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| Race report by Reno Savoya |
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After 2005, the Reims EMC will be the host of the 2013 European Championships. As the clay is very unique there, it was really good to be part of the race and get the most of it to work on tires and car. We could register data and getting ready as much as possible for next year already!
The attendance was pretty low as many european drivers were having there nationals on the same week end. Just a few Germans and Spaniards made the trip to France and compete with the top french drivers. Thanks to that, we could practice more than 1 hour before the start of qualifications!
During practices, I tested many things on camber link positions, anti-squat bushings in order to get more grip out of my tires on this very slippery track!
From one compound to another, sometimes the difference was more than 1 second per lap!
I also tried active diff in the front with 5 000 silicone oil. It gave me same low speed steering, but I had more on power steering which was really good as the track is always really high speed.
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The qualifications went pretty good as I was always really close to TQ each round! I could wrap up Q2 and Q5, but 1sec back in Q4 cost me the overall! Yannick Aigoin TQed and Sartel ended up 3rd.
All the french Xray team worked hard to get the proper tyre set-up for those conditions, and most of them got it during finals!
Quentin Le-gall is really getting used to his new ride and bumped up from quarters to semi, then in the main to finish 11th overall!
For me, everything started great as I won my semi with nearly one lap over the field! As there was some rain before semi A, the officials decided to equalize the grid and mix the result of both semis to determine the positions for the final.
I inherited of number 1 as I set the fastest time on the 30 mins semi. I was on the lead and started to pull out before first refueling when my engine died. I lost some time there and went back to 2nd just behind Yannick. The positions changed a little during 10 minutes as Yannick also flamed out during one pit stop. At the 20 minutes mark, I was just behind the lead when I suffered electrical problems. We unplugged the receiver, changed the battery and went back on the track. Not knowing what happened as I'm still using this battery now and it's fine! Motorsport racing! ;-)
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| I pushed as much as I could to come back from 11th to 7th after the one hour long final. |
| Final results: |
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1. Yannick Aigoin
2. Daniel Reckward
3. Jerome Sartel
4. Borja Hernandez
5. Julien Lattanzio
6. Romain Valter
7. Reno Savoya XRAY XB9
8. Lorenzo Crolla
9. Jerome Couchon
10. Rayan Medjoubi
11. Quentin Le Gall XRAY XB9
12. Tony Robin |
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