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Race report by Bart Wubben
By June 24 it was already time for the 3rd round of the Dutch championship.

We arrived at the track on Saturday, and the weather didn’t look that good so I took my time to prepare my rain car in case it was also raining on Sunday. At the end of Saturday the track started to dry and I switch back to my dry setup. The MBC track is not too difficult but you need a combination of high-speed steering but also good steering in three 180° hairpins. By the end of Saturday I had my car set up well and was hoping for dry weather on Sunday.



The track was dry but the weather forecast didn’t look that good for the day. I decided to use my new set of control tires in the first round of qualifying because the track was dry and who knows what would happen after the first round… it could be raining again. So when the first qualifier started I noticed that my new tires where not that fast, the car was understeering in almost every corner and especially in the 180° hairpins I was losing time. At the 4min mark I was in the lead but only with a very small margin. With a few corners to go I was catching to some back markers when disaster struck. I tried to pass a backmarker for a few corners but he didn’t give me any room and one corner later we were both one the grass… I lost about 7 seconds that lap and was now in 8th position. I was a bit frustrated when I started my second qualifier from the back of the field, but I started to overtake people in front of me and soon I was on TQ pace again. I decided to use my old tires from the last national since I was not so happy with my new tires, and with those old tires I had a much better balance… not as good as with new tires but much better than my new set. With one lap to go things looked good until I took a curb on the inside of a very high speed corner a little to much…The car went flying through the air and hit the tree on the side of the track… breaking my rear spoiler as well as my ego, but the car was still in one piece.. I finished the lap and was now in 8th position (again) because of that stupid mistake.



So things didn’t look that good before the start of the 3rd qualifier. I decided to stick with the old tires because they where much faster and changed my setup a little to get a little more steering out of those old tires. This worked out very well. I had really good power with a car that was very easy to drive and still was fast. At the end I was the only driver who made 18 laps and had a 3–4sec lead on the 2nd position car. So finally I set a proper time and TQed for the final.

About 10min before the first A main it began to rain a little but not enough to make the track very wet. I decided to take my old set from qualifying and put additive on those tires and use some other tires and prep them for rain.

With about 3min before the start of the first A main I chose the set without additive, and I also loosened the rear diff a little. The tire change paid of well since my car was clearly the best on the track. After only a few laps I was already building a huge lead and at the 4 min mark I started to overtake backmarkers. By the end of the final I had almost lapped the entire field.



Right after the A final it started raining heavily, creating big puddles on the track. Everyone was questioning whether or not we would be able to drive the second A final.

With more rain and some rivers on the track I decided not to drive the second a main since I already get a good result from the first leg, In the end there were 3 brave drivers who drove the second final. After 5 min only one driver finished the race.

A-main Leg 5

1 Bart Wubben XRAY T2’007
2 Michael Lepelaar
3 Sven Van Essen

A-main Leg 6

1 Michael Lepelaar
2 Hugo Van Den Berg ( DNF)
3 Rob Janssen (DNF)
4 Bart Wubben (DNS) XRAY T2’007
5 Sven Van Essen (DNS)

Overal results:
1. Michael Lepelaar
2. Bart Wubben XRAY T2'007
3. Sven van Essen



In the 19T class it was Tjitte Miedema with his XRAY T2 who TQed and won Leg 5.

For the start of the second A main, the 19T drivers also had very bad weather and big puddles on the track. Pole sitter and winner of the first A main (Tjitte Miedema) had problems with water in his electronics, forcing him to retire. After 5min it was Jan van Steeg who took leg 6, in second position it was Jaap Jochmann with his XRAY T2 who started all the way back at 9th and drove a brilliant race. In third position it was Jan Mekenkamp

A main Leg 5

1 Tjitte Miedema XRAY T2
2 Steeg Jan Van
3 Erik Germeraad XRAY T2
4 Erwin Maassen Van Den Brin XRAY T2

5 Jetze Reitsma
6 Daan Schennink
7 Jan Mekenkamp
8 Jaap Jochmann XRAY T2
9 Marvin Langree XRAY T2
10 Jitse Miedema XRAY T2


A-main Leg 6

1 Steeg Jan Van
2 Jaap Jochmann XRAY T2
3 Jan Mekenkamp
4 Erik Germeraad XRAY T2
5 Erwin Maassen Van Den Brin XRAY T2
6 Marvin Langree XRAY T2

7 Jetze Reitsma
8 Jitse Miedema XRAY T2
9 Tjitte Miedema XRAY T2

10 Daan Schennink

Overal result:
1. Jan Van Steeg
2. Erik Germeraad Xray T2
3. Erwin Maassen Van Den Brin Xray T2


Pictures from www.rcnews.nl




Bart Wubben Set-up sheet.