The euro’s 1/8 track is over again this year… And to be honest I went home with good feelings.
July was a very busy month for me, I dont remember being home for 1 weekend. we had the dutch championship in Rucphen. I had to honour of being the dutch champ last year so this year the national races are not really my top priority. I prepared my 966 TE for the euro’s, and in my opinion there were a lot of very good improvements on the car, to addapt it to the latest specs. The split radioplate, the new gearbox and axle, the new front upper wishbones…etc.
Just before the euro’s we spent a weekend in Paris to relax a little.
monday 25th first day of pratice.. the euro’s officialy started. We were there before for the Warm up so I already had a good set up to start with. I was very happy with the performance of the car in the warmup. But it turned out to be that the track was tottaly different now, they sprayed it with track max, so conditions changed a lot. sometimes the track was easy and fast and sometimes so difficult to drive.
I changed my set up during the days a lot of times, and in the end went back to pretty basic settings. we had the latest versions of the Xceed ZX engines for the euro’s, and I was very happy with the performance of the engine, they had just a lot of raw power. Top middle and bottom power were all present.
Qualifying…, I had some problems with the clutch in the qualifs… but especially my latest qualifs I was very happy with. I drove the 7th fastest time overall. Which gave me a direct place in the semi. As there are no direct qualifiers for the final anymore, everyone has to go true the semi.
My semi went great actually, I started 4th behind Simon, but could already pass him in the sweeper, and than pass Lamberto and Ramagnoli for 2nd. At the last fuel stop he past me again and so we finished. But do our semi was faster than the B semi, I had nr 3 to start the final.
The main final, in the 3min warm up before the final my car went really great, I had power enough and the handling was super. Also my nerves didn’t go away after the semi. Usually they drop for 80%. But not this time, I decided to give it all I got and go for it. the start went pretty good for everybody, but in the big sweeper at the end of the straight, Dario flipped his car and lost the lead to Michele Ramagnoli. But my topspeed was very high and every time we went onto the straight I caught up with him. I try to pass him on the inside of the long sweeper, but he closed the door so I went over the curb and lost the 2nd place to Robin d’Hondt who was driving strong and made his way true the field. But I could pass him again and went after Michele again, second time we went side to side on the straight but I had the inside and we touched very hard in the sweeper, but I could take the lead this time. I could hold on to it till the 17min mark. but than Robert and Dario could come back due to my tires that were getting smaller. But I knew I was going to have new ones at about 21min into the races, so I decided not to take a risk and wait for new tires and than give it all. After the tire change I came back in 4th. Close behind Robert and Dario, Dario ran into trouble and I passed Robert after a mistake from his side. So I found myself back in 2nd about 7sec down on Lamberto. I clossed the gap to 6sec but he had one fuel stop less to make do a different pitstop strategy. So he won and I finished 6sec behind, just the time from a pitstop. Rick V came in 3th. Congrats to Lamberto for winning the euro’s.
Anyway It feels great to be the vice european champion for a year.
Thanks to Serpent motorsport, Xceed Engines, Xceed Tires, RC Car Colours, Runnertime
Thanks to my mechanics my dad and Tom for the fast refueling and tire change, Michael and Stef for the support during the week.
Link to a movie from RC Racing TV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QpVvUezFdI
Pictures http://www.lmcc.lu/gallery/imagelists.php?mode=newest
They organist a great event again in luxembourg, great job guys…
