Two complete rounds of qualifying are done in Apeldoorn and we like to give you a quick update about the power rankings at the ETS season opener. A couple of runs from Q3 will take place this evening as well but for now we focus on the qualifying half-time results.
The competition is crazy as the AMCA track demands everyting from the racers!
Infinity`s Coelho leads from Serpent`s Greiner and the Schumacher`s Orlowski as qualifying reaches half-time in the Netherlands
Q1 – The first Cayote Modified qualifier just gave us a taste of what racing in the finals could may look like this weekend. It was VERY CLOSE. Bruno Coelho took the win by just 0.026 of a second from Michal Orlowski (Schumacher) with Ronald Völker (Mugen Seiki) another 1.5 seconds behind (after loosing one second of time in lap 14 of the heat).
Bruno had everyting under control (as far as that is possible in such a heat) but told us that he had a sudden “out of nowhere traction roll” in lap 20 of the heat. Coelho lost one second due to that which allowed Orlowski to be that close to him in the end.
Orlowski described his run as “not bad” after seeding in fourth position. Behind the top three we saw Lucas Urbain (4), Marc Rheinard (5), Dominic Greiner (6), Alexander Hagberg (7), Simon Lauter (8), Tim Wahl (9), and Jilles Groskamp rounding out the top ten!
Q2 – After we saw a close first round of qualifying, the drivers performed on a top level again in Q2. It was once again Infinity lead driver Bruno Coelho who was able to win the heat.
The reigning IFMAR world champion of the touring car class took the win by a gap of one second from a very amazing driving Dominic Greiner (Serpent) who posted the fastest lap of Q2 (13.287). Greiner was mega-happy after the run and described his car as “very good out there”.
Lucas Urbain (Awesomatix), Michal Orlowski (Schumacher), Simon Lauter (Awesomatix), and Ronald Völker (Mugen Seiki) completed the top 6 which all crossed the finish line within 1.7 seconds behind Q2 winner Coelho showing the competition and intensity of the Cayote Modified class.
Bultynck holds overnight TQ ahead of his teammates Kretschmer and Coenen
Defending Awesomatix Pro Stock champion Olivier Bultynck had a very clean run in Q1. He took the win by 2.3 seconds over dutch youngster Timon Coenen who posted the fastest lap of the whole round (15.821). Jan Ratheisky was third fastest in Q1 ahead of Rick van den Akker (running in the C-Heat), Dayne Warren and Nico Catelani (both in the B-Heat), Sören Sparbier, Helge Johannessen, and Richard van Leeuwen. Many top drivers stopped their cars after small mistakes early in the race to save their tires. The second round of qualifying was expected to mix things up again!
In Q2 it was all about Louis Kretschmer who had saved his Q1 tires to have the advantage with fresh ones in Q2. It fully paid off for him (and Awesomatix) as he took the win from Stefan Schulz, Ollie Bultynck, Tim Benson, and Rob Jansen in Q2. Stefan Schulz posted his time in the fourth fastest group after missing practice on Thursday – very impressive!
With the combined results from Q1 and Q2, the overnight top five in Pro Stock are: Olivier Bultynck (Awesomatix), Louis Kretschmer (Awesomatix), Timon Coenen (Awesomatix), Stefan Schulz (XRAY), and Jan Ratheisky (XRAY). The battle for the TQ spot and the remaining A-Main grid positions will continue in Q3 and Q4 on Saturday at the AMCA Apeldoorn track!
Schulz leads at qualifying half-time after arriving in Apeldoorn without any practice
After two rounds of FWD qualifying, we saw Stefan Schulz, Elibert Sievers, and Robin van Gog making it into the top three. Elibert Sievers won the first heat in the morning ahead of Ronald Arts and Max Weffers. Stefan Schulz then took the win in the second round posting the faster runtime compared to Sievers result from Q1. The combined Q1 and Q2 results putting Stefan Schulz in the lead ahead ofSievers, van Gog, Arts, Weffers, Libar, Stocker, Reip, Borschel, and Stankowitz. A great result for Stefan Schulz so far who was not able to be here for Thursday practice!
Xray`s Ehrbar running strong ahead of a very close competition
Top seed Manuel Stankowitz started first out of the gate, but it was David Ehrbar who posted the fastest opening lap of the race with a 17.224 jumping into the lead. Mirco Thalheimer and Michael Uhlir had a fantastic pace as well and the positions between them and Stankowitz changed many times. After five minutes it was David Ehrbar scoring his first TQ run of the weekend when he won Q1 by a big gap of 2 seconds ahead of Mirco Thalheimer, Michael van den Berg, and Manuel Stankowitz.
The second 40+ Masters qualifier was SPER CLOSE between David Ehrbar and Toni Mateo. After the five minute run, only 0.009 seconds were seperating them and it was (once again) david Ehrbar who had the better end on his side. However, it was also a great run for the SPaniard Toni Mateo who is always traveling to ETS races all the way from beautiful Gran Canaria. Behind them we saw Michael van den Berg, Anne Ehrbar, and Mirco Thalheimer rounding out the top five in Q2. Unfortunatley, Alexander Stocker was not running with the correct RPM limiter and his best runtime will be deleted after qualifying.
Berkenbosch on top after two rounds of qualifying!
After “only” coming out of seeding practice as the sixth quickest driver yesterday evening, local hero and 2025 Apeldoorn TQ Levi Berkenbosch turned things to his favour when he took the win in the first round of Hobbywing 21.5 Stock qualifying by 0.6 seconds ahead of Richard Oversloot. Thomas Stenger finished third for the round and was followed by Daniel Hiesch and Max Weffers.
The second qualifier was another close fight, and this time it was between Levi Berkenbosch and Daniel Hiesch. The lead changed multiple times and after five minutes it was German youngster Daniel Hiesch taking the win by 0.008 of a second from Berkenbosch. But however, it was Max Weffers who posted the overall TQ run in Q2 with his time coming from the B-Heat. The Xray driver from Germany was almost two seconds faster than the guys in the top group and scored maximum points in Q2.
Schumacher racer Stiebler on top as he takes two out of two!
Andreas Stiebler took the first two rounds of MAtrix Formuls qualifying . He could outpace David Ehrbar and Michal Wojcik two times by around seven tenths of a second handing him over the overnight TQ spot in Apeldoorn. The top 10 ranking list at qualifying half-time: Stiebler (Schumacher), Ehrbar (XRAY), Wojcik (XRAY), Hudy (XRAY), Jovicic (XRAY), Grenz (XRAY), Kampehl(Schumacher), Ruf (Tamiya), Lipperheide (XRAY).
