21.03.2016

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


2016 Season 1 and round 5. Eppelheim 1

Fifth round was helded in here, Eppelheim Circuit in Germany. Earlier in this track, spec class was raced and it was wonned by Dana Bailes from USA. Bailes got big opponent from Britains Graham Raistrick who came to second. But now was time solve who would be greatest in modified class.
Many top drivers of serieleader board had joined to this event. Raistrick, Schiffer, Yeung, Bailes, Huhtala and Hasegawa was order in series points when this event started.

QUALIFYING
At qualifying, Atsushi Hasegawa from Japan was furios. He runned perfect qualifying and wonned that with huge 5.6 seconds margin to second one, Dana Bailes. Third grid went to Graham Raistrick, he losted allmost seven seconds to Hasegawa. Raphael Schiffer from Germany drove to fourth grid, he didnt showed any weapons that he could challenge those three at front. His gap to TQ was enormous 16 seconds.

RACE
When grid was arranged, it was pit sad that Raistrick, Bailes and Berman who had drove to 8th place at qualifying, wasnt at the grid. Expectations were totally on one man side, Hasegawa had showed so magnificent pace at qualifying that this would be easy run for him.
As the race started, Hasegawa got the lead, but what was nice to see that German talent Raphael Schiffer was giving really good pressure to Hasegawa. As the second lap started, Hasegawa made mistake and this allowed Schiffer to get the lead. And immediatly at lap three, Hasegawa in second place struggled and Schiffer got more gap at the lead. Next 15 laps these guys were on the battle, Hasegawa`s pace was pit faster than Schiffer`s and he was closing the gap all the time. At 19th lap when they crossed the timingline, gap between these two were only 0.2 seconds.


When grid was arranged, nobody expected Schiffer to challenge Hasegawa.

Schiffer had doned good driving, but he had losted his four seconds advantage against Hasegawa. In lap 20 Hasegawa struggled once again and this allowed Schiffer little time to breathe. Next 14 laps these gladiators drove very intence racing, margin was staying all the time in one second, Schiffer at first and Hasegawa in second place. But this wasnt over, Schiffer losted his rhytm in laps 35 and 36, and this allowed Hasegawa get the lead. But unfortunatelly, Hasegawa made his third and last mistake at lap 38, what took him three seconds and by this mistake Schiffer got his lead back. It was very easy last two laps for Schiffer, as the margin to Hasegawa in second place, was over two seconds.
This 22 years old German Raphael Schiffer, showed fantastic skills and drove well deserved victory in his homeland. At finishline gap between these two were 2.1 seconds. Congratulations Raphael!!
Man at third podium, Carson Yeung from Hong Kong, had guite safe race. He had 15seconds to second place and 13seconds behind at finishline. Once again, like in earlier race at Oslo, this man was most consistent when he runned his final. But with that pace, he hadnt any chances to gain positions in this race. But very stable driving, nice job Carson!


Yeung drived once again very stable run, nice third place in here.

Fourth place went to Heikki Huhtala from Finland. Like Yeung, Heikki had guite poring race, couldnt challenge Yeung and distance to fifth position was also guite stable, eight seconds. Fifth place went to S.Eliasson from Iceland.


Heikki Huhtala from Finland, drove to top five, second time in a row.

In SPORT level Ivan Mula from Spain gave a knock-out to fellow competitors. His pace was totally different than others and he wonned the race with enormous two laps difference. Second at this race was Markus Andreasson from Sweden. Markus had stable second place as the third place went to Hong Kong`g Kevin Tsang, with 6 seconds margin.

In CLUB level Nuno Lourenco from Portugal and Lee Passehl from USA solved the win.
Lee was leading this final all the way to 32 lap, when he made his mistake and Lourenco passed him. Honestly, Nuno`s pace was better than Lee`s, he was driving consistently under 13s laps and this allowed him to get this victory. Third, who crossed the finishline at this final, was Mark Raddenbury from Britain. Mark didnt had any weapons to challenge those two at front. Also driver behind Mark, at fourth place, American Javier Fraga was allmost one lap behind him.

A main PRO

1|Raphael Schiffer|DE|39|08:06.124 2|Atsushi Hasegawa|JP|39|08:08.254 3|Carson Yeung|HK|38|08:11.398 4|Heikki Huhtala|FI|37|08:12.640 5|Sigurður J Elíasson|IS|36|08:07.538 6|Milan Peka|CZ|35|08:02.160 7|Martin Kreuzberger|DE|35|08:08.804 8|Dana Bailes|US|DNS 9|Graham Raistrick|GB|DNS 10|Joshua Berman|US|DNS
A main SPORT
1|Ivan Mula|ES|37|08:11.698 2|Markus Andreasson|SE|35|08:01.888 3|Kevin Tsang|HK|35|08:08.102 4|Joost Wouters|NL|35|08:13.966 5|Erwin Fiselberger|AT|34|08:12.102 6|Yuriy Meshkov|RU|33|08:02.694 7|Philip Lee|CA|33|08:07.998 8|Mike Bridges|CA|31|08:13.630 9|Sandro Lage|BR|DNS 10|Stewart Smith|GB|DNS
A main CLUB
1|Nuno Lourenco|PT|36|08:02.900 2|Lee Passehl|US|36|08:05.658 3|Mark Raddenbury|GB|34|08:05.178 4|Javier Fraga|US|33|08:03.578 mp 5|Keith Fischer|US|31|08:10.008 6|Tom Ebersole|US|30|08:01.884 7|Tony DELMASTRO|FR|29|08:05.394 8|Gary Climie|CA|29|08:09.122 9|Karl heinz Johann|DE|29|08:11.990 10|Syuichi Eguchi|JP|DNS
SEASON STANDINGS AFTER 5 ROUNDS

PRO level
1|Raphael Schiffer|555 2|Carson Yeung|540 3|Graham Raistrick|513 4|Heikki Huhtala|509 5|Atsushi Hasegawa|504 6|Milan Peka|483 7|Martin Kreuzberger|459 8|Dana Bailes|455 9|Giovanni F. Di Berardino|427 10|Sigurður J Elíasson|404
SPORT level
1|Joost Wouters|537 2|Sandro Lage|528 3|Yuriy Meshkov|509 4|Hans Guenther Heitsch|486 5|Mike Bridges|477 6|Ivan Mula|453 7|Kevin Tsang|453 8|Thomas Klingen|428 9|Rumsey Rammuny|389 10|Gary Sundman|386
CLUB LEVEL
1|Lee Passehl|597 2|Nuno Lourenco|471 3|Javier Fraga|438 4|Mark Raddenbury|429 5|Steve Solosy|428 6|Gary Climie|423 7|Bob Halliday|394 8|Tom Ebersole|389 9|Keith Fischer|383 10|Lando Landini|372
90m

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