ETS Preview Report – Part 1, RD4 Season #17 2024/25 Daun, GER
After a longer break since RD3 in Luxembourg, the ETS is back racing next week at the Sporthotel Grafenwald in Daun, GER. The location itself does not need an introduction anymore as it has become the home of a real ETS signature event. With 430+ entries (!!!), it will be once again the race with the highest attendance of the season!
The nice atmosphere and the bungalow hotel complex are always great, and the racers simply love it – even if the days at the track are very long and exhausting. But as racing comes closer, here is our little preview report for you which is a combination of silly season talks and the upcoming race in Daun this time!
Silly season – what happened until now…
As always, many drivers changed brands and sponsors between the years. For the professional racers in the world of RC this time of the year is always important as they need to make sure to get good contracts for their future. But also, the hobby drivers and semi-professional racers are switching brands very often and this all together creates something special to talk about as it keeps the scene interesting!
Chassis Manufacturers
Coelho takes a new path with Infinity
The biggest banger on the scene was Bruno Coelho leaving his long-term chassis sponsor Xray with a stellar move to Infinity – nobody had this on the radar to be honest. Bruno joins Infinity together with his mechanic and good friend Francesco Martini, and Italian racer Alessio Menicucci. Let`s see if Bruno and the Infinity team will come back to the ETS in the near future, it would be awesome for the sport and our series.
Bruno`s first major race with the new team will be the 2025 TITC in Bangkok in February. After winning his third WC title in Bakersfield (November 2024), he will bring a lot of positive swing to Infinity’s electric racing programme which has fallen asleep during the last 2-3 years.
Orlowski stays at Schumacher Racing and switches electronic sponsors
Schumacher can still trust in the skills of Michal Orlowski. The world championship runner-up and reigning ETS champion is one of the (if not the) most attractive racers now on the market for sponsors and brands and Schumacher can be happy to have him on board as their team leader and contender for race wins throughout all his classes.
Mattia Collina is still on a high after making the A-Main at the worlds in the USA and drivers like Pekko Iivonen, Andy Murray, and Daniel Kobbevik are the perfect matches in the team around Orlowski. It would be nothing than a big surprise if the win in Daun would not go over Orlowski`s table!
Mugen Seiki adds Gollner to their factory team
Multiple Austrian national champion Patrick Gollner strengthens the Mugen Seiki team from now on. He left Xray after many years and will work together closely with Robert Pietsch, Ronald Völker, and the rest of the Mugen Seiki team. Gollner will be a great asset to the team which only had Ronald Völker and Remi Callens in the top 10 of the Modified class during 2024 after Eric Dankel left the team and Robert Pietsch was not racing that often due to his development work for the new car.
Sören Sparbier is still the team’s top driver for the Pro-Stock class. The Mugen team will have some prototype cars of the upcoming MTC-3 on track in Daun and Ronald Völker will try to score a top result as Daun is one of his favourite races of the year.
Awesomatix continues with all their top drivers for maximum success
No news is good news – that is what we can say about the Awesomatix team. With all their top drivers staying on board for 2025 and no spectacular new signings, everybody knows what to expect from the strongest team of the last years. Marc Rheinard had a very good world championship in Bakersfield (3rd overall) with smelling on the overall victory after A1.
The team will hit Daun with all their stars like Rheinard, Urbain, Lauter, Manzo, Ellerbrock, Bultynck, Kretschmer, and others and we can be sure that we will see many Awesomatix cars in the A-Main finals once again. It looks like a year of smooth sailing for team manager and driver Max Mächler!
Yokomo loses top drivers – Krapp still on board
Christopher Krapp will continue to be the number one Yokomo driver and onroad teammanager for Europe, but a big part of his team is gone. With Yannic Prümper, Antoine Brunet, and Enrico Jung leaving, he will fight (almost) alone for a good result in the touring car classes. Reigning FWD European champion Frederik Hovgaard will stay on the team together with Krapp.
2025 will be a difficult one for Yokomo but Krapp said they have already plans in their bag to create a good future. Let`s see if they can get add some top drivers to their famous factory team again!
RC MAKER – big names putting the pressure on
RC Maker signed some big names for their brand new touring and FWD cars. The race in Daun will be the ETS debut for the brand (car wise) and Ryan Maker was clever enough to sign Antoine Brunet and Yannic Prümper for Modified, one of the best Pro Stock drivers with Tim Benson, and FWD specialist and ETS podium finisher Jonas Völker.
Not a bad lineup for a first season at the ETS with a new and promising platform. That clearly shows that RC Maker is taking the project 100% serious.
Where does Xray stand after the departure of Coelho – all eyes on Hagberg and Ronnefalk
Following the departure of Coelho, the Xray team is now focussing on working with its top two Swedish drivers Alexander Hagberg and David Ronnefalk. Harley Eldridge from the UK and new Xray driver Alex Kunkler will also be competing in Daun. Adam Izsay is one of their top Pro Stock drivers (and very fast in Modified), along with Jan Ratheisky, Stefan Schulz and many others.
Let’s see if they can get some good results in the 2025 ETS season now that superstar Coelho is no longer on the Xray team. Sometimes it brings a breath of fresh air to a team when the biggest star leaves. We should never underestimate Xray and Martin Hudy will put in a lot of work to keep his team staying on top of the competition!
New driver for ARC: Jung returns home
Another team trying to step up their game is ARC. With the arrival of Enrico Jung, they have added a very fast pro stock driver to their team. Jung was a part of ARC before he once moved on to Yokomo and now, he is back “home” with his teammates Henrik Heitsch, Torsten Baggendorf, Helge Johannessen, and all the others.
Can Jung bring the ARC cars back into the Pro Stock A-Main? Jung has the speed and showed it multiple times during the last years with Yokomo – ARC can be happy to have him on board again!
IRIS team counts on its proven drivers
The IRIS team around Andreas Myrberg has only lost Alex Kunkler to Xray at the end of 2024. Drivers like Dominik Schmid, Dominik Reile, Adam Southgate (to only name a few) will charge hard to push the team forward during 2025. The touring car received a promising update and all IRIS racers can be excited for what the future holds for them!
Electronic sponsor changes
The electronic manufacturers had some great news to announce as well. ESC manufacturer Elceram signed heavy weight Michal Orlowski and his Schumacher teammate Mattia Collina to put their very innovative Nitride speed controller into the spotlight.
Team Cayote was very active and added Christopher Krapp and Patrick Gollner to their factory team, while Michal Orlowski will use Cayote batteries as well to power his Schumacher cars in 2025.
Most of the other brands had been able to keep their lead drivers as Ronald Völker will continue with LRP, and Bruno Coelho with Hobbywing. However, the electronic market is a hard-fought place with so many companies providing great products for high class RC racing nowadays!
We saw a bunch of contract extensions as well with Marc Rheinard and FlySky, Orlowski and Power HD, Coelho and Hobbywing, and many more!
NOW, SILLY SEASON IS OVER ANE WE GO BACK RACING
NOTE: In case we have missed some big names changing brands we like to appologize. By the way: This article is only a summary of what we have seen and does not judge anything in any way!
Pictures: Credits to Drivers and Brands
