This years European Championship for the 40+ generation of RC-racers was hosted by the RCCLyon in the south of France.
Arriving on late Monday together with my mechanic Merlin Depta we found not only best weather conditions, we found also a wonderful track - smooth, good grip and all kinds of straights, curves and chicanes we like. This promised nice RC-car driving for the next days.
Practice sessions
From the beginning of the practice it was clear that my basic setup will work properly, only some minor adjustments we did. Due to the fact the list of competitors in 1/10 class was short a qualification for the main was not a concern. With the experience from last year â“ what is the best tire strategy for the long final? - we began to focus on this. Learning that tires were working still well with smallest diameters the major change was to increase the ride height to have sufficient ground clearance. A good base for a long final without tire change.
One day later on Wednesday my team-mate and vice-champion from last year Hartmut Rose together with his famous mechanic Bertram Kessler arrived. At the beginning there was a major gap between his lap times and mine but some 75 ccm later he was on the same page as well as the others. Best lap times made not the difference. The difference was more the level of constant low lap times.
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Qualification heats
There were 4 rounds of qualification of 7 minutes as usual at EFRA events. The first 2 were started on Thursday afternoon and were won by me with small but hard tires. We would like to learn more about tire wear. The 3rd was scheduled for Friday morning and should be the fastest. For this we prepared a set of qualifiers â“ soft and small. Again the fastest time and the only run with 23 rounds. It seemed this was the TQ and we prepared a set of tires for the last heat usable for the final to test the performance of the car with huge tires. Is there any risk for traction rolling? Good news â“ no tendency for traction rolling and still good lap times. We ended this heat as 3rd, nobody was able to beat the 23 laps. First goal was reached: TQ!
Hatmut was on 4th position after the qualification, but it was crystal clear â“ this position showed not his real potential. He and Bertram would find a way to close the small gap for the main.
Top 3 after qualification
1. Bernd Hasselbring / Xray NT1
2. Thomas Esposito
3. Christian Lehnherr
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Main Final
Strategy for the final was decided â“ no stop for tire change and tire wear showed us there is no need to cruise. Before the start we have had a time out from 3rd positioned Christian Lehnherr. Hartmut was one position closer before we started. Unfortunately we were not able to go really for 5 minutes with my engine. We tried with the first stint what could be possible, but no chance. That brought Hartmut into the lead. While the next stints the lead changed again and again depending on who visited the pits for refuelling. The pit work was perfect from Merlin as well as from Bertram â“ this made not the difference. Fortunately I was able to run a little bit faster than Hartmut, only a 10th of a second but enough to compensate the additonal stop for refuelling. After the 2nd last stop I was in the lead of about 1 second when I heard Hartmut talking about problems with his drivetrain and entering the pits again for a check. This was the decision and I started to cruise to secure the victory. Goal reached â“ again European Champion 40+!
Without the technical concern from Hartmut I am sure it would have been a thriller for the remaining minutes. Having a look onto the tires after technical inspection we were sure the better end would be with me also.
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Top 3 final
1. Bernd Hasselbring / Xray NT1
2. Helli Spreng 3. Hartmut Rose / Xray NT1
Finally I would like to thank Merlin for his perfect pit job and the valuable consulting concerning set up and strategy as well as the entire team of the RCCL for hosting this event. I recommend this club for further races and I would like to come back.
