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| The first ETS race of the 2011/2012 series was held in Koblenz, Germany on October 28-30. The race was attended by 300 drivers who made this race the biggest-ever carpet race in Europe. It is great to see such a huge interest in 1/10 electric class, mainly when this category had decreasing interest for a couple of years. Plus, what makes me even happier, XRAY was the most used car of the event, mainly in the Pro Stock class where most of the drivers are non-sponsored racers. XRAY is one of the main sponsors of the entire series and all XRAY drivers got a package as a small âśthank you" for their support. The package included a T-shirt, pit towel, and stickers. This package will be given to all XRAY drivers at each ETS race this year. Plus, all XRAY drivers have the advantage that they do not have to take many spare parts with them, as at the XRAY Service Team is at race, managed by distributors of the country in which the race is organized. So, XRAY drivers get the best possible support at each race of this series. |
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| This race is special not only because it is the first big carpet race of the new season, but it is also the first race where we race and promote our new car. We spent many hours testing on carpet to be as prepared as possible for this race. Before we left for the race, we were very satisfied with the car performance and we hoped that we were well prepared. |
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| The race started on Friday with four rounds of free practice. The track was quite technical with many corners where a lot of in-corner steering was needed. Due to the high number of drivers, track conditions changed very quickly and traction increased amazingly fast. Already in practice some drivers started to traction roll. We knew that this would be main issue when we were making our set-up adjustments: to get a set-up that would prevent the car from traction rolling, while at the same time being fast enough to get fast lap times. Alex was very fast right from the beginning, along with me and Zdenko Kunak. Zdenko was driving both Modified and Stock classes. |
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| In the Stock class, he getting the fastest laptimes right from the beginning and everyone knew that he would be the man to beat. Team XRAY is very strong in the Stock class in Germany, so therefore there were many other super-fast guys who had a good chance to battle for the podium finish. Tony Streit, Steffen Leinburger, Jan Gehrig, and many others were super fast and what made me even happier was that they were very happy with the carâ™s performance. Everyone whom I talked to told me that the car is much easier to drive while being faster than the T3`2011. |
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| The qualifiers went really well for us in Stock class when Zdenko Kunak won two rounds of qualifiers and made the fastest time in 5 minutes. It was his first every TQ in the ETS series, which is great that it came in the biggest and most prestigious round. Zdenko was really happy with the car, and he said that he never ever in his life drove such a good car. We had two other cars in the A main: Tony Streit (qualified 6th) and Steffen Leinburger (qualified 7th). Jan Gehrig had a good chance to make the A-final as well, however in the last and deciding qualifier he made few small mistakes and finished 12th overall. I was really happy with the results because we had TQ and also had three cars in the final which meant that XRAY was the most used car in Pro Stock A-final. |
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| The fastest XRAY in Modified class belonged to Alex Hagberg who qualified 5th. He had a chance to finish higher, however he made a few mistakes in first and last qualifiers. The most costly mistake was in the first qualifier when he was driving in 2nd place overall. The youngster from Slovakia, Zdenko Kunak, had a great weekend when he was able to make the A-final in the extremely-competitive Modified class. I would say that almost 40 drivers were skilled and good enough to make the A-final, so I was really proud of Zdenko when he was able to beat many top drivers. He was on fire the whole weekend and it was great to hear that in the last qualifier he was leading for the first few laps ahead of Ronald Volker and Marc Rheinhard. |
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| So, I was sure that if he was able to be as fast as these drivers, his car must be very good. Even though my car was working very good as well, I was quite unlucky at this event. In the first qualifier when I was driving within the Top 10, a driver crashed into the rear of my car and kicked me off the track. In the third qualifier when I got into the lead, I wanted to push little harder as I felt my car would allow it, but I traction rolled. The car flew to the fence where I lost over 6 seconds but still finished 9th overall. I still had a chance to make the A-final if I got a good result in the last round, so therefore I decided to push as much as possible right from the beginning; this turned out to be not the best choice as I crashed in the first lap and lost my chance to make the A-final. Even though it was a personally disappointing race for me, I was very happy for Alex and Zdenko for making the A-final. |
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| There were also some other drivers who really pleasantly surprised me: primarily Marco Kaufmann (who drive his first Modified race at ETS and in such high competition was able to make the B-final) and Kevin Buchheim (who was also very fast this event). I have known this driver for a long time, and he was always fast for a couple of laps but never had good results at the big event because he always made some mistakes. This time with his T3â™2012 he was driving extremely fast and making no mistakes at all. I was so happy when I was watching him, mostly in the finals when he was pulling away from drivers like Elliot Harper or Thomas Pumpler. Blazej Orlowski, who recently joined our team, was more than happy with the carâ™s performance and he placing in the C-final amongst such high competition was his best international result so far. |
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| The finals went pretty well for us, with Zdenko able to keep his TQ position and winning the first and last finals from start-to-finish. In the second final he had some problems with his speedo and could not secure an overall win early on, so we had to wait for the last final. Tony Streit was very fast in the final as well and he actually could have finished on the podium but during the last final when he was in 3rd position he made a mistake in the last lap and dropped to the back of the pack. In the Modified class, Alex was really fast but had some bad luck. In the first final he made a mistake and drivers from behind him started to push very hard on him. In the last final, he tried to get pass Andy but after a small touch, Alex had to wait to allow Andy to pass him. Even though he finished 3rd in the last final, Alex was fast enough and I would say that if he did not get a stop-n-go, he had a good chance to win the final (mainly when Marc traction rolled in the last minute and the gap between Marc and Alex was very small). |
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| So after three long days of racing, we were more than happy with the results from the first ETS race of this season when we TQ`d and won the most-attended Pro Stock class, had the most cars in the final. and XRAY was by far the most used car in this class. I was also happy with the results in Modified class as Alex was very close to a podium finish and we had also Zdenko Kunak who made the A-final amongst such a high competition. Our German distributor along with the local hobby shop provided great support and all XRYA drivers got all the parts they needed. Plus, when I was going around the pits and tried to speak with and help all XRAY drivers with their cars, I got very positive feedback about the new car which motivates me even more. I am definitely looking forward to upcoming races! |
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Ride Modified Overall Result
1. Ronald Völker (DE)
2. Marc Rheinard (DE)
3. Christopher Krapp (DE)
4. Alexander Hagberg â“ Xray T3 2012
5. Viktor Wilck (SE)
6. Yannic PrĂĽmper (DE)
7. Dominik Fleischmann (DE)
8. Andy Moore (GB)
9. Zdenko Kunák (SK) ⓠXray T3 2012
10.Freddy SĂĽdhoff (DE)
Xray Pro Stock Overall Result:
1. Zdenko Kunák (SK) ⓠXray T3 2012
2. Oliver Franke (DE)
3. Martin Hofer (DE)
4. Tony Streit (DE) â“ Xray T3 2012
5. Daniel Wohlgemuth (DE)
6. Ivan Laptev (RU)
7. Steffen Leinburger (DE) â“ Xray T3 2012
8. Philipp Hagnauer (CH)
9. Carsten Madsen (DK)
10.Michael Spiering (DE) |
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