August 14, 2017

RC Lemans Series Rd5 – Report

The fifth and penultimate round of the RC Lemans Series was held at the MRC Düren track this past weekend. Practice on Saturday was wet in the morning and evening and this meant the start of the qualifiers on Sunday was postponed by an hour to make sure the track was fully dried. With the sun coming out both the temperatures and traction became higher, pleasing the drivers. In the LMP1 Modified class title favourites Timo Schad and Tim Altmann – with two wins each – as well as Tobias Weist, who also may have a shot at the title, made the trip to Düren while in LMP2 Stock, title favourite Andy Dick, winner of the past three rounds, did not made the trip to round five.

In the LMP1 class Tobias Weist made a clean sweep to take the pole position from Tim Altmann and Philipp Paul. Reinder Wilms and Christian Fischer, who made a maiden A-main, completed the top 5 result. LMP2 was lead by Rainer Schad who took all three qualifiers for the overall TQ from Mathijs Hermens 2nd and local hero Franz-Jakob Reinartz 3rd.

The opening LMP1 A-main saw Tobias taking a dominant win with the only 22-laps run while behind him, Tim had to defend his position against Philipp. Thanks to his more consistent laps Tim would prevail, taking the runner-up spot from Philipp. A2 saw Tim waiting for an error of leader Tobias. The technical track would mean a lost in position or even a DNF in the event of a mishap, but Tobias stayed focussed and with the win in A2 he also took his first overall victory of 2017. Tim came in 2nd, also with a 22-laps run while Philipp came in 3rd again. Despite having already bagged the overall win, Tobias would attend the third and final main, mainly in the hunt for the track record. Due to the higher temperatures the track was slower though meaning he just focussed on having a lea run. Behind him, Tim and Philipp would battle for the runner-up spot and ultimately Philipp found a way past and he scored a 2nd place in front of Tim. The overall result would see Tobias in front of Tim and Philipp.

In the warm-up for the opening LMP2 A-main Rainer Schad made a mistake which resulted in a broken rear axle. Thanks to a one minute time-out and a fast pit crew, Rainer still was able to participate in the main. At the start Rainer lost out against Mathijs and with swift laps he tried to make up lost ground but mishaps here and there meant it would take until the final two minutes to get back to Mathijs. A last-lap contact between the two meant Franz-Jakob would be able to close up and after a very fair final-corner pass, Rainer would take the win a narrow six hundreds of a second in front of Mathijs while Franz-Jakob ended the race on P3, only one second behind the leader. A2 saw Mathijs and Rainer separating from the field right from the start with Mathijs in the lead. The two would have a flawless run and after seven minutes Mathijs crossed the finish line in P1 with Rainer and Franz-Jakob in 2nd and 3rd. At the start of the third and final A-main Rainer stayed in front with Mathijs in his slipstream. A contact with the track barriers some 90 seconds from the end meant a DNF for unlucky Mathijs while up from Rainer was able to cruise to a maiden RC Lemans win. Overall and behind Rainer and Mathijs, Franz-Jakob would end the day on the 3 spot.

The 6th and final round of the RC Lemans Series will be held in Velp, NL but before the German Pro10 Nationals will be held in Hildesheim in about three week’s time.

Source: RC Lemans [rc-lemans.de]



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