The weekend of June 20/21 we had Round 3 of the Dutch Nationals at the technical and low-grip track at Gouda. The weather was nice and sunny the whole weekend so everyone was able to get some practice and find the best setup for this difficult track.
On Sunday the three rounds of qualification started with some trouble for Euro-B podium finisher Daan Jacobs who ended up in 5th and so had to start from the first spot in the semi-finals. For teammate Maarten van Lierop it ended up much better and he was able to set the pole time by 4 seconds ahead of number two Arco de Jong who drove his NT1 for the first time. Last round winner Pedro Rombouts rounded up the top three with his NT1.
After 3 rounds of Qualification:
1. Maarten van Lierop XRAY NT1
2. Arco de Jong XRAY NT1
3. Pedro Rombouts XRAY NT1
4. Sander Borghoff 5. Daan Jacobs XRAY NT1
6. Ingeborg Gommers XRAY NT1
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In the semi-final it was XRAY driver Daan Jacobs who dominated the race. Starting from the first spot, Daan was able to build up a lead to take a clear win but unfortunately after technical inspection Daan was disqualified and so the leader of the nationals had to miss the main final.
The main final with the three NT1's in front was a very stunning race with a lot of position changes in the last 10 minutes.
After the start it was XRAY driver Maarten van Lierop who built up his lead to more than a ? lap over Pedro Rombouts who was able to overtake from 3rd position to 2nd after a couple of laps after the start. In the middle of the race there was a big battle for the 3rd, 4th and 5th places but at the end of the race it was NT1 driver Bas Geurd who won the battle and finished 3rd ahead of Acro de Jong and Ricardo van Dam.
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Maarten van Lierop was leading the pack with Pedro on the same lap and 5 laps ahead of the 3rd place driver. After 20 minutes, Maarten got a bit unlucky and had some troubles with some slower cars. This caused a crash on the straight and ended up in the grass, so this was a great chance for Pedro to overtake and he did. So now it was Pedro Rombouts leading but not for long since Maarten now pushed really hard and was able to take over the lead again after a nice pass on the straight.
The battle continued for the last 5 minutes of the race, but it was now Pedro who was pushing hard and trying to overtake again but with this pushing he touched the back of Maarten's car and Maarten spun. So then it was Pedro leading the race but he had to give back the lead to Maarten because of the pushing incident, but unfortunately Maarten now made a mistake and got off the track so Pedro continued to lead. In the last few minutes Maarten was not able to get back to the front because his right tyre was totally gone and he had to slow down a lot.
So again it was the NT1 dominating the Dutch Nationals, getting the top 6 spots.
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Final results:
1. Pedro Rombouts XRAY NT1
2. Maarten van Lierop XRAY NT1
3. Bas Geurds XRAY NT1
4. Arco de Jong XRAY NT1
5. Ricardo van Dam XRAY NT1
6. Fedor Eskes XRAY NT1
7. Bart van de Water 8. Ingeborg Gommers XRAY NT1
9. Sander Borghoff
10. Remy Moller
The new leader in the Dutch Nationals is now Perdo Rombouts who was able to win the last two rounds, followed by XRAY drivers Maarten van Lierop and Daan Jacobs.
