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Christopher Krapp has secured his first podium of the current ETS season after taking the win in the concluding final of a hot weekend of racing at the beautiful Apeldoorn track in the Netherlands.  Having challenged Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho for a time in A2 but unable to find a way by the reigning Champion, allowing him to celebrate his third win of the season early, Krapp came good in A3.  Getting by second place starter Freddy Sudhoff early on as the Awesomatix driver struggled with a lack of traction, Krapp would pulled clear before coming under the attention of a very racy looking Alexander Hagberg in the closing stages.  Setting down almost identical lap times, 1/1000th separating them, Krapp kept control of the race crossing the line 3/10th in front of Hagberg with Ronald Volker only 2/10 off him.  The win with the P2 from the previous final would see the German equal his best ETS result with Yokomo with Sudhoff completing the podium.  Having come into the weekend as the Championship leader, unfortunately 5th overall behind Hagberg means Volker relinquishes that lead to Coelho with one round to go.

‘I’m really happy now finally’, was Krapp’s reaction after A3.  A former ETS race winner with Kyosho, he continued, ‘I had huge pressure from Hagberg.  I don’t know what he did but he was quick that one.  Anyway, 2nd is good and good for the team also.  I have to thank the whole team for trying to get the car better.  2nd was the best I could do today and I hope we can keep the performance now’.

With his car visibly struggling in A3, Sudhoff said, ‘It was like ice-skating.  I could already feel on the warm-up lap that I had no rear traction.  I have no idea why’.  Having started out the weekend as the benchmark, the German added, ‘On the first lap the rear end was loose in the sweeper and it got worse every lap.  Then I had a 360 and my race was done’.  With 3rd place overall not enough to keep him in the title chase he said, ‘I hope now I can fight with Ronald for second (in the Championship).  We found a few set-up things here that will work at the Hudy Arena too.  I hope I can be as quick there as I was in quali here.  I really like the track layout there’.

With only Formula and 40+ Masters going to A3 to decide the winner, it was former Champion David Ehrbar ended up on the top step of the Formula podium.  An exciting race would see Infinity’s Jitse Miedema take a popular A3 win after he forced an early pass on Top Qualifier Simon Lauter.  In the hunt for the overall win having taken A1, Lauter would drop down the field while A2 winner Ehrbar, after challenging for the lead, held off Jan Ratheisky for third to give him the overall win by a point.  With the same results Lauter would get the second on tie break from Miedema.  In 40+ Masters a repeat win in A3 secured A2 winner Andreas Weyhoven the overall.  Finishing third behind reigning champion Thomas Oehler, Toni Mateo claimed second wit the podium completed by Beni Stutz.  With Olivier Bultynck wrapping up an early overall win in A2, Frederik Mikkelsen took A3 ahead of Dominic Vogl and this is the order they would complete the podium.  Daniel Pöhlmann won A3 of 17.5 Stock to join overall winner Marwin Riedelbauch on the podium with the Top 3 line-up completed by Tobias Baumbach.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Chassis – Infinity IF11
Motor – Scorpion Power System (handout)
ESC – Scorpion Power System (handout)
Batteries – Gens Ace 5500mAh
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/SRT
Bodyshell – Protoform F26

Remarks – Finishing on the podium here in Apeldoorn, Jitse was using the event to test a new rear wing mount for the IF11 which has been designed to achieve more rear traction, and the Dutchman was happy with results.  Putting the car on the podium finish at his home race with a win in A3, the ETS Spain winner described the set-up he was running as ‘super weird’ with it more like what he runs indoors.  The reason for the ‘super aggressive’ set-up was the hot temperatures which make it difficult to get the front tyres to work.

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Chassis – Xray T4 2019
Motor – Muchmore (Handout)
ESC –Muchmore (Handout)
Batteries – GensAce 8500mAh
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Power HD
Bodyshell – Zooracing Hellcat

Remarks – Not only securing his second consecutive ETS A-Main appearance, Florian has achieved a qualifying best with P5 on the grid, the highest Xray, which he then translated into his best ever finish with fourth place.  The young Belgian driver ran a split front deck on his T4 to gain more initial steering in combination with a soft 5K diff. For better direction change on the Apeldoorn track’s fast flowing layout he ran high droop values with 5.8 on the front and 4.4 on the rear. Florian has also upgraded the car with a set of Avid Aura Ceramic bearings.

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Chassis – Kroni RC Hawx F1 ’19
Motor – Scorpion Power System (handout)
ESC – Scorpion Power System (handout)
Batteries – Sunpadow 6000
Tires – Volante (handout)
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/SRT
Bodyshell – Protoform F26

Remarks – Driving the Hawx F1 ’19 from Austrian brand Kroni RC, Andreas said the car is pretty much as supplied in the kit.  Qualifying his example 6th in the A-Main here at Apeldoorn, he said the big difference compared to last year’s offer is the improved corner speed which has been achieved by geometry changes and a stiffer front end assembly.

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Bruno Coelho has won ETS Netherlands for the second year in succession, the Xray driver taking maximum points at the Apeldoorn track to move a step closer to retaining his Modified title for the fourth season straight.  Securing the TQ, he claimed his third victory of the season with a win over Christopher Krapp in A2, the Yokomo driver looking for a time like he might force things to go to A3 after getting by Freddy Sudhoff in the opening laps.  At the end however Coelho, as in A1 last night, was able to maintain a save advantage at the front crossing the line 7/10th in front of Krapp with Sudhoff a further 1-second back, the Top 3 having quickly broke away from of the rest of the 11 car field with Yannic Prümper finishing a distant 4th.

Commenting on his second A-Main encounter Coelho said, ‘At the beginning I was a little afraid to make mistakes so I stayed away from the curbs.  Then Freddy had some kind of mistake which allowed Christopher to close on me but like yesterday I expected a drop off in the middle (of the race) and that’s what happened’.  Moving into the Championship lead with today’s win, he continued, ‘the points are what we came for and for sure this is good for the title.  I know have 3TQ and 3 Wins  and something like a 6th & 8th so its still open’.  While having the advantage of the season finale being at his ‘home’ track, the Hudy Arena, the World Champion said while he was ‘happy with result today’ he is ‘still not totally happy with the car’.  He explained, ‘we are still missing something to the Awesomatix guys.  We need to make our car faster.  We thought after the last ETS in Austria and the Euros that we were on a good way but here we see we are not so we still need to work a lot’.

Reacting to his A2 challenge, Krapp said, ‘I hope I made it interesting for a while at least.  To be honest my car was really game on that time.  Freddy was struggling so I go on his inside and passed him.  Then I was on Bruno and tried everything but just didn’t have enough. Congrats to him on the win’.  Asked were he was lacking compared to Coelho, the German explained, ‘he was having trouble at the end of the straight, his car was loose there but he was better then me on the right side which meant I couldn’t get close enough to make a move at the end of the straight’. Going into A3 with a chance of second, the German, who is still seeking his first podium of the season,  said, ‘ I will try to fight for second (overall) but Freddy had some problems that one so I’m sure he will be quick again in the next one.  I will race it out with him and make sure I don’t do any stupid stuff’.

‘Mission failed’, was Sudhoff’s reaction after A2.  One only three drivers to win this season after taking his first ETS career win in Madrid, the German continued, ‘the first few laps I was struggling for overall traction.  I took my tyre warmers off too early and then we had the driver presentation so they were too cold.  It was my own fault’. He added, ‘that’s how Krappy could pass me like he did out of the corner.  For the last one I need to work on tyre prep and then see what happens’.

In the other classes A2 also saw the Xray Pro Stock decided.  Having taken A1 from the TQ, new EFRA European Champion Olivier Bultynck again took charge of proceedings to secure his first overall win of the season with his Awesomatix.  In Scorpion Power Formula class former champion David Ehrbar took the win ahead of reigning Champion Jan Ratheisky after Top Qualifier Simon Lauter and Jitse Miedema came together in the middle of the race.  The Infinity 40+ Masters class was won by Andreas Weyhoven despite the German getting a stop go penalty for contact at the start with Top Qualifier and A1 winner Toni Mateo.  In the 17.5 Stock class there were tears of joy for Marwin Riedelbauch as he backed up his A1 win with another in A2 to take his biggest ever race win.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.