2019 RC-Lemans Series Rd1 – Report
The opening round of the 2019 RC-Lemans Series was held as a joint event together with the first International Foam Race IFR at the MAC de Baanbrekers club in Rucphen, The Netherlands. The weather forecast saw wet and windy conditions, however the weekend kicked off with dry weather on Friday and parts of Saturday. The opening qualifier for the 1/8th Electric Stock and Pro10 Modified, Stock and Super Stock classes was also held in dry conditions, however things went down from there. The 1/8th Stock class saw Adrien Viallet taking the opening qualifier from the Smits brothers, Martijn and Jeroen. Jeroen in turn would take the second qualifier in front of Martijn while Jeroen Smits came in 3rd. During Sunday’s wet qualifiers the drivers opened to not start meaning Martin would take the pole position for the finals. Martin would then take the opening A-main with quite a margin, however Adrien came out on top in the wet A2 and A3 for the overall. Martin and Jeroen would complete the top 3 podium.
The Pro10 10.5T Boosted Superstock class it was local hero Patrick Vannieuwenhyse who would hold the upper hand in both the dry and wet qualifying rounds. Roy Pie with two 2nd place finishes and Ludo van Hoeydonk in 3rd rounded out the top spots after the qualifiers. Patrick then also went on to win the opening two A-mains for the overall from wet A3 winner Roy and 3rd placed Ludo.
In the non-boosted 10.5T Stock class it was reigning RC-Lemans champion Rainer Schad with the overall TQ courtesy of winning Q1 and Q3 while former champion, Sascha Lennartz had to settle for 2nd on the grid with one round win in front of another qualifying round winner, Mathijs Hermens. In the opening wet A1 Rainer scored an unfortunate DNF while Roy Pie took the win coming from 6th on the grid. Mathijs and Timo came in 2nd and 3rd for now. A2 then saw Rainer with a tone-to-tone win, conserving his chances for the overall as Jon de Kok and Sascha Lennartz made up the top 3. A3 started with a 5-horse race for the overall win and ultimately it was Sascha who was the third winner in the triple mains from a strong Roy Pie and Mathijs Hermens. With a win and a 2nd place finish it was Roy who would take his maiden win in the RC-Lemans Series from Sascha and Mathijs in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The fastest class of the day was Pro10 Modified and it was also the most entertaining with four different winners in the four qualifying rounds. It started with former champion, Timo Schad followed by Tobias Weist. Former vice champion, Kai Altmann snatched the win in a wet Q3 as Reinder Wilms took the win in the fourth and final qualifier with Timo and Kai hot on his heels for the finals. An unfortunate Tim Altmann, reigning champion, lost his A-main spot in the quadruple tie-breaker. In the wet opening A-main Reinder shifted into second gear and won with a dominant 2-lap margin from Kai and Tobias. Kai in return came out on top in A2, showing a very smooth throttle finger to leave Timo and Reinder behind in 2nd and 3rd respectively. The damp A3 saw Timo taking the lead right from the start and he never looked back from there. Tobias came in 2nd, some 0.3s behind Timo followed by Joachim Behnken, coming from the 5 spot. Overall it was Timo with the win from Kai and Reinder.
Source: RC-Lemans [rc-lemans.de]
