Held in Chanu, Northern West of France, the last round of French Nationals saw a wonderful weekend as the weather was the best we could imagine at this time of the season. Driving the last prototype XRAY buggy, I managed to qualify 2nd after 4 rounds of qualifications where I TQed one round. The track was really rough as it was often used to race 5th scale, and everyone was struggling in order to get clear laps and no crash. I started number 2 on the grid for the main, after hard work on the shocks and diff combination to get thru the bumps. I ended up with 5-5-3 in the diffs and 8 holes 1.3mm pistons all the way around. The car was super easy to drive thanks to the new geometry, and had amazing traction!
(click to enlarge)
The main was a close battle between Jerome Aigoin and I. We exchanged position for the first 15min, then I was leading and opening a little gap. 15min before the end of the 45min main, a rock stopped my engine and I had to stop by the pit. I went back to the track with a 40 second delay from 1st place. I was pushing hard in order to come back to the lead and in 5 minutes I closed the gap from 40 to 28 seconds! 3 minutes before the end, Jerome broke and retired the race, so I took the top spot and won!
As I had some electronic dramas thru the season, I can't get better than 3rd in the championship, but I will be back next year!
