| Race report by John Ermen |
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Round 4 of the Dutch National was held the weekend of July 7-8 in the center of the country at the Utrecht track.
The weather forecast was not so good for Sunday but the weather on Friday and Saturday was nice and warm and we could do some serious testing. |
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On Friday I had some problems with the bumps on the track, but after trying some different shocks with more rebound in them, the car was a lot better.
On Saturday we got the car to my liking and tried some different bodyshells and engines. We were ready for Sunday.
On Sunday morning the weather forecast finally came through this year and it rained as predicted. Too bad the forecast was right, because rain makes it all about tires, keeping you engine running, and NOT having radio interference.
During the first round of qualifying, the track was wet and there were some puddles on the insides of corners⦠but it was drivable. A lot of people set their best time in the first round because during the other rounds the track was just too wet to improve and there was water all over the track. |
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After 3 rounds of qualifying the standings were:
1 Rick Vrielijnck XRAY RX8
2 John Ermen XRAY RX8
3 Arie Manten
4 Joey Sorber
5 Wesley van Silfhout
6 Martin Zevenhoven
7 Wim van der Wind
8 Niels Reijnders
9 Arco de Jong
10 Gunther van Staey |
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After the lunch break the sky cleared a bit and it seemed that the track was drying really fast. All the semi-finals were still wet. However, because of some delays after the semi-finals due to a protest, the track became fully dried so we could race the NOMAC and the NK final on a dry track.
At the start of the final all the cars were placed on the ground by the count of 3, but the start signal took a long time to sound and Rick moved a bit on the grid. This also caused Arie and myself to jump start, so the first 3 cars had a stop-n-go penalty for a jump start. From the moment the horn went off, we went into the first corner where I hit the inside curb and went off the track. It took a long time for the marshal to get me back on the track so I had a stop-n-go and lost almost a lap in the first lap of the final.
After 15 minutes of racing and just before the tire change I was back up to 2nd place behind Rick, but he had a 1.5 lap gap on me. With just 10 minutes to go Rickâ™s engine stalled and had to be brought back to the pit. From there on I took the lead and Gunther was following me, half a lap down. Because my tires were getting really small, Gunther was able to close the gap to about 2 sec. With only 1 minute to go Gunther was on my tail but unfortunately for him his front belt broke down and he had to retire the race just 1 minute before the end. Rick took 2nd place, and Gunther took 3rd despite his broken car.
Final Standings:
1 John Ermen XRAY RX8
2 Rick Vrielijnck XRAY RX8
3 Gunther van Staey
4 Arie Manten
5 Donny Blommers
6 Alex Everling
7 Joey Sorber
8 Daan Haling
9 Wesley van Silfhout
10 Glenn van Oversteeg |
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Another win for me this year, with two races remaining to go, and the no. 1 is still open. The next race will be at the beautiful track in Apeldoorn.
I would like to thank my sponsors for their support: XRAY, R&B Engines, Tornado Fuel, Contact Tires, Team Titan / Blitz and RC Connect.
Thanks to my final pit crew Ismail Ihsane and Arco de Jong who kept their heads cool and did some really nifty stuff during the tire change and refueling stops!
See you next time. |
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