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European Championship Warm-up - July 5-9, 2002
In three weeks' time, the Lostallo track in Switzerland will host the 2002 European Championship. We met with Jilles and his mechanic (his father) and with Martin to discuss testing of the XRAY T1 EVO2. The first day it rained from very early morning until evening, so we had time to work on the car, prepare tires, motors, etc. Saturday was practice day, and was part of the HPI Cup race. Besides the 1/10 electric category, there were other categories in the HPI Cup: Nitro 1/10, 1/8, 1/5. The organizers decided that due to the shortened time schedule, qualifiers would be skipped and only the 5 finals would take place; the best 3 results would be used to determine final standing. In the A Final, 15 drivers participated on the huge track. The best drivers all day were Jilles with the brand new XRAY T1 EVO2 and also Betticher with HPI prototype. Jilles had traffic troubles in the first final and finished third; Betticher finished first. |
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| In the second final Jilles got into first position, but again got contacted, this time by Martin who got a damaged tire. Jilles lost 3 seconds, and therefore finished 2nd ahead of Leino and Levanen. Jilles won the third and fourth finals. After the fourth final, Jilles was leading in front of Betticher, Leino, Levanen, but he still needed to win the last final to win overall. In the last final, Jilles did not use top batteries and this cost him the win as he dumped in the last lap. This put Jilles to second place ahead of Leino and Levanen. After the race we discovered that Betticher was using the new GP 3300 batteries, and Jilles and Martin were using standard Sanyo 3000s. |
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The new T1 EVO2 was working all day very consistently, even if the track had a lot of grip or even if it did not have any grip. Any other cars (except Betticher's HPI prototype) struggled during the day and got competitive only in the evening when the track was cold.
We continued testing Monday during very hot temperatures (the track was 30 - 55° C). Craig Drescher joined us for practice as well.
XRAY has tested the T1 EVO2 both with pivotball and also the optional C-hub suspension to get more information and better experience. Jilles raced with the pivotball suspension in front and C-hub suspension in the rear. The car was very fast in corners, very precise and easy to drive. The laptimes were amazing... 23.6 sec - 23.9 sec. The track record held by Teemu Leino was 23.76 sec from last year's warm-up. |
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On Tuesday we continued to test different suspension setups. We used the same setup, but added rear anti-roll bar for improved steering, and put 6 batteries along one side.
In conclusion, we are very confident that the car works superbly at this track (also generally of course); it is very fast, stable and consistent. We are very much looking forward to the 2002 European Championship!
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Juraj testing at the Lostallo track :o)
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The final results of the TOP 10 of the unoficial Euros Warm-up (HPI Cup).
1. Betticher Jean-Marc
2. Groskamp Jilles XRAY
3. Leino Teemu
4. Levaenen Juho
5. Schmid Lorenz
6. Myohanen Tomi
7. Hudy Juraj XRAY
8. De Liguori Giuseppe XRAY
9. Hudy Martin XRAY
10. Gennari Marco |
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