RC-Lemans Series Rd7 – Report
The seventh and final round of the 2016 RC-Lemans Series was held in Hildesheim near Hanover. Despite the cold weather and predicted rain some drivers opted to show up already on Saturday morning and they would be able to get some practice laps under their belts until it started to rain later that day. Sunday morning started off wet meaning the opening qualifier would be held in damp conditions while Q2 and Q3 would be run on a soaking wet track. In the Modified class local hero Timo Schad, newly crowned 40+ German Champion Joachim Behnken as well as Tobias Weist all scored TQ runs with the tie-breaker handing Joachim the overall TQ from Timo and Tobias.
In the Stock class Timo Schad and Mathijs Hermens were still in the fight for the overall title. In the tie-breaker Timo would hold the upper hand to take the overall TQ with Jörn Bauer, Franz-Jakob Reinartz and Rafael Klingemann completing the top 5 result.
After the lunch break the weather got a bit warmer and the track started to dry meaning the finals would be held in better track conditions. At the start of the opening A-main Timo and Joachim made contact which allowed Tobias to take over the lead. From that moment on he never looked back to take the win in A1. Timo and Joachim were able to recover, eventually ending the race on P2 and P3 respectively. The second A-main then had Joachim making a mistake in the opening stages, allowing both Timo and Tobias to get by. Both fought for the win with great sportsmanship and Tobias was promoted into the lead after a small bobble of Timo. Shortly after Timo was out with a technical issue and so Tobias was able to cruise to the win, taking his first race victory of the season in the process. Christian Fischer and Joachim Behnken ended the leg in second and third respectively. The third and final A-main was pretty turbulent with many drivers exploring the green stuff alongside the track. Timo would profit of the confusion to take a clean win and to score the fastest run of the day. Tobias was able to perform a last-lap move on Sven Stoffels and Joachim Behnken to take a second place with Tobias, Sven and Joachim being separated by only 0.4s on the line. Overall Timo would end the day on the 2 spot from Joachim in third with the latter scoring a maiden podium after coming in fourth several times.
In the LMP2 Stock class Timo took an easy win in the opening A-main from his father Rainer Schad in second. Mathijs was still in touch with the top spots with a third place finish. A2 then had Mathijs taking the lead following a mistake of Timo. Half a lap behind Timo shifted into second gear, coming closer to the leader lap by lap. At about halftime of the 5-minute race the battle for the lead was in full swing with Mathijs taking very tight lines while Timo was after a chance to go on the inside without being unfair. In the final corner of the final lap Timo ultimately found a way through to take the win by three tenth of a second. This also meant the day’s win and with it the overall Stock title for the local hero. A3 then saw Timo scoring the fastest lap ever run with an LMP2 car on the Hildesheim track with a 14.833 and he would also take the win from Rainer and Mathijs.
LMP1 championship top 10 results:
1. Tim Altmann – 500 points – Team KaTi
2. Tobias Weist – 482 points – VIP Performance
3. Kai Altmann – 478 points – Team KaTi
4. Reinder Wilms – 476 points – RC Devil
5. Joachim Behnken – 467 points – Self-made
6. Timo Schad – 460 points – VIP Performance
7. Peter Plümacher – 457 points – Corally conversion
8. Christian Fischer – 455 points – Corally conversion
9. Uli Steinkau – 439 points – Speedline
10.Michael Finger – 436 points – VIP Performance
LMP2 championship top 10 results:
1. Timo Schad – 495 points – VIP Performance
2. Mathijs Hermens – 487 points – Corally conversion
3. Franz-Jakob Reinartz – 476 points – Corally
4. Jörn Bauer – 465 points – Team KaTi
5. Sascha Lennartz – 387 points – Corally conversion
The opening round of the 2017 RC-Lemans Series will be held on the weekend of the 30th of April in Hildesheim.
Source: RC-Lemans [rc-lemans.de]
