23.02.2016

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

2016 Season 1 and round 1, Brisbane

Nitro sedan season started from Brisbane track, home of the 2006 IFMAR Worlds 1:10 nitro sedans. Looking the event entry list, there were no doubts that this was going to be magnificent start for the season. As those guys like Rietveld, Wood, Raistrick, Berman, Calaprice and many others, who had joined this event, it was very exiting to wait this fight.

QUALIFYING

In qualify, we saw interesting end. As so many propably thought that multiple Worldchampion, Netherlands Jeffrey Rietveld, would show to others, how this is doned in here. But things were going totally different, because Britains superdriver Simon Wood had came here very furios style. He was like Swiss watch and was setting the pace to others. His pace was so good that he won this qualify with huge, almost 5seconds gap to Jeffrey Rietveld. Third grid went to German Benjamin Lehmann and Britains Graham Raistrick was in fourth spot. Joshua Berman from USA and Italian Ugo Calaprice had good fight of the 5th grid, finally these got only half second gap each other and Joshua got that fifth for final.

RACE

Here we were, at starting grid. Britains Simon Wood was pretty confident of his pace, and who could blame him. He had magnificent pace at qualy, and it was pretty sure that this 36years old Brit wouldn’t surrender easily when race would start. And so he did, from the start he got very good rhytm and was consistently fast. But this start didn’t go without drama, multiple Worldchampion Jeffrey Rietveld made hungry cutting at first corner and spin his car. Jeffrey`s position dropped all the way to last and he started his furios chase.


Start for the final, first corner.

After first lap he had already lifted his position up to 6th. Wood was doing great job at the lead, Lehmann was almost second behind when these drivers went to second lap. But Lehmann wasn’t in easy place, Raistrick and Berman were really close range. At this point Rietveld had passed Pihl and was now at fifth position, one second from fourth place.
And it was also nice to see that Italian rocket, Ugo Calaprice was holding very good pace and was staying on Rietvelds tale. As we called him a rocket, once again this Italian showed his style at start. At first corner he was already at second place, so everybody should learn something about Ugo`s way of start. At third lap Joshua Berman made his mistake, he accelerated from corner five to corner six, made cutting to that corner and spin his car. By this mistake, Lehmann and Rietveld got pass and Bermann dropped to 5th position. After few corners, Lehmann made his move at first corner at lap four, he made hungry cutting to corner and went on the grass. Now Rietveld`s race was looking good, he had lifted his position very stable driving and was now at third place. Also Calaprice passed Lehmann and was now at fifth position. At the lead Wood was going his own way, with that pace this would be pretty easy final for him. Graham Raistrick was in second place, almost 2seconds behind Wood. End of the seventh lap, Berman at fourth place, made tiny mistake at last corner and Calaprice went by.


Calaprice, Raistrick, Lehmann and Berman in battle, first lap and fifth corner. Pihl is chasing behind.

Now Calaprice was at fourth and Berman fifth place. But this American didn’t surrender, he was chasing Calaprice really close range and one point Calaprice was pushing so hard that disaster was really close to happend at lap 13. He cutted sixth corner and was on two wheels long time.


Calaprice acropatic in lap 13, corner six. It was guite a miracle that he survived easily from this.

By this acrobatic show, Berman got closer and passed Calaprice in next lap. In lap 17, Calaprices nightmare happened, once again this corner six was in mainrole. He cutted that corner and losted almost 3seconds.
Leader Wood had gained almost five seconds gap to Raistrick, who was at second place. What was very nice to see, how good this Britain gentleman was holding his position and keeping very same pace as Jeffrey Rietveld behind. As everybody know and knewed, how talented Rietveld is, this made very good for the race.
It was time for pitstops and cars needed refuel, mostly these pitstops went very beautifully, but Italian Calaprice and American Berman had some difficulties to get to the pit. Calaprice collided straigtht to pitlane fence and he needed marshal to lift his car. That tooked 5seconds more in that incoming lap. Bermans speed was too much when he try turn to last corner and he went wide and all the way to the grass. He also got almost 5seconds extra from this incident.
After these pitstops Simon wood was still at lead, almost 7s ahead of Raistrick at second place and Rietveld at third place, over 2s behind Raistrick. Something about Rietvelds trying, was showed from his lines. He was very hungry in corners and some corners he got little precents from “higher forces”, as he were cutting too much of those.
At lap 33, Britains Raistrick was driving at backstraight , he came to corner four with too much cutting and his car went wide and on the grass. He survived this one pretty quickly, but this made good for Rietveld who gained Raistrick. In next lap Rietvelds furios chase got result and he passed Raistrick. But Graham didn’t want to surrend so easily, he challenged Rietveld and they were going side by side one lap, until Jeffrey came to the pits.
In lap 39, something happened to our leader. Im sorry but our cameras didn’t recorded it but Simon did mistake what took almost 5seconds. This was looking interesting, he had gained almost 11 seconds gap in that point and after that mistake it was only 6seconds.
Calaprice at fifth and Lehmann at sixth position were continying they battle, this was also fun to watch, as they were so close each other. But finally from lap 44, this Italian rocket gained his gap to Lehmann lap by lap and went by. Don’t know what happened to Benjamin`s pace at that lap 44, but his pace wasn’t good enough to challenge Calaprice anymore. Calaprices pace was great, he had doned magnificent run even few mistakes were taken, he was serious. He continued his good pace and Joshua Berman was in target now. Ugos great pressure got result when Berman made two mistakes at lap 49, turns two and three. It looked like Joshuas rhytm was disturbed, as he was lapped by Rietveld little earlier. But after these mistakes happened, Calaprice got pass and this Italian didn’t make any mistakes, continued his great performance and drived to finishline with well deserved fourth place. Nice job Ugo!
At lap 50, our TQ, Simon Wood was still at lead, with 6seconds gap to Rietveld. Raistrick was third place over 2seconds from Rietveld. These laprobots continued this fight very stable gaps, but this wasn’t over yet.
Battle between Lehmann and Berman had also started, when Calaprice had runned away, these two were battle of the fifth. They got pretty much same pace, but finally this battle solved when Berman had to come fourth time for refuel at lap 60. Lehmann visit the pit only three times during the race and this solved the 5th position to him at finishline.
At that lap 60, Wood at lead was on fire. His gap to Rietveld at second place was over 8seconds.
But something huge happened at lap 63, our leader Simon Wood got disaster. He doned a mistake what tooked almost 10seconds and this was guite frustrating incident, as we knewed who was coming behind. Multiple Worldchampion didn’t hesitate, when he passed Wood and went to the lead. Last three laps Jeffrey drove stable, consistent, safe and came to the finishline at first position, 2,5seconds before Wood. Also Graham Raistrick got really close to Wood, Graham were third at the finish and his gap to Wood was only 2seconds.
Great driving from Jeffrey, no wonder he is Worldchampion. But honestly, little sad about Simon`s destiny, he was so good at qualy and everything seemed so perfect, until that disaster came.

A main PRO

1|Jeffrey Rietveld|NL|66|20:12.680 2|Simon Wood|GB|66|20:15.272 3|Graham Raistrick|GB|66|20:17.316 4|Ugo Calaprice|IT|65|20:15.434 5|Benjamin Lehmann|DE|64|20:01.480 6|Joshua Berman|US|64|20:03.340 7|Pierre Dumusc|CH|63|20:15.146 8|David LALANNE|FR|62|20:00.084 9|Olev Pihl|EE|62|20:00.220 10|Minoas Mathioudakis|GB|60|20:00.010
A main SPORT
1|Jose angel Vera|ES|61|20:12.702 2|Luke Allam|AU|60|20:02.762 3|Camilo Flores|PE|60|20:12.056 4|Jose Manuel Cruz Marquez|MX|59|20:04.890 5|On Wong|CN|59|20:06.558 6|Thomas Klingen|DE|59|20:08.996 7|Hijrah Saputra|ID|59|20:11.840 8|Erwin Fiselberger|AT|59|20:16.036 9|Yuriy Meshkov|RU|58|20:01.440 10|Jonathan Csernak|FR|57|20:00.978
A main CLUB
1|悌文 卓|CN|62|20:15.110 2|Aaron Rönick|DE|61|20:05.628 3|Antti Silvennoinen|FI|60|20:04.880 4|Gavin Dawson|NZ|56|20:16.842 5|Eric Munsters|BE|55|20:17.504 6|Thomas Schadler|AT|53|20:20.046 7|Carl Huxford|GB|52|20:13.932 8|Tony DELMASTRO|FR|50|20:26.512 9|Lello Cofano|IT|DNS 10|Pongsakorn Chulathip|TH|DNS

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