29.02.2016

Report by J-P.Huhtala (VRC race reporter)

2016 Season 1 and round 4, Carpet 1

After Luxembourg race, serie travelled to Luxembourg. As we saw at Luxembourg`s race that winning from back of the grid was possible. German Benjamin Lehmann did unbeliavable race in earlier event, taking very deserved win starting from seventh grid. So, anything was possible, could he repeat that miracle also here.

QUALIFYING
As the qualifying started, familiar names were at the top. Hungarian talent Barnabas Toth took the TQ, with tiny 0.6 seconds margin to Swedish top driver Christian Holmström. Dana Bailes from USA was third and Britain`s Graham Raistrick fourth at qualy. Dana`s distance was 1.8 and Graham`s almost 1.9 seconds to winner. Swedish driver Andre Fossto, who drove fastest result at Luxembourg with 13.5 spec cars, was fifth at this round and his gap to Toth was 2.4seconds.
Our serieleader Willem Janse van Rensburg got sixth grid from qualifying, his distance to tq was almost four seconds. Looking these margins, there was no room for mistakes at Final.

RACE
Toth got very good start and got the lead. Holmström passed Bailes in first lap and was running at second place and it seemed that Toth is getting away pretty easily, so fast he looked.
No time when Bailes got his second place back. At turn three in second lap, Holmström cutted the corner and Bailes got better acceleration from there. Also Toth struggled a little, in this same lap he was coming to turn four and he collided with inside fence. So weird it looked, he just turned too early in to corner. But his gap to second one was about one second, and this colliding didnt effect anything. Now when Bailes had lifted to second place, he showed what he got. Immediatly in next lap he had gained 0.7seconds distance to Holmström at third place and Toth at front was 0.6 seconds away. As he got this rhytm, anything could happend.
After 10laps, race had settled, Toth was still at lead, Bailes was running second with 0.8 behind. Holmström was third, half a seconds from Bailes. Behind these were coming ”chasing group”, Nikolai Håheim from Norge had got his ”battle rhytm” and was driving furiosly. Theres was very stable places with these four at top. Then something at lap 12, happend to our leader. Toth cutted corners two and three, rhytm was pit losted and he turned too early to turn four and collided with inside fence. After this he cutted corner six, collided to fence and spinned his car. Bailes and Holmström got pass and now Toth was at third.


When Toth made mistakes at lap 12, race changed to this. Bailes and Holmström went by.

This was going to be interesting, as we knewed how fast this Hungarian was. Starting lap 14, these three drivers were coming at mainstraight, all inside 0.070 seconds, Håheim at fourth place was waiting these drivers mistakes with very close range, only 0.4 seconds behind Toth. At lap 15, Holmström got the lead and Bailes dropped to second place. Toth was very furios, after his disaster lap, this Hungarian showed how tight the line can be in this track and he was pressuring Bailes really hard.


After that disaster 12th lap, Toth was furios and taked every inch in every corner.
Honestly, there was some luck with him also.

Håheim at fourth cutted the corner 8 at this 15th lap and losted over second in that incident. Starting lap 17, Holmström at lead went wide at corner two and this wasnt allowed when that Hungarian was behind. Immediatly
by this mistake Toth made his move and passed Holmström. But Holmström rhytm was pit losted, as he turned too early to corner eight and collided with fence and Bailles got the second place. That mistake costed over second to Holmström.
But this 33years old Swedish talent hadnt surrender yet, he was pushing really hard but so was Bailes at second place. Holmström was driving pit tighter line than Bailes and he got Bailes within striking distance. Finally Bailes hold his nerves and came to second for checkered flag, but only 0.3 seconds before Holmström. In last minute Hungarian Barnabas Toth didnt show any mercy to fellow racers, he was fast, his tight style gave him a nice victory.
Nikolai Håheim, who got the fourth place, didnt have any weapons to challenge the leaders, after his mistake at lap 15.


Early stage from the race. Rensburg at fourth place, Håheim and Raistrick pressuring. Kirchhefer and Brule behind.

Britains Graham Raistrick runned to fifth place and once again this Brit showed his consistency and didnt do any mistakes. But he would needed one 10th faster pace to challenge leaders. His margin to fourth place was only 0.8seconds. Graham did fantastic run, but he didnt got this easy, because French Arthur Brule was pressuring him all time inside one second. Finally this Frenchman had to surrender, by 0.6 seconds. Our serieleader, Willem Janse van Rensburg who started from sixth and end up to seventh, would needed one tenth faster average to gain positions.

In SPORT level race Greece Phil Isaac didnt show any mercy to others, as he runned to checkered lag with 3seconds gap to second, Denmark`s Fredrik Brolos. Third place went to Hijrah Saputra, Indonesia.

In CLUB level race victory went to Nuno Lourenco from Portugal. Second place driver, Markus Andreasson from Sweden losted over four seconds to winner. Third place went to Japan, Seiya Inoue.

A main PRO

1|Barnabás Tóth|HU|25|05:07.530 2|Dana Bailes|US|25|05:08.334 3|Christian Holmström|SE|25|05:08.632 4|Nikolai Håheim|NO|25|05:10.518 5|Graham Raistrick|GB|25|05:11.330 6|Arthur Brulé|FR|25|05:11.980 7|Willem Janse van Rensburg|ZA|24|05:00.530 8|Christoph Kirchhefer|DE|24|05:00.820 9|Xavier Deparde|FR|24|05:07.480 10|André Fossto|SE|DNS
A main SPORT
1|Phil Isaac|GR|25|05:10.774 2|Frederik Broløs|DK|24|05:01.648 3|Hijrah Saputra|ID|24|05:04.906 4|Chauvet Nicolas|FR|24|05:12.972 5|Max Dellebeke|NL|23|05:02.230 6|Heikki Huhtala|FI|23|05:02.690 7|Thomas Klingen|DE|23|05:03.768 8|Sean Krause|DE|23|05:05.940 9|Bart Acda|BE|23|05:06.600 10|Emanuel Riplinger|DE|23|05:07.946
A main CLUB
1|Nuno Lourenco|PT|24|05:12.032 2|Markus Andreasson|SE|23|05:03.480 3|Seiya Inoue|JP|23|05:08.790 4|Tony DELMASTRO|FR|22|05:08.016 5|Luca Bottai|IT|22|05:12.054 6|Keith Fischer|US|21|05:01.172 7|Gustavo Lagos|BR|21|05:05.276 8|Francisco Javier Ortiz de Solorzano Dominguez|ES|21|05:10.214 9|Romain LACROIX|FR|20|05:01.186 10|William Venables|GB|DNS

SEASON STANDINGS AFTER 4 RACES

PRO
1|Dana Bailes|432 2|Willem Janse van Rensburg|429 3|Graham Raistrick|426 4|Ralf H. Vey|391 5|Olev Pihl|370 6|Herve Becet|358 7|Benjamin Lehmann|354 8|Arthur Brulé|342 9|Billy Yeung|312 10|Giovanni F. Di Berardino|286
SPORT
1|Hijrah Saputra|468 2|Bart Acda|385 3|Emanuel Riplinger|370 4|Yuriy Meshkov|367 5|Marcelo Borges|351 6|Paulo Guedes|341 7|Max Dellebeke|328 8|Heikki Huhtala|327 9|Joost Wouters|317 10|Erwin Fiselberger|315
CLUB
1|Seiya Inoue|447 2|Romain LACROIX|414 3|Tony DELMASTRO|379 4|Antti Silvennoinen|354 5|Steve Solosy|322 6|Yasuhiro Morta|314 7|Gary Climie|299 8|Jodie Grein|272 9|Paulo Machado|259 10|Nuno Lourenco|222

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