ETS Preview Report, RD3 Season #17 2024/25 Luxembourg, LUX
The ETS is entering the third round of the 2024/25 championship season in Luxembourg. With almost 280 entries, the number of entries is very high and guarantees top-class RC racing on one of the best tracks in the world. Last weekend was all about the EFRA euros in Roeselare (Belgium) where many of our frequent ETS racers had been in the fight for the EFRA titles. The event was a tricky one due to rain and ever-changing track conditions. Let`s see who is in good shape for ETS RD3.
Rheinard surfs the wave of success, Urbain is top favourite after mega practice performances, what can champion Orlowski do at the “Mini Circuit Ville de Luxembourg”
At the EFRA Euros in Roeselare, Michal Orlowski’s incredible run of 385 unbeaten days in touring car racing came to an unexpected end. The Schumacher star had a solid qualifying session and was on pole position for the finals. He was followed by his good friend and hard on- track rival Marc Rheinard (Awesomatix), and Xray`s Bruno Coelho who had won the last three EFRA euros in a row. After three very interesting and eventful A-Mains, Michal found himself off the podium in 4th place only – not the result he was aiming for.
The conditions had been very difficult on final Sunday, and we also saw some driving errors which we have not seen from Orlowski in a very long time. Schumacher car designer Andy Murray will race in the Modified class with the Mi9 as well at ETS RD3 to collect data while Mattia Collina had to skip the race. Can Schumacher`s star driver Orlowski shake off this heavy defeat and win again in Luxembourg?
Awesomatix lead driver Marc Rheinard is the newly crowned EFRA European Champion in Modified touring car racing. Rheinard was putting together some great A-Main runs and was able to get by Orlowski, holding off a hard pushing Bruno Coelho in A3 with a masterclass of driving. It was almost surreal to realise that the last EFRA TC title was won by Rheinard in 2011!
The victory in Roeselare was an important one for Rheinard as it was the first Modified EFRA title for Awesomatix, and the first one for Marc`s new electronic sponsor Cayote. This title should give him a real boost of motivation and we are excited to see Marc hitting the track with his A800R in Luxembourg.
Rheinard will have most of his teammates around him with Lucas Urbain, Simon Lauter, Eric Dankel, Atsushi Hara, Kemp Anderson, and Michele Manzo having all signed up for the race. One of the top favourites for the race win in Luxembourg is for sure Lucas Urbain. The French driver won his first ETS race at this venue 2 years ago and is calling Luxembourg “kind of his home track” even if he is living 40km away in Rettel (France). During the testing sessions where many top drivers had been in Luxembourg before the Euros, Urbain was the fastest and he will set the early benchmark in practice for sure.
Simon Lauter, who is the actually overall third placed river in Modified, is another driver to watch as he travels to Luxembourg with the success of winning the 13.5 Spec Euros last weekend after achieving a third-place podium finish in Modified at ETS RD2 in Austria – he is on a career high now. Lauter has finally arrived in the top league of Modified drivers at the Euro Touring Series after he had won three Pro Stock titles in the past four seasons. Great to see a world class stock driver stepping up to Modified in this way!
Mugen Seiki`s ETS record champion Ronald Völker is still in a “never ending” summer, searching for the top result he is normally used to achieve. Ronald finished 5th at the season opener in Apeldoorn, 11th at RD2 in Aigen, and 7th at last weekends EFRA Euros. Ronald and the Mugen team were facing some problems with the balance of the car and had some bad luck with electronic issues (in Apeldoorn) which has somewhat distorted the true performance of Völker`s Mugen and LRP package.
As we all know the work ethic of Völker, we can be sure that he will do everything to return to winning ways. Will we see his return to the podium in Luxembourg? His teammate and friend Remi Callens will be the second “hot iron” for Mugen Seiki in the fight for a position in the A-Main.
The Yokomo team will have to do without Christopher Krapp in Luxembourg. Krappi was the best Yokomo driver at the European Championship with 5th place, closely followed by his team-mate Antoine Brunet (6th) and Yannic Prümper in 9th place. Three Yokomo cars in the A final was a very good result for the team – Yokomo has not yet been able to score a top 5 result since the start of the new ETS season. Antoine and Yannic will do all they can to dial in their MS1.0 car for the challenging track in Luxembourg.
Dominic Greiner, who finished on a fantastic fourth place in Aigen, will be a one man show again at the “Mini Circuit Ville de Luxembourg”. But the Serpent driver does to extract some extra motivation with not having a big team around him and made the A-Main at both of this season`s asphalt races. He is ranked 5th overall in the FlySky Modified class – a result that deserves great respect.
After the two Xray stars Bruno Coelho and Alexander Hagberg joined the ETS at the last race in Austria, they will sadly miss out our event in Luxembourg. Hagberg is on a long-planned family vacation while Bruno will race in a different category for Xray at the same weekend. Xray will trust their drivers Oliver Havranek, Harley Eldridge, and Benjamin Elbisser to score some good results. They are all super-fast and have shown in the past that they can make the A-Main when everything comes together perfectly.
FlySky Modified facts for ETS RD3
Entries: 44
Last race winner: Michal Orlowski (Schumacher) at RD2 in Aigen, AUT
Last race winner in Luxembourg: Lucas Urbain (Awesomatix) in 2022
Current championship top 3: Michal Orlowski (Schumacher | Hobbywing), Marc Rheinard (Awesomatix | CAYOTE), Simon Lauter (Awesomatix | Hobbywing)
Ellerbrock and Blutynck leading overall standings on equal points – can anyone catch up with them?
The Awesomatix Pro Stock class will have a great turnout in Luxembourg with 75 drivers on the list of entries. With many very fast drivers having signed up for the event, the battle for the A-Main spots will be close and intense as always.
The two championship leaders Ollie Bultynck and Lukas Ellerbrock from Team Awesomatix will try to open an even bigger gap to their competitors (points wise) to battle it out for the title when the ETS will enter the two remaining races of the season on carpet. However, as both drivers only scored “shmedium” results at the EFRA euros, they will also use the event in Luxembourg to recover a bit from that. Ellerbrock and Bultynck will have their team around them with strong drivers likefor example Louis Kretschmer, and Jesper Rasmussen.
Mugen Seiki`s Sören Sparbier is actually “best of the rest” sitting third overall in the championship. He missed out the podium in Aigen by a small margin and will be a driver to watch for in Luxembourg for sure. Sören has a lot of natural speed and is the top Pro Stock driver of the Mugen Seiki team right now. Can he improve his fourth place from Aigen in Luxembourg?
Xray has a strong line-up of drivers with Martin Hudy, Nico Catelani, Nicolas Delise, Benjamin Elbisser, local hero Jacques Libar, and MANY more and it would be a big surprise to not see some of them in the big show on Sunday. Adam Izsay, who was Xray`s best Pro Stock driver in the last season, will not make the trip to Luxembourg. Can anybody else fight for the ProStock win for the Slovakian manufacturer?
When we look on the Schumacher drivers, we also notice a lot of quality with former ETS and TITC Stock race winner Dominic Vogl, current European Vice champion Ollie Payne, third place finisher Niels Degryze from Belgium, and Andreas Stiebler who was very quick during ETS RD2 in Aigen. Schumacher is the team with the biggest upwards trend in Pro Stock racing since 2024 and we are sure that we will see one of their drivers on the podium soon!
However, we can not analyse all the racers in this highly competitive class before the race and as there are even more fast names (Tim Benson, Helge Johannessen, Henrik Heitsch, the Valent brothers……) we just have to wait to find out who will be on fire on the “Mini Circuit Ville de Luxembourg” next weekend. The Awesomatix Pro Stock class is looking to get really dicey…
Awesomatix ProStock facts for ETS RD3
Entries: 75
Last race winner: Olivier Bultynck (Awesomatix) at RD2 in Aigen, AUT
Last race winner in Luxembourg: Simon Lauter (Awesomatix) in 2022
Championship leader: Lukas Ellerbrock and Ollie Bultynck (both Awesomatix)
Hovgaard with first ever FWD championship lead for Yokomo
Danish Yokomo racer Frederik Hovgaard will arrive as the championship leader in Luxembourg. Hovgaard started into the season with a fifth place in Apeldoorn and was able to win the second race of the campaign in Aigen which was his first ETS race win ever. Hovgaard backed up his great form and won the EFRA Euros from fourth on the grid after many things happened with to the cars in front of him.
Xray`s newest FWD signing Max Weffers is ranked second overall followed by his teammate Jacques Libar, Awesomatix driver Phil Langner, and Iris racer Mauel Stankowitz (who will not attend the race in Luxembourg). Beside the top 4 drivers, others like ETS RD1 winner Nicolas Delisé (Xray), RD2 top qualifier Dominik Reile (Iris), Roman Borschel (Awesomatix), Caspar Morgen (Xray), Benjamin Elbisser (Xray), Torsten Baggendorf (ARC), Henrik Heitsch (ARC), Gergö and Mark Valent (Xray and Schumacher) will all try to win the third race of ETS Season #17 in Luxembourg.
Hobbywing Frontwheel facts for ETS RD3
Entries: 60
Last race winner: Frederik Hovgaard (Yokomo) at RD2 in Aigen, AUT
Last race winner in Luxembourg: Stefan Schulz (Xray) in 2022
Current championship top 3: Frederik Hovgaard (Yokomo), Max Weffers (Xray), Jacques Libar (Xray)
Ehrbar on top after two races in hard fought 40+ Masters class
Xray driver David Ehrbar leads the overall standings ahead of US racer Eric Anderson (Awesomatix) and Dutchman Elibert Sievers (Awesomatix). Ehrbar won the last race in Aigen after finishing third behind Anderson and Sievers at the season opener in Apeldoorn. On the other hand, Eric Anderson had a perfect and very dominant race in Apeldoorn and ‘only’ had to settle for seventh place at the RD2 in Austria. Anderson is 4 points behind Ehrbar, which he can still turn around during the rest of the season.
René Kölbel (Xray), Werner Schmitzer (Xray), and our reigning ETS champion of the class Michel Zierold (Awesomatix) are still in the mix hoping for a great result on the nice and difficult track in Luxembourg. Toni Mateo was the 2022 race winner in Luxembourg and is one of many other fast guys for the weekend together with Mirco Thalheimer, Caspar Morgen, Torsten Baggendorf, and Dai Sakaguchi who is making his 40+ Masters class debut with his Tamiya ride. Let`s see who will “master” the weekend in the best possible way to take the victory at ETS RD3.
Entries: 42
Last race winner: David Ehrbar (Xray) at RD2 in Aigen, AUT
Last race winner in Luxembourg: Toni Mateo (Awesomatix) in 2022
Current championship top 3: David Ehrbar (Xray), Eric Anderson (Awesomatix), Elibert Sievers (Awesomatix)
Championship leader Siebert to face hard competition in Luxembourg
In the Orca 21.5 Stock class we have seen superb racing during the last race in Aigen. Jaroslav Jun. Kriz took his first ETS race win with his Xray car and will be one of the top contenders for another great result in Luxembourg. Mugen Seiki`s championship leader Timo Siebert will have a lot of work to do if he likes to defend his position at the sunny side of life. His lead is at 4 points over Nadine Zühlke.
Xray driver Kristian Jensen is third overall now and will be on the line in Luxembourg as well as Jan Gehrig (Xray), Kai Gerhardt (Mugen Seiki), Elena Fuchs (Xray), Jan Vogler, Michael Koos, and the rest a the strong field of 21.5 Stock drivers.
ORCA 21.5 Stock facts for ETS RD3
Entries: 31
Last race winner: Jaroslav Jun. Kriz (Xray) at RD2 in Aigen, AUT
Last race winner in Luxembourg: Kevin Schmid (Awesomatix) in 2022 (when it was 17.5 Stock class)
Current championship top 3: Timo Siebert (Mugen Seiki), Nadine Zühlke (ARC), Kristian Jensen (Xray)
Can Jovicic win on home soil?
After two races, the battle in the Matrix Formula class is between the current leader Andreas Stiebler (Schumacher), David Ehrbar (Xray), Luka Jovicic (Xray) and René Kölbel (Xray). Stiebler is 3 points ahead of Ehrbar, with Lovicic a further 2 points behind. Stiebler finished third in Apeldoorn and won a real thriller in Aigen after a gripping battle with David Ehrbar. Ehrbar himself is still looking for his first win of the season.
Luka Jovicic, who joined the club of ETS race winners in Apeldoorn, will be looking to put in another great performance, because Luxembourg is his home track, his home club, his living room… Can Jovicic win another ETS race, or will Stiebler and Ehrbar have what it takes to beat the local hero on home soil? It is game on in the Matrix Formula class!
Matrix Formula facts for ETS RD3
Entries: 22
Last race winner: Andreas Stiebler (Schumacher) at RD2 in Aigen, AUT
Last race winner in Luxembourg: Jan Ratheisky (Xray) in 2022
Current championship top 3: Andreas Stiebler (Schumacher), David Ehrbar (Xray), Luka Jovicic (Xray)
