RC-Lemans Series Rd6 – Report
The sixth and final round of the 2017 RC-Lemans Series was held recently at the Dutch Velp track. The race for the overall championship titles in the LMP1 Modified and LMP2 Stock classes was still wide open and it was the first time in the 12-years long history of the series that three drivers would battle for the title at the final round. In LMP1 reigning champion, Tim Altmann set the pace in Q1 while Kai Altmann came out fastest in Q2. Timo Schad secured himself the final qualifier with the fastest time in front of Tobias Weist meaning that all title favourites would make it into the top 3 after the qualifiers.
In the LMP2 class it was 2015 champion, Sascha Lennartz with the TQ from local hero Mathijs Hermens who had a shot at the title as had Andreas Dick who came out on top in Q2. Andy was not able to repeat a TQ in the final qualifier, however a good result behind Mathijs meant he would start behind him while Sascha Lennartz came in P3 in front of another title favourite, Rainer Schad.
The opening final of the LMP1 class saw Timo taking an undefeated win some five seconds in front of Kai Altmann who found a way past his brother Tim as Tobias had to settle for a lower spot due to a mistake in the opening stages. A2 was a different affair as Tobias was hot on the heels of Timo. Both went all-in, showing a great pace and sportsmanship during hard-fought battles but when a marshal placed a backmarker car in front of the two, both had to brake hard which send Tobias into the grass while Timo was able to carry on but he waited at the end of the straight to let Tobias past but the situation allowed Kai to take over the lead and take the win in A2 in front of Tim and Timo while Tobias suffered a small defect. A3 then saw Timo taking the win from Tim and Tobias, the latter tried to make the life a bit easier for his teammate Timo but about halftime Tim found a way past Tobias but he ran out of time and wasn’t able to catch the leader. Overall it was Timo with the day’s win from Kai and Tim.
With his third win this year Timo secured himself a maiden RC-Lemans title from Tim Altmann 2nd and Tobias Weist 3rd.
LMP1 overall top 10:
1. Timo Schad – 395 points
2. Tim Altmann – 392 points
3. Tobias Weist – 391 points
4. Kai Altmann – 382 points
5. Reinder Wilms – 379 points
6. Christian Fischer – 367 points
7. Joachim Behnken – 365 points
8. Peter Plümacher – 362 points
9. Sven Stoffels – 361 points
10.Ben Voorhaar – 352 points
The opening LMP2 A-main went to Andreas Dick who took the in from a hard-charging Sascha Lennartz while Rainer Schad came in 3rd from Mathijs in 4th. A2 had Mathijs, who had a coming together with Sascha in A1, maintaining his lead and taking the win from Sascha 2nd and Rainer in 3rd. This meant the fight for the overall win and title would be held in A3. The race saw Sascha taking out Andreas at the start but he waited in great sportsmanship and the two would resume at the end of the field. Up front Mathijs and Rainer lead the field but Andreas, with a great pace, made up position after position and ultimately he would end the race on the 2 spot, only three tenth of a second short of Mathijs who took the overall victory with two wins. Andy came in 2nd while Sascha took the final podium spot in a tie-breaker with Rainer.
Overall in the championship it was Andreas Dick with the title win, only three weeks after his German national title. Mathijs Hermens took the vice-championship from Rainer Schad 3rd.
LMP2 overall top 5:
1. Andreas Dick – 397 points
2. Mathijs Hermens – 392 points
3. Rainer Schad – 387 points
4. Franz-Jakob Reinartz – 372 points
5. Erwin Peters – 369 points
Source: RC-Lemans [rc-lemans.de]
