Dutch 1/10th Nitro On-road Nationals Rd2 – Report
Round 2 of the Dutch 1/10th Nitro On-road National Championship was held at the technical and twisty track of Gouda. The event was held together with the growing Serpent GT Cup and after round 1 was washed away by the weather, the second round would be held in perfect weather conditions all weekend. In the 200mm class and after qualifying, Daan took a convincing pole with Julius in 2nd some four seconds behind but only 0.018s ahead of Milan in 3rd. The Dutch racing format sees double 20-minute finals and results being based on a points system meaning two good results are needed to take the upper spots. This proved to be the issue for Daan, who had an engine cut at the start of the first final. Julius could take the lead from the tone, but as he had planned an extra fuel stop for safety he had to push the whole final as Milan stayed very close. Ultimately it would work out and Julius would grab the win in leg 1.
The second final would be a disaster for Milan as he blew up his engine, over revving it in the pits while checking gearbox issues. With Milan out before the start Julius just needed a 2nd place behind Daan to win overall, but again Daan would have a troubled final. That left Julius with an easy cruise to take his first Nationals win this year. With Milan and Daan out of reach of the podium spots this made for a close battle for the 2nd and 3rd spots. It would turn into a full Serpent podium with John Weijtboer in 2nd and Jurmin Etnel taking the last podium spots.
As for the Durch Serpent GT Cup, the series is still in the beginning stages and it is attracting new drivers every race. New additions for this event were Koen Geurds returning to Nitro racing and Boris Kolff, 9 year old son of veteran racer Julius Kolff, who would compete in his first race. With Gouda being a smaller track everyone was curious how the big GT cars, that must run in stock raceroller/RTR condition, would fare. The combination of control tyres, engines and bone-stock cars made for very close racing, and the atmosphere amongst drivers was really good. After the dust had settled the TQ went to Koen Geurds who was fast but also really consistent all day. Running the same double 20-minutes final system of the Nitro 1/10 national series, everybody got a lot of track time. In both finals the fight for the top spot would be between Koen Geurds and Jan Schelling. But behind them the battle for the last podium spot was intense too. Boris took the 3rd spot in the first final with very nice driving, staying out of trouble and racking up the laps. In the second final Richard Jacobs would claim the 3rd spot but with another mature drive Boris took 4th and when all was added up also the final podium spot.
Source: Serpent [serpent.com]
