12th Scale 2008 Euros Report.

Hot Bodies Dominate EFRA 1/12th Scale Euro's!


Last weekend saw the EFRA 1/12th scale European Championships take
place near Ingolstadt in Germany, and the meeting saw a dominant
performance by the Hot Bodies team!




The organizers had laid a challenging track that received mixed
opinions from the drivers. The nature of the layout (in particular a
very difficult slalom section) and the track markings (which included
strategically placed bot-dots) meant that consistently fast lap times
were difficult to achieve, even for the fastest drivers.




The meeting promised to be fast and competitive with no less than 5
current or former European champions in attendance, and many of
Europe's most successful and experienced drivers all wanting a slice of
the action.

Friday
In practice it was defending champion Andy Moore who set the early
pace, but his Hot Bodies team mates Marc Rheinard and Ronald Volker
were soon on level terms, and it was Volker who ended practice in the
top spot. Britain's Andy Griffiths was also featuring in the top ten
throughout practice and was feeling confident of securing an A final
place in qualifying.

Saturday
Saturday saw 5 rounds of qualifying, and during the morning the track
was still getting faster as the heats progressed. After 3 rounds Ronald
Volker topped the qualifying list, with Andy Moore 4th, Marc Rheinard
6th and Mark Stiles 9th after a very fast heat 9 run in which Volker
and Rheinard also set their best times so far. At this stage Andy
Griffiths and Mick Farrell were setting good lap times, but were
struggling to find enough consistency to string a complete run together.

Round 4 saw Volker on top still, but Rheinard improved to 4th, bumping
Andy Moore down to 5th. Andy Griffiths put in a consistent run to place
8th overall. Mark Stiles dropped out of the A final and into 11th place
after failing to improve his time. Fellow Hot Bodies Driver Mick
Farrell was on a storming run which would have seen him possibly break
into the A final, but his run was stunted by 'Pippa the Swede', who saw
it necessary to put a dent in the side of Micks car after being lapped.
Despite this, Mick still recovered to move into the middle of the B
final. At this stage Thomas Pumpler was 12th, with Dominik Fleischmann
15th; both running Cyclone 12's

Round 5 was the last run on Saturday, and it turned out to be the
quickest of the weekend. Marc Rheinard smashed the existing TQ time
with a super fast run. This pushed Volker (who also improved) into
second position, with Andy Moore still 5th and struggling somewhat with
an inconsistent car. Andy Griffiths moved up one place to 7th, while
Dominik Fleischmann improved to 10th. Mark Stiles remained 11th after
improving his time by 1 second.

During the evening most of the competitors and their families and
friends met at the Audi museum in Ingolstadt for a banquet and tour of
the museum. Everyone in attendance agreed it was the best Saturday
evening at a Euros for many years!

Sunday
Sunday morning saw the 6th and final qualifying round. Most drivers
expected this to be the fastest round, as is the norm at most indoor
carpet meetings. However, the track was in fact slower, and only 2
drivers in the top 20 managed to improve their times. This left the top
20 as follows, with Hot Bodies cars filling 40% of the positions!;

1 Rheinard Marc (HB Cyclone 12) DE 37 08:01.040
2 Volker Ronald (HB Cyclone 12) DE 37 08:02.246
3 Ahoniemi Simo FIN 37 08:06.505
4 Honigl Hubert AT 37 08:06.520
5 Moore Andy (HB Cyclone 12) UK 37 08:08.193
6 Hagberg Alexander SE 37 08:12.656
7 Griffiths Andy (HB Cyclone 12) UK 37 08:13.654
8 Fischer Marc DE 36 08:02.607
9 Bopp Bernhard DE 36 08:04.670
10 Ahoniemi Sakke FIN 36 08:05.660
11 Fleischmann Dominik (HB Cyclone 12) DE 36 08:06.628
12 Stiles Mark (HB Cyclone 12) UK 36 08:07.241
13 Dankel Eric DE 36 08:07.255
14 Mobers Markus DE 36 08:07.846
15 Sieber Daniel DE 36 08:08.520
16 Pumpler Thomas (HB Cyclone 12) AT 36 08:09.570
17 Bischoff Felix DE 36 08:11.419
18 Farrell Mick (HB Cyclone 12) UK 36 08:12.004
19 Kerswell Chris UK 36 08:12.597
20 Fransson Mikael SE 36 08:12.708





A Finals
Leg 1 of the A final saw a comfortable victory for Marc Rheinard. He
held the lead from pole position and had extended a comfortable lead by
the end of the race. Marc was also the only driver in the race to set a
lap time under 13 seconds. Ronald Volker held onto 2nd position despite
some late pressure from Andy Moore who had progressed to 3rd from 5th
on the grid. Andy Griffiths finished 7th after being bumped down to
10th position following a collision early in the race.

Leg 2 saw a similar story unfold at the front of the field. Rheinard
led from start to finish ahead of Volker to become the new European
champion. However, there was lots of action behind them in the race.
Andy Moore had worked his way up to 3rd place and was beginning to
pressure the 2nd placed car of Volker. 6 laps from the end of the race,
Andy clipped a bot-dot exiting the chicane that led onto the main
straight. Andy's car rolled down the track, and was collected by the
speeding car of Andy Griffiths who had nowhere to go, unfortunately
causing both drivers to retire. This resulted in the fight for 2nd
position overall being thrown wide open.

Marc Rheinard did not race leg 3 as he was already the new European
Champion. Andy Moore seized his opportunity, and with a freshly rebuild
car he passed several cars to take the lead and go on to win by 4
seconds. Volker was 2nd in the run, with Andy Griffiths back in 8th
after a scrappy race in the mid-field. This meant that Andy Moore
claimed 2nd in the overall standings, with Volker 3rd, making it an all
Hot Bodies A final podium!




B Finals
It was a similar story in the B final. In leg 1, Dominik Fleischmann
finished 2nd after a race long battle with Eric Dankel. These two
finished almost a lap clear of Markus Mobers, who passed Mark Stiles
for 3rd place on the final lap of the race when Mark was hit by a back
marker. Thomas Pumpler finished 5th, with Mick Farrell 8th.

Leg 2 saw another race long battle. This time between Dankel and
Stiles. With a clear gap to 3rd place, Mark was able to take a few
extra risks, and began to close the Gap to Eric. Entering the final
lap, Dankels car began to slow as he started to dump, allowing Stiles
to close in further. Had it not been for an error by Mark in the slalom
chicane, he would have probably passed Eric on the straight before the
finish line. Unfortunately this was not to be, and he had to settle for
2nd place on this occasion. Dominik Fleischmann was running in 3rd for
most of the race before retiring near the end. This promoted Thomas
Pumpler into 4th position at the end, with Mick Farrell crossing the
finish line in 7th.

Like the A final, the B final winner was decided during the first 2
legs. However, 2nd position was still up for grabs, and it was Mark
Stiles who made the most of the opportunity. He piled pressure onto
pole man Dominik Fleischmann in the early stages, eventually forcing
Dominik to make a small error. Mark took the lead and never looked
back; he went on to win the leg by around 4 seconds. This gave Mark 2nd
place overall in the B final, with a 3rd in leg 3 giving Dominik
Fleischmann the final podium position. Thomas Pumpler was 4th in the
leg and 5th overall, while Mick Farrell had more bad luck and was
forced to retire. He ended up 9th overall in the B final.




Overall Final Results
The top 20 overall positions were as follows;

1 Rheinard Marc (HB Cyclone 12) DE
2 Moore Andy (HB Cyclone 12) UK
3 Volker Ronald (HB Cyclone 12) DE
4 Honigl Hubert AT
5 Hagberg Alexander SE
6 Ahoniemi Simo FIN
7 Ahoniemi Sakke FIN
8 Bopp Bernhard DE
9 Griffiths Andy (HB Cyclone 12) UK
10 Fischer Marc DE
11 Dankel Eric DE
12 Stiles Mark (HB Cyclone 12) UK
13 Fleischmann Dominik (HB Cyclone 12) DE
14 Mobers Markus DE
15 Pumpler Thomas (HB Cyclone 12) AT
16 Sieber Daniel DE
17 Kerswell Chris UK
18 Fransson Mikael SE
19 Farrell Mick (HB Cyclone 12) UK
20 Bischoff Felix DE

Chris Clarke finished 32nd with his Cyclone 12, while young British Hot
Bodies drivers Matthew Lax and Sam Clifton also had a promising
meeting, eventually finishing 48th and 70th respectively. Gavin Clinch
was 53rd, while Nick Daman and his son James finished 75th and 86th
respectively, all with Cyclone 12's. Well done guys!

The Hot Bodies team wishes to thank the meeting organizers for a
superbly run meeting and their friendly hospitality. Next year the
Euros are to be held in Madrid Spain, and in the meantime the Hot
Bodies team will be looking to continue their excellent run of results
at national and international level!

For Full Results go to www.euro.rc-racecars.de

Well done to Chris Kerswell using tyres supplied by F.T.Q. Models