TAMIYA FACTORY TEAM CONQUER MODIFIED
NIELSEN’S RULES PRO STOCK FOR SERPENT
I am on my way back home after series race number
2 of the Much More sponsored Euro Touring Series.
After a couple months break since our first event
all of us from the ETS staff were excited to gets the
series rolling again. The local club, headed by Rene
Hovgaard, did an absolutely perfect job preparing the
race track and all that was needed for a great venue.
The race was held in the Vejle centre which is like a
city centre with gymnasiums, huge swimming pool
and dozens of other social halls and activity rooms.
The hall we were situated in was massive, close to
30000 sq ft and this allowed the club to set up a
very large and flowing layout and track design, which
worked out to make for some really close racing.
For this 2nd race of the series we added a Hobby
class which was to allow for beginners and kids to
participate in the event as well our normal Pro Stock
(19 turn) and Modified class racers. The racing scene
in Europe is going through some changes during this
early part of 2008. Some countries have switched
to brushless motors in their stock and 19 turn class
while others have continued to run brushed motors.
Also changing is the battery specs, some countries
have switched all classes to 5 cells while some are
still running 6 cells in stock and 19 turn. But all have
switched modified to 5 cell which after officiating and
announcing dozens of events all over the world during
the past year, there is no question that 5 cell modi-
fied is the correct way for all sanctioning bodies to
go. LiPo batteries are starting to be seen in Europe
also but have not been embraced or accepted much
in most countries. As far as I know only the BRCA has
allowed racers to use LiPo’s in some events, I am not
100% on this, but that is what I think. At this time I
don’t know of any other sanctioning bodies in Europe
that allow LiPo’s.
We ran both practice and some qualifiers on Saturday
which allowed for racers to get lots of track time and
really get a good grove in the carpet. As I mentioned
before this is not a permanent track facility so the
club sets up the track each time they run, so it takes
a round or two to get a nice groove in the layout. For
the ETS we are using the new brand of tire from Much
More called the Sweep and they again turned out to
have excellent traction. In fact, we only had a handful
of racers buy a second set of tires since the original
ones they received with their entry only seemed to
get better the more they ran them.
In the Hobby Stock division there was a good mix
of drivers from age 40 down to young Frederik Hov-
gaard who was 8 years old. 2 drivers seemed to be
the class of the field as qualifying was underway, one
was Axel Thoms from Germany and the other was
Lasse Soholt from Denmark who occupied the top 2
spots after 5 rounds of qualifying.

We ran triple A mains for all division and it was again
these 2 drivers who battled it out in each main. In
A1, it was Axel and Lasse who traded the lead numer-
ous time during the 5 minute final with Axel able to
take the lead with only a couple laps to go to take the
win in A1. In A2, Axel did not have such good luck. At
the tone, he and Lasse pulled away from the field but
after a couple of laps Axels car started to slow down
and Lasse was able to pass him. Later in Axle was
forced to retire with a problem and this allowed Lasse
to have an easy win. A3 was a great battle just as in
A1, both drivers had the lead at one time, but Lasse
caught a corner dot with about 1 minute to go rolling
him over and giving Axel an easy run to the finish.
In the Pro Stock division, this was a great field of rac-
ers, with many showing signs of brilliance during the
course of qualifying and having a chance to set the
pace and take the pole in this class. Nicolai Nielsen
claimed the early TQ title but Rasmus Callesen, who
was just as fast as Nicolai, gave him a great chal-
lenge along with Palle Hornum and Klass Trapp, at
this early stage it looked like the battle for this divi-
sion was going to be between these drivers. After
the dust settled it was Nicolai that took the top spot
after 5 rounds of qualifying with Rasmus right behind
in the 2nd spot. One driver who was faster than his
qualifying results showed was Jan Van Steeg from the
Netherlands running a TOP Sythe car. Almost all of
Jan’s runs were fast enough to claim TQ, but in each
run he seemed to have just 1 small mistake or a bit
of trouble that dropped him back. In the Mains, Nico-
lai showed that he was the top of the class, running
near flawless in both the A1 and A2 to lock up the
title for the Pro Stock division at the event. Rassmus
gave him a run each time, but just came up a bit
short.
In Modified there was one word that stands out for
this weekend’s event, and that word is Teamwork.
From the moment practice started the Tamiya team
of Jilles Groskamp, Marc Rheinard and Victor Wilck
all worked as a team to find the best set up for all of
them. Talking to these guys during the day, you could
tell that they were very focused on each driver trying
something different to learn more about the chas-
sis as well as find a setup that works the best. Steen
Graversen from Denmark driving for Team Kyosho
was also present and he had lap times as quick as
the Tamiya guys but was just coming up a bit short at
the end of each round. Qualifying was very close with
each of the top 4 racers putting in solid runs in al-
most each round, but it was Jilles Groskamp from the
Netherlands who had the fastest and most consistent
runs during the 5 rounds of qualifying to give him the
TQ spot.
A1 stated out as expected, a great start by the top
drivers with Jilles not making any mistakes and it
went the full 5 min with the top driver’s seconds
apart. Marc tried numerous times to get by Jilles, but
he didn’t flinch. Marc tried passes in almost every
place on the track, but not once making contact with
Jilles, who led until the 4:45 mark when he made his
first mistake, catching a corner dot 2 turns before the
straightaway which got him sideways. Unfortunately
for Marc, he was so close behind him that when Jilles
hit the dot this caused Marc to hit Jilles actually free-
ing Jilles car off the dots and causing Marc to also
loose control a bit. Marc’s problems allowed Jilles to
get control again and stay in front, racing until the fi-
nal lap with Marc right behind Jilles who took the first
leg win. A2 was a bit easier for Jilles, on the first lap
Marc and Victor went side by side into the 3rd turn
and bumped each other causing them to crash, this
allowed a bit of a gap to open between Jilles and the
rest of the field. Steen had taken 2nd after the crash
and was working to catch Jilles but the Dutch driver
was not going to let this one slip by and he kept fo-
cused not putting a wheel wrong, to take the win in
A2 to give him the overall victory. More great battles
in the 3 mains came from the Eskildsen brothers, who
qualified next to each other and in all 3 mains battled
with each other, putting on a great show. In A2, fol-
lowing the crash between Marc and Victor, the broth-
ers were ahead of and able to race with the former
World Champion and even keep him behind them for
the majority of the race. Talking to them after the
race they said that this was a highlight in their racing
career, being able to race with these guys was awe-
some. And that is exactly what the ETS is all about.
The 2nd round of the ETS was a great event with
some very close racing and as it comes to a close we
look forward to our next event, the first to be run
outdoor on Tarmac when the 3rd round of the Euro-
pean Touring Series goes to Heemstede, just outside
Amsterdam in the Netherlands. We will bring you a
report from this event in next months issue but until
then take care - Scotty
Modified Overall Top 10 Result
Round 2, Denmark

1. (1) Jilles Groskamp - Netherlands

Tamiya 416
2 points [ 1 1 3]

2. (2) Marc Rheinard - Germany

Tamiya 416
3 points [ 2 3 1]

3. (3) Viktor Wilck - Sweden

Tamiya 416
5 points [ 3 5 2]

4. (4) Steen Graversen - Denmark

Kyosho Stalion
6 points [ 4 2 4]

5. (5) Søren Eskildsen - Denmark

Schumacher Mi3
10 points [ 6 4 8]

6. (6) Johan Eskildsen - Denmark

Schumacher Mi3
11 points [ 5 6 6]

7. (8) Rob Janssen - Netherlands

Serpent S400
12 points [ 9 7 5]

8. (7) Patrick Hornum - Denmark

Xray T2 ‘008
15 points [ 7 8 10]

9. (10) Johnni Andersen - Denmark

Yokomo BD
16 points [ 10 9 7]

10. (9) Joel Myrberg - Sweden

Associated TC5
17 points [ 8 10 9]
Pro Stock Overall Top 10 Result
Round 2, Denmark

1. (1) Nicolai Nielsen - Denmark

Serpent S400
2 points [ 1 1 10]

2. (3) Palle Hornum - Denmark

Xray T2 ‘008
4 points [ 3 3 1]

3. (2) Rasmus T. Callesen - Denmark

Corally RDX Phi
4 points [ 2 2 9]

4. (4) Klaus Trapp - Germany

Team Magic E4
6 points [ 6 4 2]

5. (5) Ronald Arts - Netherlands

Serpent S400
7 points [ 4 6 3]

6. (7) Mike Christensen - Denmark

Not Specified
9 points [ 7 5 4]

7. (8) Jan Van Steeg - Netherlands

TOP Scythe
11 points [ 5 7 6]

8.(10)Ronny Andersen - Denmark

Yokomo BD
13 points [ 8 10 5]

9. (9) Jens Frederiksen - Denmark

Hot Bodies Cyclone
15 points [ 10 8 7]

10. (6) Ole Morten Nielsen - DK

Yokomo BD
17 points [ 9 9 8]
 ETS GOES TOPLESS
FOR ROUND 3
Round 3 of the European Touring Series will bring
one of the biggest changes yet for competitors as
the event will be without a roof but we couldn’t
have picked a better place to go topless racing than
the famous MACH facility near Amsterdam in the
Netherlands. Model Auto Club Heemstede have
succesfully hosted many international events including
World and European Championships and we are
priviliged to take the ETS there.
One driver who will be relishing the prospects of a
Dont forget for all the latest news and live race
coverage from the Much More backed ETS go to
good race is ETS Round 2 winner and local boy Jilles
Groskamp. The Tamiya Race Factory ace learned his
trade at the track and will be keen to show the rest of
the field the way round when the Much More backed
series visits on April 11-13.
If you want to race against some of the World’s top
touring car racers, while being commentated on by
the legendary Scotty Ernst, around this great track
then be sure to get your entry in for round 3 of the
ETS by logging onto - www.rcRaceControl.com
THANK YOU
The crew behind the European Touring Series would
like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who
made Round 2 of the series in Denmark a huge
success in particular our host club, headed by Rene
Hovgaard, who prepared a superb track.
We also want to thank all the competitors and their
support crews who travelled to Velje and we really
look forward to seeing you all again for Round 3
where another great track awaits the ETS.
The crew are, from left to right - Oisin O’Briain (PR/
Media), Scotty Ernst (Race Director), Uwe Rheinard
(Logistics), Eoghain O’Briain (PR/Media) and Rob
Nelson (Timing).
www.eurotouringseries.com