Florian Joos ETS RD5 Apeldoorn Race report

Last weekend I participated at the ETS round 5 in Apeldoorn. I wasn’t able to race my cars for a month because I had exams at school. The weekend before the ETS however, my exams were finished and we went to Apeldoorn to do some testing. During the test sessions, we found a very good basic setup for the ETS.

When we arrived on Thursday morning, I had a really good feeling because I knew my cars were pretty much dialed (I participated in the Stock and Modified classes).

Stock

We arrived just in time to participate in the first stock practice session. My car was great and I had a top 10 time. It even improved after practice 2 when I was in P6. My dad talked to some other drivers and we decided to install the race motor and also to put PSS in the front dampers. The car felt really great, but as the sessions went on, I gradually dropped positions and ended in P21 at the end of the day. I was really disappointed by that as I really drove 100% but I wasn’t able to get fast 3 consecutive laps.

On Friday morning, my dad decided to revert back to the setup we had when we were still driving in the top 10. He removed the PSS dampers and also told me to get a different motor. He felt that, even though you can’t see it, the motor might have less performance and that that would be the reason for my lower performance.

Unfortunately on Friday morning things got even worse as after the reseeding practice I dropped down to P25 and ended up in the C re-seeding group. This was not the result I hoped for after my A-main finish in Vienna.

We again looked at the results and saw that some drivers had really improved their position while we were struggling. We talked a bit to Alex, Bruno, Jan and Kevin and found a solution. Some of the other cars were running shims under their suspension mounts. This would raise the roll center and give the car a different handling. My dad started to rebuild the car and put 1.5mm shims under the suspension and raise the upper inner camber links to 3mm in total.

I went out in my practice lap and wooooow. I felt I had a great car now. The car was absolutely dialed. I had to start from P5 in my group, but my car was so fast I overtook all the other drivers and easily won. I watched my position as the faster groups also ran and I got a P7 in Q1! Q2 was run on Saturday morning and we decided to reuse the tires from Q1 and keep our new tires for Q3. I managed to get a P5 in Q2 which made me extremely happy and gave me great confidence. My car from Q3 was perhaps the best R/C car I have ever driven. With the new tires I had lots of traction and great steering. My lap times were slower then in Q2, but track temperatures had risen to over 45° now, so I didn’t really care about them. I had an error free run and instinctively knew it would be hard to beat this time. I watched the other guys run and in the end I got beaten by Max Mächler by .1 of a second. This gave me a P2 and P4 overall position.

Now came the hardest part …. After Q3 I knew I had a good spot in the A-main, but I was convinced I couldn’t improve my position anymore. I also wanted to save my second set of tires with one run on them for the finals. My dad however also wants me to race and test new things. In my opinion, this would be a disadvantage rather than an advantage, so I spoke to Jan Ratheisky about it. Jan completely agreed with me and decided to help me to convince my Dad. After a rather tough discussion he agreed that I would sit out the qualifier.

In the end, my strategy partly worked, but Max Mächler managed to take p4 from me. I had to start from P5, which is my best ever starting position on an ETS.

Finals.

In A1 I was a bit nervous. I could follow the pace of the cars in front. As the race was run quite late, there were shadows in the fast esses after the straight and I couldn’t see the corner well. I made an error and got passed by a couple of cars. In the end I finished P7.

After the finals I was a bit upset, but while I was sitting in the shade, Bruno Coelho came sitting next to me and he really helped me a lot. He gave me some great tips and his pep talked really helped me to focus me again. Thanks for that Bruno J!

In A2 I once again had a great start. Fortunately for me, Simon Lauter slightly touched Tobias Vogl in the back and they both crashed out. This gave me some breathing space and I tried to catch Dominic Vogl. On the really hot track, my tires started to heat up too much and I lost some steering, so I had to let Dominic go. Antoine Brunet, the 1/5 scale Moto World Champion, came charging through the field and challenged me for P5. I kept my cool and finished in P4, with which I was extremely happy!

My good friend Olivier Bultynck won this race and I was so happy for him. After a difficult season he became European Champion and is on a roll right now.

As Olli sat out A3, I started P4 in the last final. I had a good and clean start and managed to stay close to Max, who was sitting in front of me. Simon was pushing me hard, but he is such a super fair driver, so I was not worried by him and concentrated on attacking Max instead.

It seems really strange that I’m writing this now, because Max is the 2018 ETS vice champion, and I never thought I would be able to be racing him this year. Anyway, Max made a little mistake on lap 5 and I managed to pass him. I kept on racing and was pushed hard by the new ETS champion Simon Lauter, but I managed to grab that P3. I was really super ecstatic about that! In the end I finished in P4 overall, which is my best ever result in an ETS. I’m really super happy about it as I made two ETS A-mains in a row.

Here is the video of this final.



As you might have noticed from the overall results, there were only 2 conventional cars in the top 11. Does that mean that the days of the conventional cars are over? I don’t think so, because my Xray was really a superb racing car. It steered where and when I wanted and was an absolute weapon!

Here is my Stock Set-up

Modified

In modified my car felt dialed and I was around P20 at best. In the beginning my car was dialed as well, but my dad removed the ARS as the car became difficult to drive when the heat came up. I could do a fast single laptime, but to make 3 laps was a bit more difficult.

On Friday morning, we changed to a slightly softer diff (7000) and the car was easier to drive on throttle. I managed to set a 20th time and was reseeded in the B group. This was the first time I managed that and was really happy about it as I was running with Marc Rheinhard, Robert Pietsch, Elliot Harper, Martin Hudy, Marco Kaufmann and some other great drivers.

My Q1 was great and I managed to get a p17 time. Towards the end of the run, my car started behaving erratically and it was hard to keep focused to go full power.

In Q2 my car slid off the road after the main straight and I decided to stop and save the tires.

Q3 was again a difficult run as I still had the same feeling. I told my dad about it and he changed the rear spring (from a 2.8 to a 2.7) and decreased the rear droop a bit to give the car more on power rear grip. This didn’t really help me and my Q4 wasn’t good either.

This result left me in P22 overall. I was a bit disappointed as I knew I could do better. My dad was scratching his head to find a solution and noticed the chassis was slightly damaged. We replaced the chassis before the finals. In the first final the car felt better, but not yet great. I finished in P3 just behind Cyril N'diaye and Patrick Gollner who managed to bump up to the B-main.

The second final was a bit funny. I started off well, but noticed I was down on power. It felt like the car had no power on the straight and then went full boost. I managed to keep Lucas Ellerbrock, my Xray teammate behind me for 3 laps, but I then had to yield and let him go as my car shut down. After we came in the pits, Tim Benson said my battery wasn’t charged! My dad felt a bit embarrassed by it and promised me to give me a good car for C3 as I had a shot to win the C-main.

He disassembled the car and he noticed that the rear diff wasn’t working properly. He installed a fresh diff and when I started I knew I had a great car. I just could accelerate hard out of the corner and the car felt really consistent when cornering. I managed to win my last final and also win the C-main so I was a happy camper.

Here is my Mod Set-up

I know really look forward to race at the last ETS race of the season again. The Hudy Arena is not only a great race track but it is also a wonderful facility. Martin Hudy also told me he has a surprise for me, so I’m looking forward to it.

I also wish to thank all the other racers, supporters, my family and sponsors for helping me in his great hobby. I know it will be super hard even to get in the B-main in Trencin, but I will do my best! Cu soon and keep racing!

Thanks to my sponsors

#Teamxray
#Rcconnect
#Hobbywing
#PowerHD
#GensAce
#Avid
#HiroSeiko
#7075it
#1upRacing
#TornadoOil
#RacingArenaLimburg
#Borcalor 

#Tonisport 

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Additional photos via RedRc and their ETS coverage.