September 16, 2014

Pietsch & Kraegefski win at German 1/8th nationals

Pietsch & Kraegefski wins German 1/8th nationals

The 2014 German 1/8th scale nitro on-road championships took place this past weekend at the well-known Hollmoorring of the MC Munster located south of Hamburg. The 260 meter track, which hosted European Championships already, offers a challenging layout but has become bumpy over the years. A total of 78 drivers, 48 in class 1 and 30 in class 2, competed in the single-event German championships. The event was well organised and helped by the fact that the expected rain, thunder and lightning stayed away from the track, making it four dray days with only a slight drizzle on Saturday for a few moments. For the second year hand-out tyres were mandatory, this time 32/35 shore front/rear from Contact Tires which worked very well.


Pietsch & Kraegefski wins German 1/8th nationals

In class 1 Robert Pietsch entered the German Nationals as the odds-on favourite but also some drivers Northern devision drivers like Lars Hoppe or Merlin Depta were hot candidates for the title. But as free practice started it soon became clear that there was only one driver to beat: Robert Pietsch. After twelve practice heats on Thursday and Friday with five laps to be counted he led the ranking with a gap of more than one second over Merlin Depta who was followed by Oliver Mack, John Ermen, Lars Hoppe, Robin D’hondt, Andreas Giesa, Steven Cuypers, Philipp Sting and Maximilian Vogl.

On Saturday Robert Pietsch participated only in three of the five qualifiers but continued his stunning performance. Every of his three results would have secured him the pole position. Finally he took TQ with 21 laps in 5.04,041 minutes which left Oliver Mack more than three seconds behind (5.07,349). Another three seconds down, John Ermen came in 3rd spot (5.10,296) as the leader of a number of close followers. In total 16 drivers managed to pull 21 laps.

Qualifying top 10:
1. Robert Pietsch – Mugen/Picco – 21L 5.04,041 minutes
2. Oliver Mack – Shepherd/Sonic – 21L 5.07,349
3. John Ermen – Xray/Reds – 21L 5.10,296
4. Merlin Depta – Serpent/Picco – 21L 5.10,331
5. Lars Hoppe – Shepherd/Sonic – 21L 5.10,351
6. Michael Salven – Serpent/Picco – 21L 5.11,821
7. Steven Cuypers – Mugen/Picco – 21L 5.12,377
8. Timo Schroeder – Shepherd/XRD – 21L 5.12,383
9. Robin D’hondt – Motonica/Picco – 21L 5.12,560
10.Freddy Suedhoff – Shepherd/Novarossi – 21L 5.12,700

Lots of drivers were already prepared for rainy conditions but a dry track welcomed the racers on Sunday morning. The first winner of the final day was Frank Schewiola (Serpent) who won the 1/8-final B in front of Oliver Lembeck (Mugen) and Bulgarian Emil Kostadinov (Mugen). The win in the 1/8-final A was gabbed by Uwe Baldes (Mugen) followed by Marcel Tietz (Mugen) and Claus Nauth (Xray). From the 1/4-final B Maximilian Vogl (Shepherd), Christian Wurst (Serpent) and Patrick Gassauer (Serpent) bumped up to the semifinals, from 1/4-final A Lennart Skornia (Serpent), Karl-Heinz Meister (Serpent) and Daniel Sieber (Shepherd) proceeded to the semis.

The semifinals were run over 25 minutes during which some drivers changed both right hand tyres. Depta crossed the finish line after 99 laps as the winner of the semifinal B five seconds ahead of Mack in 2nd with Schroeder, Suedhoff and Hepp on positions 3 to 5 already one lap down. A prominent victim was Salven who was running in 3rd when his Serpent was hit at the rear end after having lapped teammate Christian Wurst. An angry Salven came in 6th and missed the main. From the semifinal A Robert Pietsch qualified for the main winning with 100 laps. Hoppe in 2nd was one lap down, Cuypers and D‘hondt ended 2 laps down and Giesa in 5th was already 3 laps behind. Young Toni Gruber, the 2012 champion, missed the qualification by 2 seconds. Also the semi A had a prominent retirement with Ermen who suffered a flame-out and finally a broken battery.

The 40 minute final race was a sequel of Robert Pietsch’s demonstration. He pulled away from the rest of the field right from the start he and extended his lead lap by lap. Finally he was able to drive his Picco-powered Mugen in a save mode around the track to finish after 159 laps with a 3 lap advantage. The runner-up spot saw a fierce battle right from the start with a strong duel between Hoppe and Mack in the first part of the race. Hoppe lost his chances when he made a mistake ripping the body off the chassis. Also Mack was not free of mistakes and one of these meant the end of the race of Cuypers just when he moved up to 2nd for the second time. Cuypers was stopped by a broken wishbone when he was hit by Mack’s Shepherd coming out of the grass. Also Suedhoff, a regular electric touring car racer, was in 2nd for a while. Finally Depta fought his way through the field after being in trouble early in the race. But also the Serpent driver was not free of issues. He destroyed Giesa’s Shepherd when coming back from the grass and he unfairly kicked off Hepp’s Mugen. So Depta took the 2nd spot on the podium with 156 laps and Suedhoff came in 3rd one lap behind. Hoppe managed to finish in 4th position ahead of Mack, Hepp and Schroeder. Beside Cuypers and Giesa also D’hondt had to retire with a rear belt around the 23 minute mark.

Pietsch & Kraegefski wins German 1/8th nationals

Class 1 final result:
1. Robert Pietsch – Mugen/Picco – 159 laps
2. Merlin Depta – Serpent/Picco – 156
3. Freddy Suedhoff – Shepherd/Novarossi – 155
4. Lars Hoppe – Shepherd/Sonic – 153
5. Oliver Mack – Shepherd/Sonic – 152
6. Tobias Hepp – Mugen/Picco – 147
7. Timo Schroeder – Shepherd/XRD – 135
8. Steven Cuypers – Mugen/Picco – 108
9. Robin D’hondt – Motonica/Picco – 91
10.Andreas Giesa – Shepherd/Sonic – 11

Finally Robert Pietsch successfully defended his German championship title. Andreas Giesa was crowned as 40+ champion, Toni Gruber (Serpent) as under 18 youth champion. For statistics, Shepherd was the leading chassis brand with five cars in the main race beside three Mugen and one Serpent and Motonica each. Picco had five engines in the main race, together with three Sonic engines a total of eight power units were produced by the Italian manufacturer. Furthermore one Novarossi and XRD engine each made it among the top ten.

In class 2 Tom Kraegefski was by far the fastest driver during practice. His 5-lap summary was about 3 seconds better than the one of Maximilian Guenther in 2nd position. Tim Vogels, Philipp Roemer and Philip Kremer followed on positions 3 to 5. In the heats young Philipp Roemer was leading the ranking after four rounds and went into the hotel to prepare his car when Xray-fellow Kraegefski pushed his RX8 to the limits to secure TQ more than 5 seconds faster than Roemer. 3rd spot went to Philip Kremer in front of Maximilian Guenther and Tim Vogels.

Qualifying top 10:
1. Tom Kraegefski – Xray/Orcan – 20L 5.03,254 minutes
2. Philipp Roemer – Xray/Orcan – 20L 5.08,844
3. Philip Kremer – Shepherd/Sonic – 20L 5.10,789
4. Maximilian Guenther – Shepherd/Sonic – 20L 5.10,868
5. Tim Vogels – Xray/O.S. – 20L  5.11,320
6. Christoph Loose – Serpent/Novarossi – 20L 5.12,421
7. Hans-Peter Holl – Serpent/Sonic – 19L 5.02,461
8. Konstantin Saritsaklis – Mugen – 19L 5.03,119
9. Nico Vanderwynckel – Serpent/Picco – 19L 5.03,701
10.Heiko Kube – Mugen/RB – 19L 5.06,014

From the 1/4-finals Christian Schnaedter (Mugen), Thomas Strukletz (Motonica) and Michael Holla (Xray) as well as Michael Woeste (Capricorn), Matthias Guenther (Shepherd) and Joachim Kuehn (Shepherd) made their way into the semis. Roemer won the semifinal B in front of Heiko Kube (Mugen), Strukletz, Holla and Reinhard Zick (Mugen) who made it among the top five when Christoph Loose lost his ticket for the main race because of a broken engine only 2 minutes before the checkered flag. Maximilian Guenther was hampered by engine troubles and had to retire early. Kraegefski was the winner of the semifinal B followed by Nico Vanderwynckel, Kremer, Vogels and Bert Posem (Mugen) to make it three Belgians in the class 2 main – beside two Belgians in the class 1 main.

In the class 2 main Tom Kraegefski dominated the field in the same superior style as Pietsch but with and even bigger gap to his followers. Finally the Xray racer had a seven lap lead when he crossed the finish line after 152 laps. As in class one there was a battle for 2nd place with a total of 13 changes during the race. Heiko Kube was the first driver to hold the 2nd spot, later Philip Kremer looked as he could bring it home but his strong ride came to an end after 28 minutes. Than it was again Nico Vanderwynckel, who arrived late to the track at the morning due to some stomach issues on his 41st birthday, to take over 2nd position. He finished 2nd even he had to stop with his Serpent during his last lap. Philipp Roemer was pushed off the track right after the start, dropped from 2nd to 8th and had to pit to get his car’s body fixed. But he fought his way through the field and finally made it onto the podium, completing 145 laps as Vanderwynckel in 2nd and Tim Vogels in 4th position.

Pietsch & Kraegefski wins German 1/8th nationals

Class 2 final result:
1. Tom Kraegefski – Xray/Orcan – 152 laps
2. Nico Vanderwynckel – Serpent/Picco – 145
3. Philipp Roemer – Xray/Orcan – 145
4. Tim Vogels – Xray/O.S. – 145
5. Michael Holla – Xray/Orcan – 142
6. Reinhard Zick – Mugen/RB – 141
7. Heiko Kube – Mugen/RB – 140
8. Bert Posem – Mugen/Picco – 135
9. Philip Kremer – Shepherd/Sonic – 103
10.Thomas Strukletz – Motonica/Rex – 49

Tom Kraegefski, a regular 1/10 scale racer, became German Champion 1/8 class 2 while Vanderwynckel received the trophy as 40+ champion and Philipp Roemer as youth champion. For statistics, Xray was the leading chassis brand with four cars followed by three Mugen and one each Serpent, Shepherd and Motonica. Three Orcan engines made it into the finale as well as two each Picco and RB and one each Sonic, O.S. and Rex.

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



Usage

If you republish any elements from this page on another website, including text, original pictures or results please be sure to add a link back to this page as the source: