Yannic Prümper – winner of the Matrix Modified class in Apeldoorn
Like expected, the organization of the AMCA Apeldoorn club and ETS staff was stunning all over the weekend. With great weather and a beautiful track, all facts were positive for a weekend of great racing. My ETS race weekend started great right away as my car felt amazing from the first free practice on. My pace over the whole runtime was always in the top 3, but I couldn’t nail some hot laps in the first 3 laps.
Yannic Prümper (DE), Yokomo
The whole Yokomo team tried some setup fine tuning in the free practice rounds. After we put all our results together, we found the best possible setup for our car. That was very impressive, as our whole team showed a great performance all over the weekend in the Modified and Pro Stock class. We proofed this weekend, that the new BD11 is a step further into the right direction with 4 drivers in top 6 in the modified class. My fourth ever ETS race win at the season opener now brought me all chances to fight for the overall title and I‘m looking forward to show my best possible performance with the team on the upcoming races. With Christopher Krapp finishing 3rd in the first race, my team mate has big chances on the ETS title as well. I‘m sure the team and our new Yokomo BD11 car will deliver at it‘s best.
Ronald Völker – second placed driver in the Matrix Modified class
I am a bit disappointed in the end with P2, despite a great ETS event we have had in Apeldoorn.
Ronald Völker (DE), Mugen Seiki
My LRP powered MTC2 was absolutly amazing and I can only blame myself for cold rear tires in both opening laps of A2 and A3, as well as the crash I caused to Marc in A3.
Our team showed great work and results in all categories and I am happy about that. I like to congratulate Yannic for his win in Apeldoorn. Now, I cant wait for the next events which are just waiting around the corner!
Christopher Krapp – third placed driver in the Matrix Modified class
Arriving to the track on Thursday morning, everything was set for an amazing event with everything more then perfectly prepared by the AMCA crew, as always. Our Team was in full force attendance with Yannic, Loic and myself attending the race and we also had our Asian ace Nicholas Lee in attendance which was very nice and also important to get as much info from various drivers during the event, taking in account that we were debuting our newly released car, the BD11.
Christopher Krapp (DE), Yokomo
We all of us had a very good start into the event with all 4 of us in the Top10 and also Enrico in the Top 10 in the Pro Stock category. Speaking for myself I had a not ideal two rounds of controlled practise and was seeded only in the B-Heat. This is always not perfect as you never know if your speed in that group is good enough. Anyways I had pretty good qualification runs and was able to qualify 4th on the grid. My finals 1 & 3 went also very good with finishing 2nd in both . In A2, my pinion gear broke while running in a strong 3rd position. In the end I finished 3rd on the podium which I am very happy about taking in account that my practises went not ideal and being in the B-Heat. I am even more happy with our Team performance overall with Yannic winning the race, Nicholas finishing 4th and Loic finishing 6th.
Enrico also finished 11th in the A-Main Stock. This proves that our new BD11 has a huge potential already in that early stages and we can look forward to our next races with it. Not only the results making me happy. The way we work together as a Team on and off the track is something really special and showed once more that big things can only be achieved as a team. For our future summer season and ETS season I expect us to be more competitive then ever with our new BD11 and I hope we have a shot for the overall championship!
Marc Rheinard – fifth placed driver of the Matrix Modified class
My weekend was a good one, even if the final result is saying something different. My Orca powered Awesomatix car was really on point and a contender for the win. After a good pace in practice, the qualifiers didn’t went as planned. But also from my third starting position I felt that I had a serious shot for the win. But in the end it just didn’t happen due to some bad racing luck. I am looking forward to the next race in Aigen now. A new track for the ETS circus and I will be in full attack mode when racing will start there!
Marc Rheinard (DE), Awesomatix
Max Mächler – winner of the Awesomatix Pro Stock class at the season opener
First of all, I want to give a big shout out to the AMCA Apeldoorn team and the ETS Orga as well for the great hosting of the Event!
Max Mächler (DE), Awesomatix
The track is one of my favourites (top5) of all asphalt tracks with the banked corners which makes it so special.
After a horrible test at the TOS race a few weeks ago, my motivation was not as big as usual. I even didn’t go testing anymore and preferred to spend my weekends on the real race track with the Porsche Basel BSL Racing team. But back to the ETS, the practice went very well! I prepared two cars, one with my setup and one from Tim Wahl with a slightly different approach. After FP4 I decided to go with Tim’s setup and I was able to show some great laps. I only made 2 small setup changes and then focused on driving till the end of the event! Overall I’m very pleased with my personal result as it clearly brings back some confidence. But I’m even more proud of the result of all Awesomatix racers! I counted just in this moment that we had 32 Awesomatix cars out of the 55 A-Main cars of all TC classes!cThanks everyone for the continued trust in our brand. This really means a lot to us!
PS: I hope that we will also see our fellow competitor again at the other ETS events. Please remember that our Hobby is already very small and I don’t think this current happening helps…We hope to see you ALL soon again and race against each other!
Steven Olsen – winner of the Hobbywing Frontwheel class in Apeldoorn
My weekend was just perfect, fastest in practice, fastest in qualification and winning A1 and A2, not much to say other than thanks to the people supporting me. My setup was based off the setup used last year. As the car has not changed since, I knew it would be on pace from the start with the setup from last year, so in practice I could focus on my driving ( have only been outdoor practicing 1 day and only 3 batteries in FWD this year, due to work and other commitments). So, driving and doing some small changes to further improve the setup to the track this year was my focus points.
Steven Olsen (DK), Awesomatix
For Aigen well it’s a big track, and from what I have seen in pictures should be mostly full throttle for FWD. It should be close racing as it’s also not as technical as Apeldoorn. But with so much full throttle there will be focus on power. For me I will just do my best regarding preparing the car and myself before the race and take it from there as it is a new track for me, but hopefully coming home with another good result!
Dominik Reile – winner of the Orca 17.5 Stock class
Apeldoorn is always a highlight for me in the racing calendar – it’s a mega strong facility. The track is a dream, and for some reason I always run strong there, no matter what. The whole event was great, the whole team around the ETS and the local club did a great job from front to back. They even ordered good weather. My car, still the old Awesomatix A800MMCX, worked perfect from the start and I didn’t have to make any big changes to my start setup. But even if it didn’t go I would still have a mega Awesomatix team behind me that would help me anytime no matter who I went to. That is just a dream.
Dominik Reile (DE), Awesomatix
Elbert Sievers – winner of the ToniSport 40+ Masters class in the Netherlands
Well, first of all thanks to the whole ETS crew for the weekend! What can I say? The car was on point the whole weekend, just some small tweaks to adjust to the temperature change during the day/ evening . After thursday I knew I had a chance to repeat the A- final of last year but also seen that it would be very close again between all the drivers as laptimes were all simular.
Elbert Sievers (NL), Awesomatix
Q1 and Q2 went perfect, but in Q3 I made a mistake while beeing 1sec ahead so I had to nail Q4 or wait for a mistake of Baggendorf which he made so i cut short Q4 to save tires for the mains. A1 was perfect, just tried to avoid the curbs and make a clean run. The pressure was huge all the way for 5 min. In A2 I made a small mistake at the start witch led to falling to the back of the pack, so I decided to cut the run short and gamble it all on A3 on sunday morning. Luckily, my start was perfect, and again I could not make a break so just tried to keep it clean and safe and try to maintain the small gap witch I did. I never dreamed of repeating last years victory, this was again a deam weekend with a perfect ending.
Looking forward to the rest of the season and hoping to show that I can be fast on other tracks too! I am sure that everyone will put enormous pressure on the next race. I also like to say thanks to my teammates Rob Janssen and Ronald Arts for their support!
René Kölbel – winner of the Scorpion Formula class
We (Herbert Weber and I) have actually come with a queasy feeling to the race, because we knew that it is not easy to balance the car with the current matrix foam tires. After the first training, weh ad been around 1 second slower over three laos compared to local fast guys like Robin van Gog.But due to a good cooperation with my friend Herbert Weber, we slowly learned how the tires work. When I had then won the first and second round of qualifiying with calm, I was amazed and relieved because the others struggled even more with their setups. In Q3 I could take more of a risk and that paid offf. The consequence was my first pole position at the ETS – I almost couldn`t believe it.
René Kölbel (AT), Xray
In the first final, my start was good, but then came Jitse. I knew that he is always driving fair, but the pressure was very high. My pulse was on 200, but I could decide A1 for me. In the second final I drove too wide in the first corner. Jitse and Andreas took advantage and passed by. That meant only P3 for me. The situation with A3 on Sunday was very special. Only one run would decide it and nobody knew how the track would feel. After my warump laps I knew it could be something. The start went well, and I could easily control the race which felt great. At the 1 minute mark I knew that I could win my first ever ETS …and so it was…at the finish then the emotions went through.
My hard long work was rewarded with my first ets victory. The course in apleldoorn is one of the most beautiful I know and the grip is insane there. The next race will be on a new track form e, as I have never been in Aigen before. In any case I’m looking forward very much.
