Dutch EC10 Nationals Rd3 – Report

The third round of the Dutch EC10 nationals was held at the small and very popular RC Hotwheels track in Deventer. The Heilige Koe Cup race, the unofficial warm-up, was held two weeks before the nationals with the Touring Stock class being won by Rob Janssen (Team Magic) from Richard Arts (Team Magic) and Tim Streefkerk (Gizmo). In the Formula class was it Jitse Miedema (Xray) who would take the win in front of runner-up, Martijn van der Heijden (Xray) and Michael Lepelaar (Tamiya). The nationals then stared on Saturday as usual and dry and nice weather made for perfect track conditions. Unfortunately in the afternoon the sky turned almost black and heavy rain poured down. A handful of brave drivers tried to continue but with the weather forecast for Sunday looking much better, most drivers sat out the afternoon practice.

Sunday started off dry but with a partly damp track, making the track a bit tricky in the first of the three qualifying rounds. Q2 and Q3 would then see dry conditions and in the Touring Stock class it was Rob Janssen (Team Magic) who took TQ from Sybrand de Boer (Kyosho) and Rick van den Akker (Xray). In the Formula class it was Martijn van der Heijden (Xray) who grabbed the TQ in front of Jitse Miedema (Xray) and Rene Fischer (Xray).

After the lunch break the finals started in sunny conditions. In the Touring Stock category and after the triple finals it was Rob Janssen (Team Magic) on the first spot followed by Richard Arts (Team Magic) and Sybrand de Boer (Kyosho).

In the Formula class the opening A-main was a thrilling one. In the warm-up laps TQ holder Martijn ran into car trouble. After he had requested a delay to solve his problems of a broken rear rim and unplugged motor cable he had to start from the 11 spot on the grid. Some minutes into the main Martijn was already on the third spot and he was getting closer and closer to the second and first spot. After he had passed the second placed driver he was after leader Jitse. When the unfortunate Jitse hit a curb, Martijn was able to get by, allowing him to take the win from Jitse and Rene. In the second leg Martijn made a mistake some two minutes into the race, allowing Jitse to take the first spot. Martijn could follow but after a second mistake he was unable to get any closer, so Jitse would take a pretty easy win followed by Martijn and Rene in third. For the last and decisive final Martijn had chosen to start on new rear tyres. This soon proved to be the perfect decision as he clearly was the fastest driver on the track, taking the win from tone to tone, scoring the fastest lap of the day in the progress. Behind him, Rene was getting closer to Jitse but the time would run out and Jitse Miedema snatched the runner-up spot from Rene Fischer, making it an Xray podium lock-out.

Thanks to Martijn van der Heijden for the report.