Last weekend Louis and me travelled to the beautiful indoor track in Göttingen to take part in the German 4WD 1/10 Nationals.
This would be Louis his last National stock race, before making the step to Modified.
Surely Louis his goal was to win, but with ETS superstar Sören Sparpier and Xray's very well talented Aaron Waitz that goal surely would not be easy.
Friday was all practice. We went there before to practice, so the basic setup was good already. During the day we just made minor changes, like shortening the wheelbase, going from 4 dots to 5 dot springs at the front and flattening the rear wing.
This helped to rotate the car better, as the Göttingen track has lots of tight turns. Focus surely was on driving and being consistent for the long 7 minute runs.
Louis did really well and improved a lot during the runs. At the end he was fastest on three laps average, which meant he was the top-seed.
Qualifying started a bit unfortunate. In the first qualifier he was taken out by a backmarker, while leading 4 seconds in the race. In the next qualifier the nerves kicked in a bit, that meant he was 2nd behind Sören, closely followed by Aaron. The last three qualifiers were flawless. Louis got it all together and dominated those in great style. This meant he started from pole. 2nd was Sören, 3rd was Aaron that came closer and closer to Sören.
At the sound of the tone the first A-main went off. The three top guys were closely together. Louis knew Sören was fast at the begin of the run, so he needed
to stay on the raceline. At the two minute mark Louis checked out and had a gap on Sören, which he could hold until the end. Aaron finished 3rd, being close to Sören for most of the time, but unlucky whilst lapping others.
The second A-main went even better. This time Louis checked out immediatley and won by a 4 second gap. There it was, the win he wanted and worked hard for over the last 2 years. Gotta say this was pretty emotional. Sören finished 2nd, Aaron this time a closer 3rd.
Louis set out the last main. He was afraid something could happen by accident to influence the fight for 2nd.
The last main was a superb race between Sören and Aaron. Fair and superclose racing. A great move from Aaron at the closing stages of the main gave him the win in the main. Awesome drive Ari! Nevertheless this gave Sören 2nd place overall, as the had better point results.
Louis wants to thank the whole Xray crew in Slovakia and in Germany as well. That XB4 2025 simply is a rocketship of a car. Also the teamwork at the track itself was superb!
