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| Race report by Alexander Hagberg |
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| The 2nd round of the very popular Euro Touring Series was held in the village of Mühlheim-Kärlich, outside Koblenz, in Germany. The event saw a record entry count with 360 entries split on 3 different classes, with the Pro Stock class being the most popular, with 220 single entries only in that class. The whole European XRAY team was in attendance at this competitive event. |
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| In the Modified class, I had a really convincing start of the event, by setting the fastest lap times in practice, awarding me the #1 seeded spot for qualifying. I was using one of my cars from testing at the Hudy arena earlier in the week, and it worked very well right away with zero set-up changes. The car rotated really well in the slow corners and had good forward bite. I was able to TQ every round of qualiying, and most of them with a comfortable margin. After consulting with Martin and Francesco, we decided to decrease the bumpsteer shimming for Q4 which further improved the handling, allowing me to use even more throttle through turns! I was confident going into the finals. Tim Wahl did a great job, qualifying for the 10th position on the A-final grid, also running a T4'14. Marco Kaufmann made the B-final which is also a respectable result in this competitive field. |
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In the Pro Stock class, our Czech driver Marek Cerny was definitely one of the favourites for the win which he underlined by setting the early practice pace. Marekâ s car looked really stable and he seemed comfortable driving it as well. Many XRAY drivers would fight for the top positions in the stock class, Valentin Hettrich, Tobias Vogel, Andreas Myrberg as well as new signing Jan Ratheisky all were capable of top 3 finishing positions throughout qualifying. In the end, Marek would TQ in front of Valentin. We put 5 cars on the Pro Stock A-final grid.
The finals worked out perfectly for me as I could cruise to victory in both A1 & A2. The car felt good from the very first corner in both finals and I could control the pace until the finish line. I was delighted to take my 2nd ever ETS win in such a convincing way. Winning may look effortless when you got the "package" working, but nothing is ever easy. The main conclusion is that hard work pays off, and it was especially great to see the team doing well in every class this weekend.
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The Pro Stock finals proved to be quite eventful. Marek and Valentin were fighting for the win in A1. After passing each other a couple of times it was Marek who snatched the win with the smallest of margins. A2 proved easier for Marek as he could cruise to victory after the others got tangled up. It was great to see Marek back in his winning form. Furthermore, it was great to see Valentin with such a quick pace, as well as our new signing Jan Ratheisky also joining the podium. Andreas Myrberg definitely had the speed to fight for a podium as well but none of the luck, same goes for ETS R1 podium finisher Tobias Vogel. One may question a few moves which should have been given a stop & go penalty in A3....
In the Formula class, Jan Ratheisky took a dominant TQ & win with an XRAY prototype chassis, in front of Francesco Martini, running the same type of car, to finish in a strong runner up position!
It was a historic day for XRAY as we became the first team ever to win all three classes at an ETS event. We are very happy and proud and we are looking forward to upcoming rounds!
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| Modified top 10: |
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1. Alexander Hagberg - XRAY T4
2. Yannic PrĂĽmper
3. Ronald Völker
4. Marc Rheinard
5. Viktor Wilck
6. Freddy SĂĽdhoff
7. Eric Dankel
8. Tim Wahl - XRAY T4
9. Dionys Stadler
10. Patrick Gollner |
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| Pro Stock top 10: |
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1. Marek Cerny - XRAY T4
2. Valentin Hettrich - XRAY T4
3. Jan Ratheisky - XRAY T4
4. Martin Hofer
5. Tobias Vogel - XRAY T4
6. Steffen Leinburger
7. Markus Kreder
8. Tobias Seidl
9. Andreas Myrberg - XRAY T4
10. Oliver Franke |
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| Formula top 10: |
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1. Jan Ratheisky - XRAY Prototype
2. Francesco Martini - XRAY Prototype
3. Oliver Bultynck
4. Dai Sakaguchi
5. Gabor Forrai
6. Roman Pichler
7. Matteo Berlincioni
8. Philipp Hagnauer
9. Maxime Favrelle
10. Herbert Weber |
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