Can Völker convert hard-fought pole into victory against Rheinard and Orlowski?

The last round of Cayote Modified qualifying saw Mugen Seiki`s Ronald Völker securing pole position for the triple finals. Völker`s LRP powered MTC-3 started out of the gate on a fresh set of tires and allowed him to open a gap of 1.7 over the Mi9 of Schumacher`s Orlowski during the five-minute run.

Marc Rheinard took third place from Q4 while Dominic Greiner and Alexander Hagberg were completing the topfive. Völker’s strategy originally was to save one of the two tire sets for the finals, but he needed them to seal the TQ in Q4 which means that the top 3 will start on equal used tires into the mains.

Rheinard (2) and Orlowski (3) will for sure try to set Völker under some serious pressure to lead him into a mistake. Serpent ace Greiner still has a set of new tires left for the triple finals which could help him as well to stay close to the frontrunners.

A-MAIN GRID

TQ Ronald Völker (DE) Mugen Seiki|LRP
2. Marc Rheinard (DE) Awesomatix|Cayote
3. Michal Orlowski (PL) Schumacher|Elceram|Cayote
4. Dominic Greiner (DE) Serpent|Hobbywing|Nosram
5. Sören Sparbier (DE) Mugen Seiki|LRP
6. Alexander Hagberg (SE) Xray|Hobbywing|Team EAM
7. Simon Lauter (DE) Awesomatix|Hobbywing|Nosram
8. Lucas Urbain (FR) Awesomatix|ORCA
9. Patrick Gollner (AT) Mugen Seiki|Cayote
10. Pekko Iivonen (FI) Schumacher|Cayote
11. Bump-up driver from first B-Main

Bultynck moves to P3 on the grid thanks to Q4 victory – Kretschmer claims pole position

After not having the strongest pace on Friday, championship leader Olivier Bultynck was finally able to win round four of qualifying with his Awesomatix A800RR. He took the last heat of the weekend with seven tenths of a second from Jesper Rasmussen (Schumacher), and Mugen Seiki`s Sören Sparbier. The overall qualifying results are showing Louis Kretschmer claiming his first ever TQ at the ETS.

Adam Izsay will start second and Ollie Bultynck third. Jesper Rasmussen posted three very strong second places during qualifying but will “only” line-up in P4 of the grid – tied on points with Bultynck!

A-MAIN GRID

TQ Louis Kretschmer (DE) Awesomatix|ORCA
2. Adam Izsay (HU) Xray|Cayote
3. Olivier Bultynck (BE) Awesomatix|Team EAM
4. Jesper Rasmussen (DK) Schumacher
5. Sören Sparbier (DE) Mugen Seiki|LRP
6. Jan Ratheisky (DE) Xray|Nosram
7. Jaroslav Jun. Kriz (SK) Xray|Team EAM
8. Enrico Jung (DE) ARC|Gens Ace
9. Lukas Ellerbrock (DE) Awesomatix|Team EAM
10. Billy Fletcher (GB) FMS|Ruddog
11. Bump-up driver from first B-Main

Valent secures P2 on the grid behind pole sitter Langner

Phil Langner made qualifying a “clean sweep” when he took another win in the last round of FWD qualifying. Gergö Valent will start in second place with his Xray car and Kevin Schmid in third with his Awesomatix car. The finals will be a thriller for sure and Phil Langner will have a lot of work to do if he wants to keep the field behind him.

A-MAIN GRID

• TQ Phil Langner (DE) Awesomatix
• 2. Gergö Valent (HU) Xray
• 3. Kevin Schmid (DE) Awesomatix
• 4. Henrik Heitsch (DE) ARC
• 5. Luca Romondia (DE) ARC
• 6. Frank Kirchhefer (DE) Awesomatix
• 7. Frederik Hovgaard (DK) Yokomo
• 8. Loris Buchhalt (AT) Iris
• 9. Dominik Reile (DE) Iris
• 10. Jill Bartsch (DE) Awesomatix
• 11. Bump-up driver from first B-Main

Business as usual: Ehrbar takes pole ahead of strong competition!

He seems to almost have a contract with the 40+ Masters pole position – Xray driver David Ehrbar grabbed another important TQ at the Euro Touring Series. He won Q4 and will start ahead of Mugen Seiki driver Philipp Stadler from Austria, and his Xray teammate Caspar Morgen from Denmark. Toni Mateo from Gran Canaria and Michel Zierold will line-up fourth and fifth on a stacked 40+ grid for the finals. Let`s see if Ehrbar can (once again) withstand all the pressure from the guys behind him!

A-MAIN GRID

• TQ David Ehrbar (DE) Xray
• 2. Philipp Stadler (AT) Mugen Seiki
• 3. Caspar Morgen (DK) Xray
• 4. Toni Mateo (ES) Awesomatix
• 5. Michel Zierold (DE) Awesomatix
• 6. Mirco Thalheimer (DE) Xray
• 7. Manuel Stankowitz (DE) Iris
• 8. Torsten Baggendorf (DE) ARC
• 9. Patrick Sommer (DE) ARC
• 10. Philipp Hagnauer (DE) Awesomatix
• 11. Bump-up driver from first B-Main

Romondia takes maiden pole position at ETS Daun

What a great ETS comeback for Luca Romondia and what a great debut for the new ARC11! Romondia will start on pole position for the triple finals after a fantastic set of qualifiers. Daniel Anthes secured second on the grid with his RC Maker car and will try his best to create pressure on Romondia together with his teammate David Reip who will line-up third on the grid!

A-MAIN GRID

• TQ Luca Romondia (DE) ARC
• 2. Daniel Anthes (DE) RC Maker
• 3. David Reip (DE) RC Maker
• 4. Pawel Trella (PL) Xray
• 5. Matheo Buchhalt (AT) Iris
• 6. Christian Lütjen (DE)
• 7. Wolfgang Swoboda (DE) Awesomatix
• 8. Radek Ruszkowski (DE) Mugen Seiki
• 9. Aurelian Threhout (FR)
• 10. Andrè Pribbenow (DE) Xray
• 11. Bump-up driver from first B-Main

Hudy wins Q4, Ehrbar claims pole position

Martin Hudy took the win in the last round of Formula qualifying and moced up to second overall on the grid for the finals. Schumacher driver Andreas Stiebler needs to beat two Xray cars now it he would like to win the race here in Daun.

Ehrbar`s strong results from Q2 and Q3 earned him the overall TQ in the Matrix Formula class. Interesting fact: The 10 car grid will see one Schumacher car and NINE Xray cars lining up!

A-MAIN GRID

• TQ David Ehrbar (DE) Xray
• 2. Martin Hudy (SK) Xray
• 3. Andreas Stiebler (AT) Schumacher
• 4. Balint Rajki (HU) Xray
• 5. Michal Wojcik (PL) Xray
• 6. Michael Lipperheide (DE) Xray
• 7. Jacques Libar (LU) Xray
• 8. Robert Kampehl (DE) Xray
• 9. Marc Rahn (DE) XRay
• 10. Luka Jovicic (LU) Xray
• 11. Bump-up driver from first B-Main

Orlowski fights back, Rheinard spins out early, Völker second!

We have three different drivers with a TQ run now after Cayote Modified Q3. Ronald Völker was leading the field out of the gate ahead of Rheinard who immediately spun out while entering the first hairpin after the long sweeper. Rheinard dropped back in the running order and was only able to recover to third place until the end of the run.

Out front, Michal Orlowski was getting up to grips when he took over the lead from Völker. Orlowski`s car looked way better than yesterday – he invested many hours into a complete setup change which seems to work good for him now.

Orlowski took the win in Q3 ahead of Völker with the two being separated by half a second in the end. Völker was not unhappy with his run but once again said that it was “tricky out there as the track felt a bit more slimy”.

Behind Orlowski, Völker, and Rheinard, we saw Dominic Greiner (4), Lucas Urbain (5), and Alexander Hagberg rounding out the top six.

With one round still to go, we have three drivers battling it out for the overall TQ here in Daun. Mugen Seiki`s Völker has the fastest runtime to his favor now and he needs to defend his spot against Orlowski and Rheinard.

Saturday morning, 8am: Kretschmer wins Pro Stock Q3

The third round of Pro Stock qualifying happened on a very early Saturday morning when all drivers had to show up from 7am. Once the top heat was hitting the track at 8, Awesomatix driver and Q2 winner Louis Kretschmer took another win ahead of Schumacher`s Jesper Rasmussen. The Danish ace was bringing on the heat and the lead changed many times between himself and Kretschmer. In the end, Kretschmer had an advantage of 0.096 seconds to snatch Q3 away from Rasmussen.

Adam Izsay took third for the round and 2025 Daun winner Sören Sparbier (4) finally posted a top 5 result with his Mugen car. Jan Ratheisky had a solid run to P5 in the b-sort and championship leader Bultynck came out of Q3 as the sixth fastest driver.

Langner claims hard-fought FWD pole position in Daun

The first driver who was able to seal the TQ for the weekend was Phil Langner in the FlySky Frontwheel class. After winning the first two rounds early today, he could also take Q3 with an advantage of 0.6 seconds ahead of Gergö Valent (Xray), the Awesomatix of Kevin Schmid, Frederik Hovgaard`s Yokomo, and the ARC of Luca Romondia. It is so cool to see many different cars battling for the top spots in the FWD class which is the biggest this weekend with 140 entries.

Mugen driver Stadler wins Q3

The very last heat on Friday evening saw the top dogs of the 40+ Masters class hitting the track. Toni Mateo had a good run in the second fastest group again, but his result was only good enough for a P7. When the top group got underway, an intense battle between David Ehrbar, Michel Zierold, and Philipp Stadler was going on. The lead between the top three changed multiple times throughout the run and it was sooo close.

After five minutes, Austrian Mugen Seiki driver Philipp Stadler was able to post his first TQ run after a brilliant drive. Stadler won the race by a gap of 0.4 seconds over round two TQ David Ehrbar, and winner Michel Zierold. The overnight ranking list showed Ehrbar ahead of Stadler, Mateo, Zierold, Morgen, Thalheimer, Baggendorf, Sommer, Hagnauer, and Boje.

RC Maker strikes back when Antes wins Q3 on a late Friday evening

After we had seen ARC driver Luca Romondia dominating the event until now, Q3 mixed things up a bit. Romondia was not able to finish the run (after he got unlucky tapped by a competitor) and the RC Maker duo of Daniel Anthes and David Reip was able to secure a first and third place for the round.

Daniel Anthes, a former winner of the stock class at the LRP touring car masters (back in the day) won Q3 with an advantage of 1 second over Xray racer Pawel Trella (runs in the b-group), and RC Maker teammate Reip. Christian Lütjen finished in fourth place and Matheo Buchhalt completed the top five. What will happen on Saturday? Who will TQ the event? Will it be Anthes, or Romondia?

Ehrbar again in Q3 – decision for pole shifted to Saturday

After his win in Q2, David Ehrbar had another run full of confidence and scored his second consecutive TQ run of the event. Andreas Stiebler was second again with his Schumacher car and was kind of Xray sandwiched with Martin Hudy right behind him (gap 0.546). Balint Rajki was fourth fastest and Samir Nukicic drove to fifth place for the round with his runtime coming from the second fastest group.

David Ehrbar is our “overnight TQ” here in Daun but the decision for the overall pole position in the Formula class will be on the line during Q4 on Saturday as Stiebler is still in the fight for it!

The “old boys” are putting on a show at the Sporthotel Grafenwald in Daun

The second round of Matrix Modified qualifying saw Marc Rheinard and Ronald Völker having a dogfight for the win. The lead was changing multiple times during the run when both drivers pushed their cars to the absolute limit. Awesomatix driver Rheinard posted the fastest lap with a 13.579, and Völker was laying down a 13.592 with his Mugen car.

The battle came down to the line in the last lap and it was Rheinard who had the better ending when he took the win by the invisible gap of 0.014 seconds over Völker. What a super-close finish it was. The crowd`s reaction was insane and everybody enjoyed to watch this masterclass of modified carpet racing!

Serpent`s Dominic Greiner had another stellar drive to third for the round and was able to hole off champion Michal Orlowski who is still struggling a bit with the pace of his Schumacher car this weekend. Simon Lauter completed the top 5 in Q2 with his Awesomatix A800RR.

In the post-race interviews on RC Racing TV, Völker and Rheinard both said that it was “difficult to drive on track” and that “they had been surprised to still have a decent gap over the rest of the field”. They also mentioned that they are 80 years old when adding their ages and that they still enjoy these close battles so much after all these years of professional racing 🙂

The last two rounds of qualifying will take place on Saturday and the battle for the TQ will reach it`s climax then. Ronald Völker is overnight TQ, followed by Rheinard, Orlowski, Greiner, Sparbier, Lauter, Gollner, Hagberg, Urbain, and Izsay. Who will seal the deal here at ETS RD4 in Daun?

Kretschmer wins Q2 ahead of new Schumacher signing Rasmussen

Awesomatix driver Louis Kretschmer won the second round of Awesomatix ProStock qualifying in Daun. After retiring his car in Q1, Kretschmer (hot lap 14.676) had a clean run in Q2 which he won by a gap of 0.8 seconds ahead of Jesper Rasmussen who is looking sharp on track with his new Schumacher Mi9.

The winner of Q1, Adam Izsay, had to settle for a third place in this round of qualifying and saw Olivier Bultynck (Awesomatix) and Jan Ratheisky (Xray) rounding out the top five.

With the faster runtime coming from Louis Kretschmer, he is our overnight TQ here in Daun. Kretschmer is still chasing a maiden ETS race win in his career – can he do it this weekend? The top 10 overnight: Kretschmer, Izsay, Rasmussen, Kriz, Ratheisky, Bultynck, Borschel, Jung, Whitelock, Murray.

Two from two for Langner as qualifying reaches half-time!

Phil Langner was (again) on pace in the second FWD qualifier. The German teenager secured another TQ and was two seconds faster than Kevin Schmid (Awesomatix) who took second place for the round by 0.055 seconds over the Xray of Gergö Valent.

Henrik Heitsch posted the fourth quickest time running in the b-sort and Yokomo`s Frederik Hovgaard finished fifth in Q2. With two TQ runs in the bag, Phil Langner is only a little step away from the very important pole position here in Daun – can he get the job done?

Back in the game – champion Ehrbar wins Q2 in Daun

In the second round of qualifying, reigning 40+ champion David Ehrbar showed that he is in the mix for the win this weekend. Ehrbar drove to the win in Q2 ahead of his Xray teammate Caspar Morgen, and Q1 winner Michel Zierold (Awesomatix). Mugen Seiki driver Philipp Stadler from Austria posted the fourth fastest time and Toni Mateo, the winner of Q1, was able to complete the top five for the round!

ARC and Romondia stamping authority on 21.5 stock class….

Luca Romondia continued where he stopped in Q1. He dominated Q2 with his new ARC A11 and left the rest of the field behind with big question marks. Pawel Trella was posting the second fastest time and was a massive 5 (!) seconds slower compared to TQ Romondia.

Radek Ruszkowski, Wolfgang Swoboda, and Jan Vogler made it into the top 5 of Q2 as well. The class is the Luca Romondia show until now and we are looking forward to the next round when the top groups will hit the track at around 20:40  again!

Ehrbar fights back and wins Q2 ahead of Stiebler and Rajki

After his P3 finish in Q1, David Ehrbar was the fastest driver in the second round of Matrix Formula qualifying. Ehrbar was leading the race and Q1 winner Stiebler was running in second place – separated between 0.5 and 1.5 seconds for the entire run. David Ehrbar also posted the hot lap of the heat, hammering down a 14.283 which left no doubt that the reigning champion found some pace in his package.

Behind Ehrbar and Stiebler we saw a close fight for the positions, and it was Balint Rajki who took third place in front of Martin Hudy and Michael Lipperheide.

Tire gamble pays off for Völker as he wins Q1 from Rheinard and Orlowski

In the first Cayote Modified qualifier, the spectators around the track saw top seed Ronald Völker swinging out of the gate laying down some hot laps allowing him to open a gap of almost one second in the first minute of the race. Compared to Orlowski and Rheinard, Völker was on new tires which he had not broken in during one of the practice sessions on Thursday.

The gamble fully paid off for Völker as he was clearly the fastest in the first two minutes of the heat before the lap times were equaling with Rheinard at the end of the run. Ronald Völker took the win in Q1 by 0.9 seconds over Awesomatix driver Marc Rheinard, followed by reigning ETS champion Michal Orlowski (Schumacher) who was some 1.5 seconds behind Rheinard.

Serpent factory driver Dominic Greiner had a great run to P4 for the round and was followed by Sören Sparbier (5), Simon Lauter (6), Alexander Hagberg (7), Lucas Urbain (8), Adam Izsay (9), and Pekko Iivonen (10).

Izsay leads Xray 1-2-3 in opening round of quylifiyng

We saw a lot of surprises in the first round of Awesomatix Pro Stock qualifying. The top drivers had been on a very similar pace but we saw many of them crashing which is not happening a lot on this sharp end of the competition.

The first surprise: No Awesomatix car in the top 3. Top seed Olivier Bultynck crashed in lap three, Louis Kretschmer had to retire his car in lap 6, and Lukas Ellerbrock lost a massive amount of time in lap 7 of the run. That was a “slow” start into qualifying for the current Pro Stock empire around Max Mächler!

The second surprise: Jaroslav Jun. Kriz was crazy fast and posted the second fastest overall run coming out of the b-heat, followed by his Xray teammate Jan Ratheisky who was running in the same heat. A great start for these two drivers after not making into the top heat in seeding practice!

Another surprise: Sören Sparbier was sending his MTC-3 into the fence in lap 13 of Q1 while running in second place. A rarely seen mistake by the Mugen Seiki factory driver.

No surprise: Adam Izsay was very fast and took over the lead in lap two of the run. He did not slow down until the end and took the win of the top heat ahead of Roman Borschel and Enrico Jung. The overall top five after chaotic Q1 had been Adam Izsay (1 – Xray), Jaroslav Jun. Kriz (2-Xray), Jan Ratheisky (3-Xray), Roman Borschel (4-Aweosmatix), and Enrico Jung (5-ARC).

Langner takes early morning Q1 from Borschel and Schmid

Phil Langer had a perfect start into qualifying at ETS RD4 in Daun. The championship leader, who is still chasing his first FWD win, was able to win the opening round of qualifying with his privateer Awesomatix car. Langner had an advantage of 0.8 seconds over Roman Borschel. Langner and Borschel clearly had the best pace in Q1 as third placed driver Kevin Schmid was already 2 seconds behind them after the five-minute run. However, it was also a good Q1 for Schmid who is running FWD at the ETS for the first time this weekend.

Henrik Heitsch (ARC) posted the fourth quickest overall runtime coming out of the b-sort and was followed by the Xray of Gergö Valent, and the ARC of Luca Romondia who is looking fast on 21.5 Stock as well this weekend.

Jill Bartsch (Awesomatix) took P7 for the round with his time coming out of the third fastest group – not bad at all! Loris Buchhalt (Iris), Adam Southgate (Iris), and Jacques Libar (Xray) rounded out the top 10 in Q1 of the FlySky FWD class here in Daun.

Mateo takes Q1 out of the second fastest group!

After being top seed on Thursday, Michel Zierold was starting into Q1 with a clean track in front of him. Xray`s David Ehrbar was his strongest contender and both drivers posted 15.8 lap times on top of the board. Ehrbar tried all he could but came short to Zierold by just 0.111 of a second.

However, the overall time from Zierold was not enough to TQ the complete round because former 40+ Masters champion Toni Mateo was laying down a ballistic run in the b-heat to outpace Zierold by 0.023 of a second.

Mateo took full points from Q1 and is now in contention for the pole position here in Daun after not being fully on pace in seeding practice.

Casper Morgen was “best of the rest” and took P3 away from Q1 when he crossed the line half a second behind Ehrbar. Mirco Thalheimer and Philipp Hagnauer completed the top 5 for the round which was

ARC driver Romondia takes Q1 from RC Maker`s Reip

After being top seed on Thursday, Luca Romondia left no doubt that he will be the man to beat in the Hobbywing 21.5 Stock class this weekend. Romondia had a very clean run with the all-new ARC A11 on track and was super consistent throughout the whole race. RC Maker driver David Reip was pushing hard and could stay within one second until he lost 2 seconds of time in lap 16 of the race.

Romondia took Q1 by 4.1 seconds ahead of Reip and it was Matheo Buchhalt (Iris) who took third place from Q3 after “only” being 10^th quickest after seeding. Wolfgang Swoboda and Radek Ruszkowski completed the top 5 for the round!

Stiebler wins Q1 after dominant on-track performance!

Top seed Andreas Stiebler was in control of the first Formula qualifier which he won ahead of Xray`s very own Martin Hudy. Stiebler posted the fastest lap of the heat (14.474) and had a gap of 2.1 seconds over Hudy as they crossed the finish line.

David Ehrbar had a good first qualifier as well and finished on P3 ahead of Balint Rajki, Michael Lipperheide, and Robert Kampehl. Can Schumacher driver Andreas Stiebler continue to hold off the many Xray cars behind him in Q2?