Last weekend took place the second round of the French Championship in Manspach, Alsace with 70+ entries. During the three days of race we had a perfect sunny weather (nearly 30°C) so all conditions were made for a good weekend of racing.
The track opened Friday at 2pm with six free practices, it allows every driver to try different setup of cars and electronic on this low grip track. The new XSV Aero wing helped me to gain some more traction as it gave me way more downforce compared to a classic one.
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Saturday, we had two more free practices followed by two controlled practices, and then the heats changed thanks to a reseeding. Thanks to the different tests I have made on Friday my XRAY T4’18 was already perfect for the reseeding and it allows me to take top seed and to have a good place to start the qualifications. After a lunch break, we had 3 qualifications on a hot track, my package kept its pace and I won the three qualifications with a good gap over the field. On the evening the track was opened for free practice, and I used this time to try some tire additive as we were practicing on a cold track and on Sunday we had qualifications on the morning and the track will be cold.
Sunday the last two rounds of qualifications went very well as I won both of them, the Saturday’s practices helped me to keep my pace even on the cold track. As it’s the first year we use the controlled tires I used my lunch break before the first A main to test my new set of tires I kept, as expected it worked from beginning so I only made 2 laps and I know I was ready for the finals. The first two A mains went without any trouble as I started from pole and my XRAY T4’18 powered by Trinity motor and batteries remained fantastic.
In Modified, Alexandre Duchet (XRAY T4’18) showed a great pace and took the TQ, Alexandre Laurent (XRAY T4’18) suffered from mechanical problem and took the 4th place on the grid. During the final, Alexandre Duchet was forced to stop as he forgot to tight some screws on his chassis and they went loose, Alexandre Laurent made an early mistake and decided to stop to keep his new tire for A2. Alex Duchet won easily A2 and A3 and Alexandre Laurent finished 2nd and 3rd which gave him a podium finish.
