Neijc Mihelic wins Austrian 1/8 On-road Nats Rd1

The opening round of the Austrian 1/8th On-road National Championship was held at the Sollenau track over the weekend. Right from the start of the free practice it became clear that both Neijc Mihelic and team mate Herfried Pucher would be in the mix for the overall win. Come qualifying Pucher would walk away with the TQ in round one some 0.5 seconds in front of Mihelic. In round two the young Slovenian fought back and won in front of Pucher by 0.4 seconds and ultimately Mihelic would take the TQ honours in front of Pucher, who set a new track record in 16.876 seconds, being the only driver to score a sub-17 seconds lap. Pucher, Levy, Vignjevic and Dokter would be the drivers to attend in the Super Pole race with Pucher ultimately proceeding directly to the main final while the others had to go through their respective semi finals.

The 45-minute main final was a thrill from beginning to the end. Nejc and Pucher separated themselves from the field easily and after the first pitstop Pucher got in troubles by making contact with a back-marker which forced him to pit for repairs. About the 20 minute mark the top teams started to change tyres and it was Mihelic whose glowplug broke during the tyre change allowing Pucher to take the lead. Mihelic though recovered and passed Pucher again, who could not follow the pace anymore after the crash in the opening stages. In the end Neijc Mihelic brought home the win in front of Pucher, Pascal Knöller and Harald Himler, for an ARC/Picco top 4 lock out.

Source: MW RC Cars [mwrccars.at] | Herfried Pucher