RC Lemans Series Rd5 – Report
The MRG Genk track in Belgium played host to the fifth round of the 2016 RC Lemans Series this past weekend. With Europe’s weather playing havoc this Summer, Saturday’s practice only allowed for very limited running and most of the drivers tried to make up lost time early Sunday morning. In the LMP1 Modified class, Tim Altmann was the pre-event favourite thanks to three wins and a third place finish with a second place at round three would be enough to earn him the overall championship early. Another fun fact of the weekend was first time RC Lemans starter, Markus Mobers. The 1/12th scale specialist and former national and European Pro10 champion made his maiden outing with a brushless and LiPo-powered Pro10.
Racing-wise, Tim Altmann would make a clean sweep in the qualifiers, taking all three rounds and setting a new best overall time for Pro10 cars. Sven Stoffels would follow in second from Philipp Paul, with both being separated by only four hundreds of a second. Tobias Weist, Kai Altmann and Markus Mobers, who was plagued by troubles in the qualifiers, completed the top 7. In LMP2 Stock, 2015 Champion Sascha Lennartz also set a new track record and he would be accompanied by Marlon Beuershausen , Marhijs Hermens, Jörn Bauer, Franz-Jakob Reinartz, Timo Schad and Johannes Sobala in the A-main.
The LMP1 A-mains then saw a dominating performance by Tim Altmann, who easily won the opening two A-mains to take the day’s win early. Tobias Weist, whose former A-main record was smashed by Tim, was able to finish A1 in second from Sven, Reinder and Markus. A2 then had Kai, Reinder, Tobias and Markus finishing behind Tim, who secured himself the 2016 title with the win at round 5. A3 then again saw Tim dominating the field although Markus got into grips, chasing Tim in the final minute and ending the race only four hundreds of a second short of the winner. Kai Altmann was able to secure himself the runner-up spot from former 2-times champion, Tobias Weist who had to settle for third.
The LMP2 class had loads of battles to offer in the finals and A1 was won by Marlon Beuershausen, who was able to get past Sascha to take the win with a new A-main and lap record. Mathijs Hermens came in second from Sascha in third. The second A-main looked like a blueprint of A1 until Sascha and Marlon collided, promoting Mathijs into the lead who was in turn hardly chased by Timo. The latter eventually managed to grab the lead and later the win while Mathijs, Jörn, Sascha and Marlon made the the top 5 in A2. The third and decisive A-main was a pretty open affair with five drivers able to take the overall win. But it only was to be for Sascha who took an easy win as Timo moved his way up again to end the race on P2 in front of Jörn Bauer and Marlon Beuershausen, the latter not being able to repeat his A1 performance. Overall the win went to Timo Schad with a second and first place being enough to slip by Sascha Lennartz on the runner-up spot and Mathijs Hermens on the 3 spot. As for the championship, Mathijs is still in the lead while Timo moved up to second in front of Sascha.
The RC Lemans Series will now see an eight week Summer vacation to resume with round six on the weekend of the 21st of August at the Düren track in Germany.
Source: RC Lemans Series [rc-lemans.de]
