An unexpected change has taken place in the 1:10 touring car modified class. Eric Dankel has announced his departure from his long-term chassis sponsor Mugen Seiki, and is joining the Awesomatix factory team for 2024 and beyond. Eric was a major part in Mugen Seiki`s electric touring car programme, and helped to develop the MTC-1, MTC-2, and MTC-2R in the last 7 years. His best season with Mugen Seiki (2023) saw him two times on the ETS podium (Apeldoorn and Aigen) and finishing fifth at the EFRA euros in Türkheim. Now, Eric will rock the Awesomatix A800R at many major events.
Official Awesomatix announcement (Facebook):
We are pleased to announce the addition of the German racer Eric Dankel to the Factory Team. Eric is a known racer with a lot of experience from the past years racing all around the World. Vice European Champion, Multiple German Champion, Multiple EC A-Main finalist and ETS modified podium finisher are just a few of his best achievements in the past years! We are looking forward to see Eric at the Euro Touring Series events as well as other well known regional and European events.
“First of all I want to thank everybody at Mugen Seiki for their support in the past years. I decided to start a new challenge, and I am more than happy to join the Awesomatix Team for the upcoming season. Thanks everyone for your support”
Yokomo has released two now products for their current BD12 touring car platform which will be available in europe very soon. Find out about the new stuff in Yokomo`s official product description:
Chassis
As we are about to head to a brand new 2024, we would like to introduce a new aluminium chassis for the BD12!!The center of gravity is lowered by using an aluminium, which is also effective as a high-side countermeasure. A must-use chassis on carpet surface, medium-high grip asphalt, or sugared outdoor tracks.
Body Mounts
Compatible with rear body posts that protrude rearward, such as BD12, these mounting parts reliably receive downforce and increase rear traction. Compatible with Twister/Twister Special bodies, the mounting parts are secured to the body using the wing fixing screws. Offset can be adjusted by using the fixing direction of the parts and the included spacers. The height of the body can also be fine-tuned by adjusting spacers on the body post side, such as BD12. This optional part is highly beneficial for race users as it can minimize problems caused by body damage due to crashes, etc.
FlySky is happy to announce that French top 1:10 electric onroad driver Antoine Brunet has signed with FlySky team! Brunet is a 2 time RC bike world champion, XRS grand final winner, European bike champion and multiple ETS A-Main finalist. Antoine will be using the FlySky Noble Pro transmitter in all his 1:10 scale racing cars.
“I’m really happy and grateful to join FlySky team. The team is super motived to go forward. I use the radio since few month and I’m impressed by the quality. The handling of the radio as well as the touchpad are simply amazing. The menu is very intuitive and easy to use.”
ETS record champion Ronald Völker (Mugen Seiki) has officially teamed up with FlySky now after using their Noble Pro radio since a couple of months. During his last China trip, Ronald also had the chance to visit the FlySky headquater and a part of the factory. FlySky announced the signing of Ronald Völker on the first christmas day with the following statement:
FlySky is excited to announce that former IFMAR World Champion, multiple European, National and ETS champion, legendary German top 1:10 electric on-road driver Ronald Völker RC has signed with FlySky team! Ronald is an excellent driver who wants to improve himself everyday. We’ll be working closely with him to refine our current products and to develop new transmitters and receivers for our valued customers to enjoy. Ronald will be using FlySky Noble Pro transmitter in his forthcoming 1:10 scale onroad racing programme.
“I am excited to join the FlySky team from now on. I was able to see myself how dedicated they are working to keep constantly improving on a platform which is already great. The communication is excellent and the products speak by themselves!”
Right before christmas, Awesomatix released some new parts for the A800R touring car.
C204-S-1 Suspension Arm set x 4 Awesomatix C204-S-1 Suspension Arm set x 4 It narrows the track width of the car and is especially recommended for lower grip levels. The arms have a “-1” engraved on the lower side for easy identification. contains: 2x C204L-1 2x C204R-1
ST123 – M2.5X7 Arm Screw x 8 Awesomatix ST123 – M2.5X7 Arm Screw x 8 CNC Machined Steel Screws. Perfect length for a clean look when screwing together C04/C204 and P04. contains: 8x ST123
C204L-1 Suspension Arm Awesomatix C204L-1 Suspension Arm. This version is 1mm shorter compared to the C204L Suspension Arm. It narrows the track width of the car and is especially recommended for lower grip levels. The arms have a “-1” engraved on the lower side for easy identification. contains: 1x C204L-1
C204R-1 Suspension Arm Awesomatix C204R-1 Suspension Arm. This version is 1mm shorter compared to the C204R Suspension Arm. It narrows the track width of the car and is especially recommended for lower grip levels. The arms have a “-1” engraved on the lower side for easy identification. contains: 1x C204R-1
French touring car frontrunner Antoine Brunet has announced his departure from his chassis sponsor Xray on his social media today:
From 1st January 2024 , I will not be a Xray driver anymore . I would like to thanks Martin and all Xray team for the support since end of 2020 . Working from the beginning on the X4 plateform was a such an enriching and learning experience as well a real pleasure . It was a great experience with some good results together and great memories on the pits and track . I wish all the best to Martin and all the Xray team for the future . Stay tuned for some more infos soon
The second round of the EWS took place this weekend and attracted 114 drivers to place their entry for the most famous winter racing series in the UK.
LRP Modified Touring
Elliott TQ’d all four rounds, behind was a nice fight through the qualifiers between Kyle and Alex for 2nd, with Kyle getting the nod. In the final, Kyle stayed in touch with Elliott, but had to worry more about defending from Alex behind. Elliott opened up a small gap as they worked through lapped traffic, and Alex couldn’t get close enough to seriously challenge Kyle. Chris Grainger had a lonely race after qualifying fourth and finishing fourth.
Zak TQ’d ahead of Tony and Andy Murray. Andy dropped back in the opening laps, and there was a great battle for 2nd between Tony and Billy. Zak checked out. Billy lined up a great pass on the final lap to take 2nd place, leaving a Tony to settle for 3rd
1st Zak Finlay (Xray/Zombie/Zombie) 2nd Billy Fletcher (Schumacher/Team Powers/Optipower) 3rd Tony Broad (Xray/Zombie/Zombie)
Ride / MB Front Wheel
Ben TQ’d from Nathan, and had a clean drive through the final, so the top three finished in grid order.
1st Ben Moorey (Schumacher) 2nd Nathan Parker (missing from photo) (Awesomatix) 3rd Andy Faulkes (Destiny)
In the third episode of our ETS Beginners Guide we will inform you about the racing tires of the Euro Touring Series, and what to do (and not to do) with them during the event!
First, you should make yourself one thing clear again: The tires are the only part of you race car which is in contact with the surface of the racetrack. Tires are probably the most important thing in racing – but their importance gets shifted aside very often. Drivers are caring a lot about many other things when working on their car setups, but the tires are having one of the biggest impact most of the time!
People are investing a lot of time (and money) in buying option parts, titanium screws, tungsten weights, flex bumpers…. But they are practicing with old tires all the time! If you really want to make a step forward with your racing, you should care more about practicing with better (and new) tires from time to time. The car reacts completely different compared to old tires and you need to practice that “feeling for new tires”!
Patrick Beck (DE) ToniSport
Handout tires for everybody
But let`s go some steps backwards. At the Euro Touring Series, every racer gets one set of race tires which is included in the entry fee. Depending on the racing class, drivers can buy an additional second or third set of tires as well. All sets of tires are marked with a number, which is clearly assigned to a driver. Racers are only allowed to use the sets of tires which they picked up for themselves – sharing tires with others is not allowed to keep the chances equal for everybody. All race tires can get used with the start of the timed (seeding) practice. Before seeding practice, every participant can use as many (or fewer) own tires for all rounds of free practice as he wants.
Pro Tipp: You can practice with the tires you have in your box. There is no need to use a new set in every round of free practice. For sure, you will see the top drivers doing this when they are fighting for the win at an ETS weekend. But when you are doing your first or second ETS race and you just want to have a good time with your friends, there is no need to use a crazy amount of tires in practice!
The handout tire system is working great at almost every big electric 1:10 scale onroad race and is a major puzzle piece behind the success of the Euro Touring Series since it`s early days. For sure, it is a lot of work for Jutta Treder and Marlo Prümper (who are always at the ETS, caring about tires and motors) to mark and control all these tires, but the limited amount of allowed tire sets is very important to keep the costs for the racers somehow under control. Another positive aspect of the handout tires is the possibility to give tires from the same batch of production to all racers!
The fact that tire additive increases the tires (and cars) performance on track is nothing new. Tire additive is a chemical substance, which gets applied to the tire surface before each run. The additive makes the tire more sticky which results in more overall grip on track, especially in the first laps of the race. So if you have ever asked yourself “Do I really need additive? Does it makes sense?”, there is only ons simple answer: YES!
During free practice, you can use your own additive and also your own break cleaner to clean the tires between the runs. When the official race starts on Friday, the Euro Touring Series provides special additive tables where everybody needy to go to “sauce” the tires. You will only find the ETS additive (MR33 V3 or MR33 V4) there, and you must use it. The same is for the break cleaner. The ETS crew is putting Würth brake cleaner on all pit tables and nothing else is allowed to use. Easy and transparent rules for eerybody!
Pro Tipp: Practice at your home track and use the ETS tire additive when preparing for it. There are so many additives out there and as they are really different, it makes no sense to practice like hell for an TS race with a different tire sauce!
Do tire warmers make sense?
Next clear answer: YES 🙂 Tire warmers are very important when it comes to outdoor racing in the touring car and FWD class. Drivers are saucing their tires, and put their tire warmers on with a tissue between tire and warming cap. The tire warmers are staying on the tire for 10-20 minutes at 60-75° degrees, and it is not just about to “warm up the tire”. It is more about creating the best temperature in the tire while the additive is on. This generates an even more grippy tire surface befire the run and everybody is using these warmers during the outdoor season. At indoor races, they are not neccesary and we do not see them at any time on pit tables!
How to prepare a set of rubber tires for the race?
When it comes to tire preperation, every driver has kind of his own way to do it. When running in a touring car, or in the FWD class, it is allowed to remove the center line of the tire with a cutter (not with sanding it down on a tire sander as seen on the picture below). Removing the center line is the only modification of the rubber which is allowed to do.
But there is way more you can do with your rubber tires. Here we have listed some tipps for you:
Check that every tire is perfectly glued onto the rim.
Check that no glue is on the contact surface of the tire.
Put every tire on a fine digital scale and write down the weight (into the wheel).
Use the heavier tires in front, the lighter ones in the rear.
Mark every tire with the position you like to mount them onto the car. FR = Front Right, RL = Rear Left, and so on…
Use a tire roller (available from MR33 and Boom RC) or a different tool, and roll your tires forwards and backwards on your setup board .(with pressure from above) to let hard glueing spots “crack” ad to increase the air gap between tire and foam insert.
Clean your tire properly with brake cleaner and put them back into the a plastic bag until you need them.
Make sure that you mount them properly on our car.
Keep in mind to go to the additive table on time to use the additive for the right amount of time (mostly between 10 and 15 minutes).
Another fact to keep in mind is the time you want to use the tire warmers (outdoor racing) after you have applied the additive.
We recommend to set the temperature of your tire warmers to a value between 60 and 75 degrees.
Clean and check your tires after every run.
On some tracks (especially outdoors) it makes sense to change the tires from left to right and backwards after every run.
As we already said: This is just a basic guideline of things you can do. Find a way that works fine for you and which feels good, and stick with it. You can ask all the others around you and you will learn a lot of great and also silly things for sure 🙂
The Formula tires at the ETS are different from all the others as we are using foam tires. They are ready to use out of the package and there is no need to put them on a tire truer to sand them down (like in 1:12 scale pan car racing). Basically, you just need to mount them onto your car, applying tire additive, and you are ready to go.
But as there are also some secrets about foam tires (which our ETS reporter does not know) we have some tipps from IFMAR World Cup winner and reigning ETS champion Andreas Stiebler (Austria) for you:
So outdoors I change the tyres from left to right after every battery. Also on the front axle, so that the camber is constantly on the tyres and the handling in left and right-hand bends remains the same. This is not absolutely necessary indoors, as tyre wear is virtually non-existent. What you should not forget with the foam tyres is that the rollout changes with heavy tyre wear on the rear axle and with the diameter of the contact tyres it can be said that for every 1mm smaller diameter you have to translate one tooth longer in gearing at 64dp. For example, if you are training with used tyres that have a diameter of 59mm and you change to racing tyres with a diameter of 61mm, you have to reduce the gear ratio by two teeth to keep the same rollout. Indoors, a glued sidewall is almost always necessary with the grip that the ETS has and this should also be cleaned with brake cleaner after every run, otherwise the edge becomes sticky and builds up grip again. Driving with solid axle has also proven to be the best choice since the indoor foam rubber tyres and outdoor I use a gear diff all the time. As far as additives are concerned, it is important that the tyres are dry when you go out on the track. I usually sauce the rear tyres longer than the front, e.g. 20 minutes at the rear to 10 minutes at the front. Especially indoors, I always sauce the full tread at the front and not, for example, the inner half, as I have the feeling that the unlubricated part of the tyre becomes more clogged than the lubricated part. I prefer to only sauce the front of the tyre very briefly but over the entire surface. I use masking tape to clean the tyres. I bought one of the cheapest ones on Amazon in a pack of 5, but the reviews said that the adhesive strength could be better. 😅 You shouldn’t use armoured tape like this as it sticks far too well, I speak from experience.
The 1:12 scale IFMAR World Championships took place last weekend for 21st time in it`s history. Beachline RC in Florida was the host and the whole event produced high quality pan car racing!
Orlowski wins first ever IFMAR title
In the prestigeous Modified class, Michal Orlowski was able to follow all the big names from the past like Neisinger, Hirosaka, Spashett, Matsukura, and Rheinard (to only name a few) and won his first world championship title from second on the grid. After qualifying, USA driver Kemp Anderson was TQ with Orlowski and Rheinard starting second and third. While A1 went to Anderson, the US boy was not able to get it done in A2 where Orlowski won ahead of Rheinard and Hagberg. The title was on the line in A3 and the start was one to forget. Anderson`s car did not get off the line and Rheinard crashed right into the back – the race was done for both, same as their hopes for the world championship title. Meanwhile, Michal Orlowski took the win in A3 and crowned himself with one of the most prestigeous and historic titles of the sport. It was the first ever world title for a polish RC racer and Orlowski celebrated it together with his Schumacher team in Florida. Marc Rheinard and Alexander Hagberg jouined the new world champ on the podium at Beachline RC.
Mächler becomes second world champion in the Spec class
The spec class (13.5 Motors) saw a big fight between many drivers in the A-Main. Top qualifier Max Mächler and his teammate Mark Stiles (both Awesomatix) were batteling it out for the world championship title. Stiles won A2, and Mächler took A1 and A3 to wrap up a very first world championship title for himself and the Awesomatix brand. A well-deserved win for Max and the team and a moment which “Mad Max” will never forget!
Congratulations to Michal Orlowski (PL) and Max Mächler (GER) for your achievements!
Power HD has announced the signing of Sven Rodewald from Germany, who are among the top drivers in the large scale racing.
Being the 1:6 Large Scale 4WD Off-Road European Champion, 6 – Times National Champion, Multi-times Euro’s Finalist, Multiply 1:5 Large-Scale Touringcar GP Race’s finalist, Sven Rodewald will be using Power HD high end servos GTS-6 & GTS-7 in his 1/6 Off-road and 1:5 On-road Car!
Sven has the following to say: During the last year I tried the Power HD GTS-6 and GTS-7 servos, and its was a pleasure to use them! The whold time the servos performed just Great! Im Happy to join the Power HD factory team for the upcoming season!
