Weâ™re now on summer break and have completed the first three rounds of the Swiss Championship 2010 and the European Championship B in the 200mm Nitro category.
Here is a short recap of the three rounds:
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Round 1 â“ Lostallo
Round 1 was held on May 1-2 in Lostallo. The weather forecast for that weekend was so bad that we would have preferred to stay at home. Of course we went to Lostallo anyway and arrived at the track at about 10AM. It was dry until lunchtime and I was able to run through two tanks of fuel on the dry track. After that the skies opened up and it didnâ™t stop raining until Sunday evening. Saturday afternoon was spent waiting, drinking tea, and having some really good conversations in the club house.
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On Sunday morning I began to make my NT1 rain-proof, and then qualifying showed that my rain setup was very good! The engine ran well in the rain and even ran under water. After the qualifying rounds I was on pole ahead of Giovanni Bonetti, Jeremy Noirat and Andy Geisser.
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In the Final I had a good start and took the lead. But when my NT1 drove â“ or should I say âśswamâť â“ across the straight on lap 2 I heard a bad noise. I immediately recognized it as the sound of a rain tyre breaking up.
From then on the car was very hard to drive but I drove on until the fuel stop. Monika refueled the car and after checking it quickly put it back on the track without changing tyres. I thought to myself that it must not be that bad then. Right before the finale was over something black flew off my car, which did bother me a bit I must say. But the carâ™s behaviour didnâ™t change and I achieved my first championship victory of the season!
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My friend Giovanni Bonetti came in 2nd and Tiago Conte (in his first race) came in 3rd. I must say that I had been very lucky. The black part that had flown off my car was in fact the tyre insert that flew out of a small hole in the tyre.
Qualifying:
1. Schär Traugott XRAY NT1
2. Bonetti Giovanni 3. Noirat Jeremy XRAY NT1
4. Geisser Andy
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Final:
1. Schär Traugott XRAY NT1
2. Bonetti Giovanni 3. Conte-Fadel Tiago XRAY NT1
4. Herzig Michael 5. Noirat Jeremy XRAY NT1
6. Spreng Helli
7. Geisser Andy
8. Bignens Jeremy
9. Mock Ivan
10. Bognuda Yuri
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Round 2 â“ Aigle
It was a busy schedule. Right after the European championship in Lostallo, Round 2 of the Swiss Championship was held on June 5-6 in Aigle. This time it should finally be a dry race.
On 10AM on Saturday morning we started to practice in sensational weather. There still wasnâ™t grip on the track so I decided to concentrate on the engine; we tried another exhaust pipe which worked very well. Right before the lunch break I went on the track once again and the NT1 worked very well. Sadly I made a silly mistake and banged the rear of the car into the rock-hard track barrier. It looked like nothing had happened, but sadly the looks were deceiving.
After the lunch break I wanted to try some more things but no matter what I changed or adjusted I wasnâ™t able to produce good lap times. I was slower with every run. I decided to end the practice runs early in the evening and take the car apart. I found out that my driving error before lunchtime ruined the whole practice session because the chassis plate was bent, which I didnâ™t think was possible. I changed the setup back to the beginning and hoped it would work on Sunday morning for the first qualifying heat.
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On Sunday morning the car worked better but it lacked steering. A little more caster and a body shell change â“ from the R5N body to the Stratus 3 â“ brought about the change I had wanted. After qualifying, Shasa Lackner was on pole and I was in 2nd place ahead of Daniel Born and Giovanni Bonetti.
Right before the finale started a storm seemed to form up. We thought that it wouldnâ™t affect us and so we all started the final unprepared for it. Right after the start I got into the lead but after about 2min it started to rain lightly. I tried driving on for as long as possible but then regrettably decided to put on the rain tyres. It was a very demanding half-hour, more figure skating than model car racing. Only one driver had made the right decision and put on the GRP damp tyres. Congratulations to Jeremy Noirat who won the race with his NT1. Shasa Lackner came in 2nd and I was very glad to cross the line in 3rd.
Qualifying:
1. Lackner Shasa 2. Schär Traugott XRAY NT1
3. Born Daniel XRAY NT1
4. Giovanni Bonetti
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Final:
1. Noirat Jeremy XRAY NT1
2. Lackner Shasa 3. Schär Traugott XRAY NT1
4. Born Daniel XRAY NT1
5. Felix Reto 6. Matthias Meier XRAY NT1
7. Fischer Stephan XRAY NT1
8. Geisser Andy
9. Moretti Giacomo
10. Bonetti Giovanni
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Round 3 â“ Langenthal
On June 26-27 we met up in Langenthal for round 3 of the Swiss Championship. We FINALLY had some hot weather and not a single drop of rain the entire weekend. It got up to 32°C and everyone was happy to exchange the rain equipment with coolers. Practice began at 10AM on Saturday. Grip was unbelievably bad because the MRCL club had just shot blasted the asphalt immediately before the first race. When lunchtime came, grip was a bit better and the setup from Aigle worked quite well. I chose to mount the adjustable anti-roll bar in the rear and put it to the softest setting. I also mounted the dark blue springs. After that the NT1 really was great to drive.
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On Sunday all three qualifying rounds went well and I got 1st place ahead of Daniel Born, Reto Felix and Matthias Meier. My greatest concern was tyre wear. The freshly-blasted track was a real tyre eater. I ground away up to 7mm during each Qualifying heat, so during the quarter and semi-finals I had some time to think about it. Another âśproblemâť after the semi-finals was that my mechanic Monika had qualified for the final. Of course I was very happy for her and she was happy to not to have to change my tyres during the finale!
After the semi-finals the following drivers also qualified for the final: on position 5 Marcel MĂĽnster, 6: Giovanni Bonetti, 7: Stephan Fischer, 8: Maco Reiser, 9: Jeremy Noirat and 10: Monika Ackermann.
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For the final I mounted the biggest rear tyres I could find because I didnâ™t want to change tyres during the race. Giacomo Moretti and Tiago Conte kindly volunteered to be my pit crew. There isnâ™t much to tell about the final. Right after the start I built up a good lead and tried to drive as tyre-friendly as possible. I was very surprised how well the NT1 drove with these extra-big tyres. After 30 minutes I won this round in Langethal nearly 2 laps ahead of Daniel Born. Great praise and thanks go to my pit crew Giacomo and Tiago who performed excellently!
Qualifying:
1. Schär Traugott XRAY NT1
2. Born Daniel XRAY NT1
3 Felix Reto 4. Meier Matthias XRAY NT1
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Final:
1. Schär Traugott XRAY NT1
2. Born Danieal XRAY NT1
3. Meier Matthias XRAY NT1
4. MĂĽnster Marcel 5. Reiser Marco XRAY NT1
6. Bonetti Giovanni 7. Fischer Stephan XRAY NT1
8. Felix Reto 9. Ackermann Monika XRAY NT1
10. Noirat Jeremy XRAY NT1
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These were the first three rounds of the Swiss Championship and I would like to thank the clubs in Ticino, Aigle, and Langenthal for the events and the great catering at the race venues. Itâ™s great that these three clubs work so hard for our category. Thank you very much to Tiago Fadel for the pictures and Robin Frischkopf for the translation from the race report.
Round 4 (final round) will take place once again in Aigle and Iâ™m looking forward to it a lot. Unfortunately we can only drive at four rounds of our Championship this season because not enough clubs could be found to organize races for us. The clubs thought that there were not enough people attending the 2009 season and that it would not be profitable. But the field of starters has improved in 2010 and so we hope to find enough race venues again in 2011.
