Top seed Völker finishes four tenths behind Orlowski, Urbain takes third from Q1
The first round of Modified qualifying was a dog fight between top seed Ronald Völker, and reigning ETS champion Michal Orlowski. Coming out of the gate, it was Awesomatix driver Marc Rheinard who was leading after the first lap, but as the first minute of the run was progressing, Ronald Völker popped up on top of the board.
Völker was leading the race with his very soon to be released MTC-3 ahead of Michal Orlowski`s Schumacher Mi9 then, followed by the two Awesomatix cars of Lucas Urbain, and Marc Rheinard. Between minute two and four, the gap between Völker and Orlowski was a few hundreds of a second all the time.
Orlowski was right on the money in the last minute of the race where he took over the lead to win Q1 with a margin of 0.439 of a second from Völker. Lucas Urbain posted the third fastest time and was followed by Marc Rheinard, and the Xray of David Ronnefalk.
I am extremely happy and proud of my Q1 run. Things had been very difficult here so far (setup wise) and we tried to keep up with the pace of Ronald and the others who are all very fast. We finally made some important changes to the setup of our car and these changes seem to work fine. Let`s see how things will be in Q2 later this evening!
Michal Orlowski (PL) Schumacher | Elceram
To be honest, I am a bit disappointed about Q1 as my own driving was not on point. I already had a bad start into the heat as my car was standing on a little bump once I started causing my car to not lauch off perfectly straight. After that I found a good rythm, but in the last two minutes of the run I didn not hit all my marks perfectly. However, P2 is ok for Q1 and I am very happy about our complete team result so far. We have four cars in the Modified top heat, and Sören (Sparbier) posted a TQ run in Pro Stock. For Q2 I will just try to drive better!
Ronald Völker (DE) Mugen Seiki |LRP
Hot TQ run from Sparbier at Arena Nova
Sören Sparbier is in the form of his life now. After winning the last ETS race in Daun and the TITC in Thailand, the Mugen Seiki driver had a great start into qualifying here at the season finale in Austria when he took the win in Q1 ahead of top seed Adam Izsay (Xray). Sparbier (hot lap 14.093) was able to close up to Izsay who was driving in front of him, and at some point Izsay had to open the door for Sparbier to let him by. However, Izsay (hot lap 14.144) pushed really hard and was able to stay with Sören until the end of the run to finish 1.6 seconds behind the Mugen driver.
Third place for the round went to Lukas Ellerbrock (hot lap 14.286) and Mark Valent and Olivier Bultynck rounded out the top five. On the road to the championship, Lukas Ellerbrock is heading in the right direction keeping teammate Olivier Bultynck in a small distance!
Young talent Langner takes close FWD Q1 from Hovgaard
Phil Langner had a great run in Q1 of the Hobbywing FWD class. Starting third into the heat, Langner quickly moved up to the top of the board, closely followed by the Yokomo of Frederik Hovgaard, and the Iris of Dominik Reile. It was a very close and intense heat of qualifying where the top 6 all posted identical hot lap times (16.5).
At the end of the run, Langner made the extra lap and posted the only 19-lapper of Q1. Frederik Hovgaard, Dominik Reile, Mark Valent, Wiktor Smid, Olav Dahle, and Gergö Valent took positions 2 -7 and had been separated by 1.1 seconds only. Things are getting spicy now in the Hobbywing Frontwheel class!
Ehrbar takes opening Masters qualifier in Wiener Neustadt
A strong driving Manuel Stankowitz (Iris), Mirco Thalheimer (Xray), Michel Zierold (Awesomatix), and Eric Anderson (Awesomatix) took the positions two to five within one second behind Xray driver and Q1 winner David Ehrbar. It was another masterclass from Ehrbar as he outpaced the rest of the guys by 1.7 seconds on the difficult track at Arena Nova.
Ehrbar posted the fastest lap of the heat with a 15.111 and has shown again that he is the dominant force in the 1up Racing 40+ Masters class. Right now, it looks like smooth sailing for our new champion David Ehrbar. Will it stay like this?
Orca 21.5 Stock
Kriz wins Q1 from Baumbach and Gerhardt – bad run for Jensen
Jaroslav Kriz showed that he is in good form today by taking the win in the opening round of qualifying from Tobias Baumbach and Kai Gerhardt. Kriz also posted the fastest lap of the entire round (15.333) and his gap to second placed Xray driver Tobias Baumbach was at 3.8 seconds after the five-minute run, with the Mugen car of Kai Gerhardt another two tenths behind.
Nadine Zühlke was fourth quickest with her time coming from the b-heat, while Krystian Kopacki completed the top 5 in Q1. Championship contender Kristian Jensen lost around 4 seconds in lap 10 which caused him to drop down to the end of a super-close field of drivers in the top heat.
Qualifying round one goes to mighty Ehrbar
After Michael Lipperheide topped seeding practice in Wiener Neustadt, he was also able to score a strong second place in Q1. Lipperheide was only 4 tenths off the pace when he finished the run behind our new ETS Formula champion David Ehrbar.
Behind the top duo we saw another Xray on P3, driven by Jacques Libar from Luxembourg. Andreas Stiebler and Chris Grenz rounded out the top 5 in the first of our four rounds of qualifying. The top 4 had only been separated by 1.5 seconds and we expect the upcoming rounds to get even closer.
