The second round of the Euro Touring Series in Aigen-Schlägl was a blast and everybody had a great weekend. It was a perfect location for RD2 of Season #15 2022/23, and for sure it was not the last time for the ETS circus to travel to Aigen. At every event, there are some things to talk about afterwards, and here are the 5 things we learned from ETS RD2 in Austria…
1)Zoo Racing`s Wolverine Max can also do it in Modified
In our last “5 things we learned” episode (after RD1 in Apeldoorn), we wrote about the Wolverine Max body shell from ZooRacing which was dominating the Awesomatix Pro Stock class. At the same moment, the Xtreme Speciale body looked to be the best choice in the Matrix Modified class.
This weekend, we saw three Wolverine Max body shells making the A-Main in Modified as well – and, attention, the winner of the race drove it as well. Team Yokomo`s Christopher Krapp switched to the Wolverine Max during seeding practice and kept the Wolverine going on his BD11 for the rest of the weekend. Dominic Vogl (Awesomatix) and Marco Kaufmann (Xray) used the body shell as well and all three drivers opted for the 0.5mm version (lightweight).
When you ask the drivers about the difference in handling between the Wolverine Max and the Xtreme Speciale, drivers mostly report about getting a little bit more rotation from their car with the Wolverine Max while losing a little rear traction too. The Speciale is the “safer option” as it feels more locked in, but drivers sometimes suffer from understeering in the apex of the corner. In the last races, the Xtreme Speciale (or the Twister) always was the body of choice from the modified race winners.
But as always, it comes down to the perfect setup of the car which is under the body shell as well and you can go fast with both bodies. This weekend, the ZooRacing Wolverine Max took it`s first overall win in the Matrix Modified class at the ETS. Let`s see which direction the body shell trend will go to in the next races.
2) Sparks are sexy – also in the world of RC
Everybody who is watching Formula 1, or other full scale race car series, knows how good a car is looking when it is hammering down the main straight with sparks flying around everywhere. The reason for that is the chassis, or chassis attachments, which are dragging on the ground. It always looks spectacular and every fan of Onroad racing likes it.
You wonder what this has in common with RC racing? Well, RC cars can spark as well. In Aigen-Schlägl we saw a lot of sparks flying up behind the cars, especially in the Matrix Modified class.
But what is causing that? It is simple to explain: Most drivers are using titanium screws in their cars. When the rearmost screws which are used in the chassis (mostly holding the lower wishbones) are made from titanium, they produce sparks when they drag along the floor.
This happens mostly in the modified class, where the rear of the car gets compressed a lot when the drivers are accelerating onto the straightway. When there are some small bumps as well, the sparking gets even more when driving over the bumpy sections. It always looks fascinating and spectacular – especially in Aigen where the cars reached top speeds up to 120km/h on the speed gun. But also, when riding the curbs, we sometimes see sparks flying off – like on this beautiful picture which ETS photographer Tom Wald took during the race in Austria.
You like your RC car to spark as well? Get some titanium screws, run in the evening, lower the ride height, increase the top speed, and enjoy the little firework!
3) DJ Ronald Völker?
Ronald Völker is one of the best, and fastest RC racers on the planet, right? Yes, for sure he is – and everybody knows that. In Aigen-Schlägl, Ronald looked like he is also having another passion nobody knew about before. He had something hanging around his neck all the time and it looked like some over-ear headphones which all the famous DJ´s are using while they are on stage. But to quickly bring the speculation to an end, it was not headphones 😊
Ronald is traveling the world and racing RC cars at many different places for so long, he just knows what to bring to very hot places for a weekend of racing. The “headphones” turned out to be a “portable neck cooling fan with 10.000mAh” for self-cooling. A device that everybody liked a lot, and most drivers would loved to have it for themselves as the temperatures had been crazy high all weekend long. So, don`t wait for Ronald Völker`s next club hit on your music streaming – he is just having a “cool” time with his nice item at the tracks in hot conditions!
4) Teamwork makes the dream work
Good teams can achieve great things! The MAV Aigen-Schlägl showed the truth of these words with organizing an amazing event for the ETS family. The racer`s were not missing anything all weekend long, and you always could find somebody to talk about different things immediately. It was easy to see, that they are loving what they are doing in Aigen, and everybody was wearing the nice and green polo shirt to show that they are a member of the team. That green shirts also made it easy for the drivers to ask their questions to the right persons.
The ETS once again likes to say THANK YOU to everybody who was helping during the weekend, whether in the technical inspection, the kiosk, the restaurant, maintaining the track, caring about the media team and time keeping or at least the camping area. Everything was top notch in Aigen-Schlägl.
4.1) Barbecue with a great atmosphere on Thursday
To add another point here, the Barbecue on Thursday evening created a nice atmosphere right beside the big tent and the restaurant area. The grill master did a good job, and everybody was sitting together, talking crap (and about racing), having some beers, and just enjoying the time after free practice together. We hope that you enjoyed it in the same way as we did, and we like to thank you for taking part at the Barbecue.
4.2) Scotty Ernst – great to finally see him back at the ETS
This weekend in Austria, we finally saw the return from Scotty Ernst to the ETS. He was announcing the races in his world-famous way, and it immediately transformed everything into something “even more special”. Scotty was also very happy to be back again, and he was smiling and joking around with everybody during the whole weekend. When he arrived on Thursday, he needed the first two hours to just walk through the pits saying hello to everyone. Great to have you with us again Scotty – see you in Andernach!
5)Triple A-Main – mission completed for Toni Rheinard…
As we mentioned in our “5 things to watch…” report right before the race, Toni Rheinard was competing in three classes in Aigen after not racing at the ETS for a while. He really enjoyed the competition and quickly got into his mood of being very competitive. The 2005 German national champion was rocking an Awesomatix A800MMX in the Pro Stock class, as well as an A800FX Evo in the FWD class , while he was using the EF1 from Ehrbar Engineering in the Formula class.
Toni and David struggled a little in Formula to get up to pace in practice and qualifying, but Toni made it into the A-Main and improved a little bit in the finals. In the FWD and Pro Stock class, Toni was in the mix for a top 5 result in both classes. He drove like in the “good old days” and qualified 7th in Pro Stock and 5th in FWD and was looking forward to fight with the guys in the triple A-Mains.
In FWD, Toni had some nice battles with Henrik Heitsch and Kevin Sparbier to finish 5th overall, while in Pro Stock he was also fighting hard before crossing the line on an overall P6 in the end. Not a bad result for Toni with P10 in Formula, P6 in Pro Stock, and P5 in FWD with almost no practice. We hope to see him racing soon again at the ETS.
