Last weekend it was the 3rd West German regional race at the tricky, but fast track in Hamm. It was our 2nd regional race we needed to qualify for the Deutsche Meistershaft race in September at the Kirchain track.
The weather on Saturday was rainy but the track was dry around 2 o'clock and after they sprayed the track with some sugar water we could go out to find a setup. I soon found out that any driving error was one too much and you were punished hard by the concrete walls. I accepted the challenging track and soon I liked it allot. The car and engine combination was working good right from the start. En we could really focus on some fine tuning of the setup of the car and the engine. At 6 o'clock we were doing good lap times that were faster than the current track record of 15,5 we were told, so we decided to just check the car for Sunday.
On Sunday the weather was much better. Sunny and 23 degrees it promised to be a nice day for some racing. The first heat I ran into some problems just before the start and was not able to start on time. In the 2nd heat I just clipped a kerb which caused my car to hit a concrete wall, the car was not damaged and I needed to retire. In the 3rd heat I decided to take it easy and just finish the heat. After 3 runs I was qualified 2nd just after Steven.
Top 10 after 3 runs:
1. Cuypers Steven 2. Ermen John - XRAY RX8
3. Kostadinov Emil
4. Meister Karl-Heinz
5. Baldes Uwe
6. Nauth Claus 7. Pili Luigi - XRAY RX8
8. Vahrenkamp Ralf
9. Rosskothen Rainer
After the qualifications we adjusted the setup, because there was coming more and more traction the car tended a bit over steered. We adjusted the car with less caster, Ackermann and a stiffer front anti-roll bar to give the car less steering. This seemed to be the better solution because in the warm-up the car felt immediately better than before.
At the start of the final I had a slow start and Emil was able to take the 2nd spot. After a couple of corners I was able to take back the 2nd place and I could chase down Steven. After another couple of laps I was able to pass Steven and I was on the lead. Just after the 1st refueling I ran into a back marker right out of the pit lane and Steven gained back some lost time. After that Steven hit the same back marker as me and he was run of the track. Luckily for him his car was not damaged and he could continue the race. This gave me some more room and I could extend my lead. After midway I had extended my lead to 1,5 lap and from there on more drivers had problems with the demanding track and needed to retire with problems. When I crossed the finish after 30 minutes I had a 3 lap lead over Steven and took home the win! Better yet I broke the lap record with 0.3 seconds!
(click to enlarge)
Final after 30 minutes of racing:
1. Ermen John - XRAY RX8
2. Cuypers Steven 3. Pili Luigi - XRAY RX8
4. Rosskothen Rainer
5. Nauth Claus
6. Kostadinov Emil
7. Baldes Uwe
8. Meister Karl-Heinz
9. Vahrenkamp Ralf
I want to thank my sponsors Team Xray, RB Products, Team Titan, Blitz, Tornado Fuel, Matrix Tires and RC Car Colors for their support and my dad and Ismail for the fast refuels!
Next stop were up for our fourth Dutch national next weekend in Gouda.
