The third round of the Euro Touring Series in Andernach (Arena33) was another amazing ETS event. At every race, there are some things to talk about afterwards, and here are the 5 things we learned from ETS RD3 at Arena33…
1) Awesomatix and Marc Rheinard finally “clicked” at the ETS
Marc Rheinard is one of the most successful RC racers of all time – no doubt about that. When the five times IFMAR world champion joined Awesomatix at the beginning of 2020 after racing for Infinity before, most people thought that Rheinard would win ETS races immediately with the Awesomatix car. At the first race in Daun he was very close, his win only got denied by Ronald Völker who was wheeling a Yokomo car back in these days. Marc had a lot of good races, was close to some overall TQ`s a several times, but somehow it didn`t happen for the Rheinard/Awesomatix combination at the Euro Touring Series.
The first big win happened, when Marc took the overall victory at the famous GP3F in Longwy (France) at the end of the carpet season in March 2022. The German nationals title, just two weeks before the ETS in Andernach (on the same track) was Reinhard’s second win for Awesomatix – and his first official title for the RC brand of Russian design genius Oleg Babich.
At last weekend`s ETS at Arena33, we saw an incredibly strong driving Marc Rheinard and an also strong looking Awesomatix team. Finally, everything “clicked” and came together at one weekend of ETS racing. Marc was very happy, and it was easy to see that the win meant a lot for him afterwards. It took him 10 attempts to do it – but now he finally won an ETS race with his current A800MMX ca.r A car, which his excellent mechanic and Awesomatix tech supporter Tim Wahl prepared perfectly for the track in Andernach. Next up is the IFMAR worlds in Italy and we expect Rheinard to be “motivated like hell” when he will start his journey to Gubbio in September. Good luck Marc!
2) Jasmin Donath is the youngest, and first female ETS race winner!
We saw a lot of emotions in the last 30 seconds of the second A-Main in the Orca 17.5 Stock class when young Jasmin Donath was leading the race. Some of her friends and teammates started to clap and cheer, while she was still some corners away from sealing the overall victory. As she crossed the line, all spectators celebrated with her, and all of her contenders came to congratulate her directly – great sportsmanship from everybody!
It was a great day for the young lady from Berlin, and she recognized afterwards that it was a piece of ETS history that had happened on this sunny day in Andernach. Jasmin Donath became the youngest ETS race winner, and the first female ETS race winner in the same moment. The whole ETS crew once again says: Congratulations Jasmin, that was EPIC! Keep up the pace and you will succeed again in the future!
3) Protoform P63 body wins two classes at ETS debut
One of the most iconic body shell manufacturers in RC it the US based company Protoform. Founded by Dale Epp in 1991, the company established itself in the world of RC racing quickly. Especially in the 1:10 and 1:12 electric classes, Protoform was “the brand to use” for many years. They won multiple world championship titles, and body shells like the Mazda Speed 6 and the LTC-R had been the choice of all top drivers for over a decade. But as the market for body shells started to change quickly in the last years, and the Protoform company got taken over by Horizon Hobby, it got a little bit too quiet around Protoform.
But now, Protoform is back with their all new P63 touring car body. A nice-looking shell that follows the actual trend of the market. It was in use at the ETS for the first time during last weekend`s race in Germany from a lot of drivers and the P63 earned TWO wins at his ETS debut – not a bad quote!
Manuel Stankowitz won the ToniSport 40´Masters class with the P63, and Jasmin Donath won the Orca 17.5 Stock category with the new Protoform shell. The P63 is one more top option which the drivers can choose from the ETS list of body shells now and Protoform is right back in the game!
4) RC driving skills do not get lost
Fabolous Freddy Südhoff attended Arena33 and wheeled an Awesomatix A800FX Evo. It was the first time he races RC cars since his retirement from our sport two years ago. We all know that Freddy was one of the fastest touring car racers on the planet (4th at the 2018 IFMAR worlds in South Africa) during his career, and everybody expected him to be fast at Arena33.
However, Freddy was a little nervous coming back to the track with zero preparation. He told us that his main goal was “just having some fun with friends”, but as soon as the racing got underway, he was back in competition mode and drove like he had never been away from RC. He adapted quickly to the slower FWD class and showed that “quality never gets lost” while he was leading the first and second A-Main under enormous pressure from Sören Sparbier, Roman Borschel, and Kevin Sparbier. Freddy, it was a pleasure to have you with us again and we hope for another “one race comeback” very soon 😊
5) Joshua Winkler – One to Watch
Jasmin Donath won the race in the Orca 17.5 Stock class, eclipsing everything else at ETS RD3. But there was another driver which was absolutely on fire – Joshua Winkler. He qualified second on the grid behind Alvaro Fernandez from Gran Canaria. Fernandez himself is a well-known racer and always in the mix for podium positions at Spanish national races. Alvaro missed some racing luck in the finals and missed the podium with P4 in the end.
The seventeen year old Joshua Winkler did amazingly well. He TQ’ed the second round of qualifying and lined his Awesomatix A800MMX up in second position on the 11 car A-Main grid. He had great races and fights with Fernandez, Donath, and Borschel and finished second overall at his second ever ETS race. Winkler made his ETS debut at RD2 in Aigen-Schlägl where he was able to draw attention to himself for the first time with a solid P6 in the A-Main. We are sure that we will see more from Joshua in the future and therefore we awarded him with the “One to Watch” trophy at Area33. Joshua, we are looking forward to your next performance at the Euro Touring Series!
Pictures:
RC-Cars-Pics (Chris Sandner)
ETS (Bildwald)
Manuel Stankowitz
