Hupo doubles at 3rd round of Austrian nationals

The 3rd round of the Austrian electric off-road nationals took place at the 1-GMAC Litschau track near the Austrian/Czech Republic border with over 50 drivers in attendance. Practice started on Saturday under relatively cold, windy and dusty conditions meaning the 2WD drivers would prefer running rear motor buggies but as warmer and overall more pleasant weather was predicted for Sunday one or the other driver opted to get used to mid motor cars. 2WD qualifying saw a battle between the two Team C drivers Hupo Hönigl and Martin Kreil who both won 2 of the 4 qualifying rounds. Ultimately Hupo was able to take the overall TQ in front of Martin while Team Associated’s Stefan Pfeifhofer rounded out the top 3 with his mid motor B5M.

2WD qualifying results
1. Hupo Hönigl – Team C/Dualsky/Dualsky/H-Speed
2. Martin Kreil – Team C/Dualsky/Dualsky/H-Speed
3. Stefan Pfeifhofer – Associated*/Vampire/Reedy/Reedy
4. Roland Hauleitner – Associated/Hobbywing/Reedy/Reedy
5. Philipp Stocker – Kyosho/Hobbywing/Orion/LRP
6. Christian Lanzl – Serpent/LRP/Novak/GensAce
7. Andreas Janda – Associated*/Dualsky/Vampire/Vampire
8. Marcel Rekettye – Yokomo/Dualsky/Dualsky/H-Speed
9. Christopher Pfeiffer – Associated/Dualsky/Dualsky/H-Speed
10.Thomas Rössler – Associated/Dualsky/Reedy/Reedy
*mid motor

The 4WD qualifying was pretty much a blueprint on terms of the top 3 result, Hupo put his Team C buggy on pole while Martin and Stefan lined up in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

4WD qualifying results
1. Hupo Hönigl – Team C/Dualsky/Dualsky/H-Speed
2. Martin Kreil – Team C/Dualsky/Dualsky/H-Speed
3. Stefan Pfeifhofer – Associated/Vampire/Reedy/Reedy
4. Roland Hauleitner – Associated/Hobbywing/Reedy/Reedy
5. Marcus Prihoda – Team C/Dualsky/Hacker/H-Speed
6. Peter Siller – Xray/Nosram/CS/GensAce
7. Philipp Stocker – HB/Hobbywing/Orion/LRP
8. Roland Schantel – Associated/Dualsky/Dualsky/GensAce
9. Markus Berer – Xray/Vampire/Vampire/Vampire
10.Lukas Stadler – Associated/Hacker/Hacker/Hacker

In the 2WD finals Hupo was able to take the first A-main in front of a hard charging Pfeifhofer by only two tenth of a second. In the second A-main it looked like Hupo would secure the day’s win early but a mistake on the exit of the “omega” corner, while leading the race, handed Stefan the lead. Two more and rare mistakes of Hupo let him drop to 4th, but he was able to fight back and finish 3rd behind Stefan Pfeifhofer and team mate Martin Kreil. In the 3rd and deciding final Stefan put a lot of pressure on Martin Kreil to not allow Hupo escape out front but Stefan went too tight in the sweeper and the resulting rollover cost him the chance for the overall win. Martin Kreil on the other hand tried to push on Hupo but the team mates cruised to a 1-2 finish with Philipp Stocker (Kyosho) coming in 3rd in the final main.

2WD top 10 result
1. Hupo Hönigl – Team C/Dualsky/Dualsky/H-Speed
2. Stefan Pfeifhofer – Associated*/Vampire/Reedy/Reedy
3. Roland Hauleitner – Associated/Hobbywing/Reedy/Reedy
4. Martin Kreil – Team C/Dualsky/Dualsky/H-Speed
5. Philipp Stocker – Kyosho/Hobbywing/Orion/LRP
6. Christian Lanzl – Serpent/LRP/Novak/GensAce
7. Andreas Janda – Associated*/Dualsky/Vampire/Vampire
8. Marcel Rekettye – Yokomo/Dualsky/Dualsky/H-Speed
9. Christopher Pfeiffer – Associated/Dualsky/Dualsky/H-Speed
10. Thomas Rössler – Associated/Dualsky/Reedy/Reedy
*mid motor

The 4WD finals proofed to be a much easier affair for Hupo, who checked out in the first two A-mains to take the overall victory with one leg to go. Behind him the race was on between Pfeifhofer with his Reedy-powered AE B44.2 and Kreil with the Dualsky/H-Speed-powered TM4. Especially in the 3rd final, when the duo easily built a gap on the field, the two former Euro A-finalists offered a great show, with some high speed overtaking on the straight and a final lap move of Martin whose outcome allowed Stefan to take the leg win. At the end it was Stefan Pfeifhofer who grabbed the overall runner-up spot from Martin Kreil who completed the podium in 3rd place.

4WD top 10 result
1. Hupo Hönigl – Team C/Dualsky/Dualsky/H-Speed
2. Stefan Pfeifhofer – Associated/Vampire/Reedy/Reedy
3. Martin Kreil – Team C/Dualsky/Dualsky/H-Speed
4. Roland Hauleitner – Associated/Hobbywing/Reedy/Reedy
5. Marcus Prihoda – Team C/Dualsky/Hacker/H-Speed
6. Roland Schantel – Associated/Dualsky/Dualsky/GensAce
7. Philipp Stocker – HB/Hobbywing/Orion/LRP
8. Peter Siller – Xray/Nosram/CS/GensAce
9. Markus Berer – Xray/Vampire/Vampire/Vampire
10. Lukas Stadler – Associated/Hacker/Hacker/Hacker

The next round of the Austrian Nationals will be held on the mixed clay/concrete track in Steyregg in mid-August.

Thanks to Patrick Ehmer for sending the report.