The first round of ETS qualifying at the season finale in Wiener Neustadt is completed. It was a nice day here so far and the evening programme looks promising as well as we will have a driver`s dinner in combination with a tombola for which every racer received a ticket. But before we will enjoy the Austrian cuisine we will tell you what happened in Q1 at Arena Nova in Austria!
Matrix Modified
Urbain: Maybe we need a “Super Modified class” for Orlowski 🙂
After topping all rounds of practice, Michal Orlowski was also on top of the board at the end of the opening Matrix Modified qualifier. In the early stages of the race, Urbain, Lauter, and Hagberg had been able to almost match Orlowski`s pace. But after two minutes Orlowski switched on his afterburners and built up a gap of 2.7 seconds to Urbain until the end of the race. In the interview after the run Orlowski mentioned “I was a little cautious in the beginning when I noticed that I was not much faster than the others on track. But after some laps the feeling for the car and the track was good again and I checked out a bit. It was a great start into qualifying and now I am looking forward to the driver`s dinner here in the hall this evening”.
Lucas Urbain finished second in Q1 behind Orlowski. The Awesomatix factory driver commented his run “After messing up Q1 at the TITC and also at the last ETS in Daun I am very happy to have a good start into the event now. Michal (Orlowski) is driving in kind of his own league right now, maybe we should create a super-modified class just for him 😊. But apart from that my car felt good and we will try to improve the pace for sure. But if Michal will not start to make stupid mistakes I can hardly imagine that we can beat him”
Behind Orlowski and Urbain, Simon Lauter (Awesomatix) and Alexander Hagberg (Xray) took third and fourth, followed by a sensational driving Harley Eldridge. Harley posted the fifth fastest time with her Xray car coming out of the B-heat. Jan Ratheisky (Xray), the Yokomo duo of Christopher Krapp and Antoine Brunet, Patrick Gollner (Xray), and Robert Pietsch (Mugen Seiki) completed the top 10 for the day!
Awesomatix ProStock
Ellerbrock wins Q1 from Collina and Bultynck
He is not in the fight for the overall title anymore but he was on fire in Q1 – we are talking about Awesomatix driver Lukas Ellerbrock. After his TQ run he was very happy and said “It feels great to TQ this one. My car was super good, and I really hope that I can fight for the race win here this weekend. I am not in the championship battle anymore which still hurts a bit, but I will do my best to help my teammate Ollie now to secure the title for Awesomatix”
Behind Ellerbrock it was Schumacher driver Mattia Collina who took second place. Collina posted the fastest lap of the run and was only 0.4 behind Ellerbrock. Ollie Bultynck and Adam Izsay were fighting for third and fourth place most of the time – with the better ending for Bultynck. Top seed Tim Benson could not match his own pace from controlled practice but still managed to score good points with P5 for the round.
Hobbywing Frontwheel
Can anyone challenge Izsay for the win during the weekend?
Adam Izsay took the win in Q1 of the FWD class with his Xray car. Who thought that the racer from Hungary will slow down a bit after having already secured the championship at the last race in Daun was on the woodway. Izsay had a clean run which earned him a 1.5 second advantage over Gergö Valent, Manuel Stankowitz, Henrik Heitsch, and Andreas Myrberg.
1up Racing 40+ Masters
Zierold best of the championship contenders while Ehrbar wins Q1
Xray driver David Ehrbar took the win in Q1 of the 1up racing 40+ Masters class. Manuel Stankowitz scored a strong second place for the Iris team but was already 3 (!) seconds behind Ehrbar after the 5-minute run. However, it was a good start into qualifying for David Ehrbar and out outgoing champion Manuel Stankowitz.
Championship contender Michel Zierold was third fastest with his time coming from the B-heat. This third place was very important for Zierold as he was the highest ranked championship contender in Q1. His rival René Kölbel finished fourth and Mirco Thalheimer had to walk away with a P9 only.
Orca 21.5 Stock
Bergheim takes opening qualifier at the ETS season finale
In the Orca 21.5 Stock class, championship leader Tristan Bergheim took the win in Q1. The Awesomatix driver had a great run and outpaced our top seed Bajusz Zolt (Xray) by one second. Jaroslav Kriz, who seeded in eight place, had a great drive and took P3 away from the first round of qualifying.
Tristan Bergheim`s close championship rival Phil Langner had a run full of small bobbles and was only able to score a P10 in Q1. Behind Bergheim, Zolt, and Kriz, it was Jan Gehrig and Kristian Jensen who completed the top 5 in the Orca 21.5 Stock class.
ToniSport Formula
Stiebler wins Formula Q1 ahead of Ehrbar and Ratheisky
The first round of ToniSport Formula qualifying saw Andreas Stiebler leading the race from tone to tone. Stiebler`s Schumacher car was on rails, and he had a gap of 1.4 seconds and the fastest lap of the race to his favour. David Ehrbar took second place in front of his Xray teammate Jan Ratheisky who was some six seconds behind the leaders. Robert Kampehl and Mathias Domig rounded out the top 5.
