The second day of ETS RD2 in Austria is in the books. After some rounds of free and controlled practice, we saw all drivers in action during the opening round of qualifying in the afternoon. Many threatening looking clouds passed the track, but with a little luck all heats could be run in dry conditions. The racing action will continue on Saturday where we will see three more rounds of high class ETS qualifying. But now, find out what happened on Friday in Aigen and enjoy this report from Q1.
Matrix Modified
Modified Q1 goes to Völker as Rheinard takes second, and Dankel third
In the opening round of Modified qualifying, all drivers pushed their cars to the absolute limit. Top seed Ronald Völker (Mugen Seiki) had the best opening laps and was leading the field for the entire five minutes before he crossed the line 1.6 seconds ahead of Marc Rheinard (Awesomatix) who worked his way from 5th to 2nd in the end. Eric Dankel (Mugen Seiki) had to survive a tough moment in the first lap where he almost lost his car on the straightway. He managed to keep it on track and scored a good third place overall in Q1 ahead of Yokomo`s Christopher Krapp, and reigning Pro Stock champion Simon Lauter (Awesomatix).
My car felt really good, and I was able to drive it consistent and fast around the track. Right now, we are really happy with our MTC2R cars here in Aigen and we (Ronald and Eric) try to keep up the pace for tomorrow!
Ronald Völker (DE) Mugen Seiki |LRP
My Q1 result is ok, but the feeling I have for my car is not what I am looking for. I am loosing too much time in the first laps of the race where the Mugen drivers (Völker and Dankel) have a clear advantage. Let`s see if we can find something to improve the pace in the opening laps of the run tomorrow!
Marc Rheinard (DE) Awesomatix |Orca
Luckily, I survived the first lap. I still have no idea why my car went so much to the outside of the straightway. But after that my run was good and I am very happy with a P3 in the opening round of qualifying. My MTC2R is really good and I will try my best to continue like this here in Aigen!
Eric Dankel (DE) Mugen Seiki | Hobbywing
Awesomatix Pro Stock
Iceman Iszay takes Pro Stock Q1
Adam Izsay is on a mission here at ETS RD2 in Aigen. After he won Q1 of the FWD class, he had another perfect run in the Awesomatix Pro Stock class some minutes later. He had a clean run with his Xray car and took the win ahead of his teammate Stefan Schulz. Jan Ratheisky skipped Q1 to save some tires for tomorrow. Lukas Ellerbrock (Awesomatix) scored a third place for the round, followed by Dominic Vogl (Yokomo) and Olivier Bultynck (Awesomatix).
After a perfect day, Adam Izsay can lean back and relax a bit while his competitors have a lot of work to do to close the gap in the remaining three rounds of qualifying on Saturday.
Hobbywing Frontwheel
Super clean TQ run from Izsay while Valent and Völker taking 2nd and 3rd
In the Hobbywing Frontwheel class, Adam Izsay (Xray) continued to drive super-fast and clean around the MAV Aigen racetrack. He was able to buid up a gap of 2.6 seconds to second and third placed drivers Mark Valent (Xray) and Jonas Völker (Mugen Seiki) until the end of the five-minute run. Izsay also posted the fastest lap and was the only guy with a 21 second time (hot lap 21.813).
Behind second placed Mark Valent and third placed Jonas Völker, Mugen racer Kevin Sparbier took fourth for the round with Pawel Staszewski (Awesomatix) completing the top 5. It will be a hard task for everybody to challenge Izsay for the overall TQ in the remaining three rounds of qualifying and we are already looking forward to more FWD action on Saturday!
1up Racing 40+ Masters
Zierold holding off hard charging Thalheimer in Masters Q1 by 0.059
The 1up Racing 40+ Masters class saw top seed Michel Zierold laying down an impressive TQ run. With dark clouds passing by the track at that time, Zierold drove a perfect race with his Awesomatix and took the win by only 0.059 of a second from Mirco Thalheimer who was on a similar pace with his Xray car. Zierold had the fastest lap of the run to his favour (19.756 in lap 2) compared to Thalheimer (19.842 in lap3), which in the end earned him the win in this heat.
Manuel Stankowitz (Iris), Elibert Sievers (Awesomatix), and René Kölbel (Xray) rounded out the top five in the first round of 1up Racing 40+ Masters qualifying. A great start into the weekend which gives us a lot of hope for a thrilling fight on top!
Orca 21.5 Stock
Pöhlmann takes opening qualifier from Gehrig and Baumbach
In the first round of Orca 21.5 Stock qualifying, Daniel Pöhlmann showed again that he likes to get his hands onto the trophy for this weekend`s race win. Pöhlmann took the win 1.5 seconds ahead of Jan Gehrig, with Tobias Baumbach finishing the run another 2.3 seconds behind in third place. Young Phil Langner took fourth for the round and Robert Kampehl scored a good fifth place after Timo Siebert dropped back to P8 after a big driving mistake.
Scorpion Formula
Stiebler wins Q1 ahead of Ehrbar and Ratheisky
The first round of qualifying in the ToniSport Formula class happened right after some light raindrops had fallen on the track and everybody had to wait for around 15 minutes for the track to dry again. As the racing started, Andreas Stiebler (Schumacher) posted the fastest lap of the run and took the win by 1.9 seconds from David Ehrbar (Xray) and Jan Ratheisky (Xray). Gergö Valent took fourth for the round and René Kölbel finished fifth.
