French 1/8th On-road Nationals Rd4 – Report

Round four of the French 1/8th Nitro On-road Nationals was held last weekend at the Marmagne track in the centre of the country in challenging weather conditions with high temperatures and some showers during qualifying. The track offered a pretty low grip level that only bettered during the finals and a technical layout made car setup critical. In the Elite class, Anthony Abisset (Serpent/Picco) took the pole position after the second round of qualifying, 1.6 seconds ahead of Stephane Bouche (Mugen/Max Power) and 3rd placed Adrien Bertin (HB/Team Orion). Those three were the only drivers able to make 17 lap runs during the five minute qualifiers. Unfortunately due to rain the third and fourth round had to be called off.

In the National class, it was the championship leader Nicolas Miramont (Mugen/OS) taking pole position on the first round, the only driver to make 16 laps. Far behind Mickael Fouin (Mugen/OS) came in 2nd. Unfortunately for the National class drivers the track conditions were best in that first round while round 3 needed to be cancelled and round 4 would be run late, allowing for only minor improvements.

In the Elite class final Adrien Bertin was on the number one spot, followed by Arnaud Mathieu and Stephane Bouche. All ten drivers had a clean start, and quickly Adrien Bertin opened a gab and behind him the race for the runner-up spot was on between Anthony Abisset and Stephane Bouche. All drivers would have to pit for tyres around halfway into the 45-minute race but in the first part of the race, Adrien Bertin encountered clutch problems, flaming out during one of his fuel stop. Stephane Bouche who got rid of Anthony Abisset’s pressure was closing in on Adrien Bertin, even taking the lead at some part of the race because of different fuel strategies. Also many drivers became victim of the fast chicane in front of the podium, which resulted in additional tyre stops due to chunked tyres. In the closing stages Stephane Bouche was clearly the fastest driver on the track but it was not enough to catch Adrien Bertin who won the main by 2 seconds. Arnaud Mathieu with a consistent run and a broken tyre managed to take 3rd place.

After the semis finals of the National class Nicolas Miramont put his car on pole position in front of championship runner-up Romain Fournery, who had to bump up from the quarter finals. The 3rd place on the grid went to Mickael Fouin. In the opening stages the pole-sitter got a drive thru penalty for a jump start so Michael Fouin quickly took over the lead in front of Romain Fournery but it quickly became apparent that the battle for the win would be between Mickael Fouin and Nicolas Miramont as both drivers would run very clean and on the same fuel strategy. Around 20 minutes into the race the leader was out in front by about 10 seconds but at the end of the 30 minute race the gap shrunk to just over 2 seconds and Michael Fouin took a lucky win in front of Nicolas Miramont. The battle for 3rd was on between Romain Fournery (HB/Top Engine) and Thomas Champion (Xray/RB) but after several passes on the track, Thomas Chambion made a mistake and a chunked tyre destroyed his hopes for a podium finish.

The final round of the championship will be in September with Adrien Bertin and Nicolas Miramont going into the event as championship leaders.

Thanks to Romain Fournery for the report.