MRCZ Open Invitational race – Report
The MRCZ club, one of the longest running electric racing clubs in Belgium, hosted their annual Open Invitational race last weekend. The Open Invitational started over 20 years ago mainly as a 1/12th race, but evolved to an event with a mixture of fun classes and more competitive categories over time. The event is held over two days, with three rounds of qualifying on Saturday followed by two more on Sunday and also triple finals for each category. The categories that attracted most drivers were Stock 13.5 Touring, and Stock 13.5 1/12th scale. The fun categories consisted of Fun 17.5T, GT12, Tamiya Truck and Touring FWD.
The Stock 13.5 Touring class was run using Volante tyres, but open motors and a fixed 5.0 gear ratio. This class attracted the most competitive drivers with 2016 Belgian stock champion Rico Claeys, French ace Manu Wagner, former Belgian stock champion Stefan Rommens, EFRA European 1/5th champion Giovanni Verbrugghe, multiple Belgian Modified runner up Mitchell Van Es, multiple mModified race winner Thomas Stockman and the pre-race favourite Florian Joos, who won the Stock class the two previous years. Despite running three year old battery packs and predominantly being a Modified driver, Mitchel showed his class by claiming P2 in the first three qualifiers in front of the more experienced Stock drivers. Thomas Stockman seemed to hold the best cards in hand to claim P3, but from Q3 onwards Manu Wagner regained his speed he showed during free practice by claiming P3 just 0.5s behind Mitchell Van Es. Despite running an Xray T4’17 with an now outdated Mazdaspeed 6 shell, Giovanni Verbrugghe, showed his talent by always finishing in the top 5.
On Sunday morning however things changed as Manu Wagner setup changes to his new T4’20 seemed to work and he claimed 2 P2 spots in front of Mitchell who unfortunately had to withdraw from Q5. As predicted the TQ spot went to Florian Joos who won all five qualifiers in great style. He was the only driver to hit sub 10 seconds lap times with his new Xray T4. Manu Wagner (Xray T4’20) from France would start from P2 while Awesomatix driver Mitchel Van Es had to settle for P3, in front of Thomas Stockman (Xray T4’19) and Giovanni Verbrugghe (Xray T4’17).
Florian Joos took the holeshot in A1 and built a 2-second lead by lap ten when disaster struck. A lapped driver opened the door for the leader to pass, but accelerated too fast and hit Florian from the back. The young Belgian driver had to be marshalled and this allowed Manu Wagner into the lead. In the meantime Mitchel was running in a solid P3 while Thomas was safe in P4. The biggest battle went on between Giovanni Verbrugghe and Stefan Rommens. Giovanni forced his way through in the chicane and Stefan had to be marshalled to recover. In the meantime, Florian was back in Manu’s slipstream and tried to pass. Manu however was able to hold his nerves and kept the door shut. Florian was on the inside two times but backed off to avoid a collision. On the last lap, he went for a gap, but the two cars collided Manu took the victory after Florian waited for him to recover. Mitchell crossed the line in P3, in front of Thomas and Giovanni.
Manu made a setup change to his car for A2, but despite also setting a sub 10-second lap time, his war was more difficult to drive. Florian easily won with a lap in front of Manu with Thomas only four seconds behind. Mitchell had to retire from the race on lap 26 with a broken spur gear, so Rico Claeys took a great P4 just in front of Stefan Rommens.
Florian once again took the holeshot in A3, but unfortunately his car died in the chicane. This allowed Manu into the lead, which he kept until the end. Mitchel was running an intelligent race in order to cement his P3 podium spot and he just paced himself to keep Thomas at bay, while Giovanni Verbrugghe and Stefan Rommens rounded off the top 5. After the race, a broken ESC extension cable was culprit for Florian’s withdrawal. The overall rankings were Manuel Wagner (Xray), Florian Joos (Xray), Mitchell Van Es (Awesomatix), Thomas Stockman (Xray), Giovanni Verbrugghe (Xray).
The 1/12th scale has traditionally been very strong at the MRCZ club. This also showed with the 18 driver’s strong entry list. Pre-race favorite was Rico Claeys who just came back from a strong P5 finish at the annual Masters of foam 1/12th scale race. Rico was running a VCD 1/12th scale car, a conversion kit made by Benedict Vantomme, a local 1/12th scale guru. 1/12th scale Stock is all about the ideal combination of car setup, driver skills and the optimum configuration of motor timing and roll out. Rico lost Q1 to Florian Joos, who did his first ever 1/12th scale stock race. Florian also held the upper hand in Q2 until lap 23 when his front suspension was damaged in a crash with a Rico. Florian managed to bring home the stricken car in P2, but Rico literally dominated the entire field from that point onwards. The battle for P3 was fought out between Ian Bekaert (Capricorn), Tom Adams (VCD) and young Niels Degryze (Xray). While Florian tried to overcome his power deficit by running super tight lines, he never managed to finish another qualifier. A backmarker or mechanical gremlin always halted his all or nothing approach and left the door open for some very exciting battles for P2. Q5 proved to be the deciding run. Rico once again masterly put the hammer down and recorded an incredible 50-lapper in that run. Equally impressive was young Niels’ pace by claiming a fine P2 spot with the second fastest runtime of the event. This allowed Niels to secure the P3 starting grid. Tom Adams also had a great run and his P3 spot in this qualifier gave him a P4 overall starting spot. The order was Rico Claeys (VCD), Florian Joos (Xray), Niels Degryze (Xray), Tom Adams (VCD) and Ian Bekaert (Capricorn).
The finals would however prove to be a lot of work as the difference between Rico and the 10th qualifier was seven laps. As A1 was about to start Florian Joos had a mechanical problem on his car. The race organiser decided not to wait and this left the P2 starting spot open. Rico did what was expected of him and he dully delivered by leading the race from start to finish. Young Niels resisted the pressure and he took a popular P2 finish, leading home Ian Bekaert who managed to pass Tom Adams for P4. Tom finished in a fine P5 finish posting some very fast lap times.
A2 went again Rico’s way with a start to finish victory. In the early stages, Florian did everything he could to stay in touch, but made a mistake on lap nine, losing eight seconds. This promoted Niels to the P2 spot and the youngster really did a stellar job posting very fast lap times. On lap 44 however Niels had an issue with a back marker and fell into Ian’s claws. After a couple of rough laps from Niels, Ian was promoted to P2, but had to settle for P3 in the end after a Florian came stormng through the field to claim P2. Tom Adams rounded off the top 5.
A3 seemed to be a carbon copy of A2 with Rico taking the holeshot and Florian clipping a corner early on. Tom Adams made a great start and moved to P3, but his efforts were undone when the person marshalling Florian’s car involuntarily obstructed his car. Niels in the meantime also crashed out of contention leaving the door open for Ian to challenge Rico’s lead. Rico and Ian fought a hard battle and Ian made a move on lap 13. Unfortunately the cars touched and Ian waited for Rico to be marshalled. This allowed Florian into the lead. Thanks to a fresher battery, Florian finally found the speed he needed the whole weekend and managed to ease away. Ian took a fine P2 spot while Rico was running out of his front tyres. Tom Adams finished A3 in P4, In front of Angelino Deneef. The final ranking was Rico Claeys (VCD), Florian Joos (Xray), Ian Bekaert (Capricorn), Niels Degryze (Xray) and Tom Adams (VCD).
On Saturday and in the FWD Touring class, the battle for pole seemed to be going between Peter Roeygens (Raceopt) and Jannick Rommens (Awesomatix). On Sunday however, Joerie D’eer raised his game by claiming the two fastest qualifiers with his Xray and giving him the coveted P1 starting position in front of Peter Roeygens, Jannick Rommens, Patrick Room (Tamiya) and Hubert Cathelain (Tamiya).
The overall victory was a cliffhanger as both Joeri and Peter won a final. A3 would thus decide the overall ranking. Despite setting a faster single lap time, Peter Roeygens had to settle for P2 while Joeri claimed the overall victory. The overall ranking was Joeri D’eer (Xray), Peter Roeygens (Raceopt), Jannick Rommens (Awesomatix), Hubert Cathelain (Tamiya) and Patrick Room (Tamiya).
The Fun 17.5T category run according to the rules of the Belgian nationals with Volante tyres and a fixed timing 17.5 motor. Qualifying went to Christophe Libeer (Xray), followed by Rony Claeys (Xray), Kenji Van Craeynest, Yelten Baekeland and Pieter Braeckeveld. After some exciting finals, Christophe took the overall victory in front of Yelten, Rony, Marc Joosens and Kenji.
The GT12 race was won by Toni Bekaert (Capricorn), in front of Jurgen Degryze (Xray), Jos Sannen, Fabio Zanetton (Schumacher) and Raoul Connehaye.
Rony Claeys took the overall victory in Tamiya Trucks in front of Olivier Cornard, Jan Houtmeyers, Lorenzo Vandepoele and Patrick Room.
Thanks to David Joos & FBA E-Onroad for the report.
