Event Date: 06.-08.02.2015
Freddy Südhoff's race report:
The second round of ETS was held the past weekend in Mühlheim-Kärlich, Germany. Known for the large amount of drivers during the last years, this year’s round was just a highlight of all previous ETS races. More than 400 entries were made in just three different classes. The track layout was the same like last year.
Team HPI/ HB was presented by Andy Moore and Freddy Südhoff. Both running the almost new PRO5 cars.
With the big amount of drivers, ETS organization decided just to run 3 practice runs, where 2 were used for the reseeding.
Still learning and getting used to the car, Andy and Freddy used every run to try something new in setup. Andy was able to reseed in the top heat while Freddy struggled with his race tires which putted him in a lower heat.
Confident to improve in the 4 qualification runs, where the best 2 of them counted for the mains, Team HPI/ HB worked hard but just got unlucky. Both, Andy and Freddy doing their best but just missed the A-Main. Andy ended up qualifying on 14th, and Freddy on 20th, so both in the B-Main.
While of course a bit disappointed over the qualification results, both tested more setup ideas in the final and Freddy was able to improve from 20th to 12th overall. The team work paid off and they were able to improve the cars performance. Andy just got unlucky at the starts and was crashed by other people so he was not able to improve and ended up 17th.
This ETS round was another lesson about the new car and Team HPI/ HB will not give up and come back even stronger!
Andy Moore's race report:
ETS round 2 took place in Muelheim-Kaerlich - Germany last this past weekend and broke a record by having 420 entries!! This round was the final carpet race of the season but our first race with the PRO5 on the new type of carpet they now use for ETS.
With practice limited due to the number of entries we only got 1 free practice and 2 timed runs for re-seeding during which time we also needed to break in race tyres and find a setup for this unusual carpet…Not easy to do within 3 runs. Practice 1 was a good start, the car was stable and easy to drive with good drive forward off the corner.
In controlled practice 1 I ran my second set of race tyres to break them in and tested an LTC body in this run. Overall it felt very similar to the first run with too much push on power. Switching to heavier diff oil for the second controlled practice helped the middle corner rotation and over the best 3 lap was able to re-seed in 10th into the top heat for quali.
After the improvement in the final practice I was happier with the setup but knew we needed to improve corner speed during qualifying as it was so close between everyone.
Q1- I had a good start but understeer built up during the run as the front tyres overheated and I dropped back a little in the final minute. In the last couple of laps I had to move over for traffic also getting a little out of shape this cost me about 1 sec and maybe 5 places.
Q2 was really unfortunate and a run to forget, on lap one I broke a steering knuckle after catching the inside wheel on a odd angle on one of the plastic pipes.
For Q3 I reduced rear toe-in to help free the rear end, this helped keep the tyres a little more consistent during the 5 mins but again having to move over on the last lap for the leader on this small track cost me too much time ending up 14th.
In Q4 I made quite a big wheelbase change to move the overall chassis weight back. This was a positive step forward in lap time helping with overall steering. I finished 10th in this round and disappointingly only 14th overall but knowing that with more track time on this type of carpet I’m confident we have a better starting setup.
Looking again to use these last few runs on this new type of carpet to improve the setup for future races I was frustrated to be taken out twice leaving me some car damage in the first main and unable to finish the second main. Finally in the third main I had a good clean run getting past 2 guys in front to finish this one 2nd but for me this time a very disappointing 16th overall.