July 23, 2023

Rheinard wins ETS Austria

Marc Rheinard has the latest ETS round in Austria, the Awesomatix driver taking the win from 3rd on the grid ahead of Xray’s Jan Ratheisky and Mugen’s Erik Dankel.  In qualifying at Aigen it was a Mugen lockout at the front of the grid with reigning Champion Ronald Volker securing the TQ from Dankel but in A1 Dankel made a brilliant start to get ahead of his team-mate to lead.  With just under a minute to go and with Rheinard in pursuit, Dankel rolled out of the lead handing Rheinard the win from Ratheisky and a recovering Volker.  In A2, with Volker flying off the track on Lap 2, Dankel was able to claim his first ever A-Main leg victory with Rheinard second and Xray’s Oliver Havranek third with Volker a DNF.  It was all to play for in A3 and with Volker crashing out early, the stakes were even higher between Dankel and Rheinard in a winner takes all battle.  Dankel again lead albeit under increasing pressure from the multiple World Champion and as the race approached the final minute Dankel would run wide in the sweeper at the end of the straight.  Rheinard seized the opportunity getting up his inside but the two cars touched with Dankel suffering a body tuck that dropped him to fourth.  Overall Rheinard secured his second ETS win as an Awesomatix driver, the first have come 11-months ago at his home track Arena33.  For Volker it was another disappointing weekend as he left Austria with points for P8.  Having missed the podium at the season opener in the Netherlands, where newly crowned 4WD Buggy European Champion Michal Orlowski took the win, the German is going to need a strong result at Round 3 to get his title defence back on track.  In Pro Stock, Adam Iszay enjoyed the perfect result securing the TQ and win for Xray, a result he also achieved in the FWD class.

Image: Marc Rheinard [Facebook]


July 22, 2023

Orlowski regains European Champion title in 4WD Buggy

Eight years after winning his first European Championship title in the UK, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski has regained the title with victory at the 4WD Buggy Euros in the Netherlands today.  Having just missed out on his first 2WD title earlier in the week to the reigning 4WD Champion Marcus Kaerup,  Orlowski would be the Top Qualifier for 4WD.  Topping 2 of the five rounds at the challenge RACO200o astro track, he would start ahead of Team Associated’s Kaerup, fastest in Q1, Sworkz pairing Jöern Neumann, fastest in Q4, & Micha Widmaier with team-mate Daniel Kobbevik fifth ahead of Xray’s Bruno Coelho.  In the opening final Orlowski produced a dominant performance to win ahead of the Yokomo of Burak Kilic who had a strong run to come through from P7.  In A2, Orlowski came under a bit more pressure for the opening 2-minutes from 2WD Top Qualifier Neumann but a few moments from the German allowed the Polish driver to cruise to the win and the title.  Winning A3 from Kilic, Nuemann would secure the runner-up spot with Kilic completing the podium.

Image: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]


July 22, 2023

Volker heads Mugen 1-2 in ETS Austria qualifying

Mugen Seiki enjoyed a one-two in qualifying for ETS Austria with Ronald Volker the Top Qualifier in Aigen ahead of team-mate Eric Dankel.  Volker would secure the TQ after topping the opening two of the four rounds of qualifying.  Round 1 podium finisher Dankel would also top the times, doing so in Q4 to make it a Mugen lock out at the front of the grid at the second round of the championship.  The only other driver to post a TQ run, Marc Rheinard took his Awesomatix to the fastest time in Q3 ahead of Dankel as Volker had a bad run.  Overall Jan Ratheisky’s Xray will start fourth ahead of the Yokomo of Christopher Krapp with Oliver Havranek completing the Top 6 on the grid.  In Pro Stock, Adam Izay is the Top Qualifier from Louis Kretschmer having posted 3 TQ runs with his Xray.

Image: Mugen Seiki Europe [Facebook]


July 22, 2023

Veseli is new European LS Touring Car Champion

MCD Racing’s Dario Veseli is the new European Large Scale Touring Car Champion, the multiple Large Scale Offroad Champion claiming his first onroad title at the Real80 track in the Netherlands after a late error from Genius Racing’s Bernard-Alain Arnaldi.  Having set the second fastest time qualifying, the Croatian driver secured a direct place into the final alongside defending champion Edoardo Repetti who was Top Qualifier.  An earlier mistake from the pole sitter would see the Italian Mecatech driver drop down the order and Arnaldi take the lead with the French driver looking set to add a fourth European title ahead of Veseli.  With less than a minute to run in the 30-minute final, Arnaldi went off at the end of the straight allowing Veseli through to take the win by 1-seconds.  Arnali’s car would later be found to have an incorrect flywheel diameter leading to him being excluded from the results.  Sindre Undheim would be promoted to second with Repetti completing the podium.  In the Formula 1 Final, Sébastien Marinot successfully defending his 2022 from pole position with his Genius Racing ahead of Nathan Brenot and Corentin Laville.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]


July 21, 2023

Orlowski holds provisional TQ at 4WD European C/Ship

Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski holds a very provisional overnight TQ at the EFRA 1:10 4WD Offroad European Championship after a challenging day for race organisers in the Netherlands.  Fresh from his 2WD title win on Wednesday at the RACO2000 track, it was Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup who opened 4WD qualifying with a TQ run over 2WD Vice-Champion Orlowski.  With rain arriving for the top heats of Round 2,  Orlwoski was fastest of the top heat from 2WD Top Qualifier Jöern Neumann, but it would be Sylvain Gallo Selva from heat 4 of 11 that got the fastest time.  With the rain delaying Q3, when action resumed it was Orlowski with the TQ run, this time from Micha Widmaier.  With four of the five rounds of qualifying originally on today’s schedule, Q4 would be hit by a timing software issue.  With a team-managers meeting called, after heated discussions, it was decided that attempts to re-run the penultimate round would take place tomorrow.   With three rounds complete, meaning two would count, it puts Orlowski holding the overnight TQ.

Image: Michal Orlowski [Facebook]


July 21, 2023

Repetti to defend LS Touring Car Euros title from pole

European Large Scale Touring Car Champion Edoardo Repetti is to defend his title from pole position after the Mecatech driver secured the overall TQ in the Netherlands today.  Having held the overnight TQ after three rounds of qualifying as the fastest driver around the Real80 track, the final round of qualifying saw a further improvement from the Italian, who topped 4 of the 5 rounds.  Behind, MCD driver Dario Veseli would save the best for last to jump up to P2 in the final qualification ranking and book a direct spot into his first European Championship final.  Having struggled to find a set-up he was comfortable with, it came together for the Croatian driver in Q5 with him getting to within 2.1 seconds of Repetti’s time over the 10-minute heats.  Finishing up third fastest would be the Genius Racing of Rick Van der Bol with his time from Q4 with Hessel Roskam, the only driver to TQ a round when he was fastest in Q2, locking in P4 with his Q5 run. Both drivers will start on pole for their respective Semi-Finals which will determine the other 8-starters for the 30-min title decider.

Source: Mecatech [Facebook]


July 20, 2023

Repetti holds overnight TQ at Large Scale Euros

Aiming to defend the title he won in Fiorano, ltaly, last year, Mecatech’s Edoardo Repetti holds the overnight TQ at the EFRA Large Scale Touring Car European Championships in the Netherlands.  Racing at the Real80 track in Groningen, the Italian topped 2 of the three rounds of qualifying with his time from Q3 giving him the provisional TQ with two rounds of qualifying remaining tomorrow.  The only other driver to top the times sheets was Hessel Roskam, the Dutch driver taking his Genius Racing chassis to the fastest time for Q2 which leaves him second at the end of Day 1.  Completing the provisional Top 3 is multiple Champion Bernard-Alain Arnaldi, the Genius Racing driver coming to the event off the back of successfully defending his European 1:8 GT Championship title at the start of the month in Croatia.  Danish Mecatach driver Patrick Folman currently sits fourth while current World Champion Markus Feldmann finds himself P8 of the 66 entries, the German’s pace over the 10 minute qualifiers some 6-seconds off Repetti.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]


July 19, 2023

Kaerup adds 2WD Buggy European title to tally

Team Associated’s Marcus Kaerup is the new EFRA 2WD Buggy European Champion.  The reigning 4WD Champion secured the title after an action packed triple finals in the Netherlands today that saw a different winner each leg.  Starting as the Top Qualifier having topped all five rounds of qualifying Joern Neumann looked on target to reclaim the title he first won a decade ago.  In A1, the Sworkz driver continued his form winning from Schamcher’s Michal Orlowski and 1:8 World Champion Davide Ongaro who got passed third place qualifier Kaerup. Looking like he was going to get the job done early in A2, Neumann was pulling away but at the 1-minute mark he hit the corner pipping with Orlowski collecting his car before taking up the lead as the German dropped to fourth.  Orlowski took the lead but with 1-minute to go a mistake allowed Marcus Kaerup through for the win with Neumann just coming through for 3rd ahead of the Schumacher of Wesley Van Helmond.  It was all to play for in A3 but again a mistake from Neumann ended his chances allowing Orlowski to go to the front for the win ahead Kaerup but a mistake on the penultimate lap, while not costing him the A3 win, would cost him the title.  Equal on points with Kaerup, the young Dane had the faster race winning time giving him the title.  Neumann would complete the overall podium ahead of Ongaro.  Racers will now turn their attention to 4WD for the next three days with Kaerup aiming to be come the first double champion since David Ronnefalk in 2018.

Image: EFRA [Facebook]