Daniel Reckward wins Swiss EFRA GP

Last weekend saw the EFRA GP for 1/8 Buggy held in Oberbüren, Switzerland. As the drivers arrived on Friday morning, a very big tent awaited them with space for all the drivers and the restaurant area. It rained the night before and so the track was wet but in good condition. From 10am till 6pm the drivers could run four practice round to get familiar with the track. On Saturday morning the track was wet again but no rain for the last practice round, however just before the start of the first Qualifying round it began to rain. The rain stayed for the whole first round of qualifying and it was Dominique Gross (Serpent/Ninja/JConcepts) from Switzerland who was fasted, second was Roman Kummer (Agama/TechnoPower/VP-Pro) from Switzerland, 5 seconds behind, and third Hannes Käufler (TLR/nVision/Losi) from Germany.

For the second round, the track was wet but no more rain. It was Jeremy Pittet (Kyosho/Orion) from Switzerland who was the Fastest in front of former World-Champion (1998) Daniel Reckward (Mugen/RB) from Germany and Robin Frischkopf (Xray/RB) from Switzerland. In the third round, the young French Guillaume Hebert (Mugen/OS) was the Fastest in front of the young Swiss Yves Schmidlin (Mugen/OS) and Daniel Reckward (Mugen/RB). The fourth and final Qualifying round, it was again Jeremy Pittet (Kyosho/Orion) who was the Fastest in front of Guillaume Hebert (Mugen/OS) and Robin Frischkopf (Xray/RB).

Saturday night the MORC Club have organised one of the best RC-Party’s ever seen, but what happens in Oberbüren stays in Oberbüren. Sunday morning the track was wet again. In the low-finals the cars became dirty again but no water-puddle on the track. After the two 1/2-Finals the 12 Finalists was established.

After a clean start from the pole, Daniel Reckward made a mistake in the second lap and Jeremy Pittet took the lead. Jeremy Pittet had planned to do 9 minutes pitstops but he flamed out on his in-lap. Still a little bit fuel in his tank, his mechanic tells me, that he has that problem since a few weeks and don’t know why. Now Daniel Reckward was back in the lead and controlled the race from the front. Robin Frischkopf und Jeremy Pittet battled for the second place and changed positions a number of times. Stefan Byesse had an other pitstop strategy and was in second position after his last pitstop. He drove fast and only closed to within 5 seconds of his Mugen/RB teammate Reckward in the last lap. After 45 minutes Daniel Reckward was in a new lap and so Byesse could not catch up more and finshed the race on second position. Frischkopf and Pittet were close together but Robin Frischkopf managed to keep his third position. Fourth with 3 seconds back was Jeremy Pittet and in fifth position the Italian Alberto Papa (Kyosho/OS).

Final Result:
1. Reckward Daniel (Germany) – Mugen / RB / Tourex X-500 – 72 45:38.021
2. Byesse Stefan (Germany) – Mugen / RB / Tourex X-500 – 71 45:05.350
3. Frischkopf Robin (Switzerland) – Xray / RB / GQ Spade – 71 45:14.932
4. Pittet Jeremy (Switzerland) – Kyosho / Orion – 71 45:17.943
5. Papa Alberto (Italia) – Kyosho / OS – 69 45:01.934
6. Heim Marc (Switzerland) – Xray / Picco – 69 45:05.145
7. Affolter Christoph (Switzerland) – Mugen / Ninja – 69 45:05.820
8. Stettler Marco (Switzerland) – Kyosho / Orion – 69 45:28.589
9. Kallen Joachim (Switzerland) – HotBodies / Orion – 69 45:39.747
10. Käufler Hannes (Germany) – TLR / nVision – 66 42:31.802
11. Schmidlin Yves (Switzerland) – Mugen / OS – 66 44:39.085
12. Hebert Guillaume (France) – Mugen / OS – 60 40:15.975

Full results can be found here.

More Pictures can be found here.

Source: MORC [morcsg.ch] / Philippe Gross

Categories - Events, Gas, International, Racing