John Ermem won Netherlands National |
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On Friday we were at the track running in some engines, because Rucphen is my home track we needed to do some minor setup tweaks due to changing track conditions, but the car was running ok.
On Saturday the track was somewhat diffrent then on friday and we noticed the other drivers like Steven, Robin and Rick were all doing fast laptimes under the 13 seconds. We tried some different setups on the car to make it easier to drive and were looking for some little bit of extra speed, so we tested some engines / exhaust combinations and some other gearing. At the end of the day we also could do constant laptimes of 12,9 and 13,0 sec so all was good for the race on sunday.
In first qualification round I drove a steady race just to set a time and improve later on, later it seemed this was the fasted heat and track was perfect in the first round. In 2nd and 3rd round I tried some minor setup changes, but because of the track condiftions I did not improved my time. |
After 3 rounds of qualifying the standing were: |
Pos |
No. |
Name |
Laps |
Total time |
Diff |
Best time |
In lap |
Best speed |
1 |
|
Robin D'Hond |
32 |
7:01.863 |
|
12.793 |
- |
72.321 |
2 |
|
Rick Vrielijnck |
32 |
7:02.815 |
0.952 |
12.670 |
- |
73.023 |
3 |
|
Stefan Cuypers |
32 |
7:03.275 |
1.412 |
12.666 |
- |
73.046 |
4 |
|
John Ermen |
32 |
7:09.397 |
7.534 |
12.969 |
- |
71.339 |
5 |
|
Gunther van Steay |
32 |
7:11.550 |
9.687 |
12.771 |
- |
72.445 |
6 |
|
Joey Sorber |
31 |
7:00.007 |
1 Lap |
13.002 |
- |
71.158 |
7 |
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Frank Baggen |
31 |
7:01.825 |
1.818 |
13.053 |
- |
70.880 |
8 |
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Arie Manten |
31 |
7:05.648 |
5.641 |
13.023 |
- |
71.044 |
9 |
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Daan Halling |
31 |
7:11.760 |
11.753 |
13.294 |
- |
69.595 |
10 |
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Michiel Renting |
31 |
7:13.551 |
13.544 |
13.409 |
- |
68.998 |
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At the start of the final Rick, Steven and me were pulling away fromt the rest of the field, Robin had some problems during the start and had to retire after some laps. Before the first pitstop also Steven had some technical issues and could not continue the race. My engine was leaning a little beat just before the first fuel stop and we needed to adjust it. Also Rick needed to adjust his engine during the first pitstop and we managed to take over the lead during this pit stop. Rick and me were on the same pit stop strategy and we both refueled on 3,5 / 4mins. Gunther, who was pitting at 4,5 / 5mins had some advantages during the race because of less fuel stops. But after the half way, and after a very fast tire change of my pit crew, we managed to pul away from Gunther and Rick who were on 2nd and 3rd place. 10 minutes before the end, Also Rick endured some technical problems and needed to retire. Gunther took over 2nd spot again but was 1 lap down on me. Just 5 minute before the end, Gunther had a flame-out and I had 2 laps on Frank, from there on I could take it easy and took the win 2 laps in front of Frank and 8 laps in front of Gunther. |
Pos |
No. |
Name |
Laps |
Total time |
Diff |
Best time |
In lap |
Best speed |
1 |
|
John Ermen |
132 |
30:03.072 |
|
12.723 |
8 |
72.719 |
2 |
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Frank Baggen |
128 |
30:05.123 |
4 Laps |
13.004 |
10 |
71.147 |
3 |
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Gunther van Steay |
124 |
29:18.375 |
8 Laps |
12.769 |
5 |
72.457 |
4 |
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Donny Blommers |
124 |
30:00.848 |
42.473 |
13.349 |
28 |
69.309 |
5 |
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Daan Halling |
124 |
30:06.557 |
48.182 |
13.067 |
11 |
70.804 |
6 |
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Rick Vrielijnck |
108 |
26:37.264 |
24 Laps |
12.749 |
7 |
72.570 |
7 |
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Michiel Renting |
75 |
21:07.324 |
57 Laps |
13.347 |
13 |
69.319 |
8 |
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Marcel Schouten |
63 |
16:51.235 |
69 Laps |
13.457 |
33 |
68.752 |
9 |
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Stefan Cuypers |
17 |
4:07.246 |
115 Laps |
12.706 |
9 |
72.816 |
10 |
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Robin D'Hond |
17 |
4:29.866 |
22.620 |
12.511 |
12 |
73.951 |
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