| Race Report by Florian Joos |
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The third of six rounds for the 2019 Belgian championship was held at the outdoor asphalt track of HRT in Houthalen on 19 May. This technical track is ideally suited for electric touring cars. The bumpy surface meant however that the drivers would face a real challenge to find the ideal setup for their cars.
Saturday was open for free practice. As the track was super bumpy, I decided to start the practice sessions with my 18 car as it is equipped with the longer dampers. The car immediately felt good and we concentrated on finding the best tyre additive for the track. On this track, additive is prohibited for the normal races, but for the Belgian nats we were allowed to use additive. We literally tested all the different additives. We started with the Pink Phub, and the car was ok, but just not fast enough. Then we went to test all the other additives, but they were worse even! My dad decided to just clean the tyres with brake cleaner and warm the tyres. This gave relatively good grip from the start, so we sticked with that tyre preparation.
We went on to test basically everything on the car, hard springs, soft springs, dampers down, up, ⦠and while the speed was ok, we were still a bit slower than Oliver Bultynck, the multiple A-main finalist.
At one point, I said to my dad to use the T4 19 car. At first my dad didnâ™t want to use it, but I convinced him to do just one session at the end of the day and boom, it was immediately .4 faster. We also set the fastest time of the day at that time, so we decided to go back home. Oliver stayed at the track and he was able to go .2 faster afterwards.
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On Sunday morning, the weather forecast was pretty bad, with thunderstorms expected for the afternoon. We fitted a new set of tyres to the car and went into Q1. As I was leading the championship, I started first and was followed by Oliver Bultynck and Mitchell Van Es (vice champion for 3 years running). My car felt really good and I managed to win the first qualifier, but Oliver was only .5 behind on 5 minutes.
I started Q2 from the start and was leading the race again. My car however was really difficult to drive this time. It felt like there was rear end grip missing. Coming out onto the main straight, I accelerated hard, but the car veered to the right and I crashed into the barriers. Fortunately I only broke a C hub.
My dad checked the car before Q3, but when he put it on the track, I had the same feeling as in Q2. I did some extra warmup laps and the car felt a bit better. Oli and I fought for the win in Q3 and the overall TQ, but in the end Oliver won it by 1 second so I started 2nd on the grid.
During the lunch break, my dad discovered the origin of my carâ™s strange behavior. We had just bought a new set of tyre warmers, and one of the rear cups wasnâ™t working. The temperature on the display was at 60 degrees, but the cup didnâ™t heat up.
Before the final, my dad reduced the bumpsteer on the car and also fitted hard progressive springs front and rear. We can have two sets of tires for the race and I wanted to conserve my second set for the later finals, just like Oliver did in the previous race. My dad however didnâ™t agree and mounted a new set of tires as he thought it would rain soon.
At the start of the A-main, my car felt so much better. I was able to attack Oliver, but hit him twice, which allowed Mitchell to creep closer. I waited a bit to attack Oliver again so that the gap with Mitchell would increase and I could safely attempt another pass. On lap 7 I was in Oliâ™s slipstream again and then it started to slightly rain. This unsettled Olivierâ™s car and I was able to capitalize on an error he made. From then on, I backed off a bit and won the final from Oliver and Mitchell.
Immediately after the final, I started to rain heavily. The organizerâ™s tried to restart the event, but due to the lightning it was cancelled. There was a bit of discussion what we should do about the overall ranking, as there is no official rule in the EFRA books about it. The German rule book refers to the EFRA book and they state that if 1 final is run, this ranking should be used for the overall result.
I thus won the event and am leading the overall ranking for the Belgian nats at the moment. In August, the championship resumes with tracks that suit my competitors better, but we will do our best to give them a good fight!
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| Modified Results |
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1. Florian Joos - XRAY T4
2. Oliver Bultynck
3. Mitchell Van Es
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| Stock was also a good result for the Xray drivers! Current Belgian champ Giovanni Moguez won the race and creeps a bit closer to Vincent Van Gansen in the overall ranking. |
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| Stock Results |
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1. Giovanni Moguez â“ XRAY T4
2. Vincent Van Gansen â“ XRAY T4
3. Nicolas Delisé ⓠXRAY T4
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