Team Sheperd and the âśwhoâ™s whoâť of the GP RC car scene came up with the idea to arrange a European Nitro Challenge. In looking for the right spot, they sure did a good job. The event was given to the RC-Car Club of Hockenheim â“ directly on the ground of the famous Formula 1 circuit at Hockenheimring / Germany. They did an exceptional job in preparing the race track and organizing a special event to remember.
There were four classes: 1/8 and 1/10 Hobby Cup (using Novarossi basic type motors) and the Nitro Challenge 1/8 and 1/10 open classes.
In the 1/8 Nitro Challenge open class it was Austrian driver Gerhard Kandelhart who did a superb job in piloting his XRAY RX8 / GT 7 around the track. He drove a great race and ended up in 4th position overall. Jung German Tobias Hepp did also a great job and ended with his RX 8 (powered by an Orcan GT 7) in 5th position.
Dirk Wischnewski fought the whole weekend to find a good set-up in the 1/10 open class. He managed to qualify 4th and go directly into the finals. Dirk was driving an XRAY NT1 powered by a Novarossi engine and running on Matrix tyres. In the final he had some troubles so he came in a disappointing (for him) 5th position.
In the 1/8 Hobby Cup class it was Nobert Mayrhofer who took the victory.
The 1/10 Hobby Cup class saw a good race between Alexander Kempe and a new member of Team XRAY Germany, Marcus May. Marcus dominated the qualifying all the way through until the last round where he had some clutch troubles and so could not start. Alexander used this opportunity to top the best time by Marcus by a couple of hundredths of a second. Therefore the final saw Alexander on pole followed by Marcus in 2nd. Just as the race got started Marcus was able to put pressure on Alexander. Alexander got into trouble just a few seconds into the race and had to pit very soon. Marcus took this chance to take the lead, and he never gave it up again. When leading by more than 4 laps he decided to slow down the pace and take home the victory. At the end Marcus finished with a 2 lap lead over 2nd place Markus Spaniol, another German XRAY NT1 driver. The podium was completed by 3rd place Sacha VorgrĂĽmler.
Marcus was very happy about his first victory for Team XRAY Germany and also was very glad about the performance of his XRAY NT1 (running on ATS tyres) throughout the weekend. Maybe, just maybe we might see a lot more of this guy in the near future.
(click to enlarge)
1/10 final results
1. May, Marcus XRAY NT1
2.Spaniol, Markus XRAY NT1
3. VorgrĂĽmler, Sascha
