The 2012 German EP 1/12 On-road National Championship was held on March 2- 4 at the beautiful racetrack of the host Club TSV Gelenau. Gelenau is located in East-Germany and 100km away from Dresden. The guys of this club did a perfect job not only during the whole event, but they rebuilt their own track layout in a big sports hall so there was enough room for all drivers and visitors.
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The event started on Friday morning with free practice.
Team XRAY had with Fabian Erhardt and Rico Kröber ⓠtwo drivers in the popular Stock class ⓠas well as Kevin Buchheim in the Open class. We worked really closely together to find the perfect car set-up for this very technical and fast track. At the end of Friday practice we all were very happy with the performance of the new X12.
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Saturday started with controlled practice.
Saturday started with two control-group practices before starting the qualifying heats. So after that we had to drive 4 of 5 qualifying heats on Saturday; Fabian and Rico were in the fastest group of the Stock class. The qualification heats were really difficult, so if you make even one small mistake you lost too much time to recover. It was Rico who drove without any big mistakes and so he won the first two qualification runs. In the third and fourth round he had some problems and made some little mistakes so he could not better the results of rounds 1 and 2. Fabian also had two good runs at the beginning but he can´t find the top speed for a better result. At the end of Round 4, Rico Kröber (XRAY) topped the ranking list ahead of Moritz Hilbert and Fabian Ehrhardt (XRAY).
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Last qualifying heat on Sunday
There was a last short free practice before the last round of qualification started to optimize the grip at the track for all groups. For all drivers it was very exciting, because the battle for pole position was between four drivers in Stock class and three drivers in Open class.
Rico changed something on the car set-up overnight, so his car worked nearly perfectly in the last round. He won the last round and got the first ever TQ for Team XRAY in the history of the German Nationals! In this round, Fabian had an unlucky crash and lost the 3rd start position for the finals. Kevin drove a consistent qualification in the Open class and his fastest lap was only 0.2sec behind the fastest guys. He started the finals from 7th position.
Ranking after 5 qualification heats:
Stock class
1. Rico Kröber XRAY X12
2. Moritz Hilbert
3. Dominik Reschke 4. Fabian Ehrhardt XRAY X12
5. Dirk Bräuer
6. Karsten Hartinger
7. Jan Dietmar
8. Jens Gennuttis
Open class
1. Marc Fischer
2. Daniel Sieber
3. Markus Mobers
4. Jan Asmer
5. Martin Wilfinger
6. Tim Altmann 7. Kevin Buchheim XRAY X12
8. Lars Treder
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The finals
In Open class Kevin had some trouble with his electronics so he couldnâ™t drive the first final, and in the second final the new electronics set-up was not the best. So he gave his best at the last final round and got 7th position
In Stock class it was a great battle between Rico und Moritz Hilbert, but Rico had more luck in overtaking other cars. Fabian had some problems with top speed and constant drive, so he couldnâ™t achieve 3rd position. With Rico starting as TQ he won the 1st and 3rd final with very fast and consistent lap times.
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Final results
Stock class
1. Rico Kröber XRAY X12
2. Dominik Reschke
3. Moritz Hilbert 4. Fabian Ehrhardt XRAY X12
5. Dirk Bräuer
6. Karsten Hartinger
7. Jens Ginnuttis
8. Jan Dietmar
Open class
1. Markus Mobers
2. Marc Fischer
3. Jan Asmer
4. Daniel Sieber
5. Tim Altmann
6. Lars Treder 7. Kevin Buchheim XRAY X12
8. Martin Wilfinger
So it is the first title in this class for Rico and his XRAY X12. It was a very well organized event and we all are very happy with the result and hope for the best in the upcoming summer season. Rico will drive in his favourite 1/10 scale nitro class, as well as the German Nats and the EC (A) in Cassino and the Worlds in Bangkok this year.
