| Race report by Joep Willemsen |
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The Dutch Nationals on July 29th was a special weekend for me personally, but also for a number of other modified drivers. A few of them reached the A-final for the first time. Saturday was a nice, dry, open training day, but Sunday (the race day) was very wet.
In open practice on Saturday I found a perfect setup with loads of mechanical grip and enough steering response in all corners. The trick of the track in Groningen is to find a perfect setup for fast sweeping corners and perfect balance in the car for one very tricky chicane. I used my setup from last year with the previous T2 as a basic setup. |
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Jan Mekenkamp
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I did experimented with the ESC (LRP Sphere TC) and motor (Team Orion Vortex 4,5T). I ran low timing on the motor, 6.8 FDR and punch program 7 & 8. I had no runtime issues and the punch and top speed were incredible. Lap times during Saturday were approx. 0.8sec slower than the â topâ™ guys; Iâ™m getting used to that, but every race the gap is getting smaller.
In my opinion the weather forecast for Sunday was perfect. The predictions was (heavy) rainfall without thunderstorms. Knowing that I can drive rather well in wet conditions, I went to sleep early to have a fresh/wet start in the morning. |
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Jan van Steeg & Erik Germeraad
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| Due to the bad weather forecast the number of attending modified drivers diminished from 35-40 down to 15, and from 30 to 17 in stock class. To prepare my car for the wet qualifiers I did not follow the standard rules. I left the setup unchanged including rather thick shock oil. I increased the ride height to 8~8.5 mm and changed the droop accordingly. I prepared a Team Orion Vortex 3.5T motor for wet conditions by putting lots of extra lube in the bearings and made the sensor as watertight as possible with petroleum jelly and putty. Furthermore I lowered the timing on the motor and decreased the punch on the ESC to 3. On all other electronics I used putty to waterproof it. And last but not least I used an inner body. |
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Bart Wubben in the wet
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Most of the drivers hoped for better weather and did not qualify until the last round. I took my chance and started with four other drivers under very wet conditions. My first qualifier was not a success since I had a hard time going smoothly on the throttle at the apex of each corner and I made some very cool, but time-consuming power slides and ended up doing 12 rounds. Only Rob Janssen did 13 rounds. I was 2nd after the first qualifiers.
To be able to get smoother pickup going on throttle I set up exponential throttle on my transmitter. |
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In the second qualifier I was on my way to making 13 laps, but 2-3m before the finish in my 12th lap my car suddenly went into failsafe mode and turned into the grass. This cost me my 13th lap and my A-final. In between the 2nd and 3rd qualifier I couldnâ™t find the cause of the problem and after a short test the car worked well again.
From the start of the 3rd qualifier my car did everything I didnâ™t want it to do. I had the same failsafe problem over and over and ended up doing 12 laps again. I ended up in 12th position... not what I had hoped for. |
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Marcel Pinkster
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mmediately after the last qualifier I dismantled all electronics and found a broken wire from the Spektrum micro receiver to the power capacitor. I realised that I broke it myself by applying a lot of pressure to it putting the inner body into my car before the 2nd qualifier.
With this knowledge and a second place in the B-final I had some difficulty to get my act together and dismantled my whole car. I did not start the finals and left the race proud, but with some pain.
For me it proved once again that driving in wet conditions is my thing and that it is possible with good preparations to do it with brushless equipment. |
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Rob Janssen & Bart Wubben
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Bart Wubben's borowed car
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The modified finals were dominated by Rob Janssen. Bart Wubben qualified in 2nd position with a stock car with a 19T brushed motor, saving his own car for the European Championship in France the coming weekend. But in both finals he was not able to hold his position using a 12T brushed motor compared to the other drivers with low-wind brushed motors.
Modified results
1. Janssen, Rob
2. Berg, Hugo van den
3. Wubben Bart (XRAY)
4. Leeuw, Huub van der
5. Lepelaar, Michael
6. Popken, Dennis
7. Jongenelis, Patrick (XRAY)
8. Mulder, Eric
9. Meurs, Peter
10. Thomson, Rick
11. Pinkster, Marcel
12. Koning, Stefan
13. Montfrooij, Leon
14. Willemsen, Joep (XRAY)
15. Oers, Benny van |
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In the first stock A-final Jan Mekenkamp finally had his first TQ. But disaster struck when he had to postpone the race with 5 minutes and had to start from 11th position, because his receiver stopped working. He was not able to fight his way back to the front of the field. The fight between 1st and 2nd place of the A-final was breathtaking and was finally won both times by Jan van Steeg.
Stock results
1. Steeg, Jan van
2. Germeraad, Erik (XRAY)
3. Streefkerk, Jeroen
4. Jochmann, Jaap (XRAY)
5. Miedema, Jitse (XRAY)
6. Lankreijer, Ron
7. Mekenkamp, Jan
8. Cees, Lagerwaard
9. Dragstra, Teun
10. Oei, Hans
11. Wee, Rogier ter
12. Verstraten, Niels (XRAY)
13. Oversloot, Richard (XRAY)
14. Kole, Remco
15. Pinkster, Jeroen (XRAY)
16. Hoor, Cor ten
17. Maassen van den Brink, Erwin (XRAY) |
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