Belgian Electric On-road Nationals finale – Report
The Racing Club Roeselare played host for the final round of the Belgian Electric On-road nationals last weekend. The RCR track recently opened their new track and it is considered to be one of the best facilities in Europe. The flowing high speed track with technical parts was highly welcomed by all the racers who attended the season finale. In order to prepare the 2020 season, two new demo classes, 13.5 blinky Touring and 17.5 blinky FWD, were added to the normal classes of 17.5 Fun, 13.5 ETS, Modified and Formula. Thanks to these classes – and a great raffle – there was a record entry of 45 drivers. Due to the illness of his mechanic, newly crowned Belgian champion Florian Joos decided not to take part in this race and Olivier Bultynck, the current 1/10 European 13.5 champion, decided to give the new 13.5 class a go. So everyone expected Mitchell van Ess to dominate the Modified class, but while his pace on Saturday was blistering, Sunday went horribly wrong for the young Dutchman. In qualifying, Mitchell had two DNFs. Young ARC driver Liam Van de Wouwer had the fastest single lap time, but it was multi Belgian champion Steve Lambrechts running an Xray who took the TQ in front of Liam, Dimitri De Baeker (Xray) and Mitchell.
At the start of opening A-final saw some very close racing. On lap 6, Dimitri and Liam had some door to door contact in the long left hand corner following the main straight. Liam waited for Dimitri to recover and Mitchell pipped into 2nd while Steve convincingly led. After a slight mistake from Mitchell, Dimitri took over P2 with Liam and Mitchell finishing in P3 and P4 respectively.
A2 was a carbon copy of A1 with Steve leading the field around. Willing to increase his lead, Steve pushed a bit too hard and spun out, handing the lead to Liam with Steve in hot pursuit. Liam was now leading a Modified class final for the first time and he maintained the gap to Steve. Unfortunately, on the penultimate lap, Liam spun out on exactly the same spot as Steve did and gave the lead back to Steve, who won in front of Liam, Dimitri and Mitchell.
In A3, Steve took the holeshot and never looked back. Liam decided to focus his race on Dimitri as the faster of these two drivers would seal the P2 spot on the podium. Liam finished in P2 and recorded his highest ever finish in a modified Belgian national while Steve took his first victory since 2006. So the final ranking was Steve Lambrechts (Xray) 1st, Liam Van de Wouwer (ARC) 2nd, Dimitri de Baker (Xray) 3rd, Mitchell Van Es (Awesomatix) 4th.
Florian Joos (Xray) was crowned Belgian Modified champion. The overall 2nd place went to Olivier Bultynck (Awesomatix) with Mitchell Van Es (Awesomatix) rounding out the overall top 3.
In 13.5 ETS newly crowned champion Vincent Van Gansen has been the fastest driver of the season. His closest competitor, Giovanni Moguez really likes the RCR track and was keen to prove that he is a force to be reckoned with. Giovanni dominated the qualifiers and Vincent had no answer to the outgoing champ’s speed. Normally Gio and Vincent are quite evenly matched, but in this race, Gio clearly had the upper hand. The 3rd place was occupied by the Yokomo of Stefan Rommens while Peter Degrande (Awesomatix) and the Xray of Xavier Debroye.
In the finals however, Vincent found some extra speed and was able to challenge Giovanni a bit more. The two protagonists punched similar fastest lap times, but as Giovanni kept his cool, he took the overall victory in front of Vincent. Stefan Rommens withstood the pressure from behind and kept his 3rd starting position, which handed his not only 3rd place overall, but also 3rd in the championship. Peter Degrande and Xavier Debroye rounded off the top 5. The overall ranking was Giovanni Moguez (Awesomatix), Vincent Van Gansen (Awesomatix), Stefan Rommens (Yokomo), Peter Degrande (Awesomatix) and Xavier Debroye (Xray).
Vincent Van Gansen (Awesomatix/Xray) was crowned Belgian 13.5 ETS class champion. P2 went to Giovanni Moguez (Awesomatix/Xray) and P3 to Stefan Rommens (Yokomo). Jeremy Deram (Xray) and Peter Degrande (Awesomatix) rounded off the top 5.
The opening qualifier of the Formula class went to the Roche of Niels Meurs, who finished in front of the Xrays of Kris Vanbleu and Liam Van de Wouwer. In Q2 and Q3 Liam was clearly the fastest driver of the pack and took the TQ in front of Niels Meurs, Kris Vanbleu and Ludo Van Hoeydonck. The opening A-main then ended in the same order as the starting order, with Liam clearly dominating. Niels was able to punch the same fastest laptime, but had to concede on consistency. In A2 Liam punched hard from the start and created a gap between him and the remainder of the field. Kris was able to pass Niels for P2 and they finished in the same order while Ludo had to retire his car.
In A3 Liam once again took the holeshot. This time, a massive pileup after him, promoted Ludo into P2. Kris drove flat out and passed Ludo for P2 while Niels had to retire his car following the earlier crash. The overall ranking was Liam Van de Wouwer (Xray), Kris Vanbleu (Xray), Niels Meurs (Roche) and Ludo Van Hoeydonck (Xray).
Olivier Bultynck (Roche) was crowned Belgian Formula champion. P2 went to Liam Van de Wouwer (Xray) and P3 to Kris Vanbleu (Xray). Niels Meurs (Roche) and Ludo Van Hoeydonck (Xray) rounded off the top 5.
Krist Bultynck (Awesomatix) once again crowned himself king of the Fun class qualifiers by taking all three rounds of qualifying. Jannick Rommens (Yokomo), Herman Van Gansen (Yokomo), Luc Wauters (Xray) and Thierry Baekeland (Xray) rounded off the top 5. Jannick however managed to revert his P2 starting position into a P1 overall victory. He won the Fun class in front of Krist Bultynck (Awesomatix), Luc Wauters (Xray), Herman Van Gansen (Yokomo) and Thierry Baekeland (Xray).
The overall ranking was Jannick Rommens, Krist Bultynck, Luc Wauters, Herman Van Gansen and Thierry Baekeland.
In the FWD demo class Peter Roeygens (Raceopt) won the race in front of Krist Bultynck (Awesomatix), Kris Vanbleu (Xray) and Christophe Samyn (Tamiya). In 13.5 Blinky and as everyone expected, OIivier Bultynck dominated the event. He put his Awesomatix in front of the Xray of Giovanni Moguez and Tom Adams (WRC). Peter Roeygens (Raceopt) and Niels Meurs (Awesomatix) rounded off the top 5.
Thanks to David Joos for the report.
