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I was very happy to see that the MRC Longwy in France organized a Friendship Race at the same location where I took part last year at the Grand Prix de 3 Frontieres. I knew that many friends from Luxembourg, France and Germany would take part, so I decided to go there for the race. There were 63 entrants in 5 classes.
Free practice started on Saturday afternoon, and the track was open until late at night. Because the track was a little bit bumpy, I knew that the most important thing would be to have a perfect damper setting.
I started with my set-up from the ETS race the week before, but I soon learned that this would not suit the track. So I went back to the basic set-up, and worked through a lot of damper settings. Both very hard shock oil and very soft shock oil did not work, and made the car jumpy over bumps and losing grip. I used 400 CSt oil all around, with zero rebound and holes in the cap, and the car was really fast and had a lot of grip. To make it easier to drive, I removed all the shims for bumpsteer and decreased front camber a little bit. Although this made the car understeer a bit, it was easier to drive and more consistent over 5 minutes. I returned to my hotel at midnight â“ earlier than most other drivers â“ because I felt my car was really good now.
After having finished qualifying on pole in the morning, I was confident that I could win the race. However, competition was strong as Loic Jasmin and Lucas Urbain are both very good drivers and only waited for me to make a mistake.
After about 1 minute I left the carpet with two wheels on the straight, which meant I lost a little bit of grip for the following corner, so I went too wide and Loic passed me. From then on I was on the same pace, trying to pass Loic while Lucas was trying to pass me. It was a very close battle for about 3 minutes. Although my car was very good and fast on the straight, it was impossible to pass. Then in the last minute, it seemed I could pass Loic because he was very slow on the straight but we touched, my car spun and Lucas won the main in front of me while Loic had to give up with his dumped battery.
In the second Final I hit a curb at corner entry and my car spun, and lost a few places. I could recover to the 3rd spot, while Loic won the Final ahead of Dirk Rischard from Luxembourg in 2nd.
Before the last Final there were still 4 drivers who could win the race. I knew that to win I needed to win the Final and the time had to be faster than the times that Lucas and Loic had in the first and second Finals, which in effect meant I needed a perfect run and had to give everything.
Right from the start I took the lead, and in the first lap Loic had a crash behind me, so I had a small gap to Lucas who was behind me. Knowing that I had to push the whole 5 minutes I did not care about what was happening behind me, and fought my way through lapped cars. In the end my time was fast enough for the win, which was my first win with the new car in only its second race.
Results
A Main:
1. David Ehrbar XRAY T3'12
2. Loic Jasmin
3. Lucas Urbain
4. Dirk Rischard
5. Thomas Stenger
6. Marc Schilling XRAY T3'12
7. Jacky Mannes XRAY T3'12
8. Jacques Libar
9. Henri Mannes XRAY T3'12
10. Gaetan Pernet
11. Serge Boudet
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