John Ermen wins 1/8th at West German regionals Rd3

Last weekend saw the third round of the West German nitro on-road regionals at the fast and tricky Hamm track. The weather on Saturday was rainy but the track dried up at around 2 o’clock and was afterwards sprayed with sugar water to up the traction a bit. On Sunday the weather was much better with the sun coming out making for around 23 degrees ambient temperature. After three heats of qualifying Steven Cuypers put his car in front with John Ermen in second and Emil Kostadinov in third position.

Qualifying top 9
1. Steven Cuypers
2. John Ermen
3. Emil Kostadinov
4. Karl-Heinz Meister
5. Uwe Baldes
6. Claus Nauth
7. Luigi Pili
8. Ralf Vahrenkamp
9. Rainer Rosskothen

At the start of the final second placed John Ermen had a slow take-off and Emil was able to take the 2nd spot but soon after John found a way past him and started to chase down Steven. After another couple of laps John was able to pass Steven and to take the lead only to ran into a back marker right out of the pit lane after the first fuel stop allowing Steven to make up some of the lost time. After that Steven hit the same back marker as John and lost valuable time, luckily his car was not damaged and he could continue the race. This accident gave John some more room and he was able to extend his lead to around one and a half laps. Around half way into the race more and more racers suffered from the demanding track and started to ran into trouble often leading into DNFs, but up front John Ermen crossed the finish line some three laps in front of Steven Cuypers who had Luigi Pili in tow.

Final result
1. John Ermen
2. Steven Cuypers
3. Luigi Pili
4. Rainer Rosskothen
5. Claus Nauth
6. Emil Kostadinov
7. Uwe Baldes
8. Karl-Heinz Meister
9. Ralf Vahrenkamp

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]