Because of the fact that XRAY is producing the 1/8th IC track RX8 (in addition to the 1/10th IC track NT1) I was excited to be able to participate in the 1/8th class. Unfortunately the Swiss RC Car Association decided to merge both classes to one date. It is very stressful to participate in both classes but I was highly motivated to accept this challenge. Therefore I started in both categories; in 1/8th class I have to drive in Class 2 because I had driven my last race in this category 4 years ago.
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On the weekend of April 30â“May 1, 2011 there was the first round of the Swiss Nationals at the Aigle track. Open practice started on Friday at 2:00PM. After some laps with the RX8 I decided to interrupt my practice because of the very bad track conditions. Due to some testing on another race track I had a good set-up and could wait until 4:00PM for better conditions. The RX8 was working very well and was just a little bit too aggressive in steering input, so changing the servo saver from position 4 to 3 solved the problem.
Now I had to test the NT1. I had a good starting set-up from last year and hence the car was working very well.
On Saturday morning there was one round of controlled practice which I stayed away from because of the challenge of driving two different cars one right after the other.
The RX8 was great in the qualification and I secured TQ and was directly qualified into the A-main. The NT1 was a different story. Because of the lack of time for testing this car the NT1 was not as good as I was used to. I could only take 3rd spot. This year there were no drivers directly qualified into the main final, so therefore I changed some details for the semi final. Now the car was working as good as usual and I secured the TQ for the A-main by winning my semi-final.
It was a high-thrilling A-main because of my worthy adversary Marc Heim. He had calculated the tyre-diameter just a little bit too small and he didnâ™t have enough rubber left for the last lap in which I could overtake him.
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Right after the final 1/10th I had to come into the pit to change cars. My mechanic Monika took the successful NT1 off the track and put the RX8 on. There was no time to relax because there was no break between my two finals. Right after leaving the pit lane I recognized there was something wrong with the car. The car was very, very nervous to drive and the engine did not fully unfold his power. I had no idea what was wrong with the car but I had to drive to starting grid. Because of the bad handling I could not control my car perfectly and I destroyed it on the wall. Checking the car at home I found the problem: cecause of the many changes of programs in my transmitter the binding of transmitter and receiver failed. Just rebinding them again was all that was needed!
The second driver of the RX8, Tom Knorn, had bad luck by not being able to start the final due to transmitter problems.
The winner of Class 2 was Marc Sengstag ahead of Theo Giannakos and Martin Wirtz. Congratulations to the drivers!
1/10th final results:
1. Schär Traugott XRAY NT1
2. Heim Marc XRAY NT1
3. Reiser Marco XRAY NT1
4. Pluemjit Kitisak 5. Christian Lehnherr XRAY NT1
6. Bonetti Giovanni
7. Felix Reto
8. Lackner Shasa 9. Meier Matthias XRAY NT1
10. Ackermann Monika XRAY NT1
1. Sengstag Marc
2. Giannakos Theo
3. Wirz Martin
4. Hulliger Hans Peter
5. Biernat Christopher
6. Hajdekr Ales
7. Schläpfer Roland
8. Noirat Jeremy 9. Schär Traugott XRAY RX8
10. Knorn Tom XRAY RX8
