| Race report by Jilles Groskamp |
Jilles Groskamp
(click to enlarge) |
| The 2006 DHI Cup was the first big indoor event of the year, with top drivers from all over the world attending the race. Such World Champions as Rheinard, Hara, Surikarn, and Spashett attended; USA drivers included Baker and Paul Lemieux; and the Japanese Team Kyosho showed up with their new prototype car. Of course, Europe was well represented with top drivers like Leino, Levanen, Drescher, Moore, Ahoniemi just to name a few. |
|
Jilles car
(click to enlarge) |
Team XRAY was well represented with Martin Hudy, Juraj Hudy, the Myrberg brothers, Victor Wilck, TonyV, and many more.
Practise started late Friday afternoon with two practice runs. With only two practice runs it was very difficult to find the right setup for this track. Most of us started with a setup similar to Martinâ™s setup from the Carpet GP a month ago. The control tire was TakeOff CS27 with JB blue inserts and wheels. Each driver was allowed three (3) sets of tyres for the race. |
|
Paul's car
(click to enlarge) |
| Saturday was scheduled for 5 qualification runs with three rounds counting for points. In the first qualification I TQ'd in front of Rheinard and Victor. The traction came up and setup changed were made to compensate. We decided to stiffen the chassis by using all screws in the top deck. This made the car more stable and faster. In the second round it was Rheinard who TQ'd but was very closely followed by me and Victor. In all further qualifications it was a great battle between Rheinard, Victor, and me. In the end it was Rheinard with maximum points, followed by me, then Victor. Paul Lemieux had a great drive and qualified 9th. Paul has won for XRAY in both Cleveland and the recent Novak Race (using foam tyres) and showed his excellent driving skills also with rubber tyres. |
|
Victor's car
(click to enlarge) |
Atsushi Hara had a very bad weekend with lots of bad luck; he qualified 11th. Also Joel Myrberg and Martin Hudy were on pace for an A-main position but no luck for them either. The B-main saw three World Champions, just to say how strong the competition was.
Sunday was the final day with three A-mains.
In the first final it was Rheinard with a clean start followed by me then Victor. In the beginning Rheinard was pulling away a little bit. After a few minutes my car was getting better and I was slowly catching him, but with 30sec remaining I made a costly mistake by touching a curb. Rheinard finished 1st in front of me and Andrew Moore. |
|
T2 from Victor
(click to enlarge) |
The second final was a lot different than the first one. Traction seemed to be less due a lot of people walking on the track. Rheinard pulled away and never looked back. I pushed hard to close the gap but this resulted in small mistakes allowing Marc to pull away further and win the second main and the race.
For the third final I decided to change setup and soften the shock oil. I went from 35W to 30W XRAY oil. The car felt not as good as before and I only could finish in 2nd behind Marc with Victor and Paul close behind me. A great result for XRAY with two T2 drivers finishing on the podium in 2nd and 3rd places. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
In the stock class it was Frans Heinsbroek from The Netherlands who finished 3rd with his brand new T2! An excellent job, considering he started from 9th on the grid!
Final results:
1. Marc Rheinard
2. Jilles Groskamp XRAY T2
3. Victor Wilck XRAY T2
4. Teemu Leino
5. Simo Ahoniemi
6. Andrew Moore
7. Paul Lemieux XRAY T2
8. Steen Graversen
9. Christer Anderson
10. Juho Levanen |
|
|
Thanks go to Team XRAY, and Juraj and Martin Hudy for their support.
A big thanks to my new sponsor Trinity and Chad Phillips who travelled from the USA to help me out.
See you all next year,
Jilles Groskamp |
|
