Czech national series Rd5 & Rd6 – Report

The final two rounds of Czech national series took place last weekend. Two races in two days on one track was a real challenge for both drivers and their cars. For Round 5 of the series, 1/8E buggy qualifications was quite a close affair between Martin Bayer, Max Gotzl and Kaja Novotny with each driver taking a TQ run each, with Martin eventually taking the overall TQ. In 1/8IC, Martin TQed round 1, but then Kaja managed to take round 2 and 3 for the overall TQ.

In 1/8E buggy Kaja had technical issues in A1 and Martin took an easy win. In A2 Martin managed to pull away while Max, Jiri and Kaja fought for 2nd place and in the end it was Max who took it. In A3 Martin sat out and Kaja took easy win which secured him the 3rd place overall.

Top 10:
1. Martin Bayer (TQ) – Xray
2. Max Gotzl – Xray
3. Kaja Novotny – Xray
4. Jiri Mara – Serpent
5. Ales Bidovsky – Xray
6. Milan Mudra – Xray
7. Jiri Dvorak – Serpent
8. Vaclav Broz – Serpent
9. Adam Dubak – Xray
10. Jaroslav Valder – Xray

In semifinals Martin put down an amazing run to take the pole position for the main final. In the final, the top 4 of Martin, Jiri, Max and Kaja managed to pull away and fought for the lead with each driver leading part of the final. During the race Max faced technical issues and had to retire, while Jiri made a few mistakes, which dropped him down. So it was Martin and Kaja fighting closely until the end and crossing the finish line less than second apart with Martin taking the win.

Top 13:
1. Martin Bayer – Xray
2. Kaja Novotny (TQ) – Xray
3. Jiri Mara – Serpent
4. Ales Bidovsky – Xray
5. Milan Mudra – Xray
6. Petr Klatovsky – Serpent
7. Tomas Kapicka – Kyosho
8. Karel Hajek – Xray
9. Ondrej Kulhanek – Xray
10. Jan Kapicka – Xray
11. Vladimir Pour – Xray
12. Michal Sindelar – Sworkz
13. Max Gotzl – Xray

For qualifying for Round 6, 1/8E buggy was again a close affair with Kaja taking the opening round, while Martin TQ’d round 2. In the last round, Jiri Mara put a flawless run and took TQ in Q3, which put him 2nd on the grid. Kaja would start 1st and Martin 3rd. In 1/8IC, Martin totally dominated and took TQ in all three qualifications with Kaja finishing 2nd overall and Jiri Mara 3rd.

In the 1/8E buggy finals, the top 3 messed it all up in both A1 and A2 as Kaja, Martin and Jiri made mistakes or crashed each other, which gave the wins in both finals to young Max who drove great and without mistakes. In A3 Kaja and Martin battled it out for 2nd place overall, but my own mistakes cost me the lead and Martin took it.

Top 10:
1. Max Gotzl – Xray
2. Martin Bayer – Xray
3. Kaja Novotny (TQ) – Xray
4. Ales Bidovsky – Xray
5. Milan Mudra – Xray
6. Vaclav Broz – Serpent
7. Adam Dubak – Xray
8. Jiri Mara – Serpent
9. Jaroslav Valder – Xray
10. Martin Rytir – Xray

In the semi finals Martin drove again on another level and secured another pole position. In the beginning of the final Kaja had seem power problems but started the final anyway. Martin pulled away quickly but thanks to others making mistakes Kaja was promoted to 2nd place for about 15 minutes, but then his car stopped totally and despite his mechanics repairing it, he lost too much time. Martin took the win with more than a lap in front of 2nd Max Gotzl, who managed to defend his place from a hard charging Jiri Mara.

Top 13:
1. Martin Bayer (TQ) – Xray
2. Max Gotzl – Xray
3. Jiri Mara – Serpent
4. Ales Bidovsky – Xray
5. Milan Mudra – Xray
6. Kaja Novotny – Xray
7. Frantisek Kalenda – Serpent
8. Tomas Kapicka – Kyosho
9. Ondrej Kulhanek – Xray
10. Jiri Benes – Xray
11. Jaroslav Valder – Xray
12. Petr Klatovsky – Serpent
13. Jan Kapicka – Kyosho

As this was the final race of the series, there was also the overall ceremony. Martin became the champion in both classes.

Top 3 1/8E buggy:
1. Martin Bayer – Xray
2. Kaja Novotny – Xray
3. Max Gotzl – Xray

Top 3 1/8IC buggy:
1. Martin Bayer – Xray
2. Kaja Novotny – Xray
3. Jiri Mara – Serpent

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]