The 1/10 200mm EFRA European B Championship was held in the last week from May 05-09 at the Club ARCA RC Track in Alcobendas near Madrid the capital city of Spain.
The race showed some strong competition with practice started on Monday running on controlled tires. Everyone had a good time with beautiful Spanish spring weather all the week and constant tempera-tures about 27 degrees.
(click to enlarge)
The track with its flowing and challenging layout will also host the EFRA electric Touring car Euros later the year, as all contenders had a lot of free practice to find a perfect setup before the event actual-ly started on Thursday with controlled practice, qualification and of course the opening ceremony.
The XRAY Team showed good performance directly from the start with me leading free and controlled practice with my XRAY NT1 equipped with the new 2014 shocks that really helped with the hard and big controlled tires in 37 shore front and 40 shore rear. Also the other NT1 drivers seemed dialed in as Simon Wood (GB) as well as Dennis Sting (GER) Vincent Berthon (F) and Turco Brice (F) making it 5 XRAY NT1 in the Top 10 after practice.
(click to enlarge)
On Friday I was holding provisional TQ with 2 Qualifications left for Saturday morning which under cooler conditions giving the chance of faster times letting the overall TQ open. On the final qualifier unfortunately I made a mistake in the last lap as I thought I had already finished and thus loosing the TQ spot falling back to 3rd.
Finals set off with semi finals and 11 drivers. While in the semi final B the XRAY NT1 drivers Berthon, Turco and Wood all making the final with a flawless 58 Laps ride I was into the faster semi final A. Keeping up with TQ man Joe Kerry right from the start I made a mistake coming onto the straight getting my body tuck which was needed to be fixed by a marshal. From there on I drove a save race securing 2nd spot for the 45 minute Final encounter. Also from the semi A: Dennis Sting and Peter Spratley gained their ticket to the main with their XRAY cars. So we had 6 XRAY cars in the main fi-nal of the B-Euros.
(click to enlarge)
From the start of the main final Joe Kerry and I break-away from the field very early. I was a bit faster and trying to find a way past the young Brit but he keeps the inner line very closed. As I had no me-chanic for the finals I got help from the Spanish XRAY distributor Micromodel and Carlos in person who organized two very good and cool pitmen for me. After we pit in and out at the same time I was able to take the lead on the 3rd pit stop immediately put a comfortable margin between me and the chasing field. The final saw different strategies in fuel and tire-stops. While we changed all four tires at about half-time, Dennis Sting planed to only change left side and Wood even made the final with no tire change. The end of the final saw some mix-up with marshals running all over the track making it bit thrilling last minutes but in the end I was able to win the EFRA Euro-B title with two laps in front of Joe Kerry and Simon Wood in the same lap.
(click to enlarge)
1/10 IC 200mm EFRA European B Championship top 10:
1. Thilo Alexander Toedtmann - XRAY NT1
2. Joe Kerry 3. Simon Wood - XRAY NT1
4. Victor Pelaez Olivares 5. Dennis Sting - XRAY NT1
6. Vincent Berthon - XRAY NT1
7. Turco Brice - XRAY NT1
8. Alex Thurston
9. Jose Miguel Blanco Ballester 10. Peter Spratley - XRAY NT1
It was a very enjoyable week for everyone involved and, of course, especially for me as the weather and atmosphere was perfect and the dedicated work I did to improve me and my car finally turned to account.
Next race will be the 2nd round of the Euro-Nitro-Series which will already be held next weekend on the track of MAC Aigen-Schlägl in Austria.