| Race report by John Ermen |
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Round 3 of the Dutch Nationals was held last weekend at my home track. All went well and I finished 1st overall.
On Friday we were at the track running in some engines. Because Rucphen is my home track, we needed to do some minor setup tweaks due to changing track conditions, but the car was running well.
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On Saturday the track was somewhat different than on Friday, and we noticed other drivers such as Steven, Robin and Rick all doing fast lap times under 13 seconds. We tried some different set-ups on the car to make it easier to drive and were looking for some little bit of extra speed, so we tested some engine/exhaust combinations and some other gearing. At the end of the day we also could do constant lap times of 12.9-13.0 seconds, so all was good for the race on Sunday.
In the first qualification round, I drove a steady race just to set a time and improve later on. Later it seemed that this was the fastest heat and track was perfect in the first round. In the second and third rounds, I tried some minor set-up changes, but because of the track conditions I did not improved my times. After three rounds I had the 4th qualification time and was placed directly into the final.
After 3 rounds of qualifying the standing were:
1. Robin D'Hond
2. Rick Vrielijnck XRAY RX8
3. Stefan Cuypers
4. John Ermen XRAY RX8 |
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At the start of the final, Rick, Steven and I were pulling away from the rest of the field. Robin had some problems at the start and had to retire after a few laps. Before the first pit-stop, Steven also had some technical issues and could not continue the race. My engine was leaning out a little beat just before the first fuel stop and we needed to adjust it. Also, Rick needed to adjust his engine during the first pit-stop and we managed to take over the lead during this pit stop. Rick and I were on the same pit-stop strategy and we both refueled at 3.5-4 minutes.
Gunther â“ who was pitting at 4.5-5 minutes â“ had some advantages during the race because of fewer fuel stops. But after the halfway mark, and after a very fast tire change by my pit crew, we managed to pull away from Gunther and Rick who were in 2nd and 3rd places. At 10 minutes before the end, Rick had some technical problems and had to retire. Gunther took over 2nd spot again but was 1 lap down from me. At just 5 minutes before the end, Gunther had a flame-out and I had 2 laps up on Frank. From there on I could take it easy and took the win by 2 laps ahead of Frank and 8 laps ahead of Gunther.
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| Final standings: |
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1. John Ermen XRAY RX8
2. Frank Baggen
3. Gunther van Steay
4. Donny Blommers
5. Daan Halling
6. Rick Vrielijnck XRAY RX8
During this weekend we improved our times every time we ran on the track. In the final, everything worked as it should have⦠perfectly!
I would like to thank my dad, Ismail for pitting, and Arco for the really fast tire change during the final. I would also like to thank my sponsors for their support: XRAY, R&B Products, Team Titan/Blitz, Contact Tires, Tornado Fuel, RC Car Colour and RC Connect.
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