Xray Racing Series Germany Rd1 – Report
The opening round of the Xray Racing Series Germany was held at the MAC Adenau club recently. Located near the legendary Nürburgring the track would host the event for the sixth time with the weekend having kicked off on Saturday. Sunday morning saw the so-called “Sunday drivers” practice for those joining the meeting only on race day, to make up for the alleged backlog of practice. After the drivers’ briefing, race director and timekeeper Uwe Baldes sent the participants into the three heats, with the best run to be counted by lap and time. The drivers were divided into the classes Touring Car FWD 17.5T, Touring Car Stock 13.5T and 1/12 GT 17.5T. In the Touring Car Stock class, the positions were hotly contested. With 27 laps in 5:02,042, the pole position went to Xray driver Joerg Baldes in front of his brand teammates Marc Stuebben and Tobias Hoefflin.
Hoefflin the won the opening final just ahead of Joerg Baldes and Mugen driver Daniel Toennessen. In the second leg Joerg Baldes countered successfully, Hoefflin was beaten only by two and a half tenths of a second with Toennessen third. Thus, in this class the third final had to decide. Marc Stuebben won the last run ahead of Toennessen, while Baldes and Hoefflin finished only on places three and four. Thanks to a razor-thin result in the second final, the day’s victory went to Joerg Baldes ahead of Tobias Hoefflin and Marc Stuebben. An amazing performance was shown by the only eight-year-old Thilo Baldes (Xray), who was able to keep up with the speed of the veterans and lost only a single tenth of a second to the record lap of the day.
Touring Stock top 3 results:
1. Jorg Baldes
2. Tobias Hofflin
3. Marc Stubben
The front-wheel-drive touring class is the youngest category, but also the class with the most starters. Not only the true-to-life bodies, but also the enormous power density give the FWD cars a remarkable participation. The pole position was obtained by FWD veteran Oliver Kaufmann, who completed 25 laps in 5:00,700 minutes with his Destiny. Second place went to Harald Schmittgen, who was significantly involved in the test program of the Xray T4F. He was short of Kaufmann for just under one and a half second, half a second behind came Frank Hoeschler (Xray) in third place. In the three finals, however, Kaufmann was left by his racing luck, once he stuck while lapping back markers and twice he made a mistake on his own, so that he finished in fourth place overall, but he accepted the disappointment calmly. The fight for the win was extremely exciting, as in the opening final Hoeschler won half a second ahead of Schmittgen, while Kaufmann came in third. In the second final, Schmittgen conquered the victory, prevailed with just under two and a half tenth of s second ahead of Hoeschler and Daniel Schober, who has switched from Formula to the FWD touring cars. Ultimately the third leg had to decide. Schmittgen and Hoeschler chased bumper to bumper around the Eifel-Ring, but in the end Schober was happy about his first race win, while Hoeschler finished second to Schmittgen. Tie on points, the better run decided in favor of Harald Schmittgen, who was very happy about his victory. Frank Hoeschler in second and Daniel Schober in third provided a complete Xray podium.
FWD top 3 results:
1. Harald Schmittgen
2. Frank Hoeschler
3. Daniel Schober
In the 1/12th GT class Harald Schobner was in full control things. With his Project Godspeeed chassis, he was the fastest in qualifying with 42 laps in 8: 02.838 ahead of Xray driver Alexander Seitter and PG driver Roland Streb. By winning the first two A-mains, Schobner also brought the overall victory with lap advantage ahead of junior Jody Mueller, who even left her grandfather Bertram Kessler behind.
1/12th GT top 3 results:
1. Harald Schobner
2. Alexander Seitter
3. Roland Streb
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
