Q4 Report, ETS RD2 Season #17 2024/25

Qualifying is over in Aigen-Schlägl. It was a demanding day for all the racers with the rain interruption in the morning and some changing track conditions during the day. One round of lower mains will take place this evening with the rest of the finals and all A-Mains on the line on Sunday.

Coelho laying down first 21 lap run of the weekend in Q4

After Schumacher`s Michal Orlowski had already sealed the TQ, it was Bruno Coelho who impressed massively in Q4 with the first 21 lap run of the weekend. Coelho secured the second place on the grid and will be the hardest contender for Michal Orlowski in the triple A-Mains on Sunday.  Simon Lauter was still on a high in Q4 where he finished second. He will start behind Orlowski and Coelho which “sometimes is the best place to be”.

Marc Rheinard (Awesomatix), Eric Dankel (Awesomatix), and Yannic Prümper completed the top 5 in the last round of Matrix Modified qualifying. It was a very important one for Yokomo`s Prümper as it saved him from ending in the B-Main. Lucas Urbain (Awesomatix), Ronald Völker (Mugen Seiki), Dominic Greiner (Serpent), and Mattia Collina (Schumacher) made the show as well and we can expect an epic showdown on here in Aigen-Schlägl on Sunday.

Awesomatix river Bultynck secures the pole ahead of Xray`s Izsay – Mugen Seik driver Sparbier lining up third on the grid

Reigning ETS Pro Stock champion Olivier Bultynck will start from the sweet spot on the grid into the finals. He took another win in Q4 ahead of a very good driving Sören Sparbier (Mugen Seiki), and Jesper Rasmussen (Awesomatix) who secured his last-minute place in the A-main with a strong third place. The Xray`s of Tobias Sutrich and Matus Benetin completed the top 5 in the last round of Awesomatix Pro Stock qualifying.

Valent jumps to P2 on the grid beside top qualifier Reile

Xray driver Gergö Valent won the last round of FWD qualifying which secured him the second spot on the grid beside top qualifier Dominik Reile (Iris). Top seed Daniel Pöhlmann (Awesomatix) made a mistake in lap 12 and will start from third place into the finals beside Frederik Hovgaard (Yokomo) and Jonas Völker (Iris). Mark Valent (Schumacher), Max Weffers (Xray), Andrea Ghilotti, Alexander Mayer, and Jacques Libar made it into the big show as well. Three thrilling A-mains are ahead of us on Sunday in the Hobbywing FWD class.

Ehrbar steals TQ from teammate Kölbel in Q4 – thrilling finals expected…

The last round of qualifying was the decider for pole position in the 1up racing 40+ Masters class. David Ehrbar got the job done, won the heat, and snatched the pole away from his teammate René Kölbel in the last minute. The starting grid for the finals will be: David Ehrbar TQ, René Kölbel (2), Michel Zierold (3), Ronald Arts (4), Eric Anderson (5), Thomas Wegmann (6), Werner Schmitzer (7), Torsten Baggendorf (8), Elibert Sievers (9), and Anna Ehrbar (10).

Kriz secures pole position at ETS RD2 in Austria

Jaroslav jun. Kriz has claimed the very important pole position here in Austria with his Xray X4-2024. The young racer from Slovakia did a great job in qualifying and will see Jan Gehrig (Xray), Nadine Zühlke (ARC), and Kristian Jensen (Xray) lining up right behind him on the grid. Positions 5 to 7 went to the Mugen team with Nico Eglseer, Simeon Seis, and Timo Siebert rocking their MTC-2R touring cars. Tim Jarosch, Richard Kovacs (Xray), and Kai Gerhardt (Yokomo) are completing the grid for the A-Main (plus one bump up driver from the B-main).

Ehrbar does the double as he is on pole in the Formula class as well

After he claimed pole position in the 1up Racing 40+ Masters class an hour before, David Ehrbar (Xray) did the same in the Formula class. Ehrbar won Q4 by 1.4 seconds ahead of Stiebler who will start right behind him on the grid with his Schumacher car. Michal Wojcik confirmed his strong form of the weekend and will start third on the grid while Robert Kampehl and Michael Lipperheide completed the top 5.

Chris Grenz came out of qualifying sixth fastest and Apeldoorn race winner Luka Jovicic had to take P7 on the grid. René Kölbel, Balint Rajki, and Tomas Sova will head into the finals from the last spots of the grid. A bump up driver from the B-main will complete the show later in the eveneing.

Q2 Report, ETS RD2 Season #17 2024/25

Orlowski is overnight TQ while Lauter sitting on a fantastic second place followed by an unlucky Coelho and a world class field of Modified drivers

The second round of FlySky Modified qualifying started on the tone and Orlowski`s car almost got sideways to the left. Orlowski lifted the throttle and lost 2 tenths on the opening lap to Coelho, Lauter, Urbain, and others. While Orlowski immediately posted his hot lap of the race (14.895) in the next lap, he was back in his rythm. Meanwhile, Xray lead driver Bruno Coelho was absolutely on fire (fast lap 14.775) and was leading the race ahead of Orlowski, Dankel, Lauter, Urbain, and Rheinard.

The battle for the lead was intense and very close all the time until Orlowski took over the lead in lap 9 again. Bruno was in second until he lost some costly time in lap 9 and 13, dropping all the way back to sixth place for the run. Simon Lauter, Lucas Urbain, Marc Rheinard, and Eric Dankel completed the top 5 after five minutes in what was a very interesting and blistering fast Modified qualifying run.

Pole position within reach as Bultynck wins Q2

After taking the opening round of qualifying, Awesomatix factory driver Olivier Bultynck was on point again in Q2 which he won against a hard charging Adam Izsay (Xray), and Dominic Vogl (Schumacher). Vogl was leading the race for a very long time on a new set of tires, but Bultynck got the job done and is now very close to seal the overall TQ here in Aigen-Schlägl. Tobias Sutrich (Xray) and Matej Dobnikar (out of the b-heat) completed the top 5 on a very sunny and hot Friday afternoon.

Another TQ run for Reile as he outpaces a 4 car freight train behind him

In the second round of FWD qualifying we had a very close result in the end with second and fifth place only separated by half a second. Gergö (Xray) and Mark Valent (Schumacher), Max Weffers (Xray), and Jonas Völker (Iris) gave their all on track but there was one man beating all of them – Dominik Reile. He had a fantastic run with his Iris car and scored his second TQ run of the event. A big break for Reile and the team on the way to another ETS TQ in the hard-fought Hobbywing Frontwheel class. Q3 and Q4 is on the schedule for Saturday morning.

Two out of two for Kölbel as he takes another win in Q2

René Kölbel was on a mission in Q2 which he won ahead of Ronald Arts (Awesomatix), David Ehrbar (Xray), and Eric Anderson (Awesomatix). Kölbel posted the fastest lap of the heat (19.775) with his Xray car and is very close to seal the overall TQ in his home country. Werner Schmitzer (Xray) and Torsten Baggendorf (ARC) completed the top 6 in the second round of 40+ Masters qualifying.

Zühlke takes Q2 from Gehrig and Jensen

Q2 of the Orca 21.5 Stock class saw Nadine Zühlke on top. She drove a very clean race with her ARC car and took the win by a tenth of a second over Jan Gehrig and Kristian Jensen. Simeon Seis and Kai Gerhardt (Yokomo) completed the top 5 at qualifying half-time. Two more rounds are coming up and it seems like Zühlke, Gehrig, Siebert, and Kriz have the best shot for claiming the pole position here at ETS RD2.

Stiebler again in Q2

Andreas Stiebler posted another TQ run with his Schumacher formula car and was followed by his teammate Robert Kampehl and the two Xray`s of Michal Wojcik and Chris Grenz. Michael Lipperheie completed the top 5. Andreas Stiebler is the overnight TQ now and can seal the pole position on Saturday – what he needs: just one more TQ run!  

Q1 Report, ETS RD2 Season #17 2024/25

Schumacher`s Michal Orlowski took the opening round of FlySky Modified qualifying by nine tenths of a second from Xray`s Bruno Coelho. Simon Lauter took a strong third place and was 1.8 seconds behind second placed Coelho after the five-minute run. Eric Dankel (Awesomatix) and Ronald Völker (Mugen Seiki) completed the top 5 in Q1. With the top 4 drivers all posting similar 14.9 lap times, it was all about consistency and speed during the end of the run. The performance drop in the tires is a factor here and Orlowski and Coelho managed their tires and car setups the best so far.

When I was preparing my cars at home last week, I watched and analysed the race videos from last year`s race in Aigen. I noticed the time difference between the runs in the morning and the hotter conditions mid-day and we worked in this direction to have a good car when it is hot in qualifying. My run was good and I am happy with this result in Q1. Bruno is also very strong and I expect a close fight with him for the TQ!

Michal Orlowski (PL) Schumacher | Hobbywing

I had a few very small bobbles during the run and had to save my car which cost me a little bit of time. The balance was not perfect as I had understeering into the corner, and sometimes a bit of oversteering on throttle. That didn`t allow me to push like hell but P2 was still solid. For the next round we will check the car and go for it again!

Bruno Coelho (PT) Xray | Hobbywing

Awesomatix fights back as Bultynck takes Q1 from Xray duo Izsay and Benetin

After not being on top during practice, reigning ETS champion Olivier Bultynck has found his rhythm on track here in Aigen. Starting from P4, the Awesomatix factory from Belgium quickly moved to the top of the board ahead of Adam Izsay. After five minutes, Bultynck`s advantage over Izsay was 0.8 seconds. Xray`s Adam Izsay had a great run as well and finished second ahead of top seed Matus Benetin (Xray), Tobias Sutrich (Xray), and Lukas Ellerbrock (Awesomatix).

Reile wins opening FWD qualifier in Austria

The first round of Hobbywing Frontwheel qualifying was super clean – and super close. Dominik Reile was able to set the TQ when he won the heat by three tenths from Frederik Hovgaard and Jonas Völker. Top seed Daniel Pöhlmann was fourth, and Alexander Mayer posted the fifth fastest time out of the B-sort. It is game on in the FWD class and we are already looking forward to Q2.

Kölbel takes opening round of Masters qualifying in Austria

A great start into qualifying for Austrian racer René Kölbel. The Xray driver took Q1 with the small margin of 0.2 seconds from his teammate David Ehrbar. Eric Anderson, Werner Schmitzer, and Ronald Arts crossed the line another second behind the leaders. Kölbel had the fastest lap of the race to his favour as well and it looks like he is in the mix for the overall win this weekend. Top seed Elibert Sievers lost around 1.5 seconds in lap 4 and dropped back to ninth place for the round.Q2 is up next….

Kriz wins close Q1 in Aigen-Schlägl ahead of Siebert and Gehrig

The first round of 21.5 Stock qualifying went to Jaroslav jun. Kriz. The Xray driver from Slovakia was 9 tenths quicker as second placed Timo Siebert and scored his first TQ run of the weekend. Kriz and Siebert had been the only two drivers posting a 19 second lap time (hot lap 19.981 from Siebert). Behind The Xray of Kriz and the Mugen car of Siebert, Jan Gehrig, Nadine Zühlke, and Kristian Jensen were completing the top 5.

Back on pace – Stiebler wins first round of Formula qualifying

After being a bit on the backfoot yesterday, Schumacher driver Andreas Stiebler was able to win Q1 of the Matrix Formula class. Stiebler took the win by 1.2 seconds from the four Xray drivers Michal Wojcik, René Kölbel, top seed David Ehrbar, and Chris Grenz. Stieblers hot lap of the race (18.177)was almost three tenths faster than everybody alse – can somebody fight back in Q2?