August 29, 2012

Klausner & Singer win Austrian champs Rd5

Last weekend the penultimate leg of the Austrian nitro on-road nationals took place at the Aigen/Schlaegl track, the venue for next year’s IC 1/8th on-road B European Championships. Wet track conditions on Saturday made for a very quiet practice. Later in the afternoon the track started to become dry and all drivers tried to get as much track time as possible. The first qualifying round on Saturday was run at good track conditions and was dominated by Michael Klausner in 1/8th and Manual Singer in the 1/10th class. On Sunday the predicted bad weather meant that nobody was able to improve times and drivers like Lubischa Paunovic, Alain Levy, Harald Wendy,  Peter Grandinger and Erich Scharler not even made it into the final.


In 1/8th, Pucher starting from Pole was leading until first pit stop when Klausner got into the lead and was untouchable until the end. In the seventh minute Pucher ran into mechanical problems meaning the fifth DNS in the fifth race for him. Sitting in a save second spot was Nejc Mihelic with the battle for third place still being fought. Except for Klausner and Julian Schober who was running his first ever 1/8th race with a borrowed car from Klausner all drivers where going for a tire change. At around halftime all drivers with an one tire stop strategy got in trouble with their tires and Klausner and Schober took a big advantage out of this situation with their two stop strategy. Until the 29 minutes mark it looked like Schober would easily reach the runner-up spot but a flame out and a broken glow plug at the second tire change cost him much. Nejc Mihelic also ran into glow plug trouble – due to small tires and a high revving engine – meaning Martin Horvatits got on second place with a hard chasing Schober behind him, who could pass him. But one minute before end Schober had to made his final fuel stop but a pit exit accident cost him nine seconds meaning only the third place for him.

Top 4 1/8th
1. Michael Klausner – Mugen/Novarossi
2. Martin Horvatits – Motonica/Picco
3. Juian Schober – Mugen/Novarossi
4. Bernd Koller – Mugen/Novarossi

From start of the 1/10th final Singer, Hubeny and Tomaschko fought for the lead. At the 40 minutes mark Tomaschko ran into problems with his receiver battery and with only two minutes to go he had to retire. Kurt Hubeny ran out of tires at the end and handing Singer the win from Hubeny and Katzmayer.

Top 4 1/10th
1. Manuel Singer – Xray/Novarossi
2. Kurt Hubeny – Xray/Orcan
3. Jochen Katzmayer – Xray/Novarossi
4. Martin Wilfinger – Serpent/Novarossi

Many thanks to Michael Selner for sending the report.



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