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The 2007 European Championship returned to France after last year's Euros in Spain, where the Team XRAY did a fabulous job by capturing the European Championship title. The track is located in a beautiful area near a river and forest outside of a small city Auxere, 150km from Paris. This year the skills of every driver were verified by the very technical and super-fast flat track. The track was one of the most technical off-road tracks consisting of areas of very flat mud, parts with the bricks and stones, with other areas of super-smooth and slippery paving. Many of the off-road drivers used to large jumps commented this to be a more of a touring car track... which looked logical... as there was only one super-easy double jump and one large jump, the rest of the track was more less flat track. However, everyone who expected this to be an easy track found out that the opposite was true. With so many different parts of the track and the technical layout the cars were super-sensitive to setup. Even a small mistake on the track made a loss of tenths of places.

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Team XRAY made very extensive preparation for these Euros, participating at the warm-up race as well as making practice sessions to test and work on the setups. The XRAY support team was of course available at the Euros with the service vehicle fully loaded with spare parts as well as a promotion tent that showcased the entire product line. Every XRAY driver has received first class service and support during the whole week, getting the starting start-up package loaded with plenty of new parts and products for use as well as for further testing, as well as any other spare parts or option parts needed. The set-up sheets were available to all XRAY drivers and Yannick was the ultimate technical support person for any XRAY drivers with questions.

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The XRAY team consisted of drivers coming from France, UK, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland... making Team XRAY one of the largest and strongest teams. With the previous year's European Champion title and the recently-gained 2007 European Championship B title in hand, there were a lot of expectations on Team XRAY. On one side this was very positive and encouraging, while on the other side was the whole issue of pressure. However, the entire team did an excellent job during the whole week.

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Practice
The race started on Wednesday with two timed practice heats where Yannick Aigoin right away showcased his form and the performance of his RB-powered XRAY XB8EC. Yannick was over a second faster per lap than anyone else, pulling out at 10sec margin after the round. Jon Hazelwood was doing very well with the Italian drivers making very good lap times as well. The team had good practice rounds and was ready for the qualifiers.

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Qualifiers
The first qualifiers started on Thursday with Round 1 where Yannick right away set the pace, being the only driver to make 10 laps and assuring him TQ in the first round. As the weather was nice the traction and grip were increasing so very small changes were made to the set-up for Round 2 where Yannick again pushed his XB8EC into first place, taking his second win. Round 3 in the late afternoon was not so lucky for Yannick anymore as he became involved with heavy traffic and lost several seconds; Robert Battle from Spain won that round.

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Friday's weather started during the night; the heavy rain was not friendly at all however the organizer did an excellent job and covered the whole track to protect it as much as possible. The rain continued the whole morning and there was a lot of discussion if the remaining two qualifiers would be cancelled and all the final races would be run on Saturday... or if only one qualifier would be run... or if the race would continue even in heavy rain. Finally it was decided to continue to race and luckily the weather became nice again.

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The 4th run was not lucky for both Yannick and Jon who a lost few seconds on their roves while Michel Farrina had a very good result with his XB8EC which moved him into the semi-final. After the 4th run it was Yannick and Robert Battle with the same points and any of them could take TQ in the last 5th qualifiers. The last qualifier started very well for Yannick until a unlucky mistake in a returning corner where he flipped on the roof and lost almost 5 seconds. Afterwards he tried to push it and achieved a very good finishing time 5.01.997 seconds. If Robert wanted to take TQ he would have to make a better result and he knew it and so he pushed aggressively in his last run and managed to cross the line at the time of 5.01.495, a mere 0.5sec in front of Yannick, thus securing him the TQ position. It was definitely a thrilling moment and race of the day.

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Finals
After the qualifiers, from Team XRAY it was Yannick Aigoin and Michel Farina who qualified into the semi-final with Jon very narrowly missing the semi-final and starting in the quarter-final. After the very good run in the quarter-final, Jon bumped easily into the semi-final which meant the three XB8EC cars were in the semi-final to fight against the rest of the best European off-road drivers.

1. Robert Battle
2. Yannick Aigoin - XRAY XB8EC
3. David Tortorici
4. Renaud Savoya
5. Raul Peris
6. Daniel Vega
7. Philippe Lachat
8. Jerome Sartel
9. Guillame Vray
10. Jerome Aigoin
11. Robert Gustafsson
12. Joseph Quagraine
13. Michel Farina - XRAY XB8EC
14. Sebastein Leonard
15. Borja Hernandez
16. Ricardo Rabitti

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The first semi-final did not go well for Michel, and he did not manage to bump up. The second semi-final started horribly for Jon. Just before the track was opened Jon's mechanic realised there was some problem with the brakes; in fact it was a servo problem after Jon changed the servo after the quarter-final. As he would not be able to fix the problem quickly Jon used his right to ask for a time-out which automatically gave him a penalty and put him in the last starting position. After the problem was fixed the second semi-final started. Right from the beginning Yannick pulled away from the crowd and was unbeatable. After the second pit stop he was leading over 1 lap and it was obvious that if nothing unexpected happened he should have a very easy semi-final win and secure a starting position at the front of the final starting grid. However, no race is won unless you cross the finish line with checkered flags waving... and thus was the unbelievable unexpected bad luck that hit Yannick once again. All of a sudden his car did not move while the engine was still running and when the marshall brought his car to the pits it was noticed that the engine had moved and the clutch bell was not engaging the spur. Once again Yannick was dominating the race when bad luck struck him again and destroyed all his changes and unbeatable form and performance. The whole semi-final race was unlucky for the Team XRAY who after a very successful week did not move any XB8EC into the final. So at the end of the very successful week it was a very sad finish for the team, but of course this is racing and why any race result can change within a short moment.

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The final race was just one of the thrilling final races. With Yannick missing the final race it was a very strong and surprising fight. After losing the start of the race it was young Spanish driver Robert Battle who outperformed the rest by fighting from the very end of the field to gain total domination of the final race at the end - a well deserved win. Congratulation to the winner for outstanding performance in the final.

Final results:
1. Robert Battle
2. Renaud Savoya
3. Borja Hernandez
4. Miguel Matias
5. Philippe Lachat
6. Fabio Boero
7. Jerome Aigoin
8. Daniel Vega
9. Ricardo Rabitti
10. Davide Tortorici
11. Joseph Quagraine
12. Jerome Sartel

XRAY would like to thank all the XRAY drivers for the excellent teamwork and cooperation during the entire week and for all the efforts and energy. Thank you to the organizer for a very good race and of course thanks to all other teams for making this European Championship again very competitive and interesting which makes everybody enjoy this hobby and adrenaline-charged racing.

See you again at the next race and hopefully more good luck will be with us.

Enjoy the line-up photos from the start of the semi final race click to enlarge
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