Another amazing season ahead as the ETS kicks off campaign SIXTEEN
When the ETS circus will arrive in Apeldoorn, NED on Wednesday, it is about to head into ETS Season #16 2023/24 with full power. What has started in 2008 with a 4-race series, quickly extended up to 5 races in 2009 before 6 races had been on the ETS schedule regulary in all the following years (except the pandemic time).
When looking on the ETS nowadays, we can not thank Scotty Ernst and Uwe Rheinard enough for all their hard work which went into the series to make it the most prestigeous one in the world of electric 1:10 scale Onroad racing. THANK YOU UWE & SCOTTY
Now, 83 ETS races later, we are awaiting Season #16 2023/24 with a lot of excitement. The whole ETS crew has worked hard behind the scenes to prepare the new season and we are super happy about the amount of 230 entries for our first race of the season at the fantastic venue of the AMCA Apeldoorn.
Time to welcome some new (and old) sponsors to the Euro Touring Series
After the whole world had to go through rough times during the Covid-19 pandemic, we are super pumped to see new and old sponsors coming back to the ETS. Without the support of all these amazing companies, the ETS would not be possible today.
New at the ETS: 1up Racing, the proud sponsor of the 40+ Masters class, AXON, and Flysky.
Back at the ETS: Yokomo and Destiny
Changes for ETS season #16
After many years, we have made some changes to some of the ETS classes to add more excitement and to fresh things up a little bit. The Matrix Modified class, and the Hobbywing Frontwheel class will stay exactly the same as there was no need to change anything. But the other racing classes have gone through some minor changes which we will summ-up quickly for you:
Awesomatix Pro Stock
Change from 13.5T ORCA motors to 17.5T ORCA motors. The maximum gearing is now at 3.8 to change the punch of the car. The ORCA speedo operates with a new software and a different rpm limiter at 20.000 rpm.
Orca 21.5 Stock and 1up Racing 40+ Masters
Here, the ORCA 17.5T Motors had to make room for the slightly less powerful ORCA 21.5T Motor. The maximum gearing is now at 3.8 to change the punch of the car. The ORCA speedo operates with a new software and a different rpm limiter at 18.000 rpm.
ToniSport Formula
After many years with Motors and ESC`s from Scorpion, the Formula class is now powered by a Hobbywing combo. The software on the ESC is optimized for Formula racing and the quality of the Hobbywing products is already well-known around the world. We like to thank Scorpion once again for everything they have done for the ETS, and at the same moment we like to welcome Hobbywing in the Formula class.
Body Shells
Nothing new here as the ETS sticks to their official list of body shells which are allowed for the races. Most of the companies changed some bodies on the list for the new season and everything is set to go with a great range of body shells which drivers can select from.
Let`s talk about racing
As we saw motor changes in all our stock touring car classes, the field of drivers for ETS RD1 in Apeldoorn is a little mixed up compared to the last years where we have not seen many drivers changing classes. But it seems that there will be some “fresh wind” in town when drivers will arrive to Apeldoorn. Here are only some examples of drivers who have now entered into the Matrix Modified class for ETS RD1:
We have the Awesomatix trio of Simon Lauter, Max Mächler, and Thomas Bemmerl on the list of entries. After winning the Pro Stock title three times in the last four seasons, Simon Lauter is now attacking the modified class. Awesomatix team manager Max Mächler will start in both classes, Pro Stock and Modified. He had some great runs at the TITC in Thailand in February where he was taking modified racing more serious for the first time. It seems that he liked it a lot and we are looking forward to see Mad Max rocking his Awesomatix A800R with some serious Hobbywing power. Former 17.5 Stock champion Thomas Bemmerl also got a good idea of modifed racing while he was racing in the open brushless class at the TITC in Bangkok and almost made it into the A-Main.
Mugen Seiki`s Sören Sparbier also made his entry for modified after he had a real blast at the TOS race 2 weeks ago on the track in Apeldoorn where he finished second behind race winner Lucas Urbain. Sparbier`s teammate Maximilian Unterschütz will also try it in modified for the first time at the ETS. With Elena Fuchs and Niclas Nungässer, we also see two young racers stepping up directly from 17.5 Stock into modified to collect some new RC impressions. It looks like modified racing is on a small upwards trend in Apeldoorn – let`s see how it will develop over the season.
What about the favourites?
That is a tough one for our reporter as it is as hard as never before to point out some favourites in all classes – excepting modified.
In the Matrix Modified class (44 entries), the well-known names such as Ronald Völker (Mugen Seiki), Marc Rheinard (Awesomatix), Lucas Urbain (Awesomatix), Christopher Krapp (Yokomo), Yannic Prümper (Yokomo), Michal Orlowski (Schumacher) and Akio Sobue (Axon) will be on the line in Apeldoorn to fight for the win. Beside them, other super fast drivers like Jan Ratheisky, Eric Dankel, Robert Pietsch, Remi Callens, Loic Jasmin, and many others will try everything to achieve a great result for their teams and sponsors.
The Awesomatix Pro Stock class (61 entries) will see Max Mächler (Awesomatix) and Jan Ratheisky (Xray) traveling to Apeldoorn as maybe the biggest favourites for the win. They have won many ETS races in the past and they will try to go for the championship title for sure. But with Sören Sparbier (Mugen Seiki), Olivier Bultynck (Awesomatix), Jesper Rasmussen (Awesomatix), Lukas Ellerbrock (Awesomatix), Frederik Hovgaard (Yokomo), Adam Izsay (Xray), Tim Benson, David Ehrbar (Xray), Patrick Danielsen (Xray), Jonas Völker (Mugen Seiki), Dominic Vogl (Yokomo) and Mattia Collina (Schumacher) are also in the mix of very fast drivers in the field.
New in the Pro Stock class is last years 17.5T vice-champion Jasmin Donath. She is now part of the Awesomatix factory team and we are looking forward to her speed on track in the new class. Last seasons 40+ Masters champion Manuel Stankowitz (Iris) is racing in Pro Stock now as well, the same as Niclas Storm (Mugen Seiki).
In the Hobbywing Frontwheel class (48 enteies), the dominators of the last 2 seasons have disappeared. Two-time champion Stefan Schulz will focus on Pro Stock and Modified this season, but right now he is suffering from a broken leg and can only watch ETS Rd1 from his hometown Berlin. The ETS family wishes you a quick and good recovery Stefan!
Steven Olsen, the runner-up in the last 2 years, will not race this season as his focus is on his job carreer in Denmark right now. We really hope to see the Olsen family back on track with us someday.
This means, that we are looking for a new champion in the Hobbywing Frontwheel class. There are many guys who are very quick and we will not throw any names into the ring right now. Let`s see who will win the first race of the new season in the hard fought FWD class of the Euro Touring Series.
When looking on the 1up Racing 40+ Masters and the Orca 21.5T Stock classes, it is the same as in the FWD class. We will need some time to find out about how the field of drivers will compete against each other.
In the 1up Racing 40+ Masters class (36 entries), reigning champion Manuel Stankowitz will try to defend his title. He is now racing for the Iris team and we are excited about his performance on track. In Apeldoorn, all the fast guys like Toni Mateo (Awesomatix), two time Apeldoorn winner Elibert Sievers (Awesomatix), Torsten Baggendorf (ARC), Michel Zierold (Awesomatix), Frank Fuchs (Xray), Mirco Thalheimer (Xray), Werner Schmitzer (Yokomo), and local hero Ronald Arts (Awesomatix) will be pushing hard for a top spot. It will also be interesting to find out what US racer Eric Anderson (Awesomatix) can do against all the ETS veterans in Apeldoorn. He will travel to the Netherlands together with his son Kemp Anderson who will participate in the Matrix Modified class.
The 21.5 Stock class has the lowest amount of entries with only 16 drivers for Apeldoorn. The class will grow for sure after everybody gets used to the 21.5T Motors which are in use now. Picking favourites is difficult. We have Tobias Baumbach (Xray), Tristan Bergheim (Awesomatix), and Alex Bremer (Schumacher) on the list of entries – all three drivers can go really fast. But there are also routineers like Karl-Heinz Moritz or Markus Ernst and Timo Siebert, and the finnish drivers Petri Tuomainen and Mikko Mäkelä, as well as the Ratheisky family with mother Svantje and their kids Emely and Marlon. It will be exciting to see how the drivers will race with the 21.5T motors at ETS RD1.
With the new combo in the Hobbywing Formula class, we already have a solid amount of entries with 20 racers. The top favourites are easy to call: Andreas Stiebler (Schumacher), Jan Ratheisky (Xray), and Renè Kölbel (Xray) are expected to lead the field of F1 racers through the weekend fighting for the race win. Can somebody crash the party? We will find out in soon!
Now, we only have to wait with patience for a couple of days before ETS Season #16 2023/24 will get underway. Everything is ready to go and we are sure that our racers will put on a great show in Apeldoorn. If you don`t want to miss anything from ETS RD1, just check our website daily and see all the race reports, pictures, videos, and interviews from Apeldoorn.
Let`s go racing!
