After our ETS reporter has now finished his summer vacations, we are happy to present you 5 things we have learned during ETS RD2 in Austria. And to everybody who is still enjoying the summer break – have a great time and relax from the stress of racing 🙂
The whole weekend was a blast and we saw amazing action and racing on track. Thanks to all the hard working people behind the scenes and all you racers for making it happen – see you soon for RD3 in Luxembourg.
1) Schumacher setting the bar higher and higher in modified while also getting stronger in ProStock!
The victory in Aigen was Michal Orlowskis seventh (!!!) consecutive ETS race win, which is just very impressive. But as we all have get used to the picture with Orlowski lifting the big trophy on the podium during the last one and a half years, we also noticed that Schumacher has improved a lot as a team. More and more drivers are running the Mi9, and the team is now also taking a serious approach to the Pro Stock class.
While Mattia Collina was their only competitive Stock driver during last season, the British team brought their 1:12 scale ace and BRCA stock touging champion Ollie Payne to ETS RD2. Payne was really fast in practice and showed that he can fight for a top spot in the Pro Stock class. With some bad luck, he “only” finished lat in the A-Main (11th place), but we can be sure that Payne had a little more to show. Austrian touring car frontrunner Dominic Vogl was back at the ETS in Aigen and was also running the current Mi9 from Schumacher to finish in eight place. We are excited what the team will show at the next race in Luxembourg. Schumacher is definateley stepping up their game right now!
2) Return of Xray top drivers highly appreciated by everybody
The second round of ETS Season #17 saw Xray`s top guns Bruno Coehlo and Alexander Hagberg returning to the ETS. After Hagberg was racing at the Season finale of season #16 in Wiener Neustadt, he was joined by double touring car IFMAR world champion and 4-time ETS champion Bruno Coelho. Xray`s very own Martin Hudy, who took care about their cars dunring the event, was also there and brought his little son Filip who was racing in 21.5 Stock and FWD during his “ETS debut”.
All racers had been very happy to see Bruno and Alex back on track at an ETS event, and for many of the new ETS racers it was the first time to see them racing live on track. Bruno was the closest competitor of race winner Michal Orlowski and both were putting on a great show for the spectators. Alex had a weekend to forget as there was always something happening on track that caused him to fall behind. However, it was amazing to have these guys back at the ETS and we hope to see them more often again in the future.
3) The FWD class is THE CLASS for super-close racing
The FWD class is a major part, and one of the most popular classes at the ETS since many years. In Aigen – Schlägl, most of the drivers showed why this is the case. We could watch super close racing – nt only in the A-Main. The cars are handling very well, and they are looking really nice on track too. The A-Mains had been very close, and beside some controversial situations (which probably costed Dominik Reile and Iris the race win), we saw super close racing on track.
The cars circulated around the Aigen track like a freight train and it was a pure joy to watch. We are very happy to have such a nice class in our portfolio and we can`t wait to see the cars going through the cork screw corner Luxembourg.
4) Driver of the weekend – David Ehrbar
It is always hard to pick only one “Driver of the Weekend” after an ETS race as there are so many guys achieving great results on track. This time we have choosen Xray driver David Ehrbar as our driver of the weekend.
Why? Well, David sealed two pole positions in qualifying with his Xray cars and started ahead of the competition in the 1up Racing 40+ Masters class and in Matrix Formula. David drove some very dominant touring car finals and was able to withstand the pressure of his team mate René Kölbel who was all over him in A1 and A2. Ehrbar showed all his experience and brought home a well-deserved race win.
He finished second in the Formula class after loosing to Schumacher`s Andreas Stiebler, BUT he was driving one of the best Formula A-Mains we have ever seen and had a great fight with Andreas in the last laps of the race – that was a real blast.
5) New drivers entering circle of ETS race winners
It is always nice to crown new race winners at the ETS. The story continued in Aigen where Team Yokomo`s Frederik Hovgaard (Hobbywing FWD) and Xray racer Jaroslav jun. Kriz (Orca 21.5) joined the circle of ETS race winners – a very elitist club. Congratulations to you bith, you did amazingly well and it was nice to see you celebrating with your friends, your parents, your teams afterwards.
