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EC Report Mobers: vice champion 1/12 2010 (16/03/2010)

By:: Reporter
Linked to:: Serpent S120 Link 1/12 pancar EP, Serpent S100 Link 1/10 pancar EP, Serpent S120 Link-Tube 1/12 pancar EP

European Championship 1/12 at Hinckley, GB

Hello racers, me again, this time reporting from the Euros 1/12 at Hinckley, Great Britan.

The race was held from 04.-07. march 2010.

I arrived at the track on thursday morning and started to unpack and built up my pits for the next 4 days.

The track and the pits were done very nicely by the BRCA, well, I did not suspect anything else. The brits always do a superb job for 1/12, lots of countries could learn from that.

Controlled practice started on thursday and running both 10.5 and Modified would keep me quite busy without a mechanic this time. The practice sessions on thursday were simply just to learn the track, as the traction would increase anyway.

On Friday the traction increased and it was time to adapt the setups to the cars. My 10.5 car felt good from the start, just needed to find out the right speedo/timing settings.

After the first two qualifier I was lying 3rd overall, which was not bad to start with.
Well, Modified, when I practiced at home I was already very unsure. This continued here, I could’nt get the setup right, the car was pushing and lifting. I was 9th after day one.

In the evening/night I totally rebuild my Modified car.

Saturday was the day to go fast and qualify well. My 10.5 car was good again, I just could not find the right speedo setup. I ran without any mistakes and as hard as I could, but I only managed to qualify 4th.

In modified I tried my rebuilt car, but with no changes. I knew from my hometrack, as I would add weight, it would steer more and lift less. This was basically what I did and the car felt better. I was on pace for 6th-10th, but I dumped in the last lap. This comes from the extra weight, but it was worth to try that.

Well, I qualified 12th and I decided not to run my finals in Modified on Sunday, as there was no sense.

I fully concentrated on 10.5 for Sunday, I changed the speedo program another time and tried that in my final practice. Well, this is what I needed, I was 2 tenth! per lap faster now.

Although I started 4th, I had a little chance to win. In the first main we went off and the first 4 cars pulled away from the field. First it was Andy Moore who made a mistake, than it was Fischer, so I was chasing Chris Kerwell now. I was like 2,5-3 seconds behind him and was closing the gap a little, but at the end Chris won 1 second ahead of me.

The second main was crazy, it was a big pile at the start and gladly I was second after lap one, directly behind Andy Moore. I was following him closely and we had a big gap on everybody. All of a sudden he had an electrical problem, so I passed him on the straight and cruised the final home. Wow, all chances to win to me now. It was only me or Kerswell that could win. Chris had to finish at least second and in front of me, I needed to be in front of him. If we would be equal on points, the faster run would count.

Well, it did not pay off, my car was strange for any reason in the last final, it was tweaked and I could not follow Kerswell, Moore and Fischer. Kerswell finished 2nd in that final, which gave him the overall win. Congrats Chris. Nevertheless, finishing 2nd from 4th on the grid was ok, lost that in qualifying.
Next up are the Nats in april at Schermbeck, hopefully things will go better there.

Take care and have fun racing!

Markus

Thx to redrc.net for the images