On Sunday, January 21, 2007, Team BulkHeads attended the 1500-round endurance race of Groningen (The Netherlands) with a fully-prepared XRAY T2. It was expected that the race would take approximately 5 hours. Drivers included Jan van Steeg (Dutch National Champion stock 2006), Richard Arts, Ronald Arts, and Joep Willemsen.
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The rules were simple. EFRA body & car rules, no motor limit (brushless not allowed), 6-cell packs, no LiPo. There were seven competing teams with a total of 27 drivers.
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The only real change we made to the T2 was a quick battery change system. This resulted in pit stops which took less than 6 seconds every 8 to 10 minutes. We used a 12-turn V2 motor. The tires we used did not have much grip, but at least we were able to last the 1500 rounds.
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We decided that a good qualifying was not important and took 3rd place on the starting grid. At 11 oâ™clock the race started and Jan immediately took the 2nd position. After approximately 80 minutes we were still able to follow the race leaders (RC Shop ROAL) with a gap of only a few laps. Around that time a slower competitor made a steering error and after the ensuing crash we suffered a broken layshaft. But after driving (or should we say battling) with the car it was obvious the problem was bigger. After close inspection we quickly discovered and changed a broken C-hub. The gap with the leaders grew (by the two stops) to around 60 laps and the Hang Loose team (position 3) became very close to us.
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The rest of the race went beautifully⦠everything went well, the car was stable and predictable, and the other team suffered some problems (e.g., overheated motors, tire wear) and we were able to drive away from the Hang Loose team (position 3) and close the gap a little with RC Shop ROAL (leaders).
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After a little more than 5 hours, RC Shop ROAL finished their 1500 rounds first with us only 36 laps behind. Hang Loose finished 3rd with the fourth place team only 4 four rounds behind them!
Ronald, Richard, Joop, Joep & Jan (click to enlarge)
We would like to thank Erna & Jaap Buining for organizing this event at their fabulous track in Groningen. We are looking forward to the 2008 event at their new location.
It was a nice event and the XRAY T2 proved again to be a strong and reliable car.
