René Puepke wins 1/10 opener in West Germany
René Puepke has taken victory at round one of the Western German Championship in the 1/10 scale on-road nitro class which was held at Dormagen in the north of Cologne. Following a one-year-break Mugen racer Sebastian Buerge came on second at his comeback just in front of last year´s runner-up Andy Weyhoven with his Xray.
A total of 43 competitors, 33 in 1/10 and ten in the KWC class (Kyosho World Cup) made it a promising start into the season. For comparison: One year ago only 26 drivers competed in 1/10 scale at Dormagen. Following the successful Nitro-West-Warmup one week ago at Oberhausen the participants had another full day of testing on Saturday at good conditions. Just when practice was over it started to rain for a couple of hours and track was still in damp conditions when the first round of heats where started. So it came as no surprise that the best lap times were done in the fourth and last round of heats.
The only driver to do 18 laps was René Puepke. He was followed by 2011 champion Benny Lehmann, who had borrowed a 733 from Julius Kolff while all the Serpent drivers are waiting for the new 747 kits to arrive. The only 747 at the start was in the hand of Michael Salven himself who qualified on third. So it was a 1-2-3 for Serpent in the qualifying ranking.
The top 10 after four heats:
1. Renè Puepke (Serpent 733/Xceed) – 18 laps / 5.17,382 min.
2. Benny Lehmann (Serpent 733/Xceed) – 17 / 5.01,134
3. Michael Salven (Serpent 747/Xceed) – 17 / 5.01,632
4. Daniel Toennessen (Mugen MTX4/Novarossi) – 17 / 5.07,991
5. Bernd Rausch (Kyosho/Team Orion) – 17 / 5.10,718
6. Carsten Diekmann (Kyosho/Team Orion) – 16 / 5.01,122
7. Marco Nenner (Kyosho/Team Orion) – 16 / 5.01,504
8. Arndt Bernhardt ( Serpent 733 / Xceed) – 16 / 5.03,018
9. Andy Weyhoven ( Xray/Orcan) – 16 / 5.06,337
10.Sebastian Buerge (Mugen MTX5/Novarossi) – 16 / 5.06,888
From the 15 minutes quarterfinals Wolfgang Feldges (Xray), Georg Goehlich (Kyosho), Melvin Diekmann (Kyosho), Lucien Zens (Serpent), Dirk Zschaebitz (Serpent) and Claus Nauth (Mugen) made their way up into the semi finales. Puepke took a clear win with 69 laps in 20 minutes in the semi finale A two laps ahead of Rausch and another three laps ahead of Weyhoven. Bjoern Hartlage (Serpent) finished fourth with Feldges fifth. In semi finale B Bernhardt won in front of Lehmann and Buerge, all three with 65 laps, followed by Toennessen, Zens and Carsten Diekmann with 63 laps. That meant that Feldges lost his place in the finale to faster Carsten Diekmann. Among those who didn’t make it into the finale were Michael Salven as well as Dieter Fleischer and Claus Nauth (both Mugen MTX5), all of them stopped by broken spur gears.
Puepke took advantage from his pole but was passed by Rausch in an early stage of the 30 minutes finale race. The Kyosho team driver hold the lead until his last refueling but was already in trouble at that time running out of tyres (right rear). It became more and more worse for him and he had to retire 30 minutes before the end, dropping back to a disappointing sixth position. Puepke brought his quick 733 home to a steady win. Buerge on second was already three laps down, but only 2.5 seconds in front of Weyhoven who had to roll-up the field from behind following an engine cut-off at the start. With 16.7 Puepke and Rausch did the fastest laps in the finale but a new blistering lap record was set by Salven with 16.422 seconds for the 268 metre track.
The top 10 of the final race:
1. René Puepke (Serpent 733/Xceed) – 101 laps / 30.06,718 min.
2. Sebastian Buerge (Mugen MTX5/Novarossi) – 98
3. Andy Weyhoven (Xray/Orcan) – 98
4. Benny Lehmann (Serpent 733/Xceed) – 96
5. Arndt Bernhardt (Serpent 733 / Xceed) – 95
6. Bernd Rausch (Kyosho/Team Orion) – 94
7. Lucien Zens (Serpent/Orcan) – 91
8. Carsten Diekmann (Kyosho/Team Orion) – 86
9. Daniel Toennessen (Mugen/Novarossi) – 76
10.Bjoern Hartlage (Serpent/Orcan) – 71
In the KWC class pole position and victory went to Holger Wittek with his Team Orion powered Kyosho. Second on the podium became young Marvin Schumann ahead of Carsten Pruessmann and oldie but goodie Werner Vogel. Others didn´t make it to the chequered flag after 30 minutes. Michael Stein was the only competitor in the newly introduced HC10 (Hobby-Cup 1/10 with Novarossi or Sonic standard engine), which is run together with KWC.
Next weekend (21/22 April) the 1/8 on-road nitro hot-shots will turn into action at round one of their Western German Championship at the very fast track at Hamm. Round two of the 1/10 scale campaign including KWC and HC10 will be held at Dueren on 12/13 of May.
Source: nitro-west.de [nitro-west.de]
