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| The 2005 EFRA Prague Grand Prix was held last weekend in Brandys nad Labem, near Prague. Seventy (70) drivers from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Holland, Finland, Denmark, and France attended this race. The race was situated as usual in the big hall in a hotel complex. The race was held on new carpet, but the control tires (LRP Vtec 24) were the same as last year. The race attended by many top drivers such as Jilles Groskamp (3rd last year), Martin Hudy (2nd last year), Martin Lisau (winner of DHI Cup 2005 in stock class), top drivers from Austria (Hupo Honigl, Peter Pinish, and Thomas Pumpler), Vesa Yli from Finland, Soren Boy Holst from Denmark, and many local drivers. Team XRAY was the strongest team at this race, with more than half of all cars in this event being XRAY cars. |
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source www.autorctrnava.sk
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Open practice started on Friday. The carpet was new, so there was not much grip from the beginning. The fastest drivers in open practice were Jilles, Martin, Thomas, and Peter.
On Saturday the race started with one round of practice in groups, and followed by five rounds of qualifiers. The best 3 points out of 5 were counted for the finals.
The first qualification was won by Jilles in front of Martin (only 0.3 second behind). Martin lead most of the qualification but lost his lead in the last two laps. The third place finisher was Thomas Pumpler, in front of Michal Nemecek. Michal Nemecek was the biggest surprise of this race; this 15 year old boy from Czech Republic gave a lot of challenge to drivers like Hupo, Martin, and Thomas.
Jilles also won the second qualifier and as a first driver made 25 laps. Second was Thomas in front of Martin. |
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Jilles again won the third qualification, and the TQ was in his hands. Jilles' car was the best and fastest on the track. He won all five qualification rounds without almost any problems. Martin and Michal Bok were using exactly the same setup, but Jilles' car had more cornering speed, better grip, and overall was so much faster than others. Second after qualifications was Hupo Honigl who found a very good setup and from round-to-round was getting faster and faster. Third after qualifications was Thomas Pumpler, only one point in front of Martin. Martin had a chance to be second overall, but in the fourth qualification round while in second position he was attacked by Michal Bok and lost the chance to start from second position. Fifth finished Michal Nemecek who finished in the third qualification round in third position just one second behind Jilles and Hupo.
After qualification rounds:
1. Jilles Groskamp XRAY
2. Hupo Honigl
3. Thomas Pumpler
4. Martin Hudy XRAY
5. Michal Nemecek XRAY
6. Peter Pinish
7. Michal Bok XRAY
8. Zdenek Hamak XRAY
9. Vaclav Strupek XRAY
10. Tony Eder XRAY |
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source www.autorctrnava.sk
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Team XRAY had a very strong result with 16 of the top 20 being XRAY cars. Bad luck in qualifications was had by Martin Lisau from Denmark, who lost out of the chance to be in the A main just by one point. Bad luck was also had by Vesa Yli when he was one of the fastest in practice. The big surprise was the three junior drivers from Czech Republic who finished in the B main. These guys - between ages of 11 and 14 - finished in B main in front of many established drivers from foreign countries.
Jilles Groskamp won all the mains. Jilles was extremely fast in the finals and he won without any problems. Hupo finished in second place in front of Martin. |
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source www.autorctrnava.sk
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Martin finished 4th in the first final, and changed setup before the second final. His car wasnâ™t super, but it was better than before and finished third. Martin, for last final, changed body from a Stratus3 to a Mazda and car was much better. Martin had bad luck in the final when he followed Thomas. The time between them wasnâ™t more than 0.1 second. Martin attacked Thomas in the third minute and both of them lost their positions. Michal Bok was super fast in the finals, who same as Martin found a good setup in the second final. Michal moved from 7th place on 4th. He had same points as Martin but Martin had faster final.
Final Results
1. Jilles Groskamp XRAY
2. Hubert Honigl
3. Martin Hudy XRAY
4. Michal Bok XRAY
5. Thomas Pumpler
6. Michal Nemecek XRAY
7. Vaclav Strupek XRAY
8. Peter Pinish
9. Zdenek Hamak XRAY
10. Tony Eder XRAY |
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source www.autorctrnava.sk
(click to enlarge) |
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