The Nordic Championships were held last weekend at the beautiful Väst-8 facility in Gothenburg, Sweden. Perfect conditions in qualifying saw Alexander Hagberg take an impressive TQ in 1:10 by 4 seconds with his Max powered Xray NT1, while in 1:8 qualifying it was Swedish Mugen driver Mikael Fransson just in front of Danish ace Martin Christensen with his Shepherd/Capricorn combo.
Having set the pace in practice, secured TQ honours in qualifying, factory Mugen driver Robert Pietsch completed the perfect weekend with victory in the final to become the inaugural 1:8 Bumod Grand Prix Champion. The German National Champion completed 191 laps in the one hour final to head home the Serpent of American DJ Apolaro, who was 2 laps adrift, with Turkish Mugen driver Alparslan Ozanturk taking a hugely popular third.
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After one hour of racing in intense heat it was Dirk Wischnewski who is the first ever 1:10 Bumod Grand Prix Champion. The German Team Xray driver took the win ahead of Thailand’s Surikarn C. and Austrian Gerhard Kandelhardt to make it an all Xray NT1 podium in Turkey. The race started off with a very fast starting Kandlehardt leading the field ahead of Top Qualifier Surikarn and Wischnewski. Starting from the no.2 spot on the grid Jilles Groskamp got sideways at the first corner after his team fitted new unscrubed tyres right before the start. Driving his prototype Serpent 7XX Groskamp soon found his way to the front. After 10 minutes the Dutch ace was looking in control opening up a 10 second gap over ‘Kandi’ but drama was to unfold as the receiver battery fell out of his car. This left the Austrian in the lead followed by Surikarn and Richard Furtner but just coming up on 15 minutes he ran out of fuel.
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Josh Cyrul reports on the 2nd round of the Midwest series that took place last weekend in Racine, Wisconsin on a small and technical parking lot track. “For myself, it was a bit of a home coming to the type of track I first began racing 1/8 scale. The weekend started out a little chilly and with some sprinkles of rain but as Saturday progressed the weather gradually improved. The traction was ok at first but actually seemed to decline all day Saturday. Even through the track going away a bit, I was able to make small adjustments and keep pace with my first round TQ through the second and third round. Sunday was a little chilly with the wind but otherwise a perfect day for racing. The traction really improved and the lap times dropped over .5 per lap. At the end of qualifying, we had a repeat of Toledo’s MWS with Eli Ezrow taking the TQ in Masters and I was TQ in Open. We had four Shepherd V8’s in the final and Eli and I were able to defend our TQ positions and take home solid wins in both classes.”
Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]
In a dramatic final round of qualifying here in Turkey for the Bumod GP it was Team Xray driver Surikarn C. who snatched TQ honours for tomorrow’s one hour main final. The 2002 Electric Touring Car World Champion made the most of the cooler evening track conditions recording 31 laps in 10:14.521 with his OS powered NT1. In 1:8 Robert Pietsch bettered his earlier TQ time becoming the only driver to break 34 laps. The factory Mugen and Novarossi driver was very happy with his combination and plans no changes, his biggest worry for tomorrow being the tyre strategy.
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After a rather incident packed opening round of qualifying at the Bumod Grand Prix it is Sabrina Lechner and Jilles Groskamp who have laid down the benchmark times. First up were the 1:10 runners with Groskamp surprising even himself with a very fast run of 31 laps in 10:19.181. Having set the pace in practice yesterday, the World class driver from the Netherlands went even quicker this morning knocking 4/10th off his best lap time. Running a two stop strategy over the 10 minute heat with his Max powered prototype Serpent he believes faster times can come but in the final round today when conditions should be at their coolest.
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Official timed practice has ended on the second day of the Bumod Grand Prix with Robert Pietsch and Jilles Groskamp topping the time sheets here in Turkey. Over the seven 30 minutes session each driver had today Mugen’s Pietsch showed he has the edge over his rivals setting a best lap time of 17.216 which is .185 up on second fastest man Patrick Shaefer who inturn is just 4/1000ths up on Michael Salven. In 1:10 things are closer with only 7/100th seperating Groskamp, who posted a 19.617, from Dirk Wischewski.
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After rain dampened the opening day of the Bumod Grand Prix, competitors woke up this morning to glorious sunshine for the second official practice day here in Bursa, Turkey. With two 30 minute sessions under their belts the drivers can now get down to some productive testing. In 1:10, Dutch international electric touring car star Jilles Groskamp is setting the early pace with his prototype Serpent 7XX running as he predicted last night some 19 second laps. The 2008 Worlds Top Qualifier, who said traction is still quite low, has started to play around with different set-ups with the car responding postively to the changes.
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