| Report by Alexander Hagberg |
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| The final race of the hugely popular Euro Touring Series was held at the amazing HUDY Racing Arena in Trencin, Slovakia. The race was going to be special for many reasons. First of all for us in the XRAY team since it was going to be held at our home facility - the XRAY factory and its HUDY arena. It was a special race as well since it would decide the overall winners of the ETS races in both Modified and Pro Stock categories - and thus all was set for a great showdown in Trencin. |
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| 250+ racers gathered at the arena for open practice on Wednesday and Thursday prior to the race. Traction levels increased quickly thanks to sugar water being used as track preparation. The usual suspects were fast in practice - but we still had a useful hometrack advantage thanks to prior testing sessions earlier in the year. Everyone who arrived at the arena were stunned by the level of quality of the venue and its organization. All details were taken care of with perfection to make the experience memorable for all competitors. The restaurant upstairs definitely held a quality above what has been seen previously at rc tracks. |
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| As practice continued, I was doing fairly well. It turned out, that the set-up from the last ETS in Traiskirchen, Austria, also worked well at this track, whereas my older set-up specifically for the Trencin track, proved more stable but a bit understeering. I only had to do a few smaller changes - to get the car to handle how I wanted it to. One of the main changes was that I did go from a split lower front suspension block to the standard 1-piece solution - it just gave the car a lot better cornerspeed. I also tried to adjust the upper front camber link length, where the short front link would suit my driving style the best. I was ready for qualifying and on the pace. Other drivers on the team were looking good in practice too, mainly Magnus Vässmar, Martin Hudy, Alessio Menicucci, Paul Lemieux and Andrew Hardman. In the stock class, it was the ETS series leader Marek Cerny who was the early pacesetter, but the young and talented XRAY driver, Tobias Hepp from Germany, also showed a great pace. |
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As qualifying started, I knew that the tires were going to be the deciding factor once again. As I scored some good results on old tires in Q2-Q4 (even with a broken rear tire in Q2) I decided to save my second set of tires for the very last qualifier - to maximize the possibility to take the TQ position in that round. In the end, I finished 1 second short of Marc Rheinard in Q5 who was also on a new set of tires. My car was good at the end of the run but a bit slidy at the start - that's where I lost my time - as I was catching him in the end. It seems that this problem must be related to tire preparation, and once again other teams seems to have the edge in this department.
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| I was going to start the finals from 5th position on the grid. I knew that it was going to be hard to fight for the win - but at least I had a good chance for the podium. Magnus Vässmar and Adrian Berntsen qualified 9th and 10th respectively - making it three XRAY T4 cars the main final! Congratulations to both of you for a strong result. |
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My A1 race came to an end as one of my rear tires blew up on the straight. I was running 2nd for a while - and it was a shame to end the final like that. A2 started off better as I moved up to 4th - a position which I would hold until the end of that final. In A3 I was taken out immediately at the start by Marc Fischer. It was a disappointing end to the ETS final for me - but that's racing.
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Marek Cerny was on the hunt for the overall ETS title in the Pro Stock class. Marek was looking really strong in practice, clocking lap times a few tenths faster than anyone else, and also showed outstanding consistency. Unfortunately for Marek, the controlled race motor which he had to use for the race, was very slow, and he lost 4-5 km/h of top speed compared to the other drivers. It was almost impossible for him to compete for the TQ position. At the end of qualifying, the issues were resolved, and Marek was leading most of Q5 until he was taken out by a backmarker. Marek was going to start the finals from 4th on the grid. He needed to finish at least 7th overall, to be able to secure the overall series title. It was going to be a tough task.
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As his power was once again good enough to challenge the leaders, he could hold a strong 4th position until the end of A1. It was hard to make a pass, as the leaders did not make any mistakes. A2 was going to be more eventful as Marek was crashed from behind by an other driver, which caused his body to tuck. Following that, saw him perform an extraordinary drive to climb back up to 3rd position, where he would finish in that final. In A3 we saw him once again with a good pace, challenging the leading cars of Viljami and Zdenko. In the end, he had a racing incident with Zdenko as he tried to pass him coming onto the straight. Unfortunately, he was awarded a stop and go penalty. Marek would finish 4th overall at the race - and he had secured the overall ETS Pro Stock championship of 2012/2013! The whole team are very proud and happy for his strong result. This win is a result of our close team work and strong team spirit! We have a great car in the T4 which has been shown in both categories and most notably in the Pro Stock class where we are the champions! We are already looking forward to the Euro Touring Series of next year.
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I would finish 5th overall in the overall ETS series. Magnus Vässmar finished 10th overall.
As for the overall feeling about the event - it was probably the most perfectly organized event I have ever attended. Most competitors felt the same way - it was extraordinary experience to race at the HUDY arena last weekend. We hope to see the ETS final come back to this venue also for the following years! Thank you to XRAY and HUDY, and everyone else who helped out to make this event a memorable one! Until next time.
Modified top 10:
1. Ronald Völker
2. Marc Rheinard
3. Yannic PrĂĽmper
4. Viktor Wilck
5. Andy Moore
6. Alexander Hagberg â“ XRAY T4
7. Marc Fischer
8. Frederik SĂĽdhoff
9. Adrian Berntsen â“ XRAY T4
10.Magnus Vässmar ⓠXRAY T4
Pro Stock top 10:
1. Viljami Kutvonen
2. Zdenko Kunak
3. Martin Hofer
4. Marek Cerny â“ XRAY T4
5. Jan Asmer
6. Dominic Vogl
7. Mike Gosvig
8. David Nemcek â“ XRAY T4
9. Henrik Heitsch
10.Olivier Bultynck
ETS 2012/2013 overall results:
Modified:
1. Ronald Völker
2. Marc Rheinard
3. Viktor Wilck
4. Yannic PrĂĽmper
5. Alexander Hagberg - XRAY T4
6. Marc Fischer
7. Andy Moore
8. Freddy SĂĽdhoff
9. Christopher Krapp
10. Magnus Vässmar - XRAY T4
Pro Stock
1. Marek Cerny - XRAY T4
2. Zdenko Kunak
3. Viljami Kutvonen
4. Martin Hofer
5. Dominic Vogl
6. Jan Asmer
7. Tobias Vogl - XRAY T4
8. Valentin Hettrich - XRAY T4
9.Olivier Bultynck
10. Henrik Heitsch
Set-up sheet:
http://forum.teamxray.com/xform/index.php?act=view&ID=468&setup=t4
Gallery:
Photos from Hudy Racing Arena |
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