2018 Nitro-West-Masters – Preview
The popular Nitro-West-Masters nitro on-road racing series is celebrating its tenth anniversary season this year. It all started in 2009 with the first race held at the Dueren track near Aachen. This forthcoming weekend the 2018 season will be launched with round one of six in Bad Breisig, located between Bonn and Koblenz at the river Rhine. Beside Dueren and Oberhausen, Bad Breisig has been part of the race calendar since the initial season 2009.
As usual, four classes are offered in the Nitro-West-Masters, the 1/8 scale open (VG8) and the 1/10 scale open (VG10) as well as – with mandatory engines from Novarossi and Picco – the 1/8 scale stock (HC8) and 1/10 scale stock (HC10). No license is mandatory to enter the NWM races but those who don’t have a license of the German RC car governing body DMC have to pay an extra insurance fee of 3 Euros. The entry fee for adults is 23 Euros, youth drivers until an age of 18 don’t have to pay an entry fee following the support from the “DMC Nitro-West Rookie-Cup”.
The 2018 calendar of the Nitro-West-Masters with six races from April to October:
14/15 April – Bad Breisig
19/20 May – Haltern
16/17 June – Dueren
21/22 July – Hamm
29/30 September – Velp (NL)
13/14 October – Dormagen
The official jubilee party for 10 years of Nitro-West-Masters will take place at the Pentecost weekend in Haltern which will also be an inauguration party for the new tarmac on the 234-metre track and the totally new rostrum in this idyllic scenery at the river Lippe and inside the ADAC driving safety center. The fourth NWM round will again mean the official warm-up for a German Championship as Hamm will host the official nationals for 1/10 scale open as well as the Deutschland-Cup for the 1/10 stock and the unofficial International German Championship for 1/8 scale stock.
Following the record of 119 participants in the 2017 season of the NWM, Tobias Hepp as well as Melvin Diekmann, David Kroeger and Florian Dueppe will enter the new season as reigning champions. Hepp, who took his third 1/8 scale title following 2009 and 2010 and has moved from ARC to Serpent for the 2018 campaign, won the 2017 crown ahead of Ralf Vahrenkamp (Mugen) and Christian Wurst (Mugen). In 1/10 scale open Melvin Diekmann, now racing with WRC instead of Shepherd, finished on first spot of the 2017 ranking in front of Marco Nenner (Shepherd) and Georg Goehlich (KM). David Kroeger was the rising star of the 1/8 scale stock class as the 15-year old Shepherd racer, officially crowned as rookie of the year, fought successfully against Andre Boettcher (Mugen) and veteran racer Waldemar Liedke (Mugen). Finally, in 1/10 scale stock, Florian Dueppe won another title for Shepherd with Roland Karduck (Capricorn) and Guido Burghartz (Shepherd) on second and third.
Entry forms, results and live timing are available centrally here.
Source: Nitro-West [nitro-west.de]
