The Euro Touring Series is rolling again and after a superb start into Season #17, we look back to the amazing time we had at AMCA Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. More than 250 racers from all around the world went for it and showed high class RC car racing on the beautiful AMCA track. As always, many things happened and we picked the 5 things we have learned during ETS RD1 last weekend.
1) The ETS is as INTERNATIONAL as it could be
With racers from 20 countries attending the race, it was just fantastic to welcome people from Austria, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, Netherlands, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Spain, and the USA.
The people from all these different countries are making the ETS so special as we are always having a very international atmosphere in the pits. The ETS is like a world championship with 5 or 6 races every year :-).
To symbolically celebrate this internationality, we gave the Spirit of the Event award to the three Australian racers Baden MacDonald, Jeff Hamon, and Mathew Jenkins who sacrificed a whole week of their holidays to enjoy the RC hobby with us in Apeldoorn.
2) Winning an ETS race is SUPER SPECIAL
Many racing drivers pursue the dream of winning a race at the Euro Touring Series. For many of them it will remain a dream, but others will be able to fulfil it at some point. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication, because the competition at the ETS is of course always tough.
Last weekend in Apeldoorn we saw FOUR first time ETS race winners, which was just fantastic. It was great to see all the emotion and celebrations after they crossed the finish line in the decisive A-Main and we would like to congratulate these guys once again from the bottom of our hearts.
Xray driver Nicolas Delisé from Belgium was succesful in the Hobbywing Frontwheel class, Eric Anderson (Awesomatix) from the US won the 1up Racing 40+ Masters class, German racer Timo Siebert (Mugen Seiki) was able to win 21.5 Orca Stock, and Luka Jovicic (Xray) from Luxembourg won the Matrix Formula class.
Fun fact: All drivers won the race from pole position which once again shows that the TQ is half the battle to victory.
3) Michal Orlowski is a real BEAST right now
Schumacher`s Michal Orlowski is the man to beat in electric 1:10 scale touring car racing now. The Polish driver won his SIXTH consecutive ETS race last weekend which is just an insane statement. He also won the GP3F this year, followed by the MiBo race and the 1up Racing Westcoast invitational race. Orlowski was TQ at all of these races and left no doubt about his dominance in the finals.
His actual package with the new Schumacher Mi9 touring car, his complete electronic package, and the team around him (his father, Mattia Collina, and Andy Murray) seems to be the perfect fit to allow Orlowski performing on the highest level.
For sure, it is only race one of the new season in the books. BUT – if Orlowski continues in his current form, WHO should be able to beat him? When listening to the interviews after the races, we notice that Orloswki is absoluteley confident, and his competitors (Urbain, Rheinard, Völker for example…) are scratching their heads because they sometimes really don`t know what do do to close the gap to Orlowski.
As it is a worlds year (IFMAR Worlds will take place in the US in November), Orlowski is stepping more and more into the role of one of the top favoirites for the title. Can he stay on top of his game all year long?
4) Atsushi Hara – still a MEGA STAR of our sport
A clear highlight for us was the attendance of Atsushi Hara in Apeldoorn. Atsushi had not raced RC cars frequently in the last years and is not a 100% professional driver anymore, but it was easy to see that he has not lost any of his amazing skills. He was super fast in practice and seeded himself into the top heat for Modified qualifying.
He made a couple of costly mistakes then which did not allow him to make the A-Main. But with some solid racing in the B-Main, he finished 16th overall in a stacked field of Modified drivers – a good result at his ETS return!
No matter if it was the A-, or the B-Main, Atsushi was the star of the event as many young drivers never saw him racing in the past. Others just had been happy to meet him again after a long time talking about RC and other funny stuff with him.
Atsushi took pictures with his fans, signed body shells, T-Shirts, books, and caps all weekend long and enjoyed it to be back at teh ETS after many years. He also told us that he will do anythign possible to come to the next races in Aigen and Luxembourg – we really hope he can make it happen. ARIGATO HARA SAN!
5) ETS Tires – as reliable as it gets
Tires are always a cruical part for big RC events. It is important that the tires are performing well, and that they are all from he same batch of production. Another important factor is the reliability on track.
Sometimes, tires can explode because of the inner belt getting loose (just for example), or due to large imbalances in the rubber compound. Also the glueing is very important to make sure all racers can finish their runs without the rubber getting loose on the wheels.
Today we like to say THANK YOU to Matrix Tires and RIDE for delivering the perfect race tires to our events.
We had ZERO problems on track. Not one single unglued tire, no tire explosions in the Modified class at speeds above 120kph, everything worked just insane and we are very greatful to have these companies on side as our partners and tire suppliers for the Euro Touring Series!
