15.02.2016

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

2016 Season 1 and round 3, Luxembourg

As this serie had start they season from Carpet 3 and Atsugi 2, it was time these gladiators to gather here in Luxembourg track. It was time resolve who would be the master of this magnificent Luxembourg circuit. This track features the new extension right after the famous and spectacular cork-screw corner at the end of the front straight. The cork screw been extended with an extremely sloped and banked extension wich makes this track even more challenging than it allready was.


QUALIFYING

Expectation and also hopes were high for good qualification, as there was so many top drivers in participant list. Raistrick, Lehmann, Brule, Kalfoglou, Bailes, Vey and Rensburg were those names who had done magnificent results earlier races at season. Maybe highest expectations was at Barnabas Toth`s side. This 17years old Italian supertalent had inform himself to this race and was worth to watch. And he didnt let anybody cold with his performance at qualifying. He wonned that TQ grid with enormous 6.6seconds gap to Britains Raistrick. Toth`s average was 18.8 per lap against Raistrick 19.2. Third grid went to Australian Chris Kalfouglou, his pace was very similar with Raistrick and gap to the leader was almost 6.7seconds. USA driver Dana Bailes got the fourth grid with seven seconds gap to TQ and fifth place went to French Arthur Brule, with very similar pace with Bailes. Brule had wonned that earlier race at Atsugi 2, so this man was hungry.
Italian “rocket” Ugo Calaprice wasn’t so happy with his pace, but 6th place at the grid, got Ugos face to smile.
Rest of the A-main grid was Lehmann, Rensburg, Vey and Pihl.
Toth`s pace was so good that it was pretty obvious that, without mistakes, Toth would drive the win and rest of the field from A-main, would race of the second podium place at the final.
Qualifying result also showed how tight that final was going to be, from Raistrick(2nd) to Calaprice(6th), all drivers were inside 0.9seconds. This was what we wanted, and that we got.

FINAL

Before the final was arranged on the grid, Toth and Kalfoglou was missing. Reason we didn’t knew but this was pit flavourless. OK, this was also very very interesting, as everybody knew that win was all open.
When Toth didn’t participate, Raistrick got the clean line to first corner and Bailes started from second spot. From the tone it wasnt easy task for Graham, after few corners he had already dropped to fifth place. Things started very tough for him, few wideline corners, little unstable car and that was it. Or was it?


Brule and Rensburg on the fight, Rensburg`s airborne

But this Italian miracle man Ugo Calaprice, as we called him Rocket his other name. At start of the tone this man showed why he is called a Rocket. His start was perfect, after five corners he was at the lead and as we know, he started from the 6th grid. Of course nothing was stable yet, everybody was hungry and challenging each other. Coming to timingline from first lap, Brules lap had been also great. He was first who crossed the timing. There were six cars at the front, Brule, Calaprice, Rensburg, Lehmann, Bailes and Raistrick, all very close. What was amazing, was this guy who started from 7th grid, Benjamin Lehmann from Germany. He was challenging, was hungry and his car seemed to be perfect. After two laps, this German laprobot had gave a warning to everybody, he was leading and when drivers accelerated at main straight in second lap, the gap was already huge to second place Brule. At lap three, Calaprice who was at third place, got good line and acceleration to the main and got the second place from Brule. But unfortunatelly this ended to disaster at mainstraight corner when he cutted too much inside and collided with outside fence. This point he dropped to 7th place.


Raistrick and Italian "rocket" on the battle


At this point Lehmans gap to Brule was one second, Rensburg was at third spot.
Calaprice who had made the mistake, he covered very quickly from his mistake, was furios and was “back in business”in very same lap. He had amazing pace and he had already gained Raistrick and Bailes, who were at places four and five. Bailes made tiny cutting and dropped a little and Ugos battle was against Raistrick. Rensburg at third position was pressuring really hard Brule of the second place, race was egual,tough but honest. At lap seven Calaprice, once again was looking the troubles, he cutted the corner four and that gap what he had gained to Raistrick was losted. Now Graham was hungry and pressuring Ugo. It looked that Calaprice losted his rhytm a little and Raistrick got the advantage but no, Calaprice got his pace and rhytm back and started to push those laps.
Behind these top five, was battle against Bailes and Vey. Bailes few mistake, little lack of rhytm and Vey was behind the neck and pushing really hard.
As I said earlier about Calaprices driving, rhytm lost and how it was gained back, it totally was that. Rensburg at third spot was in trouble with Ugo, Ugos pace was so nice and he had gained Rensburg when lap 13 started. In lap 14, they were coming side by side at mainstraight corner, Rensburg got wrong line to that corner and also the second one, cutting them and Calaprice got a little gap to breathe. But race was not over, at final lap Calaprices acceleration to mainstraight went wrong, he cutted inside edge and Rensburg got pass. Now Raistrick had announced, that he wants Ugos place.
Calaprices wide line to corner two and little cutting at corner six resolved this for Graham. And have to say, Raistrick final corners were very tight, and thanks to these, he “wonned” that fourth place from Ugo, only with one tiny step.
Honestly, in the end, have to say that SUPERMAN in this final was German Benjamin Lehmann. Starting grid seven and with his style to drive this final, my words can not describe the way he did this. Was it “speed hiding” at qualifying, did he find something special for final? I would expect that nobody cant “hide” they speed in this level at qualy, every grid have to be gained to get maximum out of the final. His pace was two 10th`s faster than Brules and even Brule didn’t find any weapons against Lehmann.


Veys line much tighter than Bailes

In this final were so much to see like Bailes and Vey battle, these talents drove almost all final very close and this was also fun to watch. Bailes little rhytm lack in somepoint, and Veys great pressure gave these two many heartbeats. Pace was similar and only tiny mistakes resolved this to Dana. It looked that Vey thought in somepoint at final, “take it Dana if you want it so much”. Fantastic driving, great battles, similar paces and little mistakes, these build up this magnificent final. MORE OF THESE GUYS, THANK YOU!!!

In SPORT level race Indonesian Hijrah Saputra and Norwegian Nikolai Håheim had great race of the first place. From the tone Hijrah went to the lead and leaded this duo all the way to 9th lap, at lap 10 he made a mistake and Nikolai got pass. Gap didnt go huger than 1second. But also Nikolai got mistake, at lap 14 he got his mistake and now Hijrah was pleased and went by. Last lap resolved this battle to Nikolai when he drived that lap 0.4s faster than Hijrah. With these results, these talents would raced of third place at PRO final. This tells how fast these guys were. This was very very close race!! Nice driving!

In CLUB level race Australian Josh Freund, German Sean Krause and Finlands Antti Silvennoinen raced very close all final. Finally these drivers were all inside 2seconds and win went to Australian Josh Freund. Very nice Final!!!

RESULTS

A main PRO

1|Benjamin Lehmann|DE|15|05:01.282 2|Arthur Brulé|FR|15|05:03.864 3|Willem Janse van Rensburg|ZA|15|05:06.112 4|Graham Raistrick|GB|15|05:06.916 5|Ugo Calaprice|IT|15 05:06.940 6|Dana Bailes|US|15|05:09.392 7|Ralf H. Vey|DE|15|05:10.206 8|Olev Pihl|EE|15|05:13.956 9|Barnabás Tóth|HU|DNS 10|Chris Kalfoglou|AU|DNF
A main SPORT
1|Nikolai Håheim|NO|15|05:04.352 2|Hijrah Saputra ID|15|05:04.410 3|Marcelo Borges|BR|15|05:15.228 4|Kanji Nakamura|JP|15|05:15.862 5|Heikki Huhtala|FI|15|05:19.862 6|VRC Korea Master|KR|14|05:00.076 7|Yuriy Meshkov|RU|14|05:06.408 8|Thomas Priemer|DE|14|05:10.404 9|Hans Guenther Heitsch|DE|14|05:10.936 10|Erik Bottosso IT|DNS
A main CLUB
1|Josh Freund|AU|15|05:17.108 2|Sean Krause|DE|15|05:18.132 3|Antti Silvennoinen|FI|15|05:19.046 4|Heiko Möller|DE|14|05:04.746 5|Seiya Inoue|JP|14|05:05.930 6|Romain LACROIX|FR|14|05:12.866 7|Nuno Lourenco|PT|14|05:16.006 8|Iris Lahora|PH|14|05:21.330 9|Przemek Wicher|PL|13|05:08.048 10|Jean Hannecart|FR|DNS -

SEASON STANDING AFTER 3 ROUNDS

PRO CLASS

1|Willem Janse van Rensburg|327 2|Graham Raistrick|318 3|Benjamin Lehmann|317 4|Dana Bailes|315 5|Ralf H. Vey|306 6|Olev Pihl|283 7|Herve Becet|275 8|Arthur Brulé|237 9|Billy Yeung|233 10|Giovanni F. Di Berardino|219

SPORT CLASS

1|Hijrah Saputra|354 2|Marcelo Borges|351 3|Paulo Guedes|306 4|Bart Acda|289 5|Yuriy Meshkov|284 6|Emanuel Riplinger|279 7|Wolfgang Hoffelner|269 8|Erwin Fiselberger|245 9|Jonathan Csernak|237 10|Joost Wouters|232

CLUB CLASS

1|Antti Silvennoinen|354 2|Seiya Inoue|333 3|Romain LACROIX|318 4|Tony DELMASTRO|268 5|Steve Solosy|237 6|Yasuhiro Morta|235 7|Gary Climie|232 8|Wil Ho|203 9|Jodie Grein|203 10|Jean-Michel Ginet|201

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