31.12.2012 Category: Site news
With winning all rounds in the 2012 VRC Worlds 1:10 nitro 200mm class at the Sao Paulo track in Brazil, 2011 champion and 2012 World Series winner Frank Hättich from Germany has finished 2012 in the same dominating style as 2011. In the 60 minute long VRC Worlds main final Frank was a class act, setting himself almost 4 laps apart from runner up Paul Patto from Australia, and 6 laps on third place podium finisher Graham Raistrick from the UK. The top-3 all opted for 2 tire stop strategies, but Frank simply outran his pursuers with 0.2 to 0.3 seconds per lap. Just imagine, a fastest lap of 16.110, a worst lap of 16.830 and a race average without the pit stops of 16.406 on a total of 214 laps! Paul Patto averaged 16.720, good old Graham Raistrick on a very impressive 16.911 considering his respectable age (50) among all these r/c racing hotshots, proving that virtual racing is not just for kids!
Frank has completely specialized on 1:10 nitro 200mm and this is certainly paying off for him. In 2012 he lost just 1 race in the 12 round World Series, against Race2theWinner champion Kevin Pignotti. Kevin focused on his favorite class 1:8 nitro and 1:10 electric in which he was so successful this year.
Numbers 4 Benjamin Lehmann (DE) and 5 Alexey Babchenko (UK) had a close race which was only decided 14 laps before the end with Benjamin 4 seconds ahead of Alexey.
Hattich vs. Patto laptime comparison
Merged replay files of the 1-13 and 14-29 (10 car 60 minutes each) are posted in the Race Talk forum on the event page.
NATIONS RANKING
With champion Hättich (1), B. Lehmann (4), D. Zschaebitz (16), K. Bode (21), J. Förster (25) Germany convincingly won the Nations ranking, with Australia a good second, and team USA a close third.
2012 Virtual Masters
The top-10 finishers are now racing for the 2012 Master title, a single shot 15 minute race of which we will post a merged replay file and the race video. The outcome of the 2012 Masters 1:10 nitro will be published later this week.