Nitro-West-Masters Rd3 – Report

Uwe Baldes, Melvin Diekmann, Marco Muscara and Stefan Schumann achieved class wins at round 3 of the Nitro-West-Masters which was held at the Rhein-Ahr-Motodrom in Bad Breisig. With 42 entries and finally 41 competitors attending the number of participants was slightly lower than at the previous rounds in Oberhausen (67) and Dueren (55). But that did not derogate the thrilling racing action and the great atmosphere though. The conditions on Sunday were perfect nearly till the end before some slight rain hit the track during the last ten minutes of the 1/8th main race.

Christian Wurst set the pace with his Serpent 977 during the 3 heats to top the time sheet of the 1/8 scale nitro class with team mate Frank Schewiola in 2nd and Xray racer Uwe Baldes in 3rd. The 30 minute finale was a spectacular one and finally the lead changed 7 times. Wurst, Schewiola and Baldes had clean starts but surprisingly it was Ralf Vahrenkamp (Serpent) who came out leading after lap one with young Philipp Roemer (Xray) in 2nd ahead of Wurst, Baldes and Schewiola. After 5 laps Wurst was the new leader. Baldes and Schewiola needed more time to recover and to get back to 2nd and 3rd spot. At lap 20 Baldes took over the lead for 18 laps, then it was Schewiola running at the front. But he had to pit for fuel earlier than Baldes who took 1st position for two laps before he had to come in for new fuel as well. When the second half of the 1/8th main was already on, a few drops hit the track and things got hectic on the track and in the pits. Drivers who made an early change to wet tires recognised their decision to be wrong when the track became dry again very soon. Lap times went down to normal again but the rain came back and increased. With his next pit stop for fuel Uwe Baldes’ crew changed to Contact damp tires and it took only a few laps to see his name on first spot of the result screen again at lap 74. With a smooth driving style he could pull away lap by lap to bring his Orcan-powered Xray RX8’14 home with a clear margin of more than five laps over Ralf Vahrenkamp who managed to rob the 2nd place from team mate Schewiola who at the end could not fight back on dry tires.

1/8 scale VG8 final result:
1. Uwe Baldes – Xray/Orcan – 93 laps
2. Ralf Vahrenkamp – Serpent/Novarossi – 88
3. Frank Schewiola – Serpent/Picco – 88
4. Christoph Loose – Serpent/Novarossi – 83
5. Christian Wurst – Serpent/IDM – 80
6. Reinhard Zick – Mugen/RB – 80
7. Ingo Odenthal – Serpent/Novarossi – 70
8. Thomas Kroeger – Serpent/Novarossi – 70
9. Philipp Roemer – Xray/Orcan – 66
10.Rainer Rosskothen – Mugen/Novarossi – 61

Frank Schewiola with his Picco-powered S977 is now the front runner in the 1/8 scale class of the Nitro-West-Masters standings with 357 points. Christian Wurst follows in 2nd with 354 points and Uwe Baldes is in 3rd with 352 point.

In 1/10 scale TQ went to European B champion Thilo Toedtmann who was testing a Capricorn chassis instead of his regular Xray NT1. He left the Shepherd duo of Benjamin Lehmann and Melvin Diekmann clearly behind. But the finale was a different story with lots of retirements. Already at the start, the race was over for Dirk Zschaebitz as a front belt broke on his Serpent 747. Also Toedtmann was struggling right from the start and he had to retire after only 9 laps because of a broken servo  as it happened to him at the Oberhausen round two weeks ago. Bernd Rausch had to stop after 17 laps in his first race with an RB engine when a coil spring of the manifold got broken and also a new one only lasted for a few laps. Finally only four drivers were able to make it to the chequered flag with the Shepherd/Sonic duo of Benjamin Lehmann and Melvin Diekman dominating the race. Lehmann came in 1st with Diekmann in 2nd some 3 laps behind. As Diekmann had to refuel one time more than Joerg Baldes it could have get close at the end but Baldes had to pit for a new right hand front tire which was worn out because of a loose suspension pin.

1/10th scale VG10 final result:
1. Benjamin Lehmann – Shepherd/Sonic – 103 laps
2. Melvin Diekmann – Shepherd/Sonic – 100
3. Joerg Baldes – Serpent/Xceed – 97
4. Faehd Labik – Xray/Novarossi – 88
5. Marcel Haenen – Capricorn/- – 51
6. Joerg Kleineberg – Mugen/Novarossi – 32
7. Bernd Rausch – Shepherd/RB – 17
8. Thilo Toedtmann – Capricorn/Orcan – 9
9. Dirk Zschaebitz – Serpent/Orcan – 0

Young Melvin Diekmann is now the leader in the 1/10 nitro class at half time of the 2014 Nitro-West-Masters series with 353 points, just 1 single point ahead of team mate Benjamin Lehmann and with Thilo Toedtmann (345) still in 3rd.

Beside the regular 1/8 and 1/10 nitro on-road classes, the two Hobby Cup classes HC8 and HC10 are an inherent part of the Nitro-West-Masters with mandatory engines from Sonic and Novarossi. In HC8, the 1/8 scale Hobby Cup class, Marco Muscara pushed his Sonic-powered Mugen MRX5 to TQ over young Christian Roenicke (Mugen) and Joachim Kuehn (Shepherd) and also to his 2nd victory in a row following his comeback at Dueren. More than 1 lap behind Christian Roenicke finished 2nd in his first race of the 2014 season while experienced Matthias Guenther with his Shepherd secured the 3rd spot on the podium with local hero Joachim Kuehn in 4th.

1/8th HC8 final result:
1. Marco Muscara – Mugen/Sonic – 108 laps
2. Christian Roenicke – Mugen/Novarossi – 107
3. Matthias Guenther – Shepherd/Sonic – 103
4. Joachim Kuehn –  Shepherd/Sonic – 101
5. Detlef Spiess – Xray/Novarossi – 98
6. Gunnar Blumendahl – Mugen/Sonic – 98
7. Gerhard Bemelmans – KM/Novarossi – 92
8. Holger Hinnendahl – Xray/Sonic – 92
9. Juergen Lehmann – Shepherd/Sonic – 85
10.Heinz Faigle – Xray/Novarossi – 58

Matthias Guenther has collected 353 points so far and sits on tip of the ranking with Detlef Spiess (Xray/351) and Heinz Faigle (Xray/346) in 2nd and 3rd place.

In the HC10 class, 1/10 scale nitro with spec engines, Thorsten Lewandowski was again the fastest driver on the track. Following his superior TQ ahead of old-boy Werner Vogel and Stefan Schumann, Xray racer Lewandowski was leading the finale race in style again but after 64 laps he dropped back to 4th because of a nearly four minutes repair break. That made way for Stefan Schumann, a regular 1/10 scale nitro racer who has switched to the HC10 class for the first time. At the checkered flag, his Xray NT1 crossed the finish line as the winner with a two lap advantage over fellow MCC Burgholzhausen club racer, Timo Niedling, who achieved his first ever podium in his second nitro race. Also Kyosho racer Guido Burghartz was happy to receive the trophy for his ride to 3rd place on the podium.

1/10th HC10 final result:
1. Stefan Schumann – Xray/Sonic – 90 laps
2. Timo Niedling – Xray/Sonic – 88
3. Guido Burghartz – Kyosho/Sonic – 87
4. Thorsten Lewandowski – Xray/Sonic – 84
5. Wilfried Huebner – Serpent/Xceed – 77
6. Werner Vogel – Kyosho/Novarossi – 28
7. Philipp Wisniewski – Mugen/Sonic – 25

Thorsten Lewandowski is still leading the ranking with 350 points in front of Philipp Wisniewski (Mugen/348) and Werner Vogel (Kyosho/346) which both had to retire early at Bad Breisig.

As for the statistics, Serpent was the leading manufacturer with a total of twelve chassis among the 41 participants followed in this ranking by nine Xray and Mugen each, six Shepherd, two Kyosho and Capricorn each and one. There will be two more races in Western Germany in July, the fourth round of the Western German Championship on July 12th to 13th at Hamm as the final qualifier for the German Nationals and round 4 of the Nitro-West-Masters on July 26th and 27th at the Haltern track. As usual the NWM race weekend at Haltern is open to all racers, no license is needed.

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