xrayxrayHome XRAY homeXRAY X-shopXRAY X-forumRCAmerica
supportsearchcontactguestbooksite map
newsproductsaboutusworldwide headlines

 
click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

Race report by Florian Joos
The annual MRCZ Open International race 2017 took place over the weekend of 25 and 26 November in Zwevegem, Belgium. The event took place in a nice heated hall on which the organizers laid out a track of 20 x 30 meters with brand new ETS carpet. In order to provide maximum grip, the carpet was stuck on the floor with double sided tape. Saturday saw two rounds of free practice followed by 3 rounds of qualifications. On Sunday, two more qualifications (best two out of five would count) and 3 finals were scheduled.

click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

Touring Stock
This would be the first race Florian Joos, my son, would race for RC-Connect, the Benelux XRAY importer. Florian was entered in Stock (open 13,5 blinky) and modified. We already did a test session with the modified car, but his stock car was just finished on the Friday before the race, so it hadn’t yet turned a wheel.
The setup I used was a mix from the box setup , Jan Ratheisky’s ETS setup that I found on the XRAY setup pages and my experiences with the T4 modified and previous cars.

The options I installed were:
High performance Kevlar belts
T4 18 brass motor mount plate
Alu adjustment ball bearing hub x 2 (I think it makes the drivetrain a bit smoother)
Alu dual servo saver arm set
Graphite steering plate set
Direct servo saver arm
Orange drive shaft replacement caps
-0,75mm alu wheel hubs

From the first practice onwards, his car was on rails. Every time he ran he was minimum one lap in front of the second placed driver. When the grip levels came up for Q1, I adjusted the droop to 5,8mm in the front and 4,6mm in the back. The biggest improvement came in Q2, when I mounted the 1,6mm top deck. His best laptime improved by over .2 seconds.

Florian also won the 3 finals to claim the overall victory. In the third final, I used the 2.0 top deck again to see what difference it made. His car was still very good to drive but just missed that extra bit. His lap time was also marginally slower.

As for the remaining positions, Frank Baggen claimed P2 in front of Pasquinel Neys, Laurent Desperries (XRAY) and Thomas Hostyn (XRAY).


click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

Stock result:
1. Florian Joos − XRAY T4
2. Frank Baggen
3. Pasquinel Neys
4. Laurent Desperries − XRAY T4
5. Thomas Hostyn − XRAY T4


click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

1/10 Modified
In this class, we started running our race tyres (Volante 28) from the first practice onwards. Most of the other drivers opted only to use them in the first qualifier.

In the first qualifier, Thomas Stockman was the fastest with his XRAY and Florian was about 5 seconds behind. In the 2nd and 3rd qualifier the gap increased to almost a lap, despite the fact that the other drivers were using newer tyres. According to me, I should have grinded the tyres to make the car more competitive from the beginning, but as this normally isn’t allowed, I didn’t do it. His car suffered from understeer corner entry, but it was easy to drive. I made a lot of changes in order to get more steering, like shorter wheelbase, stiffer rear spring, more droop in the back, rollcenter change. It helped a bit and in Q5 his car was more competitive. In that final, John Ermen, a former ENS winner, also had his car sorted and took the last qualifier with the fastest time of the day. This meant Florian would start P4, behind Mitchell Van Es, John Ermen and Thomas Stockman.

Florian won A1 and finished P2 in A2, behind Thomas Stockman. For A3 I reverted to a more conventional setup and also installed the 1.6mm upper deck. This made the car faster and better to drive. Unfortunately Florian was wiped out at the start, so he couldn’t fight for the overall victory. That went to Thomas Stockman (XRAY), in front of Florian Joos (XRAY), John Ermen, Athan De Witte and Stefaan Rommens.

click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

Modified result:
1. Thomas Stockamn − XRAY T4
2. Florian Joos − XRAY T4

3. John Ermen
4. Athan De Witte
5. Stefaan Rommens

Formula
Vincent Van Gansen is the current Belgian 1/10 ISTC stock champion. For this race he would run his 2018 X1 for the first time. Having no previous F1 experience, Vincent was anxious to see how he would get on. A good benchmark for him was the presence of Steve Deblaere, a regular ETS A finalist and Willy Voisangrin, the French national F1 champion.

From the start of the first practice however, Vincent was in the mix, confidently driving his X1. He started experimenting with the droop values, side tube grease and additive timing. He drove solid qualifiers that put him in the P3 position.

In the finals, he often found himself in 2nd position, but due to some problems with the backmarkers he had to settle for third overall, behind Steve and Willy, but in front of Ghislain Mantrand and FrĂ©deric Favier. Vincent’s laptimes were only .1 shy of those of Steve, so with a bit more experience he will surely improve even further.

click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

Formula results:
1. Steve Deblaere
2. Willy Voisangrin − XRAY X1
3. Vincent Van Gansen − XRAY X1

4. Ghislain Mantrand
5. Frederic Favier