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News  Racing
XRAY Off-Road Challenge 2004 in Rheinberg, Germany |
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| The 2004 XRAY Challenge indoor off-road event took place at the Rheinberg Toy Fair, on an indoor carpet track with several tricky jumps and bumps. The Orion Speed Weekend 1/10th electric event took part door-to-door, which enabled some drivers to participate in both events. Overall there were over 100 drivers! |
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| After four practice heats on Friday, all drivers were well prepared for the four qualification heats, where two best finishes counted for the ranking. There was no top qualifier, so all finalists had to prove their skills in a 20 minute semi-final. During qualification, local driver and ex-World Champion Daniel Reckward set the pace with his Kyosho, followed by Mikael Palsson with his Mugen and European Vice-Champion Samuele Lenzi from Italy also with a Kyosho. The fastest XRAYs were driven by 1/5th scale multiple champion Markus Feldmann in position 8 and Dario Vita in position 9. XRAY works driver Jilles Groskamp and special guest Marc Rheinard proved their ability to drive any car or racing class by qualifying in the top 30 in position 28 and 29 with their XB8 buggies. |
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| By that time XRAY's first victory was by the sheer number of XB8 pilots that had entered the race. With 24 of 100 drivers using this outstanding new product just a few weeks after hitting the shops, XRAY's XB8 Nitro Buggy stood on an equal level with more well-established products offered by Kyosho and Mugen. |
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| With it's dealers network and personally represented by Andreas Giesa, Germany's XRAY distributor (SMI), serviced the event with spare parts and Setup/Teamwork. All Team XRAY drivers and customers worked closely together, using all of the tuning options the standard kit brings with it, and also using various brands of tires. |
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| Markus Feldmann's father (Dieter), unhappy with the qualification result, left the track early to work on the car⦠arriving Sunday morning with several changes that showed great promise. While the sub-finals went on, Markus prepared himself for the semi-final "Training Session" and all watched Marc Rheinard and Jilles Groskamp working their way up through the finals like hot knifes through soft butter. |
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After the 1/8 Final it looked as if Marc could no longer take part because his car-share partner Kai Maschler had an engine defect. But it was not hard to find a new XB8 for the current 1/10th scale World Champion. As if he had been using this car for years, again he made his way up and reached the semi-final. XRAY star Jilles Groskamp also showed excellent talent and did the same as Marc did. In his first off-road race he made it into the semi-final. Well done guys!
By that time Markus had set new standards on the track. In the practice for the semi-final he showcased the XB8 by setting the first laptimes under 29,00 sec, which was 2 sec faster than his best times on Saturday and about 0,5 sec faster then the rest of the field. He was able to repeat this performance in the first semi-final and left no chance for anybody to follow him. After 20 minutes, Markus' XB8 was 1.5 laps up on 2nd place driver Mikael Palsson. The new lap record was now 28.6 sec and Markus was the only one during the semi-finals to do a 28 sec lap. Very important, he did this lap in the last minute of the race, proving the consistency of the car and the easy way it handled. |
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| In the semi-final A there were no other drivers that could match Markus' performance. European Vice-champion Samuele Lenzi was more than one lap down, showing Markus' impressive performance. Not only had the public noticed the gap that Markus had opened up between himself and the rest of Europe's top drivers, but the other teams also noticed⦠and now tried to find new set-ups in the 20 minutes they had left before the start of the 45 minute final race. |
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Marc Rheinard and Jilles Groskamp had found their masters in the semi-finals, but with heads held high they left the track and we all hope to see them coming back and show what they learned in these 3 days.
The finals line up reads like a "who's who" in off-road:
1. Markus Feldmann (XRAY)
2. Samuele Lenzi (Kyosho)
3. Mikael Palsson (Mugen)
4. Daniel Reckward (Kyosho)
5. Florian Schönstein (Bergonzoni)
6. Maximilian Cordts (Kyosho)
7. Tim Bremicker (Kyosho)
8. Tobias Deicke (Crono)
9. Christian Warda (Mugen)
10. Lars Neumann (HoBao)
The race started with the top 5 drivers making a good, clean start. Markus did not risk too much and so Samuele Lenzi came pretty close to his gearbox in the first lap. With a clean style, making absolutely no mistakes and driving 28 sec laps one after another like a robot, Markus Feldmann pulled away from Lenzi opening a big gap just after a few laps. Only Daniel Reckward was able to nearly compete with the XB8's speed. He overtook Palsson and Lenzi and chased Markus with an amazing style of driving, risking everything not to finish in 2nd place. But Markus was just more consistent, making no mistakes and after 7 minutes he had 8 seconds ahead of Danie in 2nd place. The first pitstop went without problems. Anke Kessler and Jirka Hassel did a perfect job as his pit crew refueling him and updated him about the race progress. Daniel followed Markus into the pits in the same lap which meant he was on the same strategy. After 2.5 years in which Feldmann had not competed in off-road he was back, stronger than ever, controlling the race with 15 seconds in advance after the 3rd stop, but by that time there were strange noises coming from his car. It went well for a few more laps but then after 26 minutes his car stopped with a broken clutchbell gear. Daniel Reckward took the lead and won the race ahead of Mikael Palsson and Tim Bremiker. Congratulations to all Finalists, the Podium Finishers, and the winner. |
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| Markus finished in position 8 which is not a result to advertise, but the way he dominated the semi-finals as well as the final was impressive enough to shock Europe's off-road elite. In combination with 100% satisfied customers this result was a great success for XRAY. The car is bullet proof, easy to drive and set up, pure fun to drive it, and extremely easy to work on. Thanks also go to XRAY in the 1/8 off-road no longer has to live with compromises. |
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This exciting 1/8 off-road event will be on my timetable in 2005 as often as possible. All drivers' thanks go to a fantastic organization and race leader Markus Dinkhoff with his crew which prepared a perfect track and managed the race with the right feeling for a hard hand and fun factor. An event like this would not have been possible without sponsors. XRAY and SMI took a chance that other manufacturers and distributors left unused. Many thanks also to XRAY and SMI for making Rheinberg 2004 possible.
Finals results were:
1. Daniel Reckward (Kyosho)
2. Mikael Palsson (Mugen)
3. Tim Bremicker (Kyosho)
4. Christian Warda (Mugen)
5. Tobias Deicke (Crono)
6. Samuele Lenzi (Kyosho)
7. Maximilian Cordts (Kyosho)
8. Markus Feldmann (XRAY)
9. Lars Neumann (HoBao)
10. Florian Schönstein (Bergonzoni)
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