Ermen & Rausch take West German championships

John Ermen and Bernd Rausch are the 2014 Western German nitro on-road champions. Xray factory racer John Ermen from the Netherlands celebrated his second victory in the 4th and final round of the Western German Championship in the 1/8th scale class 1 at the Hamm track. In 1/10th scale a 2nd place finish behind team mate Benjamin Lehmann was enough for Shepherd team driver Bernd Rausch to capture the title and to get back the prestigious starting number “1” for the 2015 campaign. In 1/8 scale class 2 Mugen racer Reinhard Zick has caught the title while Serpent racer Thomas Reiche took the final win.

A total of 46 racers entered the final qualifying round for the German nationals. On Saturday the drivers enjoyed a great day of practice on the fast 310 meter long AMC Hamm track in perfect conditions, knowing quite well that the weather on Sunday would be different. Finally 43 drivers joined the action on race day with the first two heats taking place on a dry track. For the 3rd round slight rain arrived as expected and racing was down for round 3 and 4 of the heats. With more rain expected the drivers were asked in an additional drivers meeting about their intentions to start in the afternoon. No 1/10th racer but eight 1/8th class 2 and only two 1/8th class 1 drivers confirmed their intention to race. So the 1/10th scale class was counted according to the heats ranking while the schedule was reduced to two 20 minute main races for the 1/8 class 1 and class 2 drivers to make sure all German drivers had the possibility to get home in time to watch the Football World Cup final. Surprisingly the rain stopped and the track dried up quite quickly. As a result more drivers than expected wanted to enter the two races. But race director Arno Puepke decided to refuse these drivers an entry and to allow only those to start who had confirmed their participation in the drivers meeting – a decision that needs to be clarified within the rule book for the future.

In 1/8th class 1 Michael Salven pushed his Picco-powered Serpent 977 to TQ with 19 laps in 5.06,281 minutes. The 2nd spot was captured by Motonica factory driver Robin D’hondt from Belgium with 19 laps in 5.07,177 with last year’s winner John Ermen in 3rd (5.07,464). Tobias Hepp pushed his Orcan-powered Mugen to 4th position (5.08,143). He also clocked the fastest lap of the day (15.520) and he was the only driver among the top 4 to pit for a splash-n-dash. Karl-Heinz Meister (Serpent/5.09,422) and reigning champion Christian Wurst (5.10,055) followed on positions five and six. The main race, reduced from 30 to 20 minutes, was a poor affair with John Ermen winning the battle of two with a five-lap advantage over Ralf Vahrenkamp (Serpent). John Ermen competed in all four rounds of the Western German Championhip and with two wins and a 3rd place to count, the Dutchman collected 360 points to leave Christian Wurst (355) and Ralf Vahrenkamp (353) behind.

1/8 scale class 1 overall top 10 result:
1. John Ermen, Xray/Reds – 360 points
2. Christian Wurst, Serpent/IDM – 355
3. Ralf Vahrenkamp, Serpent/Novarossi – 353
4. Karl-Heinz Meister, Serpent/Picco – 346
5. Tobias Hepp, Xray/Mugen/Orcan – 341
6. Claus Nauth, Xray/Orcan – 338
7. Thomas Kroeger, Serpent/Novarossi – 336
8. Alexey Yaramishian, Capricorn/O.S. – 333
9. Uwe Baldes, Xray/Orcan – 329
10.Rainer Rosskothen, Mugen/Novarossi – 327

In 1/8th class 2 the TQ was taken by Belgian Serpent racer Nico Vandewynckel with 18 laps in 5.06,159. Also young Philipp Roemer (Xray/5.11,846), Belgian Tim Vogels (Xray/5.14,403) and Reinhard Zick (Mugen/5.14,720) completed 18 laps in their heat. Finally eight drivers joined the 20 minutes main race. Joachim Kuehn was leading the race with his Shepherd at the beginning before Tim Vogels went in front for a while. In lap 53 Thomas Reiche, together with his brother and pitman Thomas, head of body maker TRT/SLB, moved his way up from 9th to 1st position. Finally the Serpent driver won the race with a one lap advantage. Matthias Guenther made it to 2nd place although he lost about a minute in the pits to fix his Shepherd. Another lap down, Tim Vogels completed the podium in 3rd. Kuehn finished in 4th place followed by Michael Woeste (Capricorn), Martin Figge (Shepherd) and Belgian Mark Vandenberk (Serpent) while Klaus Kirschner (Mugen) had to retire after 16 minutes.

Old boy Reinhard Zick is the new 1/8 class 2 champ. The Mugen racer collected 356 points and left 2-time winner Philipp Roemer and Matthias Guenther behind with 353 points each. Vogels (347) achieved position four, Kuehn (346) finished in 5th place.

1/8 scale class 2 overall top 10 result:
1. Reinhard Zick, Mugen – 356 points
2. Matthias Guenther, Shepherd – 353
3. Philipp Roemer, Xray – 353
4. Tim Vogels, Xray – 347
5. Joachim Kuehn, Xray/Shepherd – 346
6. Thomas Reiche, Serpent – 345
7. Michael Woeste, Capricorn – 343
8. Martin Figge, Shepherd – 343
9. Andreas Goebel, Serpent – 339
10.Heiko Kube, Mugen – 338

TQ in 1/10 scale went to Benjamin Lehmann who was the only one to complete 18 laps (5.15,485). His Shepherd fellows Bernd Rausch (17/5.01,749), René Puepke (17/5.03,135), Arndt Bernhardt (17/5.04,794) and Melvin Diekmann (17/5.06,613) followed on positions two, three, five and six to make it five Velox V10 among the top 6 with Michael Salven racing the new Serpent 748 to divide the Shepherd quintet on fourth (17/5.03,825). As none of the 1/10 racer wanted to race on a wet track this turned to be the final ranking.

The final point standings may enjoy Shepherd boss Patrick Schaefer because five racers which swapped to the Velox V10 before the 2014 season achieved the top 5 spots. As in 2012 Bernd Rausch took the title with 358 points and left Rene Puepke and Arndt Bernhardt with 351 points each behind. Benjamin Lehmann (350) came on 4th ahead of young Melvin Diekmann (343). Reigning champion Daniel Toennessen (Mugen/342) finished the 2014 campaign in 6th.

1/10 scale overall top 10 result:
1. Bernd Rausch, Shepherd/RB – 358
2. René Puepke, Shepherd/Sonic – 351
3. Arndt Bernhardt, Shepherd/Sonic – 351
4. Benjamin Lehmann, Shepherd/Sonic – 350
5. Melvin Diekmann, Shepherd/Sonic – 343
6. Daniel Toennessen, Mugen/RB – 342
7. Daniel Thiele, Serpent/Novarossi – 339
8. Andreas Weyhoven, Serpent/Orcan – 338
9. Marco Nenner, KM/Orcan – 335
10.Faehd Labik, Xray/Novarossi – 334

For the statistics, Serpent was the leading brand in the chassis ranking at this race weekend with 13 cars, followed by 10 Shepherd, 8 Xray and Mugen each, 2 Capricorn and one KM and Motonica each. A total of 75 drivers made it into the points ranking of the 2014 Western German Championship, ten less than one year ago. In details, there were two less in 1/8 class 1, two more in 1/8 class 2 but ten less in 1/10.

The next race in Western Germany will be round 4 of the Nitro-West-Masters on July 26th to 27th at the historic Haltern track. As usual this race is open to all racers with no license is needed.

Source: Nitro-West [nitro-west.de]