John Ermen Wins 3rd German Regional Race with BLITZ ARX
 
Last weekend it was the 3rd West German regional race at the tricky, but fast track in Hamm. It was our 2nd regional race we needed to qualify for the Deutsche Meistershaft race in September at the Kirchain track.
The weather on Saturday was rainy but the track was dry around 2 o'clock and after they sprayed the track with some sugar water we could go out to find a setup. I soon found out that any driving error was one too much and you were punished hard by the concrete walls. I accepted the challenging track and soon I liked it allot. The car and engine combination was working good right from the start. En we could really focus on some fine tuning of the setup of the car and the engine. At 6 o'clock we were doing good lap times that were faster than the current track record of 15,5 we were told, so we decided to just check the car for Sunday.
On Sunday the weather was much better. Sunny and 23 degrees it promised to be a nice day for some racing. The first heat I ran into some problems just before the start and was not able to start on time. In the 2nd heat I just clipped a kerb which caused my car to hit a concrete wall, the car was not damaged and I needed to retire. In the 3rd heat I decided to take it easy and just finish the heat. After 3 runs I was qualified 2nd just after Steven.
Top 10 after 3 runs:
No  Driver Nat Laps Time Car/Engine
 Cuypers Steven BE 19 5:08.044  Mugen / Picco
2   Ermen John NL 19 5:09.180  Xray RX8 / R&B CXr
 Kostadinov Emil   18 4:53.270  Mugen / Reds
 Meister Karl-Heinz DE 18 5:00.550  Serpent / Xceed
 Baldes Uwe DE 18 5:02.804  Mugen / Reds
 Nauth Claus DE 18 5:04.960  
 Pili Luigi NL 18 5:07.988  Xray RX8 / Picco
 Vahrenkamp Ralf DE 18 5:09.747  
 Rosskothen Rainer DE 16 4:55.809  
After the qualifications we adjusted the setup, because there was coming more and more traction the car tended a bit over steered. We adjusted the car with less caster, Ackermann and a stiffer front anti-roll bar to give the car less steering. This seemed to be the better solution because in the warm-up the car felt immediately better than before.
At the start of the final I had a slow start and Emil was able to take the 2nd spot. After a couple of corners I was able to take back the 2nd place and I could chase down Steven. After another couple of laps I was able to pass Steven and I was on the lead. Just after the 1st refueling I ran into a back marker right out of the pit lane and Steven gained back some lost time. After that Steven hit the same back marker as me and he was run of the track. Luckily for him his car was not damaged and he could continue the race. This gave me some more room and I could extend my lead. After midway I had extended my lead to 1,5 lap and from there on more drivers had problems with the demanding track and needed to retire with problems. When I crossed the finish after 30 minutes I had a 3 lap lead over Steven and took home the win! Better yet I broke the lap record with 0.3 seconds!
Final after 30 minutes of racing:
No  Driver Nat Laps Time   Car/Engine
1  Ermen John NL 111 30:07.447 Best Lap  Xray RX8 / R&B CXr
2  Cuypers Steven BE 108 30:01.586 15.278  Mugen / Picco
3  Pili Luigi NL 103 30:16.532 15.588  Xray RX8 / Picco
4  Rosskothen Rainer DE 97 30:12.865 16.163  
5  Nauth Claus DE 73 21:47.839 17.193  
6  Kostadinov Emil   69 23:55.062 16.121  Mugen / Reds
7  Baldes Uwe DE 58 16:41.159 16.199  Mugen / Reds
8  Meister Karl-Heinz DE 44 14:03.985 15.915  Serpent / Xceed
9  Vahrenkamp Ralf DE 0 0:00.000 15.930  
I want to thank my sponsors Team Xray, RB Products, Team Titan, Blitz, Tornado Fuel, Matrix Tires and RC Car Colors for their support and my dad and Ismail for the fast refuels!
Next stop were up for our fourth Dutch national next weekend in Gouda.
 
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