Michael Salven wins German-West 1/8th Rd1

Last weekend the first round of the German-West nationals took place in Sinzig and Michael Salven made this report. ‘I was really looking forward to it, since I was eager to get more running with the all new 977 Viper. Saturday was very busy with 74 drivers trying to get their cars working for this track. It is a technical track with a very fast sweeper at the end of the straight. That very corner gave me a lot of headaches, since I knew we could do it full throttle last year. For some reason I could not do it, I had too much understeer while all the rest of the track was fine. I tried a few things but I still had an issue there. Finally The solution was to run the car narrower in the front and a softer front anti-roll bar. I also moved the weight as far back as possible and while it still was not perfect, it was very good. I managed to take TQ, but my teammate Rene Püpke gave me a hard time taking second spot with his Viper. Semifinal went well for me, while Rene had to retire with a lost c-clips on his two speed. We still had four 977 Vipers in the final. Right from the start I could manage to drive away from the pack, followed by Karl-Heinz Meister also with the Viper and later by John Ermen when Karl-Heinz was hit by engine troubles. After ten minutes I made sure I keep the lead and took no risk, winning the race with two laps in front of Steven Cuypers. An excellent third place by Christian Wurst with the first race back in the Serpent camp made a perfect start for the Viper in Germany.’

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]