The 1:10 German Championship was held last weekend at Leipzig in the east part of Germany. The track is very fast and has a level surface. Seventy drivers from all over Germany made the trip to Leipzig. Between Wednesday-Friday it was free practice for everybody, but the rain halted practice too soon on Thursday. On Saturday morning we had two rounds of controlled practice which was done to reseed the qualifying heats, and in the afternoon we had four rounds of qualifying.
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In Qualifying, not everybody was able to do the 5 minutes, but after all rounds the following top 4 went directly into the main final:
1. Robert Pietsch 2. Dirk Wischnewski XRAY NT1
3. Thomas GĂĽnsel XRAY NT1
4. Patrick Gassauer
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The lower finals starts on Sunday morning. What great racing it was! After the lunch break the semi-finals were started too. Non-typically, each semi-final was 30 minutes; it was not easy because tyre wear was high and because of very fast corners. The following drivers bumped up into the main final:
⢠Eric Dankel
⢠Rico Kröber
⢠Patrick Schäfer
⢠Patrick Nähr
⢠Daniel Thiele
⢠Dirk Stammler
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The final was started after a small break, with a total runtime of 45 minutes. Not everybody could drive without a tyre change during the final. Dirk Wischnewski had to retire soon due to radio problems.
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Final results
1. Eric Dankel XRAY NT1
2. Robert Pietsch 3. Thomas GĂĽnsel XRAY NT1
4. Dirk Stammler 5. Patrick Nähr XRAY NT1 - Junior Champion
6. Rico Kröber XRAY NT1
7. Daniel Thiele
8. Patrick Gassauer
9. Patrick Schäfer 10. Dirk Wischnewski XRAY NT1
With five cars in the main final, XRAY once again showed impressive performance. The team worked great together.
