Q2 Report, ETS RD6 Season #16 2023/24
The second round of qualifying here at the ETS season finale was split in two pieces with Pro Stock and Modified running on Saturday morning whils the other four classes had been up on Friday afternoon right before the driver`s dinner. The Saturday schedule is fully packed as we will wrap up qualifying and one complete round of A-Mains as well.
Matrix Modified
The second round of Matrix Modified qualifying saw again Michal Orlowski on top. In the first lap of the race Yokomo`s Antoine Brunet was popping up on top of the board and it looked like he could have a very good run – but a mistake after four and a half minutes was very costly for the French racer as he dropped all the way back to P8.
Out front it was Orlowski who had everything under control with his soon to be released Schumacher car. His driving was close to perfection, and he ripped the fastest lap of the race in lap 18 with a 14.872 while nobody else was able to turn a 14-second laptime during Q2.
Lucas Urbain scored another second place for Awesomatix crossing the line 2.3 seconds behind Orlowski. Simon Lauter (Awesomatix), Alexander Hagberg (Xray), and Marc Rheinard (Awesomatix) rounded out the top five.
Harley Eldridge (Xray) from the UK took sixth for the round. Harley is on the way to become the first ever female racer to make the Modified A-Main at the ETS and we wish her the best of luck for Q3 and Q4.
Q2 video to follow soon (had some technical issues)
Awesomatix ProStock
Ellerbrock wins early morning Q2 ahead of Benson while Bultynck suffered a DNF
The second round of Pro Stock qualifying was up on a very early Saturday morning at Arena Nova. Olivier Bultynck was in the battle for the win until he made a small mistake in lap 10. Pawel Staszewski could not avoid touching Bultynck`s car after that and both drivers had to finish their race after the contact – tough luck for them.
Meanwhile Lukas Ellerbrock was in the lead and brought home another important TQ run in front of Tim Benson and Adam Izsay. Bultynck and Izsay are fourth and fifth before the last two rounds of qualifying – we couldn`t have asked for more tension in the battle for the overall championship!
Hobbywing Frontwheel
Izsay adds another TQ run to his amazing FWD season
The second round of Hobbywing Frontwheel qualifying at Arena Nova saw again Adam Izsay ahead of everybody. Adam won by a second from Gergö Valent again and Dominik Reile finished third in Q2 followed by Frederik Hovgaard and Marcus von Elling. After Adam had almost secured the pole position on Friday, he could focus more on his Pro Stock racing where he was in the fight for the title as well here in Austria.
1up Racing 40+ Masters
Zierold and Kölbel on the way to the title as Ehrbar wins Q2
David Ehrbar took another win in Q2 and is still sitting on top of the 40+ Masters class. René Kölbel was able to close the gap to Ehrbar down to 1.8 seconds in Q2 and Michel Zierold posted the third fastest time once again out of the B-heat. Ehrbar will be hard to beat, and it looks the same as in Daun where he raced in the 40+ Masters class for the first time. Asked about his dominance Ehrbar mentioned that “his time racing in the KEIL DTM series in the 90`s (brushed 17T Motors) helped him to quickly adapt to the 21.5 Strock racing as it felt very similar to the good old times from the first moment on”.
In the fight for the championship, we still have René Kölbel and Michel Zierold with good chances. They are sitting second and fourth place overnight while Mirco Thalheimer`s title chances are melting away with him on P8 at qualifying halftime.
Orca 21.5 Stock
TQ run for Kriz in a very close Q2
In the Orca 21.5 Stock class, Tristan Bergheim was leading Q2 on Friday afternoon and he was on the way to make it two out of two. But when Bergheim was riding too many of the curbs in the last lap, he lost his lead to Jaroslav Kriz and Bajusz Zsolt and dropped back to third place. Jaroslav Kriz from Slovakia took the win by 0.25 seconds from Bajusz Zsolt.
The overnight ranking list still saw Bergheim on top as he had the faster runtime to his favour. Jan Gehrig and Nadine Zühlke took P4 and P5 for the round while Phil Langner had another run to forget. He needs two very good ones on Saturday if he still wants to keep his championship hopes alive.
ToniSport Formula
Another TQ run from Stiebler who was followed by Ehrbar and Ratheisky again
David Ehrbar finished second again behind Andreas Stiebler who took Q2 in style again. Jan Ratheisky was third with his Xray car and that was how they went to bed on Friday evening. Robert Kampehl, Mathias Domig, and Adam Southgate completed the overnight top 6 of the ToniSport Formula class. The question before Q3 and Q4 was: Can anybody challenge Andreas Stiebler for the win?
