Jörn Neumann wins German 2WD Nats

Only two weeks after winning the 4WD Nationals at the Trier track in Germany Team Associated/Team Durango driver Jörn Neumann also secured himself the 2WD title. The championship was held at the challenging track of the MSC Karlsfeld located in the South German Munich area. The meeting that was held over two days suffered a bit from Saturdays rainy weather which caused some delay and affected the qualifying session since the clay track got very muddy which lead to questionable conditions during the last rounds on the first day. But come Sunday all of the 64 racers in both the stock and modified class were rewarded by beautiful sunny weather. Racing started with the remaining of the qualifying rounds and early start of the finals on Sunday noon. In 2WD (13.5T) Stock CS Electronic/Associated driver Christian Stanglmeier took TQ in front of “Old Dude” Eberhard Beck (Associated) and young Sebastian Findeisen (Associated). In 2WD Modified LRP/Associated driver Benni Gröschel secured himself the number one spot some nine seconds in front of Jörn Neumann (Associated) and “Fast Boy” Robert Hart (Associated).

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Finals took place on a drying track which constantly lost grip which made it very tough for the racers to get used to it. In the Stock class Chrstian Stanglmeier secured himself the national title just after the second A-final with two first places. Sebastian Findeisen took second place after runner-up Eberhard Beck suffered from a breakage in the first round of the third A-final. Lots of luck instead for Team Durango founder Gerd Strenge (Associated) who took third place coming from P9 after the qualifying.

Results 2WD Stock
1. Stanglmeier, Christian
2. Findeisen, Sebastian
3. Strenge, Gerd
4. Beck, Eberhard
5. Erlat, Adrian
6. Korn, Andreas
7. Güth, Elmar
8. Clemens, Tobias
9. Kroll, Simon
10. Speitkamp, Christoph

In Modified the spectators saw a close battle between Benni Gröschel and Jörn Neumann for the top spot on the podium. After the first A-final it looked like Benni could claim just another national title since his toughest competitor Jörn struggled and only finished on ninth position. But in the second run Associated driver Benni showed nerves finishing only second behind Neumann. This meant the third A-final was needed to crown the German 2008 2WD Buggy champion. Up to the third minute of the race Benni looked like he could claim the title until desaster stroke: his Associated B4 bottomed out on the straight so the buggy spun out giving Jörn the chance to clear Benni. Gröschel lost some four seconds and was not able to catch up again gaving Jörn his second national title after winning the 4WD class only 14 days before!

Results 2WD Modified
1. Neumann, Jörn
2. Gröschel, Benjamin
3. Hart, Robert
4. Killian, Andreas
5. Pfeifhofer, Roland
6. Pfeifhofer, Stefan
7. Baatz, Florian
8. Knott, Stefan
9. Welker, Andre
10. Bachmann, Bernhard

Thanks to Sebastian Sürstedt for the report and pictures.