| Race report by Thomas GĂĽnsel |
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Last weekend the 3rd qualification round for the German nationals took place in Rosenheim at the track of the MRT Rosenheim.
When we arrived at the track Friday morning we started with the same setup as last weekend at the 2nd round because we were very satisfied with it. At first I focused on preparing the engines. The other participating XRAY drivers - Sebastian Feller, Sebastian Eder, and Robert Pietsch - helped me get the best out of the engines because that weekend none of my usual supporters Michael Heinrich (MH Motortuning) and Bertram Kessler (SMI) - took part in the race.
A big thanks to the 3 drivers who helped me, the "electronic car driver," out a lot. Now that we had everything set up, we could start practicing. I started testing various roll center positions, camber links, etc. and together with Sebastian Eder the whole team worked together very well. At the end of the day we were very satisfied with our cars and it showed that we were very competitive, so we were fairly optimistic about the race on the next days. |
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XRAY Team drivers
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Saturday morning began with the timed practice and Robert Pietsch proved his racing skills and that he would be the hardest one to beat on his home track. Now we just concentrated on testing different tires, clutch adjustment, and 2nd gear.
In the afternoon there were two qualification rounds on the agenda. At this time, some drivers still had trouble getting over 5 minutes of runtime. But at the end of the day with had three XRAY NT1's in front: Robert Pietsch followed by Sebastian Feller and myself. Sunday morning, in the last 2 qualification rounds, there were only small changes in the ranking list. I was able to pass Sebastian so I qualified 2nd.
Therefore three XRAY were directly qualified for the final and Sebastian Eder started from 1st place in 1/2 final A. He won his heat, beating every by 2 laps. So we had all participating XRAYs in the Top 5. |
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Before the finals, we set up the cars to be as well prepared as possible. At this point we didn't have any technical problems with the cars, nor any broken parts. This proved again the great quality of the NT1.
Now the finals started. Robert Pietsch had a great start and was leading the race. Sebastian Eder got in trouble when his engine went off right at the beginning, so he lost a lot of time. I struggled a little bit in the beginning, allowing Sebastian Feller to pass me. But after 3 minutes I passed him again into 2nd position and pulled away. Later he crashed with another car and lost his 3rd position. After 15 minutes we had Robert in front followed by Thomas GĂĽnsel one lap behind and Sebastian Feller who was back in 3rd place after some trouble of the other drivers. Now we just drove the race to the end and everybody saved their positions. We ended up with Robert and Thomas, followed by Sebastian Feller. After the problems in the beginning S. Eder showed his racing skills too so he ended up in a good 5th position.
1. Robert Pietsch, XRAY NT1
2. Thomas GĂĽnsel, XRAY NT1
3. Sebastian Feller, XRAY NT1
4. Gunther MĂĽrdter,
5. Sebastian Eder, XRAY NT1
6. Reto König,
7. Christian Unger,
8. Klaus Lechner,
9. Mark Pearson,
10.Frank Hertel, |
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