The first leg of finals is already in the books and we saw some great races throughout all classes. The highly anticipated A-Mains were also delivering what they had promised: High class racing, drama, celebrations, and disappointment….. Find out what happened on Saturday afternoon in Apeldoorn!
Orlowski wins dramatic first final ahead of Völker and Coelho
The A1 legend of Apeldoorn has struck again. In recent years, the first final on Saturday night has always been a spectacle—and 2026 was no exception. Top qualifier Bruno Coelho took over the lead on the sound of the tone and was followed by Michal Orlowski, and Simon Lauter. In the first lap of the race, fourth place starter Dominic Greiner spun around and Ronald Völker could move up to furth place.
The second lap of A1 had the first big surprise in it: Coelho lost the rear of his car when coming onto the main straight. He need to lift the throttle and counter-steered to prevent his car from ending in the grass. Michal Orlowski took the risk and accelerated his Schumacher Mi10 around Coelho into the lead. A risky, but very successful move from the Schumacher star driver.
In the following laps, the crowd could watch world class RC racing when Coelho was pushing Orlowski around the track – with the Awesomatix of Simon Lauter right in toe. Ronald Völker was running in fourth place, two corners behind the leading trio. Coelho had a lot of pace and was “all over” Orlowski many times. But both drivers kept it clean and it was a pure joy to watch them racing on the highest level.
When the drivers entered their last lap, DRAMA HAPPENED. Orlowski was overshooting the apex of the teardrop after the timing loop and went a bit wide. Coelho, by instinct, looked for an inside pass and once Orlowski`s car “gripped” again it turned to the inside and both cars touched – a racing incident which you don`want to have in the last lap but which always can happen at these crazy speeds. Everybody expected Simon Lauter to take the win now as he was right behind the leaders – but in this case, it was his END. Lauter could not avoid to crash into Brunos Infinity IF14 Speciale and after the contact, his front left was completeley destroyed. WHat a tough moment for SImon Lauter after a brilliant race.
When there are people suffering from bad luck in a race, others normally benefit. This time, Mugen Seiki lead driver Ronald Völker could take over second place after all the carnage in front of him happened. He crossed the line three tenths behind A1 winner Michal Orlowski who could luckily come out of the incident with Bruno as the race leader. Coelho finished third in A1 and was followed by Simon Lauter, Lucas Urbain, Dominic Greiner, Alexander Hagberg, Yannic Prümper (bumped up from the b-main), Eric Dankel, and the two DNF cars of Marc Rheinard and Tim Wahl!
MUST WATCH – CAYOTE MODIFIED A-MAIN 1
Ratheisky wins A1 after a Bultynck blackout in the first chicane
On the sound of the tone, all cars drove through the first chicane and leader Ollie Bultynck just missed the apex and tapped out a bit. Ratheisky and Coenen went by and Ratheisky was leading A1 out of nowhere. Coenen was able to follow him with a small gap and Bultynck could recover from his scary first chicane running in third place. Kretschmer, Jansen, and van den Akker followed them as they had started off the grid.
After two minutes, Bultynck was right behind Coenen and Ratheisy was able to bereathe a bit. Bultynck made a hard pass on Coenen and had to give his position back after a call of the referee. Louis Kretschmer took full advantage of that and jumped into second spot. Out front, Ratheisky used all his racecraft and experience to bring home A1 for Xray under the applause of his whole familly below the driver stand. Bultynck was still able to fight back to second place ahead of Kretschmer, Jansen, and Coenen.
Sievers takes A1 after Schulz and van Gog collided on the main-straight!
All cars had a good launch off the line on the sound of the tone and TQ Stefan Schulz brought the field around the first corner with his Xray X4F`26 FWD ride. Behind him, Elibert Sievers and Robin van Gog tryed to stay as close as possible to Schulz and van Gog quickly managed to find a way around Sievers.
When they were coming onto the straightway in lap 3 of the race, a contact between Schulz and van Gog led both cars into the grass handing the lead over to Sievers on a silver plate. van Gog had a great run down the straight and was on the inside of Schulz who seemed (when watching in slow motion) to pull a slightly littel bit to the left. A very unlucky racing incident which (for sure) could have been avoided by both drivers in such an early stage of the race!
The running order after 2 minutes was Sievers, Arts, Weffers, Reip and Libar in the top 5 and nothing changed anymore until they crossed the finish line. A perfect start into the finals for Sievers and a maximum disappointment for TQ Schulz and van Gog.
Ehrbar domination continues as he takes Saturday evening A1 in style
TQ David Ehrbar had a great start and saw only Michael van den Berg in his rear view mirror after the first lap. Anna Ehrbar (Davids wife) had a lot of work to do to defend her third place against Baggendorf, Stankowitz, and Hoggart.
After one minute, Ehrbar and van den Berg had been separated by .07 seconds and van den Berg was driving the hell out of his Awesomatix car trying to catch up to the Xray in front of him. But Ehrbar switched on his afterburners and opened a way bigger gap in the last two minutes of the race leaving no doubt that he is still the man to beat in the 1up Racing 40+ Masters class.
After a clean and fair race from everybody, the finishing order in the first A-Main was David Ehrbar ahead of Michael van den Berg, Mirco Thalheimer, Torsten Baggendorf, and Phil Hoggart. By the way: Congrats to Phil Hoggart and Ben Looijen for their first ever ETS A-Main appearance!
Berkenbosch converts pole position into A1 victory
Top qualifier Levi Berkenbosch started his white Mugen MTC-3 off the line and was running ahead of Richard Oversloot and Max Weffers. Weffers and Hiesch had a small contact in lap one and Weffers lost many positions. Out front, Levi Berkenbosch started to show nerves with the competition running close behind him in person of Daniel Hiesch and Richard Oversloot.
But after a little power slide, Berkenbosch was able to control his nerves again and stretched his legs to a lead of 0.7 seconds over Hiesch when the race reached the 2.30 minute mark. Berkenbosch found back into his rythm and posted the fastest lap of A1 (17.399). He did not make the smallest mistake anymore and took the win in A1 ahead of Daniel Hiesch, Christoph Kappes (from P9 on the grid), Thomas Stenger, and Daniel Anthes.
Stiebler defends P1 from Libar after Ehrbar spins out early in A1
After the first chicane, second placed starter David Ehrbar was “gone” and TQ Andreas Stiebler had a small gap with his Schumacher car, ahead of Jacques Libar (Xray). Ehrbar simply spun out in the first chicane and dropped all the way back to the end of the field. Martin Hudy made it the opposite way and moved up from seventh on the grid to third spot.
Out front, Libar was pushing hard to keep the pace with Stiebler, but the Schumacher driver was very precise and consistant. Libar could always see Stiebler on track and came a bit closer in the last minute. In the last lap he was almost there but Andreas Stiebler was able to hang on and took a well-deserved win in Formula A1 ahead of Libar, Hudy, Jovicic, and Ehrbar.
