The European Championship B was held on June 8-10 in OberbĂĽhren (Switzerland). A lot of drivers from Europe came to the race.
For me it was the first time at a European Championship. We arrived at the track on Thursday, glued some tyres, and worked on my set-up. Rain began suddenly, and it rained all night.
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On Friday morning it was still raining, but it stopped at 10AM. The track was very wet, and the crew from MORC was very disappointed because they worked very hard on the track. My first training was very bad; I used bad tyres so I changed to Jolly from GRP because it was very dirty now. The second training went very well.
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Results after training:
1. DARAS Alejandro
2. ORTEGA Edu 3. WILLIAMS Ben XRAY XB9
4. DIAS Carlos
5. FIGUEIREDO Joao Carlos
6. ANGER Thomas
7. BADER Valentin 8. TRINKO Alexander XRAY XB9
9. SARTEL Jean-Pierrick
10. BETHKE Luca
I think it was very unfortunate that some drivers didn´t drive or come on Saturday, but I was still happy with the results!
On Saturday morning the track was again very wet. During Q1 and Q2, I drove very badly. I tried some different tyres but they were not so good. But then for Q3 and Q4 the track dried up, and during both I was very nervous.
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Result after Qualifications:
1. MAGI Alessandro
2. PITTET Jeremy 3. STOCCO Alessandro XRAY XB9
4. WILLIAMS Ben XRAY XB9
5. ZANCHETTIN Alex
6. JOHANSSON Mikael
7. STETTLER Marco
8. SCHIMIDLIN Yves
9. SCHĂ–NINGER Steven
10. BARUFFOLO Marco 11. Trinko Alexander XRAY XB9
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On Sunday, I started at the 256 A Final. There it rained so much but I won the final. Then I started at the 128 A Final among good drivers. I made fewer mistakes and finished 3rd. At the 64 A Final I drove very well again but the others were faster than me. I finished the 64 A Final at position 10.
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Final Results:
1. MAGI Alessandro
2. PITTET Jeremy 3. WILLIAMS Ben XRAY XB9
4. JOHANSSON Mikael
5. ZANCHETTIN Alex
6. TRUMAN Tony
7. LEWIS Michael
8. ROCA Martin 9. REBELO Nuno XRAY XB9
10. NAVARRO Albert 11. Trinko Alexander XRAY XB9
Congratulations to Ben Williams for the 3rd place!
And thanks to all the Team XRAY.
Race report by Ben Williams
The weather was very poor with heavy rain for most of the event - the organisers doing a fantastic job to keep the meeting running. A big thanks must to them.
The Xray XB9 ran faultlessly all weekend and proved itself to be more than a match for the constantly changing conditions.
The early rounds of Practice were cancelled as the track was flooded so we were left with one shot at getting a good Heat seeding. Ben pulled it all together and a 3rd in Round and a fastest lap give him a good Seeding position for the important Qualifying Heats.
A 9th overall in Round 1 followed by a 6th in Round 2 put Ben straight into a guaranteed semi-final. This gave us the luxury of being able to try adjustments/tweaks to match the changing track as it was starting to get very rough.
A touch of Kick-up was added to the front and diff oils weights increased all around - the XB9 proving very 'tuneable'. Any small change being instantly noticed. The various changes worked with another 6th Overall in Round 3 followed by a 3rd Overall in Round 4 putting Ben 3rd Overall after Qualifying.
With the Top 6 from each Semi-final going into the A Main, Ben started 2nd and drove a safe, controlled race to finish 2nd and guarantee a starting towards the front of the grid for the final.
After starting from 4th Ben got wiped out in the first few corners, right back to last with the leaders almost coming up to lap him. But 45 minutes is long time and Ben stuck at it and worked his way back up the field to finish a brilliant 3rd Overall.
The last 5 minutes have been immortalized on Video https://vimeo.com/43889359
Ben said that the XB9 was so stable and predictable he was able to push really hard and use all the power of the Bullitt 218B engine, the AKA tyres providing just the right amount of traction and grip without feeling 'edgy'.
He added his thanks to Micke Johanssen for a fantastic, hard, but very fair race.
