| Race report by Pedro Rombouts |
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The first round of the 1/10th Dutch Nationals kicked off last weekend at the famous and former 1/10th Euro-B â™11 MACH Heemstede track. Due to noise issues, the Nationals were able to run but had a sound level restriction. Saturday practice was influenced by sound measuring to get all drivers below the maximum allowable sound level. We had great weather all weekend to make it a great race.
This year we again had a small change in our qualification system. We still had the 3 best conservative laps rule to decide who lined up first for the main final, but this year the top 6 qualified directly into the main final. Due to some final sound measuring in the morning, we only had two qualification rounds instead of the normal three. In qualification, Daan Jacobs showed his typical competitive pace on his home track by placing his car on pole for the main final, followed by Team XRAYâ™s Pedro Rombouts only 0.042sec behind. The 3rd spot went to Belgian Team XRAYâ™s Maxim Claes⦠and the remaining places in the main final went to Daan stuiver, Arco de Jong, and Dennis van Lammeren.
Qualification:
1. Daan Jacobs
2. Pedro Rombouts â“ XRAY NT1
3. Maxim Claes â“ XRAY NT1
4. Daan Stuiver
5. Arco de Jong
6. Dennis van Lammeren
With six direct placements, only four places remain in the semis. In Semi-B it was Ingeborg Gommers who took the win ahead of Sander Borghoff. In Semi-A it was Ricardo van Dam who took the win ahead of Ruben dâ™Arco to place his NT1 on the last spot for the main final.
NOMAC
This year we still got our second class, called NOMAC. They also saw a change for this year with everybody driving the same engine and muffler combination. In short, the idea behind it is to make less-experienced drivers more aware of their car set-up and driving skills and create a closer competition. The â standardâ™ engine showed potential with lap times only 0.3sec behind the fastest guys in the National class. In final, Ricardo Hofmeijer showed great pace with his XRAY NT1 by winning the race, with Sidney Blokker piloting his XRAY NT1 to 2nd place only 4 laps behind Ricardo. The 3rd place finish went to Bart van de Water only a few seconds behind Sidney. |
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| NOMAC Final Results: |
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1. Ricardo Hofmeijer â“ XRAY NT1
2. Sidney Blokker â“ XRAY NT1
3. Bart van de Water
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In the Nationals main final the front runners had a clean start with Daan leading the pack, followed by Pedro and Maxim. After a few minutes Maxim showed great pace for the final passing Pedro and working his way up front. This is how it stayed for the next several minutes, but it went wrong for Maxim in his pit stop around the 20min mark. Some strange behavior of his car after the pit stop forced him to come in for a checkup, which took him 3 laps and a shot to the victory. From that point it was Daan leading with Pedro in 2nd, with both drivers in using different pitstop windows.
Daan had two little moments on track which cost him some time, with Pedro closing in and working his way to the tail of Daansâ™ car. From there he waited patiently for his moment to pass Daan in the last minutes of the race. With one pitstop to go, it went wrong for Daan when he ran out of fuel a mere 20m from the pit lane. This handed the lead to Pedro were he stayed until the finish line to secure the victory. Arco de Jong took 2nd place as he was never far away, and crossed the line only 3 seconds behind Pedro. The 3rd place surprisingly went to Dennis van Lammeren a further 2 laps behind. |
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(click to enlarge) |
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| National Class Final Results: |
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1. Pedro Rombouts â“ XRAY NT1
2. Arco de Jong
3. Dennis van Lammeren
4. Maxim Claes â“ XRAY NT1
5. Daan Stuiver
6. Sander Borghoff
7. Daan Jacobs
8. Ricardo van Dam
9. Ingeborg Gommers
10. Ruben dâ™Arco â“ XRAY NT1
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With some new brands making their debut this year, XRAY still showed their dominating pace through the entire weekend. We are excited about the rest of the season thanks to XRAY and RC Connect.
Picures by Ruben dâ™Arco. |
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