February 19, 2017

Dutch Tamiya Cup Rd1 – Report

The Dutch Tamiya Cup series recently kicked off at the Racing Arena Limburg indoor track. The 30x14m track laid out with ETS carpet offered a technical layout that made for some entertaining races. The event was held in six different classes including Fighter Buggy, TT01/02 Top Stock, Euro TC and Euro GT. Also run was a Formula class and of course M-Chassis. To spice up racing, the organisers decided to use a different format of two seven minute qualifiers and two mains with the first leg being a seven minute sprint, followed by a ten minute “reverse order start” leg 2 that sees the winner of the opening leg start from P6 while the sixth place driver will start from pole and so on. The whole event was held in a very relaxed and laid back atmosphere and in the fastest class of Euro GT, Florian Joos put his TRF car on pole, followed by Robert Krens. The battle for third was won by Michel van der Velden, just in front of Martijn van der Heijden.


The sprint final saw an easy victory of Florian. Robert rolled his car and it took him about ten seconds to be marshalled while the battle for 3rd was won by Michel in front of Martijn. In the feature final, Florian had to start from P6 and Robert from P5 while Jari van de Wal was granted the pole position. From the tone Robert and Florian carved through traffic and were in P1 and P2 after 3 laps. This set the scene for a long and thrilling duel between both drivers. Robert knew he just had to keep his wheels pointed in the right direction to take the win. The track layout is small and technical and overtaking was only possible the driver in front ran wide or made a mistake. Robert masterfully carved through traffic with Florian in his wheel marks. Florian tried to pass Robert about three times, but because he made contact he always waited for Robert to recover. In the end, Robert took the victory and the overall win while the spectators gave a big round of applause for both drivers. Martijn van der Heijden won the fight for third. As he was on equal points with Michel, Martijn got the final podium spot in the tie-breaker.

In Euro TC and even though the racers had the choice between various Tamiya chassis such as the TA04, TA05, TA06, TB03, TB04, the weapon of choice proved would be the single-belt TA07. Wesley van Dijken put his TA07 on pole, one lap in front of Bram Lagerwey who was 6 seconds clear of Eric Mulder. Wesley also posted the fastest laptime with a 13.0. Wesley had a clean and took the overall victory by claiming P1 in the sprint race. He finished almost one lap in front of Eric Bresser who came from P6 on the grid. Eric Mulder finished in P3 in the first final. In the feature final, Wesley had a nightmare start because he got involuntarily wiped during the start. Wesley found himself in P10 and had to find his way back through the field. Michel Peterse took the lead, never looked back and claimed P2 overall. Bram Lagerwey was running in a fine 2nd spot, but when his car had a technical problem, he dropped out of contention. This promoted Wesley to 3rd in the feature race and granted him the overall victory. Eric Bresser took the last podium spot with a fine 2nd place in the feature race.

In Top Stock Mario Taekema put his car on pole, but he was closely followed within a second by Dennis van der Wagt. Raymond Plooij took the third spot on the grid. Mario made a clean sweep in the finals by taking two first places. In the first final, Fred van Voorst finished within 5 seconds, but during the longer feature final Mario finished two laps clear of his nearest rival, Raymond Plooij, who took 2nd overall while Fred took the last spot on the podium. Dennis only finished 5th, despite setting the fastest single lap time.

In M-Chassis Rob Kuijper was the man to beat by putting his car on pole, one lap in front of Jesse Keller. Jesse was followed by Nick Nerrings. Behind Nick, three other racers finished within a second, so the battle for the last podium spot would be fierce. In the finals, Rob Kuijper ruled again and took two wins. Rob was also the only driver to score sub-15-seconds laps. A second and a fourth place earned Martijn van der Heijden P2 on the podium and Nick Nerrings finished where he started, in P3.

Formula is regarded by many as the most realistic class to watch, and there were some really nice paint jobs, including the Red Bull livery on Marco Sakko’s car. In true Verstappen style, Marco claimed pole position while Martijn van der Heijden drove his Philips-liveried car to P2 in front of Hans Damiaens’ Renault. Both finals were won by Marco, but while A1 was a walk in the park, A2 would be a bit more difficult as he started behind Martijn, who gave him a real run for his money. Ultimately Martijn claimed P2 in the feature race and this gave him P2 overall in front of Hans Damiaens, despite being tie on points.

Finally in the Fighter Buggy class, the pole position went to Nick van der Wind but he was closely followed by Lorenzo van Leeuwen with young Arno Damiaens in P3. Both Nick and Lorenzo took a win, but the overall victory was awarded to Nick, in front of Lorenzo and Jonas Damiaens. Arno couldn’t start his first final which meant he couldn’t defend his P3 starting slot.

Thanks to Martijn van deer Heijden for the report.



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