Herfried Pucher wins Rd5 of 1/8th Austrian Nats

Round 5 of the Austrian 1/8th scale on road Championships was held last weekend at the MAV Aigen track, in the north of Austria, with the weather forecast predicting heavy rain for Saturday and sunny conditions for Sunday’s race. Due to the weather no one tested on Saturday and on Sunday Morning, drivers were greeted by damp conditions for the first qualifying series, but the track was dry by round 2. From the start it was Herfried Pucher with his Picco powered Motonica P81 that set the pace managing to take a comfortable TQ with the only 26 laps run, in front of Mike Klausner who had dominating the previous rounds, with Patrick Wendy in 3rd.

Top 5 after Qualifying:
1. Pucher Herfried (Motonica/Picco) – 26 Laps in 7:16:584
2. Klausner Mike (Mugen/Nova) – 25 Laps in 7:00:241
3. Wendy Patrick (Serpent/Mega) – 25 Laps in 7:04:377
4. Schiff Christian (Mugen/Nova) – 25 Laps in 7:17:971
5. Starsser Rene (Serpent/Picco) – 24 Laps in 7:02:043

The Semi finals were run on semi wet conditions and Herfried Pucher showed again his intent to win the race with fast and consistent lap times on his way to taking the Semi final and lining himself up on pole position for the 45 minute main final. After the start of the main final on dry conditions, Pucher, Wendy and Klausner pulled away from the field. All three guy´s were on different tyre strategies, Pucher planning to change after 25 minutes, Wendy after 30 minutes and Klausner planning to pit twice after each 15 minutes.

Pucher controlled the race from the start to finish, Klausner could not follow the pace even with the tyre size advantage in the beginning and Patrick Wendy was head to head with Klausner, but lost time while entering the pit lane when he lost a rear shock. After 45 minutes Pucher won his his first race, thanks to a perfect working pit crew, 1.5 laps in front of Klausner with Wendy taking 3rd.

Final Standings:
1. Pucher Herfried (Motonica/Picco) – 157 Laps in 45:04.661
2. Klausner Mike (Mugen/Nova) – 156 Laps in 45:10.844
3. Wendy Patrick (Serpent/Mega) – 154 Laps in 45:13.466
4. Wopfner Michael (Serpent/Max) – 146 Laps in 45:08.589
5. Schiff Christian (Mugen/Nova) – 146 Laps in 45:08.936
6. Starsser Rene (Serpent/Picco) – 142 Laps in 45:19.429
7. Haigner Peter (Serpent/Max) – 142 Laps in 45:24.443
8. Brandner Franz (Motonica/Picco) – 136 Laps in 45:16.644
9. Stangl Oliver (Mugen/Nova) – 131 Laps in 45:01.740
10.Kozlina Uros (Mugen/Nova) – 87 Laps in 42:17.868

The 2010 Austrian Championship will come to an end on the first weekend of September with the 6th and final round being run at the beautiful Lamac track.

Thanks to Herfried Pucher for the report.