Rain affects Nitro West Masters opener at Oberhausen

Rain has washed away the opener of the Nitro West Masters held on the Easter weekend at Oberhausen. Track was wet all Saturday so only a very few racers went out to check rain tyres and their wet set-up. On Sunday morning the track wasn’t dry either but hope came up during the second heats when the track dried up slightly but a few moments later new rain arrived. Finally it was decided in a second drivers briefing during lunch break to count the race following the heats ranking in the 1/8 and 1/10 scale nitro classes.

A total of 43 competitors had entered this first of four rounds of the Nitro West Masters 2010 which follows the last year’s NRW Challenge. Even there was only little racing they enjoyed the time with lots of nitro talks and hanging around in a good atmosphere. At least 18 drivers in the 1/8 and 11 drivers in the 1/10 category have completed a minimum of one heat on the 234 meter track at Oberhausen.

In 1/8 local hero Ralf Vahrenkamp on top followed by 2009 champion Tobias Hepp and Frank Schewiola made it a 1-2-3 for Serpent. The 1/10 result sheet was topped by reigning champion Sebastian Buerge ahead of his Mugen fellow Daniel Thiele an “60+” hero Werner Vogel (Kyosho). Fastest laps went to Hepp (20.428s) and Buerge (23.125s) so lap records were not really jeopardized.

The top 10 result of 1/8 class
1. Ralf Vahrenkamp, Serpent / Novarossi
2. Tobias Hepp, Serpent / Novarossi
3. Frank Schewiola, Serpent / Novarossi
4. Udo Tappertzhofen, Kyosho / Team Orion
5. Alain Levy (F), Serpent / Mega
6. Sebastian Scheidweiler, Serpent / Max
7. Jean-Pierre Roenicke, Serpent / Novarossi
8. Karl-Heinz Meister, Serpent / Mega
9. Luigi Pili (NL), Motonica / Novarossi
10. Christian Wurst, Mugen /Sirio

The top 10 result of the 1/10 class
1. Sebastian Buerge, Mugen / Novarossi
2. Daniel Thiele, Mugen / Reds Racing
3. Werner Vogel, Kyosho / Team Orion
4. Daniel Toennessen, Mugen / Novarossi
5. Dirk Zschaebitz, Serpent / Orcan
6. Marco Nenner, Kyosho / Novarossi
7. Faehd Labik, Mugen / GRP
8. Rene Puepke, Mugen / Red Racing
9. Claus Nauth, Xray / Orcan
10.Lucien Zens, Serpent / Novarossi

The statistics of the top 10: Serpent dominated 1/8 with seven chassis, furthermore there were one chassis each from Kyosho, Motonica and Mugen. Engines have been five from Novarossi, two from Mega and one each from Team Orion, Max and Sirio. In 1/10 it was five Mugen followed by each two Kyosho and Serpent and one Xray. Again Novarossi was the leading engine brand with four power units followed by each two from Reds Racing and Orcan and each one from Team Orion and GRP.

Racing will continue on the weekend of 16/17 April with round one of the Western German Championship 1/10 in Dormagen near Cologne.

Source: Nitro West [nitro-west.de]