with his MTC2. Tim is always fast, but nobody had him in mind when talking about a possible TQ there. He laid down a great qualifying and finished second overall after some epic battles with Simon Lauter. Tim is also known for being very good on carpet and therefore we are looking forward what he can extract out of his Mugen Seiki car to maintain his fifth overall position in the championship.
Yokomo`s Enrico Jung is having his best ETS season so far after switching from ARC to his new team. He made two A-Mains (Arena33) and finished second in the B-Main in Apeldoorn. He is now ninth overall in the championship and he will try his very best to carry over his great form to indoor racing. Last week he finished on a strong second place at the TOS in Augsburg behind Awesomatix Simon Lauter.
Schumacher`s Nicolai Lindegaard also made it into the A-Main two times at Arena 33 (11th and 7th) and won the B-Main at the last race in Apeldoorn. With the small amount of Schumacher cars running at the ETS, the performance of Nicolai is something to highlight for sure as he is on his own most of the time without the support of a large factory team.
Team ToniSport`s Frederik Mikkelsen is another one to watch when it comes to indoor racing. Frederik had a strong asphalt season making the A-Main at each race with his best result coming from RD3 in Apeldoorn where he finished fourth overall. He is ranked in P7 of the overall campaign right now and as we all know his race craft, Frederik will push hard to improve his position until the end of the season!
Hobbywing Frontwheel
Schulz and Olsen to battle it out on carpet
After three thrilling races on Asphalt, we are looking forward to the ongoing battle between championship leader Stefan Schulz and his closest contender Steven Olsen on the black ETS carpet. The German Xray driver (Schulz) and the Danish Awesomatix driver (Olsen) showed great racing so far and it will be interesting to see how the balance of power will be between them until the end of the season. Mischa Kroos is sitting in third position overall and he will try everything to defend this position from Henrik Heitsch (4) and Kevin Sparbier (5) who are still in striking distance for the overall P3.
Orca 17.5 Stock
Bemmerl top favorite for overall title
In the Orca 17.5 Stock class it is championship leader Thomas Bemmerl with the best chances for the overall title. With two TQ`s and wins in Andernach and a third place in Apeldoorn he is leading the rest of the field by four points with RD3 winner Dominik Reile and reigning champion Daniel Pöhlmann being hie closest followers.
As the start of the indoor season is always a good chance for drivers to improve their performance or to recover from a not perfect outdoor season, we are looking forward to the racing action in the Orca 17.5 stock class which is one of the hardest and closest competitions at the ETS for all ambitioned hobby drivers.
Tonisport 40+ Masters
Who will be the “Master” on carpet
When the field of drivers will hit the track in Neumünster, the show of the 40+ Masters will go on. Until now, we saw some great races this season with three different race winners. Søren Boy Holst took RD1 at Arena33, his fellow Danish countryman Caspar Morgen won RD2 at the same venue and Dutch driver Elibert Sievers won his home race in Apeldoorn!
With very constant results (P3, P1 and P7), Caspar Morgen is having the best chances for capturing the overall championship title right now. He is leading the championship by a massive amount of 7 points from Thomas Oehler in second and Mirco Thalheimer in third position. But as we have seen spectacular races with surprising results in the ToniSport 40+ Masters class this season, everything seems possible. We expect a thrilling fight for the title until the very last race of the season!
Scorpion Formula
Will the foam tires affect the ranking list?
The Scorpion Formula class will race on foam tires for the first time ever at the ETS in Neumünster. With the possibility of acquiring rubber tires for the F1 class being almost impossible, the ETS had to act from necessity and decided to bring foam tires into the Scorpion Formula class. After extensive and detailed tests, we will see these foam tires now in a race for the first time and almost everybody is very excited about it.
Racing wise it will be interesting to see, if the same guys will find themselves on top of the sheets or if some other drivers will be able to benefit from the new tires to close the gap to the frontrunners. Championship leader Jan Ratheisky will aim to extend his lead in Neumünster which would bring him a step closer to the title. David Ehrbar and Renè Kölbel are sitting in second and third position overall and it seems that only David Ehrbar can challenge Ratheisky for race wins this season. Let`s see what kind of an impact the foam tires will have onto the Scorpion Formula class!
We are happy to welcome all of you for ETS RD4 Season #14 2021/22 in Neumümster!
