D’hondt & Sanza take Belgian IC on-road titles

The 4th and final round of the Belgian Nitro On-road Championships was held at the Genk track in varying weather conditions but with only a few drops of rain that had no significant impact on racing. In 1/8th scale several drivers were still in a position to take the title. Gunther Van Staey (Serpent) secured the pole position and he was followed by a strong Robin D’hondt (BMT) who improved his car setup heat after heat as he was not able to do any setup work on Saturday due to rain. The next three drivers in qualifying were only separated by 3.5 seconds after the 5-minute rounds. Augustin Mejor (Mugen) and Hugues Yerna (Capricorn) went straight into the final while Nico Vandewynckel (Serpent) needed to bump up from the semi-finals.

The main final then was very entertaining with Gunther being able to pull away at the start of the race after Robin made contact with other cars in the first corners right after the start. Robin, who surprised with a no tyre stop strategy for the 30-minute race, was able to catch Gunther in the first 10 minutes and he remained in the lead till the finish line with a 14 second margin on Gunther. The consistent driving Hugues and Nico finished in third and fourth position. Augustin Mejor, who was a strong competitor all year, was doing well in the race but he was unlucky again as he was hampered by a mechanical problem, eventually ending his race halfway.

In the overall ranking Robin D’hondt is crowned the Belgian Champion with an almost maximum number of points. He scored 1.348 points, only 2 points short which he lost in qualification. Nico Vandewynckel, winner of round 2, ends the year on the runner-up spot. Hugues Yerna takes the final podium position, thanks to consistent results over the year.

The 1/10th scale class was again dominated by a large number of MRCL club drivers. Jonathan Sanza (Mugen) would take his fourth pole position this year and he was joined by Christophe Pleger (Xray), Michaël Haeyen (Xray) and Dimitri De Baeker (Xray) who also qualified directly for the final.

The main then saw Jonathan pulling away right from the start. Dimitri, who started on the 4 spot was able to improve to second and he took over the lead when Jonathan dropped out of the race with a battery failure. 10 minutes before the end of the 30-minute finale, a few rain drops washed away the grip for several laps but this wasn’t an issue for Dimitri who kept the lead till the end. Eric Daniels (Xray), who had climbed up from the semi and had improved his lap times compared to the qualifiers, finished on the runner-up spot followed by Christophe Pleger and Thierry Lénaerts (Xray).

In the overall ranking Jonathan Sanza was able to take the Belgian Championship title with a small 8-points lead on Dimitri De Baeker in second. Eric Daniels grabbed the third place overall thanks to three podium results.

Thanks to Bert Aerts for the report.