|
(click to enlarge) |
|
| Race report by Jitse Miedema |
|
After previously having won 2 rounds of the Dutch National championships and just missing out on the overal win with my XRAY T4 2014, I decided to switch to Formula 1 last December when XRAY released their first F1 kit. I was able to get my hands on the very first XRAY X1 in The Netherlands when The-Border received the first batch from the XRAY distributor and after 2 hours of building I was already making the first laps on their indoor track.
I knew straight away that this switch had been a good choice. The T4 was great, but a 2WD car is harder on the driver and in Formula 1 it really comes down to the driver and his skills, and less to the car than it does with 4WD stock, where the carâ™s limit is a lot easier to find. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
The International Dutch F1 Masters on the MACH outdoor track was one of my first outdoor F1 races with the XRAY X1. After having driven the X1 on The-Borderâ™s indoor track for the past few months, I quickly noticed that the cross-chassis alignment I had been using indoors wasnâ™t suited for a large outdoor track. Luckily I had the entire Friday to practice with the rebuilt kit and the LiPo inline with the chassis. This change gave greater control and performance in the fast corners that the MACH features. The cross chassis alignment is much more aggressive, which is perfectly suited for a high grip track with low speed corners. However, the inline alignment provides better grip on a large track and much less wear and tear on the rear tyres.
After having tried out several setups on Friday, I eventually decided on using the XRAY rear wing combined with a TRG front wing and the XRAY body. The XRAY body is much lighter, weighing 30 grams less than most other F1 bodies.
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
Other tweaks to my X1 that I have done are the addition of the rear bulkhead brace in order to make it stiffer and gain more steering, I added the front brace, exchanged the front springs for a softer pair, and placed a harder center spring at the rear. Because I was using a small front wing by TRG, I needed more camber to keep my steering consistent. A bit of understeer was good though, since it keeps the rear tyres in a better condition and gives less wear, and more consistend laptimes
Saturday started with two timed practice heats in the rain, which wasnâ™t great for me. Iâ™m not very good on a wet track, but nonetheless I managed to place 1st in the first practice heat but slipped down to 4th in the second practice heat. Since the track had lots of both dry and wet patches, there was almost no consistency on the track. This made it hard to find a perfect setup, which undid a lot of the work I had done on Friday. Eventually I managed to get a 3rd and 4th place in the first two qualifications on Saturday, but due to rain the last two qualifications where moved to the last day of the raceweekend: Sunday.
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
Sunday was looking a lot better than the previous days: the weather was great with lots of sun and at last it was dry, which made for a much more consistent track. It was still a bit icy on the track early on, but that would soon improve due to the sun and it would leave us with a dry and highly consistent track. This meant it was finally possible to get up to high speeds in the corners and make up for a few slip ups on the previous days.
The last qualification was the first thing on Sunday morning & I was able to grab 2nd after a 5second mistake due to cold rear tires.
Having learned from that I started the last qualifier and right then it all fell into place: I was able to set the fastest qualification of the entire weekend, which was a great aim for the rest of the race. I missed the top qualifier by only 1 point, which went to Sidney Blokker. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
However, I was immediately able to make up for that by placing 1st in the first round of the first finale by passing Sidney in the 2nd lap. It looked like the race was going to be between me, Sidney Blokker and Rik Prins, until Sidney slipped with his Yokomo and entered a spin, costing him a few places.
A similar thing happened during the second round, when Sidney and I had an accident and my X1flipped up into the air. Luckily I landed on four wheels and managed to continue driving, without any damage at all. Meanwhile, Sidney had to drop out and I was able to come up to the fight that was going on between the numbers 1, 2 and 3 and slip past them while they were trying to gain on each other. Taking over the first position was only possible because the X1 gave such a great constant performance on the track and once I got a hold of that first place, all that was left was to stay consistent and eventually finish first.
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
| The third and final round started off a lot worse: my front tyres cooled down too much & I ended up in the grass at the first high-speed corner which meant I dropped down to 5th place. Within 1 round, I had managed to gain a place and take 4th and 2 rounds later I had taken the 3rd place. I now only had to take on Olivier Bultynck for second place, which I managed to do after 3 more laps. Once I had gained the second position, I was quickly closing the gap to Roy Bakker on the first place. I came up to him at high speed and Roy knew that he wouldnâ™t be able to keep up that pace for the rest of the race, so he gave me the room I needed to pass him. Once I had taken the first position there was nothing more important than to keep a consistent pace in order to get first place, a clean sweep, and the win at the first ever International Dutch F1 Masters. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
| Final results: |
|
1. Jitse Miedema â“ XRAY X1
2. Roy Bakker
3. Rik Prins
4. Olivier Bultynck
5. Marco Verkade |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
