1:10 Elektro-Glattbahn

LRP Masters 2008

Eppelheim / Germany

Race report by Martin Hudy
The LRP Masters event was held on March 28-30 and as usual was situated in the small village of Eppelheim close to Heidelberg. The LRP Masters event is known as one of the biggest carpet races in the world and every year is attended by almost all top drivers. This year, the race was attended by drivers from 16 countries, amongst which were three World Champions in this class.

Practice
The race started on Friday afternoon on brand new carpet but using the same layout as last year. The carpet which was chosen for this race is already well known from the DHI Cup and Speedweekend, and everybody expected very high traction because many drivers had problems with traction rolling on previous tires. The practice was organized as a T-time practice and thanks to that all drivers were able to have at least five rounds of practice.
The first round started at 4PM and was used for learning the track layout because traction was very low. However, traction increased from round-to-round and by the third round the traction was high. The main problem for all drivers was the chicane, which every driver was trying to drive full throttle. The chicane was the same as last year but back then the traction was not as high and so there were fewer problems. This year the chicane was very difficult to navigate, and many top drivers broke their cars… more than once.
I started with the XRAY T2’008 basic setup which was very similar to the setup from the DHI Cup. I felt that the car was a bit difficult to drive; I had a lot of mid-corner steering, and because of that I wanted to make the car easier to drive but I did not want to lose steering in the chicanes. I decided to move the rear shock one position down. This change helped a lot but I still felt that I need more steering on corner entry. So then I changed the front bars from 1.6 to 1.4, and the rear from 1.4 to 1.2.
This change helped again but the car started to stop when I drove into the corner… so then I changed the front springs from 2.8 to harder 3.0. The car was then almost perfect but it was rolling too much and I could not drive through the technical parts as fast as I wanted. At last I decreased the rebound in the shocks from 50% to 0% and the car was perfect and ready for qualifiers.

Qualifiers
The qualifiers started at 3PM on Saturday, since there was free practice for stock classes in the morning. We spoke with Teemu Leino and agreed that it would be very important to drive easy in the first round so as not to make mistakes… all drivers would push a lot and the traction changed a lot since Friday evening. We both made clean, safe runs and Teemu finished 4th and I finished 7th. Dirk also ran well and finished 6th.
Although I finished in the top 10, the car was handling completely differently than it did on Friday evening. We all expected that the track would change a lot again for the second round. Because of that it was really hard to decide what to change on the car. I wanted better reaction in the chicanes and because of that I removed the front stand.
The third round. I had bad luck when I was driving at a top-10 pace which could have helped me into the A-main final; however, I traction rolled in the last minute and thus was out of the top 10.
The last round was held on Sunday morning and I was again unlucky, making a mistake in the first minute in the chicane when I tried to push harder. The car was very difficult to drive this time mainly in the chicane, and I found the reason after the heat. The problem was that the servo was loose because three screws were missing from the servo holder. So, once again it was “tough luck” for me but I was really happy for our guys because with four cars in the main, XRAY was the most used car in the A-main final.

Qualifying order:
1. Marc Rheinard
2. Viktor Wilck
3. Jilles Groskamp
4. Juho Levanen
5. Alexander Hagberg
6. Teemu Leino
7. Atshushi Hara
8. Yannick Prumper
9. Dirk Wischnewski
10. Steven Weiss

Finals
The first final was very unlucky for Alexander when his speedo stopped working in the first corner. Teemu was really fast at the start and he moved up to 4th place, however he made a mistake and dropped to the back. Steven had a very good run and was able to move from 10th to 4th position behind Jilles. He tried to put pressure on Jilles, but Jilles didn’t make any mistakes and so Steven finished 4th ahead of Dirk.
In the second final, Teemu again had a super-fast start when he moved from 6th to 4th position in the first lap, but again he made a mistake and lost his position. Teemu was pushing very hard and was soon again on pace but then his speedo switched off in the last minute and he did not finish the race. However, his car looked very fast and he was able to set the fastest lap in the second final. The fastest XRAY driver in the second main was Dirk, who finished 5th after a good battle with Alex (who finished 6th). Steven finished 7th.
The third final was lucky for Alex, as he was able to move through traffic up to 2nd place behind Jilles. Viktor (in 3rd) was putting a lot of pressure on Alex; however, Alex stayed calm and was able to stay in 2nd place ahead of Viktor. Teemu had the same bad luck as in the 2nd round when his speedo switched off again in the last minute.

Results:
1. Marc Rheinard
2. Jilles Groskamp
3. Viktor Wilck
4. Alexander Hagberg
5. Steven Weiss
6. Dirk Wischnewski
7. Atshushi Hara
8. Yannick Prumper
9. Teemu Leino
10. Juho Levanen