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| Alexander Hagberg reports on ETS Round 3 |
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| The third round of the very popular ETS series was also the first one in this season to be held on asphalt. Just like last year, it was held on the Spanish island Gran Canaria. The track there is fairly big but technical, with many 180 degree corners. And just like last year, the grip was fairly low, even though the surface was sprayed with sugar water. |
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| Most teams arrived a few days prior to the race, and some of them almost directly from the TITC race which was held the week before in Bangkok, Thailand. XRAY had a small but strong team at this event, represented by myself, Marek Cerny, Adrian Berntsen, Marco Kaufmann, Fabian Bucher, and a few other drivers. |
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| Already in open practice, we felt that our cars were working really well. In direct contact with team manager Martin Hudy, we were able to fine tune our set-ups to go really fast in practice. Both myself, Marek and Adrian felt that we had cars good enough for top finishing positions. We were a little anxious however, what to make of the expected tire gambling strategies which would be used in qualifying. |
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| My qualifying started out well with a 2nd place, just 0.2 seconds shy of TQ. I would continue qualifying on old tires, and produce decent points in the next few rounds. In Q4 I opted for new tires, as my team mate Adrian had already used his set in the previous round, and I could tell that Viktor wasn't using his set in that round. I had built up a big lead, with an easy TQ pace, only to suffer from a strange speedo shutdown after 3.30 into the heat. I obviously lost important points in that round which only made it possible to qualify 4th overall, instead of 2nd as projected before. |
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| In the finals, I had both good and bad luck. In A1 I was able to finish 2nd, and closing on the leader in the final moments of the race. In A2 I was taken out by Marc Rheinard, which set me back to 5th overall. My car had become very difficult to drive in the windy conditions during A2 which had brought a lot of sand and dust to the track surface. I did my best to keep it on the track. The A3 final was going to decide the final podium positions. The competition drivers in front were clearly not going to give up their positions, in order to finish on the podium. As Marc once again spun my car around, I lost contact with the front runners, and was not really able to close the gap again. My car was working really well all week, so it was a shame that it would not reflect better through the results. I still set the quickest lap of the event, which must be seen as an indication of this. |
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| In the stock class, Marek Cerny won every run of qualifying that he finished, which was 5 out of 6 runs, even on a very old set of tires. This would obviously award him the TQ position. Bart Wubben from the Netherlands was also able to qualify in to the main final. Cerny had a really good car in all conditions and I could also tell from the confidence in his driving, that he would be hard to beat in the upcoming finals. |
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| Cerny would go on and win both A1 and A2 without any major threats from the competition. His car was looking really stable, especially in the difficult A2 final, which was struck by heavy winds. He has now proven the potential of the T4 both on carpet and asphalt. It is a package of car and driver which is hard to beat in the ETS Pro Stock class at the moment! |
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| We are very happy for Marek's strong result in the stock class, but both myself and Adrian feel that we could have done better in Modified. The most important aspect is that the team work was great, and our cars were great all week. We just have to hope for better luck in the upcoming ETS rounds. |
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| Ride Modified A-Main Overall Result |
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1. Viktor Wilck (SE)
2. Yannic Prumper (DE)
3. Ronald Volker (DE)
4. Alexander Hagberg (SE) â“ XRAY T4
5. Marc Rheinard (DE)
6. Andy Moore (GB)
7. Christopher Krapp (DE)
8. Adrian Berntsen (NO) â“ XRAY T4
9. Marc Fischer (DE)
10.Loic Jasmin (FR) |
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| XRAY Pro Stock A-Main Overall Result |
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1. Marek Cerny (CZ) â“ XRAY T4
2. Zdenko Kunak (SK)
3. Viljami Kutvonen (FI)
4. Olivier Bultynck (BE)
5. Martin Hofer (DE)
6. Bart Wubben (NL) â“ XRAY T4
7. René Klöckner (DE)
8. Trin Tanongsakchaikul (TH)
9. Toni Mateo (ES)
10.Alvaro Fernandez (ES) |
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