New Season kicks off in the Netherlands
The Euro Touring Series is heading into Season #15 2022/23 from the 2nd to 5th of June. After a very successful last campaign of ETS racing, the ETS will see RD1 happen on the ground of the AMCA Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. It will be the eight time for the ETS to race in Apeldoorn, and prior to the event we could see racers posting their joyful anticipation to race at the amazing AMCA racetrack on their social media profiles.
When you enter the ground of the AMCA Apeldoorn, the race fever takes hold of you immediately. Everything is top notch, and the club is paying attention to every small detail. When you want to learn more about the AMCA Apeldoorn, don`t miss our upcoming Track Check report on Wednesday.
Bjarne Høllund – our show master for RD1 in Apeldoorn
This time, Bjarne Høllund will be the announcer in charge. Bjarne comes along with a lot of experiences in announcing RC races and we are happy to have him with us for RD1 in Apeldoorn. Bjarne is looking forward to the weekend with the ETS family, as he told us some days ago. He will work together closeley with the long time ETS timekeeper Hartmut Wenzel, to ensure a smooth and perfect running weekend for everybody.
Scotty Ernst, the grand master of announcing RC races, is at the wedding of a very good friend and will join the ETS circus again in Aigen for RD2 of the new season. Phil Richter is on his own honeymoon over this race weekend, and the entire ETS family heartily congratulates him on his wedding!
Media Team News
www.ets.racing
The new URL for the ETS Website is ets.racing. With this change, it is way easier to navigate to our homepage quickly. And by the way, it sounds much cooler – doesn`t it? Feel free to share and like as much coverage stuff as possible on your social media to carry our amazing sport out into the rest of the world.
The team stays together
During ETS Season #14, our current media team worked together for the very first time. So, it was all new for almost everybody in the team. The turnout was really nice, and our media team likes to say “thank you” to all the drivers, mechanics, friends, and spectators for giving us a lot of feedback about our work.
Media Team Member and Race Reporter Patrick Beck told us:
Last season was a huge challenge for us with a new media team, many new ideas, the new website, a new photographer, and a lot more. Overall, I think we did a good job. Our main goal is to carry as many emotions and racing action from all the six ETS racing classes out to the public. For sure, sometimes it is not easy to keep up with the pace of a dynamic weekend, but for the new season we all have more experience. We discussed where to improve and I am really looking forward to work with Olli, Hanno, Tom, and all the other members of the ETS crew again.
Patrick Beck, ETS Media Team
ETS Sponsors and Companies for Season #15
As you all know, our amazing ETS racing series would not be possible without all of our sponsors. We have a lot of companies supporting us since many, many years and we like to thank them in the name of all ETS family members. In the same moment we like to welcome all of our new sponsors to the ETS family as well.
ETS Season #15 2022/23 Sponsors
Right before the first race of the season, we like to thank our Primary Sponsors:
Awesomatix, Orca, Matrix, Scorpion, Hobbywing and ToniSport
as well as our Associated Sponsors:
LRP, Gens Ace, Mugen Seiki, PowerHD, RC Maker, Ride, Schumacher and T-Work`s
and our ETS Body Shell Supporters:
Bittydesign, Mon-Tech, Blitz, Protoform, Zoo Racing and Xtreme
ETS racing classes
Our six ETS racing classes are carrying the name of a sponsor since many years. We can tell you, that everything stays the same for Season #15 – everything excluding the ProStock class. Here we see a name change as Awesomatix will replace Xray as the name sponsor of the Pro Stock class. We like to thank Xray for supporting this class for many years, and we like to welcome Awesomatix as the new namesake for the Pro Stock class.
We will head into the season in these six classes:
Matrix Modified, Awesomatix ProStock, Hobbywing Frontwheel, Orca 17.5 Stock, Tonisport 40+ Masters and Scorpion Formula.
What to expect from ETS #15
Now it`s time to take a closer look on the different classes, the list of entries, and what to expect from drivers and teams at ETS RD1 Season #15 2022/23 in Apeldoorn, NED. Before a new season starts, most of the drivers and teams have high expectations. But as in every racing category, there are some favourites in all classes of RC racing as well. We will try to bring some daylight into the predictions for ETS Season #15 2022/23. Let`s go!
Matrix Modified
The hunt for the title starts from zero – can Mugen Seiki`s Völker do it again?
In the premier Matrix Modified class, Mugen Seiki`s Ronald Völker will be the man to beat for everybody. Ronald had a very strong last season, winning three out of five races. More than enough to seal his well-deserved seventh personal ETS title, and the first one for Mugen Seiki. But as always, there will be a bunch of guys trying to hunt him down in the fight for the title.
Ronald will be prepared for the new season, as he worked to improve his Mugen car together with his team around Robert Pietsch, Eric Dankel, and all the others. The Mugen Team is using the well-known MTC2, which just received some very small updates. Last season`s A-finalist and Mugen driver Eric Dankel will be in Apeldoorn as well, while car designer Robert Pietsch will not be able to make the trip to the Netherlands. So it is mainly up to Völker and Dankel, to collect as much data as possible to find the best setup for the race.
With Ronald Völker still being the record champion of the Euro Touring Series with 7(!) overall titles, he will be hard to beat for sure. Let`s see how he will get into the groove during RD1 in Apeldoorn.
Awesomatix aims for a very first modified title
The team around Marc Rheinard will try everything to start with a win into ETS Season #15 2022/23. Marc had a great ending of the indoor carpet season, winning the famous GP3F in Longwy, France. His Awesomatix A800 MMX worked pretty good there and he was able to win the race in front of Coelho, Völker, and Urbain. After the GP3F, Rheinard was also racing the 1:12 scale euros where he finished third overall behind Orlowski and Hagberg.
In Apeldoorn, the Awesomatix team will rely on the skills of Marc Rheinard, Lucas Urbain and Michele Manzo in the Modified class. Manzo finished 8th and Rheinard 4th overall, when the ETS circus raced in Apeldoorn for the last time in September 2021. Lucas Urbain will return to Apeldoorn as well, after he had to skip last year’s race due to work commitments. We are excited, how the Awesomatix team will kick off the new ETS campaign with their A800MMX cars in the Matrix Modified class. We all know about the amazing quality of Rheinard`s driving, the tremendous asset of Urbain and his setup knowledge, as well as the speed of Michele Manzo who had his best year of RC racing in 2021 with a strong second place in Neumünster, GER.
Awesomatix will be the team to watch when it comes to modified racing in Apeldoorn, and somehow it could be the season for their team and the Awesomatix A800MMX touring car. They are chasing this title for quite some time now and we are excited what they will show us at ETS RD1.
New Chassis on the line for Team Yokomo
Team Yokomo will travel to Apeldoorn with their brand new BD11 touring car in the bag. The team will see Christopher Krapp, Loic Jasmin, Nicholas Lee, and Yannic Prümper competing in the modified class. With this super experienced line-up, Yokomo has a good chance to extract the maximum out of the new BD11 platform. But whenever a car is new, there is also the risk of “not knowing enough” about it. With that in mind, all eyes will be on the Yokomo team at the first round of the Euro Touring Series.
Yannic Prümper scored two podiums last season for Yokomo, with Christopher Krapp also finishing third in Daun. Loic Jasmin will travel to Apeldoorn with good feelings too, as he had his only A-Main appearance of last season on the ground of the AMCA. Singapore based driver Nicholas Lee had only one ETS appearance last season (Neumünster), but he now is the driver with the most asphalt testing experiences on the new Yokomo car. This can help the team a lot during ETS RD1 in Apeldoorn.
Prümper and Krapp finished third and fourth in the overall rankings of the last Matrix Modified season – a strong result for Yokomo which they will try to improve in the 2022/23 campaign with their new BD11 ride!
Groskamp racing for Team Infinity
Jilles Groskamp is in the only driver in mix of top drivers for Infinity. He missed out the whole last ETS season, but is returning to the ETS family in Apeldoorn. With Jilles always being quick, especially on asphalt tracks, we are excited to see him race with us again. He finished second (1:10 Nitro) at the season opener of the Euro Nitro Series in Fiorano three weeks ago, and his goal for the ETS in Apeldoorn will be the A-Main for sure. We will have an eye on the dutchman during the weekend of ETS racing in his home country. It wil be exciting to see, if other Infinity world class drivers like Victor Wilck and Naoto Matsukura will return to the grid of the ETS during the season as well. It would be great to see them trackside again!
Xray factory team not attending at ETS season opener
The experienced spectators of the ETS have surely already noticed, that the Xray top factory drivers are not on the list of entries for Apeldoorn. Something which everybody at the ETS is sad to notice. Not only from the side of organisers, but especially the drivers of the other teams are missing to compete against Coelho, Hagberg, Duchet, Ratheisky and others. Let`s hope to see the Xray team soon again at the ETS in full force!
Awesomatix ProStock
Mission title defense for Lauter
In the newly named Awesomatix ProStock class, reigning champion Simon Lauter will head into the new season as the „hunted man“. Simon will run for Awesomatix in the new season as well, and everybody is expecting him to be very strong in the new campaign with his Awesomatix A800MMX. He will lead the strong Awesomaitx team together with team manager Max Mächler. The team will also see the A800MMX cars of Alex Kunkler, Olivier Bultynck, Frederik Mikkelsen racing on the AMCA track. Last years champion dominant of the Orca 17.5 Stock class, Thomas Bemmerl, will also make his debut in the Awesomatix ProStock class. Local hero Rob Jansen is also a driver to watch on his home track where he qualified for the ProStock A-Main last season.
Overall, we can expect Awesomatix to be the main contender for the title in the Awesomatix ProStock class, and their A800MMX is fully ready for RD1 in Apeldoorn. Will the Empire continue to dominate, or can somebody break the strong forces of Lauter and Awesomatix during ETS Season #15 2022/23?
For Xray, it will be last year`s Apeldoorn podium finisher Lukas Ellerbrock aiming for a good start into the new season. He will be in Apeldoorn togehter with Jacques Libar and David Ehrbar who are very experienced racer`s in the Xray team too. They are competing with Xray`s actual X4 touring car which had his debut in Apeldoorn during the last season.
Mugen Seiki will be represented in Apeldoorn by last season`s A-finalist Jonas Völker and Maximilian Unterschütz and Patrick Miekautsch who are both stepping up from the 17.t Stock class. Kevin Sparbier will also compete with his MTC2. The Mugen car worked great in Apeldoorn last season, where Tim Benson was able to TQ the Pro Stock class after some ballistic qualifying runs.
Enrico Jung is the man on the line for Yokomo and their all new BD11 car, and many other guys like Sören Sparbier (Serpent), Lars Hoppe (ARC) or Tim Benson will try everyting to score a good amount of points at the first round of the new Season in Apeldoorn.
The Awesomatix ProStock class will guarantee high class RC racing as every year, and we will bring you all the action during the whole season until we know who will be the next ETS champion.
Hobbywing Frontwheel
Last season`s most popular ETS class is looking for a new champion
In the last season of the Euro Touring Series, the Hobbywing Frontwheel class established itself as the most famous racing class with the highest number of entries at each and every event. The reason for that is easy to explain: great looking cars, nice driving, door to door battles, and a speed which is good to handle for beginners and average hobby drivers as well.
During the last season, we saw a very interesting battle fort he championship between Stefan Schulz and Steven Olsen – with the better ending for Schulz. He celebrated a much deserved title in the FWD class with his Xray car, with Steven Olsen finishing second overall with his Awesomaitix A800FX Evo. Mischa Kroos completed the overall podium with an Awesomatix A800 X Evo, in front of Henrik Heitsch and Kevin Sparbier.
Now, as we are heading into Season #15 2022/23, we are excited what the FWD drivers will show us on track. In our ETS champions interview, Stefan Schulz told us that he would like to defend his title in the next seaso. But for some reason, he is has not signed up for RD 1 in the Netherlands. We hope to see him back racing at RD2 in Austria with us.
Meawhile, it is about other drivers to score maximum points in Apeldoorn. Guys like last years runner up Steven Olsen, Mischa Kroos, Maximilian Unterschütz, Jan Gehrig, Nicolas Delisè, Jitse Miedema, Manuel Stankowitz, Caspar Morgen or Torsten Baggendorf (only to name a few) are all very fast with their FWD cars.
This fact makes it very difficult to pick out a clear favorite for victory in the Hobbywing Frontwheel class. But one thing is certain: We will see amazing action on track again during Season #15 2022/23 in the Hobbywing Frontwheel class.
Orca 17.5 Stock
Who will follow in Bemmerl’s footsteps
Reigning champion Thomas Bemmerl will not try to defend his ETS title in the Orca 17.5 Stock class. Last season, he won the title after many strong races with his Awesomatix A800MMX touring car. He had amazing fights with Daniel Pöhlmann, Dominik Reile, David Kuschnarew and Jan Gehrig. For the new campaing, Bemmerl now decided to step up and compete in the faster Awesomatix ProStock class.
In Apeldoorn, for whatever reason, the number of entries in the Orca 17.5 Stock class is not super high, but the fight for the A-Main spots will be intense for sure. We can expect vice champion Dominik Reile, Daniel Pöhlmann, and Jan Gehrig taking some top spots, but behind them we will see many others batteling it out on track. We are extremeley happy to see many young drivers like Elena Fuchs, Tristan Bergheim, Niclas Storm and Jasmin Donath signing up too.
The Orca 17.5 Stock class is the perfect class for newcomers and ambitioned hobby drivers who want to race at the big stage of the Euro Touring Series. We are sure to see many more racers at the upcoming events. Good luck to all the drivers in Apeldoorn and during the whole season #15 2022/23.
ToniSport 40+ Masters
All masters hunting Mateo`s title
In the ToniSport 40+ Masters class, Toni Mateo will try to keep up his great performances from the end of last season. He was able to snatch the title away from Caspar Morgen who was on top oft he board in the early stages of the championship.
On the list of entries for Apeldoorn, we see all the fast guys of the masters class, excluding last years third placed driver Ulrich Dinger. One racer to watch will be Elibert Sievers. He won the race on his home ground in Apeldoorn with his Awesomatix A800MMX last time.
The other top 10 drivers from last season, Mirco Thalheimer, Thomas Oehler, Werner Schmitzer, Manuel Stankowitz, Frank Fuchs and Torsten Baggendorf are competing in Apeldoorn as well. That means, all spectators can expect thrilling races in the ToniSport 40+ Masters class – the ETS racing class for all the motivated RC racers with an age of 40 or older. Last year`s races have been fantastic and very diversified
Scorpion Formula
Eagerly awaited – the new formula season
In the Scorpion Formula class, we face the same situation as in the Hobbywing Frontwheel class. Champion Jan Ratheisky will not race in Apeldoorn with his Xray Formula car. But we are sure he will enter the campaign later on, and with full race craft. Ratheisky won a relatively unchallenged championship in the last season – but a well deserved one for sure.
Luke Lee, the winner of last season`s final race in Daun, has also not made his entry. So we are looking for a different race winner since the last race of the old season in Apeldoorn, where local Dutchman and Infinity driver Jitse Miedema was able to beat champion Jan Ratheisky on track.
This time we can expect a race which is wide open, and the foam tires will be another challenge (setup wise) for the drivers to find the best possible setup. With Sören Sparbier, Renè Kölbel, Andreas Stiebler, Luka Jovicic, Herbert Weber and Chris Grenz (to only name a few), there will be a good competition on track. Enrico Jung also placed an entry in the Formula class – let`s see how quick he can adapt his driving to the Formula cars.
We are happy to welcome all of you for ETS RD1 Season #15 202/23 in the Netherlands. You can follow us here on our website (ets.racing) and on the euroRCseries youtube channel as well. Live Streaming will be available starting from Friday. As always, we will share our reports on Facebook too. Let`s go racing!
Uwe, Scotty, and the whole ETS crew
