Rene Puepke wins 1/10 opener in Western Germany
He did it again, Rene Puepke has won the first of four races of the 2010 Western German Championship in the 1/10th nitro class just as he did one year ago. At the unforgiving 267 meter track at Dormagen, before the gates of Cologne, the Mugen team driver finished first with a two lap advantage over Serpent racer Tobias Hepp and another lap in front of Mugen fellow Daniel Thiele.
In picture-book weather, 51 drivers enjoyed a great racing weekend with a well-organised event of the MCK Dormagen. Only the poor discipline of the drivers going to their marshalling positions is something which needs to be improved in the next races. A positive feedback was received about the introduction of permanent start numbers in the Western German Championship which are, like in Formula 1, based on the last year´s ranking list.
European Champion Dirk Wischnewski was fastest in the four heats. But as a guest competitor the Xray team driver was not classified but was allowed to start in the final race from eleventh position. So Michael Salven was the ‘official’ top qualifier in front of Rene Puepke, Daniel Thiele and Tobias Hepp with only those five drivers doing 18 laps.
The semi final B (20 minutes) was a family affair for the Baldes brothers with Uwe winning one lap in front of Joerg at their first race with the Mugen MTX4-R. Also Marco Muscara (Xray) and Reinhard Zick (Mugen) on third and fourth position made it to the final while Daniel Toennessen (Mugen) and Claus Nauth (Xray) bumped up from semi final A.
Before the 30 minutes final the question was about the tyres as the tyre wear was really an issue on this demanding track. At the end some racers had to pit for new tyres or were desperately sliding on their rims. Even Wischnewski, who could manage to take the nonofficial lead for a while, finally was hampered by worn-out tyres. Michael Salven took the lead from pole position but had to stop because of a broken differential and came home in sixth. Rene Puepke was cruising with good speed with his Reds Racing powered Mugen but was able to save his UFRA tyres until the chequered flag after 101 laps. Also Tobais Hepp showed an excellent performance with his S733/Novarossi running on Shepherd tyres as well as Daniele Thiele with his Mugen/Reds Racing running on RPM tyres. In the finale the Baldes brothers changed positions with Joerg coming in on fourth following a tyre change and Uwe on fifth hampered by worn-out tyres and brake problems.
Top 10 finishers:
1. Rene Puepke, Mugen / Reds Racing / UFRA – 101 laps
2. Tobias Hepp, Serpent / Novarossi / Shepherd – 99
3. Daniel Thiele, Mugen / Reds Racing / RPM – 98
4. Joerg Baldes, Mugen / Orcan / Orcan – 94
5. Uwe Baldes, Mugen / Orcan / Orcan – 90
6. Michael Salven, Serpent / Mega / Xceed – 60
7. Claus Nauth, Xray / Orcan / Orcan – 48
8. Daniel Toennessen, Mugen / Novarossi / ATS – 42
9. Reinhard Zick, Mugen / Novarossi / Black Star – 28
10. Marco Muscara, Xray / Novarossi / Orcan – 16
In the top 10 statistic Mugen dominates with six MTX4-R, furthermore two Serpent and two Xray completed the grid. On engines it was four for Novarossi, three for Orcan, two for Reds Racing and one for Mega, and it was four for Orcan tyres and one each for UFRA, Shepherd, RPM, Xceed, ATS and Black Star.
Beside the qualifying round of the 1/10 class for the German Nationals which will be held in Leipzig in September, two more races took place at Dormagen. The first round of the KWC group west (Kyosho World Cup) was won by old-experienced Werner Vogel in front of Hermann-Josef Fuchs and young Marvin Schumann. The 1/8 race saw Paty Schuster (Mugen) winning ahead of Carsten Pruessmann (Kyosho) and Christian Wurst (Mugen) who was leading until two minutes before the chequered flag when he hit the concrete while pitting for his last refuelling.
Already in two weeks (1/2 May) the 1/10 racers will meet again for round two of the Western German Championship at Dueren. And on the upcoming weekend the 1/8 drivers will challenge for first points at Oberhausen.
Source: Nitro West [nitro-west.de]
