28.12.2017
Report by Kevin Bacon
The 2017 World Championships at Cincinnati was the first ever official VRC event for the New 1/8 Nitro GT3 Spec class. VRC Pro released the 1/8 Nitro GT3 Spec class chassis just one month prior to the event. The GT3 Spec class was designed to provide fast, stable, good handling cars that are easy to drive and enjoyable at all racer levels to promote close and exciting racing. Suffice it to say, VRC clearly achieved all of its goals with the GT3 Spec class and the World Championships at Cincinnati was a perfect showcase.
The GT3 Spec class is based on the 1/8th Nitro vehicles but the chassis sport front and rear differentials, front and rear brakes and a slightly less powerful .21 engine as well as super soft rubber tires, which results in totally different driving characteristics. The class, like the other Spec classes on VRC Pro, also has limited adjustability, to focus more on driving and less on setup. However, don’t let this difference fool you, these cars are still very fast, yet fun and easy to drive. For example, in this event racers were able to reach speeds of over 105 km/h at the end of the long Cincinnati straight. The 1/8 Nitro Spec World Championship, held earlier this month, saw speeds only slightly faster at 108km/h. The larger, slightly heavier, rubber tires is where the difference is most notable. Since the tires are rubber, they don’t wear like foam, and provide racers with a consistent feel throughout the long (30 minute) nitro finals. It also means that racers don’t need to worry about lengthy pit stops to accommodate tire changes. However, the taller and heavier tires mean less punch. Thus, GT3 is more about steering with the wheel, not with the throttle, which tends to be a more advanced driving skill. All of this adds up to very close, competitive and exciting racing.
Since this was the first event ever for this class, most of the racers had not adjusted their racing level (Club, Sport or Pro) so the event was run as one single class. VRC Pro used its new qualifying/sorting method, which was designed to make every round meaningful and give more opportunity for racers to qualify for the super-final/A-main. While the method is somewhat confusing at first glance, it is simply this: There are two rounds of qualifying and a final round. The final round features a superfinal/A-main. The top qualifier from the qualifying round gets an automatic spot in the superfinal/A-main and is exempt from the Semi-Final round. From there, the next top 30 qualifying racers are split evenly (i.e. every 3 positions) into three semi-final rounds. For example, semi-final one features 2, 5, 8, 11, etc… semi-final two features 3, 6, 9, 12, etc… and semi-final three features 4, 7, 10, 13 etc… The top three racers in each semi-final (9 total) plus the original top qualifier make up the 10 racers in the superfinal/A-main.
Qualifying
In the qualifying round it was “Juggernaut” Joshua Berman (US) who posted the top qualifying time and earned a free pass to the superfinal. Berman, who had already claimed the 2017 1/10 Nitro Spec and 1/10 Nitro World titles, showed no signs of slowing down as he drove a flawless qualifier. Berman’s time of 30 laps in 10:09.836 featured a fast lap of 19.910; “slow” lap of 20.458 and average lap of 20.140. The “Amazing” Andrea Giordano (IT) was close behind. Giordano is one of the rare dual threats of VRC; equally as skilled on pavement as he is on dirt. Berman and Giordano have seen a lot of each other this past month. Both have raced all of the VRC Nitro On-Road World Championship events thus far. Including “1”and “2” finishes in both 1/10 Nitro events. Giordano’s run was only 2.71 seconds slower than Berman’s. The third place qualifier was Kevin Bacon (US) with 30 laps in 10:16.882; 4.3 seconds behind Giordano. “Monster” Martin Wollanka (AT), the most decorated VRC Pro racer to date, also squeezed in a qualifier (on very little practice) and was still able to post 30 laps, in 10:20.108; 3.2 seconds behind Bacon. There was only 5 seconds difference between the next six racers. Christoph Lob (AT) was 1.2 seconds ahead of Nick Anneveld (NL); who was 1.1 seconds ahead of his fellow countryman Miquel Hereijgers; who was 0.2 seconds ahead of Italy’s Giorgio Mingotti; who was 0.1 second ahead of Gary Crowell (US); who was 2.3 seconds ahead of the 10th fastest qualifier, Germany’s Oliver Meunier.
Semi-Finals
The sleeping “Monster” awoke in this round. Wollanka found some time to practice and it showed. Wollanka posted the fastest semi-final round of 44 laps in 15:16.618. Behind Wollanka was the “Mighty” Miquel Hereijgers. Hereijgers, who has raced sporadically on VRC (both Pro and v3) for years is always fast. Hereijgers also found time to put in some practice laps and claimed the second fastest time of the round, 44 laps in 15:17.290. However, Giordano was hot on Hereijgers heels; a mere 0.3 seconds is all that separated the two after 15 minutes of racing. Wollanka, Hereijgers, and Giordano were the only three racers to post 44 lap runs in the semi-finals.
The new qualifying system came into play in this round. Semi-final 1 saw qualifiers (2) Giordano and (5) Lob move into the superfinal. However, qualifier (8) Mingotti slipped to fourth and out of the superfinal. Instead it was Patrick Bader (CH) who posted the third faster time in semi-final one. Bader who had originally qualified 14th, climbed into the 10th overall qualifying position and into the superfinal.
Semi-final two saw similar results. Qualifiers (3) Bacon and (9) Crowell advanced to the superfinal. However, qualifier (6) Anneveld slipped to fourth. It was “Good Ol’” Graham Raistrick (UK) who jumped from 18th to take the 6th overall position in the superfinal.
There were no surprises in Semi-final three which saw the original three highest qualifiers move on (4)Wollanka, (7) Hereijgers and (10) Meunier.
Final
With Berman taking the top qualifying position in round 1, and Wollanka claiming the top spot in round 2, it looked like we would have a replay of the “Battle of the Beasts” of the 1/8 Nitro Spec final from just a few weeks ago. However, Wollanka was absent from the grid at the start of the final.
Nonetheless, the final was full of close and exciting racing. The opening buzzer rang and the cars shot off the starting grid. Berman’s quick reflexes gave him a solid hole shot. However, Giordano, Bacon and Hereijgers, where breathing down his neck. Berman was able to keep a small lead for the first 4 laps, but on lap 5 he clipped one of the notorious “Cincinnati Curbs” and rolled his red and yellow Porsche onto its side. The car fell back onto four wheels, but it cost Berman 2 seconds and Giordano, Bacon and Hereijgers slipped by. It was Berman’s slowest lap, and really his only mistake in the final. Over the next 7 laps Berman focused and reeled in Hereijgers, moving into third position on lap 12. Berman then set his sights on Bacon who was in second. Berman was gaining when Bacon came into the pits on lap 16 and Berman stayed out and moved past. Giordano and Berman were running the fuel efficient, 4 pit stop strategy, and stayed out on the course until lap 18 when they both needed to come in for fuel. Giordano was in and out of the pits first, but just barely. The two crossed the finish line just 0.126 seconds apart after 18 laps and one pit stop. Giordano kept the lead until lap 26 when Berman slid past. But Giordano fought back and regained the lead on lap 28. Berman took it back on lap 29. Giordano took it back on lap 31. Berman ran is fastest lap of 19.812 on lap 33 and re-took the lead for good. Giordano stayed with him until lap 37, when made his only real mistake and suffered his slowest lap of the race, 22.638. This gave Berman 3.4 seconds of breathing room. Berman kept his focus and “finger” on the accelerator and slowly added a total of 4 additional seconds to his lead before the end of the race. Berman took the win with 88 laps in 30:07.596. Giordano finished second, 7.6 seconds behind with 88 laps in 30:15.242.
The final podium position was a battle between Bacon and Hereijgers. Hereijgers took the early lead, but by lap three Bacon had passed. Bacon proceeded to slowly pull away from Hereijgers and had built a 1.2 second lead after 17 laps. However, on lap 18 Bacon also fell victim to the “Cincinnati Curbs”. Like Berman, Bacon clipped a curb and his car rolled onto its side. However, Bacon’s car did not fall back onto its wheels and Bacon needed a turn marshal to continue. The incident resulted in Bacon’s slowest lap of 26.130 and Hereijgers moved by to take a nearly 5 seconds lead. Hereijgers continued to drive smoothly for the next 22 laps and extended his lead over Bacon to 10.6 seconds when Hereijgers flinched and suffered his slowest lap, 21.730. Bacon smelled blood in the water and pushed to slowly close the gap. Bacon had closed the gap to 6 seconds by lap 70 when his inconsistency finally did him in. Bacon made another mistake requiring turn marshal assistance, this time a 24.322 second lap put Bacon back to 10 seconds behind Hereijgers, with a only about 5 minutes to go. The mistakes proved too costly and Bacon couldn’t make up the distance in the limited time. Hereijgers claimed the final podium position with a time of 87 laps in 30:08.490. Bacon finished 8.8 seconds behind with 87 laps in 30:17.290.
The first official VRC 1/8 Nitro GT3 Event/World Championship was a huge success. Thanks to all who participated. Congratulations to World Champion Joshua Berman! Congratulations to Andrea Giordano and Miquel Hereijgers for podium finishes.
SUPERFINAL OFFICIAL RESULTS
1|Joshua Berman|(US)|88|30:07.596
2|Andrea Giordano|(IT)|88|30:15.242
3|Miquel Hereijgers|(NL)|87|30:08.490
4|Kevin Bacon|(US)|87|30:17.290
5|Graham Raistrick|(UK)|86|30:03.246
6|Oliver Meunier|(DE)|86|30:10.120
7|Gary Crowell|(US)|86|30:23.682
8|Christoph Lob|(AT)|85|30:04.440
9|Patrick Bader|(CH)|85|30:10.328
10|Martin Wollanka|(AT)|DNS
Comments
Only active members can post comments
(Total posts: 5)
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Kevin Grodzinski
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Awesome job. I'm going to try this class later on tonight
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Christoph L
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Thank you very much for this great report Kevin.
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Kevin B.MULTIPLE WORLD CHAMPION
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Thanks guys. What a great event. Very close between Josh and Andrea. Mike does a great job with the commentary in the video.
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michael Zappa
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Well Done Joshua,Andrea,Miquel
Nice report man...
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Andrea GVRC World Champion
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This is may be the best ever report i've read until now! Wow!
These cars are really fun and enjoyable to drive.
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