Central Germany Regionals Rd3 report
Last weekend the 3rd round of the Central German Championship took place at the nice track of Wiesbaden, this years host for the European Championship 40+ at beginning of July. Shepherd factory members Armin Weihert, Alex Kempe and team leader Patrick Schäfer attended the race to give support to all Shepherd customers among the 44 entrants. The track was in good shape and practice started already on Friday followed by additional practice on Saturday morning. In the afternoon the first two rounds of qualifying were scheduled but rain effected the timetable. After the track had dried up finally the race started with damp conditions in the first round but in the second round the track was completely dry. Everybody made a save run as the weather forecast for Sunday predicted additional showers. Luckily the track stay dry all day and some fine racing took place.
In the 1/10th scale class it was former European Champion Dirk Wischnewski who took the pole-position followed by local hero and new Team Shepherd member Patrick Gassauer on 2nd place and Patrick Schäfer on 3rd place. In the 1/8th scale amateur class it was Velox racer Florian Wagner who claimed the TQ spot in front of Shepherd chief mechanic Armin Weihert on 2nd place and Andreas Schade on 3rd place. Also in the 1/8th scale expert class two Shepherd drivers could be found on the top of the list. Olaf Engelmann had the fastest qualifying run followed by Rd1 winner Peter Poldvere on 2nd place. Maximilian Federmann had the 3rd fastest qualifying time.
The first main final held was the 1/10th scale final. From the start Wischnewski took the lead followed by Gassauer and Schäfer, all running the new Novarossi Flash.12PTS engines. In the first minutes Schäfer had to struggle with traction rolling and lost about 1,5 laps on the leaders so Sebastian Kunz, also racing for Team Shepherd, took over the 3rd place followed by Simon Balk and Schäfer. Wischnewski could slightly increase his lead while the battle for the remaining podium spots continued. A few laps before the end Gassauer and Balk ran out of tyres and Schäfer regained the 3rd place while Kunz moved up to second with his Novarossi powered Velox V10 “eleven”. This was also the final order and with 6 cars in total Shepherd had the most cars of all manufacturers in the final.
The 1/8th scale amateur final saw many changes of positions throughout the race. Pole-setter Florian Wagner lost some time at the beginning when his Novarossi engine stopped after another car turned his Velox upside down. But with an excellent performance he managed to pass Detlef Dickes for the lead a few minutes before the end and crossed the finishing line in first position followed by Dickes. With his constant driving Weihert claimed the last spot on the podium another lap down.
Like at the 2nd round of the Central German Championship in Kirchhain Team Shepherd could celebrate a double victory in the 1/8th scale expert class. Polesetter Engelmann drove a constant race and finished in first position just 3 sec in front of his teammate Poldvere, both driving the Velox V8 “eleven” powered by Novarossi engines. Local club member Alex Schmitt finished on third place.
Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]
