Trackside support at the Euros

Its the most important race of the year in Europe for manufacturers involved in EP Touring cars and in the pits we caught up with some of the key players who are here to support both their team drivers and the many privateer racers who make up the 144 entries.

Senior Designer with Tamiya, Kiyo Suzuki has made the long trip from Japan to Spain to support their four factory drivers Rheinard, Wilck, Groskamp and Honigl. Kiyo, who is super impressed by the Nitro 15 track, has brought along new parts for the team to try such as a new rear shock tower and is pleased with the performance of the TRF416 here so far.

Talking to him about the upcoming Worlds, Kiyo believes that 5 cell is already fast enough and with six cells to be run in Thailand the cars will be way too fast. As a result of the extra speed and the local weather conditions in Bangkok, they plan to run a modified TRF416 which will better handle the hot track temperatures and the extra demands put on the drive train.

Also making the trip over from Japan is Kyosho development driver Shin Adachi. Shin, who himself races regularly in Europe, is here to help Steen Graversen and Christopher Krapp who are both running prototype Stallion chassis’ which will form the basis of their next production kit. Shin told us that the car being used here in Spain will remain pretty much unchanged for the Worlds however extensive testing is planned in Thailand shortly.

The very pleasant Terutaka Hanaumi from Xenon Racing Products is present to highlight their range of gears, traction additives and accessories. Very well known in the Japanese market, Xenon have a growing number of distributors in Europe and feel it is important to be seen at such big races and to support the large number of drivers using, in particular, their gears.

Two European chassis manufacturers with support on hand are Xray, the most popular chassis here at the championships, and Corally. Juraj Hudy the founder of Xray and the man responsible for penning the designs of all Xray cars is himself taking part in the event. Racing the T2 008 allows Juraj to better understand how the car works on the track which is in turn a huge benefit when working on set-up with his team drivers.

Suzanne Siegel is over from the Netherlands to look after the large contingent of Corally drivers. With Marc Fisher set for a place in the A Main, Suzanne is very happy with the progress of the prototype RDX Phi car being used by the German. The Dutch company are very busy working on the prototype of their yet unnamed next generation 190mm car for the Worlds but Suzanne told us the car will share a lot of common parts with the current RDX Phi.

As is to be expected at EP Euros there is plenty of support from the electric components manufacturers. Oscar Jansen, himself a former European Champion, drove all the way here from Switzerland due to the large number of cells he needed to bring with him.  The Dutch motor guru is busy working with the top Team Orion drivers like Steen Graversen, Andy Moore and Steven Weiss and is also pitman for Teemu Leino.

Head of Development at GM Racing, Ralf Helbing is here to over see the new Genius 120 speed controller which is being used by 10 of the German company’s team drivers. From the small first production batch, the new ESC is proving its worth in Fisher’s car and Ralf tells us the main production batch should be ready for general release at the beginning of September.

One of the sponsors of our live Red RC coverage for the Euros, LRP are also present supporting defending champion Ronald Volker and their other star drivers. Reto Koening, who is responsible for R&D and managing the LRP race team, is here along with Steffen Leinburger whose main duty is to be mechanic for Volker. Reto says he is very busy due to the large number of drivers running their products and from looking around the pits their Sphere speedo is the dominant force among the field. Interestingly LRP brought 50 motors and 80 battery packs to this event.

Manufacturers presence
Xray – 46
Tamiya – 25
Corally – 18
Schumacher – 16
Hot Bodies – 15
Yokomo – 7
Associated – 6
Kyosho – 4
TOP – 2
Losi – 2
Team Magic – 1
Serpent – 1
Robitronic – 1
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Thanks to Xray for compiling the numbers

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