West German nitro onroad championship – Preview
The popular Western German Championship is turning into an international competition for the 2014 season with drivers from six nations are fielding the top-level class 1 in 1/8 scale nitro on-road. When the lights will turn green on Sunday at round one in Dormagen, two-time W.C. finalist and former German Champion Robin D’Hondt from Belgium is on top of the newcomers in the regional championship which comprises four rounds of qualifying for the single event German Nationals on the weekend of the 14th of September at the Munster track in the South of Hamburg. Motonica factory driver D’Hondt is facing a strong challenge from drivers like country-fellow Steven Cuypers (Mugen), John Ermen (Xray) from the Netherlands, Dirk Rischard (Serpent) from Luxembourg or top German drivers like Michael Salven (Serpent), Tobias Hepp (Xray) and Karl-Heinz Meister (Serpent). Others foreign drivers will include Alain Levy (Shepherd) from France and Emil Kostadinov (Mugen) from Bulgaria.
A total of 60 nitro racers have made their entry for the season opener at the 268 meter track at Dormagen in the North of Cologne, where the German Nationals took place two years ago and which is called “the RC Monaco” due to its fatal barriers. Dormagen already saw the Nitro-West-Warmup two weeks ago, an exclusive test day for 1/8 and 1/10 nitro racers. For the first time two workshops were held at the warm-up, with Karl-Heinz Meister giving an introduction into engine technique and Arno Puepke telling drivers about pit stops and fast refuelling.
As usual for many years now, all drivers will have their permanent starting number for the whole season, including the Nitro-West-Masters. In 1/8 scale class 1 it is former EC-B Champion Christian Wurst who will carry the prestigious number one. The Serpent racer is the reigning champion in the Western German Championship with Ralf Vahrenkamp (Serpent) finishing second in 2013 ahead of Uwe Baldes (Xray).
24 participants from four nations will start in class 2 of 1/8 scale. Last year’s title winner John Lenaers (Mugen) has stepped up into class 1 for the new season. Second in the 2013 class 2 ranking has been Belgian Tim Vogels (Xray) in front of Joachim Kuehn (Xray).
Only 16 racers join the competition in 1/10 scale nitro on-road. Mugen driver Daniel Toennessen has grabbed number 1 winning the 2013 title in front of Arndt Bernhardt, Benjamin Lehmann and René Puepke – these three have made a change to Shepherd – and Joerg Baldes (Serpent). The German nationals will take place at the Tuerkheim track near Munich from 28-31 August.
There will be three heats about five minutes each on Sunday morning, semi finals will last 20 minutes, the main final 30 minutes. Tires are free but will be checked because tire additives are strictly forbidden. In 1/8 scale the nitro methane percentage has been reduced to 16 percent.
Following round one at Dormagen, the Western German Championship will continue with round two at Bad Breisig (26/27th April), round three at Oberhausen (21/22nd June) and round four at Hamm (12/13th July). The competition at Dormagen can be followed on the live stream at myRCM.ch.
Source: Nitro-West [nitro-west.de]
