The fifth round of ETS Season #15 2022/23 is leading the ETS circus to Hann. Münden in the centre of Germany. The indoor season has now started in all European countries, and most racers already took the chance to practice or race on carpet to be well prepared. The ETS crew will start to built up the carpet track in the Trans World Hotel Auefeld from Wednesday on, and everybody is looking forward to the event at a new venue. As before any ETS event, there are some things to watch out for. Here are our “5 things to watch” during ETS RD5 in Hann. Münden.
1) Championship battles
The fight for the overall ETS titles is still open in all of our six racing classes. Some are closer as others, but nothing is decided yet. While the Awesomatix drivers Dominik Reile (Orca 17.5 Stock) and Toni Mateo (ToniSport 40+ Masters) are having a gap of 5 and 6 points ahead of their competitors, it is even closer in the other categories.
In the Matrix Modified class, the fight is as intense as it has not been for many years. Four drivers are only separated by two points with Marc Rheinard (Awesomatix) and Christopher Krapp (Yokomo) leading the field tied on points from Yannic Prümper (Yokomo) and Ronald Völker (Mugen Seiki).
The Awesomatix Pro Stock class is in control of the Awesomatix duo Max Mächler and Simon Lauter – both having scored 906 points so far – but who will win the championship at the end of Season #15?
In the Hobbywing Frontwheel division we can expect a close showdown between Stefan Schulz (Xray) and Steven Olsen (Awesomatix) who are separated by only one point while the Scorpion Formula class is a close affair as well between Andreas Stiebler (Schumacher), René Kölbel (Xray), and Jan Ratheisky (Xray) who has a chance for the title as well with a good result in Hann. Münden.
It is “Game ON” at the Euro Turing Series and the first carpet race of the season will be the start of a great showdown for sure!
2) New Ride FWD tires
Together with Ride and some test drivers, the ETS has worked hard behind the scenes to improve the tires in the FWD class. The focus was not so much on performance in case of lap times, as the FWD class should simply not become too fast. But Ride did a great job and improved the tires a lot in case of the balance and a perfect rotation of the tires. The tires are still belted but have no patterns anymore – they are a full slick now.
The wheels have changed from grey to white colour and feature 16 spokes instead of only 10 spokes. During testing, the drivers reported that the balance of the car was at the same level without needing a lot of setup changes which was a great aspect. We like to thank Ride for their great cooperation to get us where we are now with the FWD class. Watch out for the new Ride FWD tires on track.
3) Ellerbrock`s Awesomatix debut
The silly season is right underway, and some drivers are changing teams and sponsors until the end of the year. One of the first ETS racers who announced a change in his racing programme was Lukas Ellerbrock. He drove for Xray in the last years (with great success) and made the switch to Awesomatix now. It will be interesting to watch him at the first race with his new A800MMX ride. Mostly, racers perform very well (especially) at the first race with their new brand (a fact which is very mysterious), and a lot of people will keep an eye on Ellerbock’s performance in Hann. Münden. Lukas can rely on the support of a great team and there is no doubt that he will do well for Awesomatix in the future.
4) Project IRIS
Since a couple of weeks, the RUDDOG project IRIS under the lead of former Swedish international top driver Andreas Myrberg is getting a very hot topic. Andreas is working on this project since a very long time, and now it seems that we will see the first prototype cars in action at ETS RD5 in Hann. Münden. On his Facebook page, Andreas announced to race in the ToniSport 40+ Masters class himself to test the car in race conditions. He will bring his small team of high-quality drivers with him which consists of Dionys Stadler, Alex Kunkler, and Dominik Schmid. These guys are all very experienced and fast like hell. Alex and Dominik will compete in the Awesomatix Pro Stock class while Dionys will race in the Matrix Modified division with IRIS.
Everybody who knows Andreas Myrberg knows that he is so addicted to RC and the industry, and everybody can be sure that he has put a lot of work and effort to get the car on track which he designed, and which will now hit the market under the flag of RUDDOG. We wish him all the best and a great start with project IRIS. We hope that the ETS media team can steal one of the cars during the weekend to make an “Under the Hood” report with it 🙂
5) New Matrix touring car tires
Another further developed product are the Matrix carpet tires for the ETS touring car classes. Here, the focus was on the side of the “break-in” time. As most racers know, carpet tires sometimes need 2-3 batteries to perform well. To achieve a tire which performs also good in the first run, Cristian Boni from Matrix tires worked on the composition of the rubber compound to get the tires exactly there. The result of various compounds and tests is a tire which is immediately good after some laps on the track. The feedback from many test drivers was the same all the way and therefore the ETS decided to use these slightly changed tires for the upcoming indoor season. As tires are always crucial in case of a balance in performance and lifetime, we hope that everybody will be happy with the updated tires. In our tests, performance and lifetime had been good and we like to thank Matrix tires for their hard work to make a good product even better!
We hope you enjoyed our “5 things to watch at ETS RD5”. But where are you watching? For everybody who will watch us from the distance – we are sorry that you will not be with us in Hann- Münden. But hey, you can enjoy all the racing action from home here on our page. You will find our video stream in the LIVE section of our website during the event! We expect the fifth round of ETS Season #15 2022/23 to be another epic event!
