Last weekend was Round 2 of the Dutch 200mm Nationals at the fast track in Rucphen. We all arrived on Saturday to start practice and to find a good setup for the races on Sunday. At the end of Saturday I was not yet happy with my setup. But, with no practice time left I could only hope for better on Sunday.
Maarten van Lierop (click to enlarge)
When we arrived on Sunday the weather was nice and everyone was ready for the qualifiers. Had some problems with my brakes and engine and came in for 3 or 4 times to be adjusted. For the second run I also changed the front diff to a solid axle. The car felt much better and easier to drive but I knew it was not fast enough. In the last run I pushed hard to set a good time. I set the 4th time, which put me directly into the final.
Top Qualifiers were :
1. Jordy Blok
2. Richard Keur
3. Remy Muller 4. Maarten van Lierop XRAY NT1
Maarten and his mecanic (his dad) (click to enlarge)
By the time the semi-finals started the weather changed and it started to rain. Everyone was preparing for wet conditions and started changing engines and setups. I was waiting to make changes until the last moment. When the final was only 20 minutes away I had to prepare my car for the rain. Because of the conditions the final was shortened to 20 minutes.
When we started the 3-minute warm-p the rain had stopped and the track started to dry rather
quickly. During warm-up Remy Muller asked for a 5-minute delay. Together with a new
warming-up we had 8 minutes and decided to change the setup for more dry conditions
My dad (my mechanic) and I started to work very hard and changed set up and tires and also mounted an other engine in less than 7 minutes (thanks for making this easy on the NT1).
(click to enlarge)
By the time we got back to the track there were only a few seconds left to get to the start grid. After the start I lost some time because of my decision to run a dry condition setup. After 4 minutes I was almost 2 laps behind the leader. But my lap times went down very fast. After 8 minutes I took the lead and it was clear that I was the only driver with a fast engine and a setup for dry conditions. After 20 minutes I finished a magic 9 laps ahead of Ruud Schuitemaker who took 2nd place. After all everything worked out well and I was happy with the result that brought me the first place in the Dutch Nationals after 2 rounds.
Final results round 2 :
1. Maarten van Lierop XRAY NT1
2. Ruud Schuitemaker
3. Bas Geurds
4. Fedor Eskens 5. Ruben dâ™Arco XRAY NT1
