Daan Jocobs takes Dutch title with Rd4 win
Round 4 of the 1/10th 200mm Dutch Nationals took place at the MBC de Sluis in Gouda recently. The weather forecast for Saturday was bad with lots rain expected, the Summer in Holland has still to begin. Between the showers on Saturday there was a little time to do some set-up work and driving. A number of drivers, who made the journey despite the forecast had the luck of a dry morning run and after some heavy rain a few drivers could do some practice in the final hour. The forecast for Sunday would give the drivers hope for drier racing on this tight and technical track. During qualification on Sunday morning, drivers were able to do their first rounds in really sunny conditions, however due to limited track action during the past weeks due to bad weather there was little grip on the track. Unfortunately the drivers only had two qualification rounds in the dry to set their best times.
In the first run Jacobs took the first spot before Rombouts and Borghoff and after the second run Rombouts took TQ by less than two hundredths of a second, despite the fastest lap for Jacobs. Borghoff and de Jong took third and fourth position. The other finals were driving in really wet conditions but before the main final the rain stopped and so it was really important to make the right choice of tires and preparation of car in wet conditions is never easy. All different choices of tires made this final an exiting one. Rombout and de Jong chose the tire that was the best for the wet and Jacobs’ tires should be better when the circuit was drying out. And so it was, at the beginning of the final Rombout and the Jong could pull away and after 10 minutes of racing they were almost a lap ahead of Jacobs. But due another fuel strategy and the tires becoming better as the track dried up, Jacobs could slowly increase his speed. After De Jong chose to change tires and Rombouts losing valuable time Jacobs could take the lead and win the race. With still one round to drive Jacobs is already the 2012 Dutch Champion.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
