Ranking of model car racers on January 1, 2008

EPC 2008 Rnd #2 - 10th DPM,  ERZHAUSEN (D) - May 1-3, 2008 (IOC-RACE)

R.SEIF/A.ORTMANN/CAROLINE SCHNITZLER ONCE MORE

Top Success: 192 racers spread over 64 teams at the start! Upgraded to level 1.

May 3, 2008 - The 10th edition of the DPM was a splendid success story. Indeed no less than 192 racers from at least 12 different countries came at the start. Apart from a majority of German racers we ,noted 21 racers from Spain, 3 from the USA, 3 from Canada, 3 from France, 3 from Switzerland, 3 from Italy, 3 from Denmark, 3 from Japan, 3 from Austria, and single racers from Holland and Luxembourg. Of those 64 teams 24 had to contest the semi-finals, giving the 8 first the right to enter the eventual race with 48 teams.

Racers having not survived the Semis could have among them a kind of consolation race on a wooden four laner.

New for 2008 was that the race could easily be followed at the internet with the so-called Slot Race Life Ticker. If we are well informed this system was introduced by Keld Høfler of Racefun from Denmark. The system lets see each x minutes the computer screen with the standings after each segment of each heat. In Germany some-one added short comments - both in German ànd English - so that the spectator was always well-informed about the reasons why some teams lost at once one or more laps. This very interesting system is still highly unknown among slot-racers, since at no moment there were more than 92 viewers. Nevertheless it should be interesting to use that system at the upcoming 20th IMCA Worlds.  We should contact Keld Høfler for more info. It could also be used at round #3 of the EEC 2008. Here Tamar Nelwan already contacted Racefun Danmark.

SEMI FINALS
Of the 8 teams surviving the Semi-Finals the winning team of dr. Slot will later finish the race in 11th position. Kraner 2, who finished 4th at the Semis, will finish the race as 16th OA. L.E. Slot, having finished 6th at the Semis will finish eventually 21st overall, ahead over NASCAR having finished 2nd at the Semis. Franken 1, having finished the Semis as 3rd will be 24th OA. Of the others no team finished among the top-25 O.A.

QUALIFICATIONS
At the DPM the qualifications are extremely important, because they decide in which of the 6 heats a team can start. Ultimate goal, of course, is finishing among the top-8. Foreign teams coming from the USA, Canada, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Japan and Austria were free of the Semis. So everybody was curious how well they could perform at the Qualifications.  However, it became obvious that none of those teams, except for the several Spanish, was a potential contender on winning the eventual race. Very disappointing was the result of the Japanese team. Last year a Japanese team still finished as runner-up with Koudu Nobuhisha, Katsnori Sekine and Hideaki Suzuki (having finished in 2006 already 5th OA). The 2008 Japanese team was certainly not so professional as the previous years, since they finished 48th on 48 in 11"891. The USA, France and Austria did hardly better, since they qualified res. as 46th, 45th and 44th. Switzerland, Italy and Canada (with Mark Campbell!) did slightly better, qualifying res. as 38th, 37th and 35th. Only the Danish (with Keld Høfler and young Christian Høfler) was competitive, qualifying as 25th in 8"053. Disappointing was the team of Nick de Wachter (SG Stern): they qualified as low as 27th.
Disappointing to was the time realised by Manfred and Oliver Stork, finishing with 8"084 as 29th, being condemned to start in the third lowest heat.
Top qualifiers were Michael Niemas/Philipp Kremer/Christoph Kremer (Bad Boys). Of them Niemas won already three times the DPM. They realised an extremely sharp time of 7"600. Second qualifiers were Sebastian Nockermann/Jan Uhlig/Lucas Neumann of the Plastiquäler team in 7"609, followed by Kevin Krollmann/Martin Bartelmes/Peter Oberbillig (No Limits) in 7"619. The very young Dr. Slot Juniors, who caused last year a stir by finishing 6th OA, confirmed their brilliant performance. Now they qualified as 4th. It concerns Maximilian Hollenberger/Armin Seldmayr/Tobias Munchenberger of Dr. Slot Juniors.. Among the four other teams having qualified in the top-8 we found (of course) the A.C.R. of Rallph Seif, Alexander Ortmann and Caroline Schnitzler, having already won last year's DPM and this year's DKMP. They qualified as 5th in 7"641. This year there was also a second Plastiquäler team - Plastiquäler 2 with Jochen Fußmann)/Jan Schaffland/Marcel Wondel. At the 2008 DKPM they finished as 6th. Now they qualified as 6th. Biggest surprise at the qualifications came from #51 Bahnmeister (Patrick Brau/Ralf Seldmeyer/Jochen Fußmann). They qualified as 7th, enough to go to the last and fastest heat. The lonely strangers among the top-8 were the Spanish racers of CricCrac with Icker Santos and Roger  Suñe. 

HEATS #4 AND #3
In heat #4 we have a Spanish team (Cursa Sport) and the Danish team of Keld Høfler and Christian Høfler. Interesting too is that we find here three teams having been very unlucky at the qualifications: Nascar Slot Racing of Manfred Stork, X-Rookies of GuRi (Günther Riehl, having won earlier twice the DPM) and SG Stern with Nick de Wachter (NL), winner of five world championships and earlier vice-winner of the DPM. The three remaining teams are locals.
Patrick Meister (Nascar Slot-Racing) is pulling away like a rocket. After 5 minutes in the first segment he has already one lap over Nick de Wachter's team and 5 over GuRi's. At the end of the first segment 94 laps were achieved, a new record. Nick de Wachter is second, 1 lap down. Then follows the Spanish team at 4 laps. GuRi lost 7 laps and is 7th, Keld Høfler of the Danish team 11. Meister improved the track record with a fastest lap in 7"553, better than the pole position time of the Bad Boys. During the second segment Cursa Sport realises 92 laps (just as Stork), moving up into rank 2. SG Stern looses 5 laps in the second segment and is now 3rd. By completing 90 laps the Danish Racefun moves from rank 8 to rank 4. GuRi is in problems and looses again 4 laps. At mid-heat Stork's Nascar Slot-Racing achieved already ... 370 laps, good for 740 in total if they can keep the pace at the same speed. Cursa Sports is always 2nd, but already at 8 laps, AG Stern always 3rd, but now at 15 laps. Danish Racefun (only 85 laps in segment 4) drops in the standings to rank 7, being now 22 laps down.
In front the Storks and Meister still accelerate. X-Rookies with GuRi are now 3rd after 6 segments, 2 laps down to Cursa Sport in rank 2 and 23 to the leaders. During segment 7  X-Rookies loose more than 10 laps in the pits. With one segment to go Nascar Slot-Racing has already 22 laps over Cursa Models and 23 over AG Stern. X-Rookies drops into the last place. This time no GuRi miracle as so often in the past. Eventually Nascar Slot-Racing will achieve 740 laps over the 8 heats, that's only 3 laps less than achieved by the winners last year. They realised a supreme race and several spectators predict that they'll be the final winners. After the 6 heats it becomes obvious that this is ... just not the case They'll be 6th OA. During his final run Patrick Meister realises a new track record in 7"517. Cursa Sport from Spain is 2nd at 26 laps, enough for a 19th rank OA. They are immediately followed by Nick de Wachter's AG Stern, finishing 20th OA  The Danish team, with Keld Høfler as fastest racer, will finish 32nd overall.  
In heat #3 we find 3 Spanish teams at the start: Tim Comarca with Ivan Basas (last year 11th), Slot Terrassa (last year21st with the 2006 world champion Dani "Giesse" Gonzalez) and ALGT Team with Valentin & Israel Gil, last year 35th. During the two first segments L.E. Slot, survivor of the Semis, will lead, to being passed during the 3rd segment by Team Comarca from Spain. They'll hold the lead until the end of the 7th segment. But then they are passed by Kraner Racing Team 2, having achieved (only) 719 laps, 27 less than the Storks & Meister. They'll finish 16th OA, Team Comarca 18th OA, ALGT 25th overall and Slot Terassa 28th overall. With 4 heats gone Nascar Slot-Racing is a strong OA leader with their 740 laps, followed by Mittelrhein with 725 laps and Kramer 2 with 719 laps. Now the big guns will come in action, among them 3 famous Spanish teams, one of them being Marina Alta of the three Checas, having finished 4th OA at this year's DKPM.

HEAT #2
In the one but last heat we find 2 Spanish teams: Marina Alta with the Checas and Tim Abina with Josep Ruiz/Julio Moya/Miguel Cortez. Dr. Slot of Trier, with Martin Bartelmes is fastest away, but will passed during the second segment by Kraner Racing Team of Duisberg, probably with Andreas Laufenberg (the eternal student; nobody seems to know what he's studying). Thomas Nötzel is this year no member of the team since he drove for Kraner 2. During the same second segment Kraner 1 improves the track record with a 7"413. At mid-heat - despite a weak run on lane 5 - they have already achieved 375 laps, 5 more than the Storks & Meister did. They seem on their way to make 750 laps, i.e. 7 more than last year's winners. They have already 7 laps over Dr. Slot and Jäger Team from Saarbrücken (Joahim Welsch/Pierre Stein/Mark Kiefer). Marina Alta of the Checas is 5th at 10 laps, followed 6 laps further by Tim Albina. During the 6th segment KIK Racing (with Dietmar Schmeer) can pass Dr. Slot for the second place. The following segment Jäger Team passes on its turn Dr. Slot. Kraner has now 9 laps over KIK Racing, 14 over Jäger Team and 15 over Dr Slot, with two segments to go. Eventually Kraner will win in a fabulous 747 laps, 4 more than last year's winners. KIK Racing follows at 11 laps. During the last segment Dr Slot succeeded to pass Jâger Team for the third place. The Checas come 3 laps short to take the third place. Eventually they'll finish 13th overall, Tim Abina 17th overall. After the last heat it will appear that 747 laps was not enough for outright victory. Kraner will finish 2nd overall, KIK Racing 9th overall and Dr. Slot 11th overall.

HEAT #1
It's 21h40 (9.40 pm) when the 8 fastest cars align for the final heat. For Bad Boys Michael Niemas will start, for Plastikquäler Lukas Neumann, for No Limits Kevin Krollmann, for Dr. Slot Juniors Maxi Hollenburger, for A.C.R. Ralph Seif himself, for Plastikquäler 2 Jan Schaffland, for Bahnmeister the three-long Patrick Brau and for the Spanish CricCrac team X.X  Bad start for Kevin Krollmann and Ralph Seif, both deslotting a couple of times. After 5 minutes Neumann and Niemas lead the field, followed at 1 lap by Seif, Hollenburger and Krollmann, at 2 laps by the others.

HEATS #6 AND #5
In heat #6 we find the teams of Japan (New Wave), France (Dream CH'Team), Austria (Grenzlandslot) and the USA (Nighthawks). During the  first segment the Japanese loose already 15 laps on Leo Chilli Racing (Frank Schüler/Carsten Starke/Bernd Starke). At the end of the first segment we find the foreign teams in ranks 4-5-6-8. Leo Chilli Racing, last year still 10th OA with 722 laps - but now victim of qualification woes - takes immediately the lead and will maintain it until the end, winning heat #6 with 711 laps. The Swiss team will finish as third, but 29 laps down to the heat winners.  The Japanese will come 5 laps further in 4th position. The French team will finish 6th of the heat, 59 laps down to the winners. The American team suffered the whole race from a bad set-up (too much grip) and finished as 7th at 61 laps. Later it will appear that Leo Chilli Racing is 23rd OA. The Austrian team will be 41st OA, the Japanese 43rd and the American 46th and the French 48th. Probably the Frenchies lost 30 extra laps due to a too low clearing.
In heat #5 we have the teams of Canada (Canam Queens), Italy (Engage Model Racing), and Switzerland (Slot Connection), together with 5 German teams, of who Piccomat is the best known. Indeed, Picomat is since the mid 1960s a slot-racing shop in Köln. In the mid-1980s I could find there original Cox kits (of the Lotus 40, Chaparral 2D and Ford GT) at unbelievable low prices. Now you pay easily $ 1,000 US or more for such collection items.
The Canadians, with Mark Campbell, took a real bad start, loosing 15 laps during the first segment. In front Mittelrhein (Hans Werner/Peter Juchem/Dirk Wolf), having finished last year 16th, are pulling away up from the start. For the Canadians things go hardly better during the second segment, since they loose again 20 laps. In front of them, at place 7, we find the Italians who already lost 26 laps in two segments. Things go better for the Swiss racers, taking rank 3. Piccomat, with the famous Nascar racer Nezih Durukanli (winner of several rounds at the Manfred Stork races in Kôln) had a hoorible segment on lane 8, making them loosing 18 laps in only two segments. Positions change no more and Mittelrhein wins with 725.04 laps which will be enough for a 15th place overall. The Swiss will finish 4th of the heat, enough to finish 36th overall. The Italians will finish one but last of the heat, finishing 50 laps down to the winners. They will be 44th OA. The poor Canadians are last of the heat, finishing 64 laps down to the winners. They'll finish 45th OA, heading the Americans by 26 laps.

Fastest lap after 5 minutes is for Kevin Krollmann in 7"465 - not enough to improve the race record. During the second half of the first segment he will lower his time into 7"424. ?eumann leads Seif, Niemas, Hollenburger and Krollmann by 1 lap after the first segment. Schaffland follows at 2 laps, the others at 3.
During the second segment Bad Boys (Niemas, Philipp Kremer, Christoph Kremer) take the lead, letting nobody on the lead lap. Dr. Slot Juniors and Plastikquäler follow at 1 lap. CricCrac (7th) and Bahnmeister (8th) are already 8 laps down. During the third segment the Bad Boys, with reigning world champion Philipp Kremer, are lapped twice by Plastikquäler so that Christian Schnitzler is now 2 laps aherad over them and the astonishing very young Dr. Slot Juniors. Caroline Schnitzler of A.C.R. is 4th, but already at 4 laps.
During the 4th segment Christian Schnitzler of Plastikquäler looses his rear spoiler ...and the lead. New leaders are now the unbelievable strong youngsters of Dr. Slot Junior. Philipp Kremer and Christian Schnitzler follow at mid-race at 1 lap, Carolinee Schnitzler is always 4 laps down. During the following segment both Plastikquäler cars loose precious time. The #12 with a broken spoiler, the #57 after a short cut (5 laps lost). Both try to make their come back, improving their best lap times. After 5 segments the #12 is again second, just as Bad Boys and A.C.R. one lap down to the leading Dr. Slot Juniors. No limits follows at 2 laps after having quit the track, falling on the floor, CricCrac at 5.
During segment 6 Ralph Seif of A.C.R. passes all cars, taking the lead. Bad Boys follow at 1 lap, having passed the Dr. Slot Juniors. Nockermann/Christian Schnitzler/Neumann of Plastikquäler are 4th at 2 laps. Final victory will go among those 4 teams and... Kramer Racing with its fabulous 747 laps. CricCrac is 5th, but already at 5 laps. For No Limits chances on victory seem small after their crash. They too are 5laps down.
In the last but one segment A.C.R. Racing holds the lead with 654 laps, 1 lap more than the Bad Boys. But Kraner Racing realised also 653 laps after 7 segments, so that they are still in the top-3 OA. No Limits and Dr. Slot Juniors follow already at 4 laps, CricCrac at 6, the Plastikquäler cars res. at 8 and 10.
Alexander Ortmann - at my opinion the next model car world champion in Herentals! - will do the last segment for A.C.R., Niemas the last segment for Bad Boys. I have no info what happened but 3 minutes later Niemas was at once 5 laps down to Ortmann, having even been passed by Kevin Krollmann of No Limits. No 4th DPM for Niemas thus. Later he'll be involved in a collision with Krollmann's car. Eventually Seif/Ortmann/Caroline Schnitzler are the winners with 2 laps more than Kramer Racing.

BEST INTERNATIONAL RACE ON THE CALENDAR
Although not without a commercial conotation, I consider the DPM as the best organised of all international races. Eventually I see only two things which still can be improved:
(1) It takes always several weeks before the press knows who were the three entrants per team. That implies that it is not possible to publish the eventual results. Below one finds such provisional results. It's not impossible that there are mistakes in the names of the racers, due to the fact that the names of the racers having not been published. That's an easy point to correct for the future.
(2) Foreign racers, having had not enough time to practice, have always problems to realise a good result at the DPM. Perhaps it should be a good idea to add an extra day where non-German teams can practice and do the correct set-up of their cars. Now many teams complain that they had nearly no occasion to do that.

DPM UPGRADED TO IOC-LEVEL "1", i.e. THE HIGHEST LEVEL
The success of the DPM is so overwhelming that we decided to upgrade the DPM from an IOC level 2 event to an IOC level 1 event. That means that the DPM is up from this year considered as a race with the same high standards of a world championship.Top-8 finishers win now res. 30, 22.5, 18, 13.5, 9, 4.5, 3 and 1.5 points instead of 20, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3, 2, 1 for former editions.
The IOC-list has been updated. Niemas has now 393 points on rank 18, Philipp Kremer 346.5 points on rank 23, Seif 244 (moved from rank 41 to 36), Christoph Kremer 244 (moved from rank 40 to 37), Laufenberg 109 (enters the top-100 after a move from 103 to 87), Krollmann 90.5 (moving from 119 to 101), Ortmann 82 (moving from rank 162 to 109), Christian Schnitzler 73 (moving from rank 130 to 124), Caroline Schnitzler 71.5 (moving from rank 194 to 126), Oberbillig 61.5 (moving from rank 190 to 144), Manfred Stork 56 (moving from 168 to 156), etc. Caroline Schnitzler is now the first female racer on the IOC-list. After her DPM win she passed tthe legendary Corinna Gianotti.

EEC 2008 Rnd #2 - BRUSSELS 24 HOURS,  WEZEMBEEK-OPPEM (B) - March 29-30, 2008 (IOC-RACE)

NIEMAS/N.GRUND (GT1) & KIVEKÄS/EKSMAN (GT2) WIN

Restrictors half solution for Maserati dominance - PS4000-IMCA not equal

March 31, 2008 - The second round of the EEC 2008 was enjoyable. Although Michael Niemas (D) and Norman Grund (D) had not the smallest problem to win the race, the most stirring result came from Kai Kivekäs (SF)/Henri Eskman (SF) who succeeded to finish second with a 78mm wide Ferrari F430 GT beating - except for one - all those 88 and 89mm wide Maseratis MC12. Another superb result was reached by Willem Kloppenburg (NL) and Onno Griepink (NL) with a 82 mm wide Corvette C6R. They had a horrible start in the first day section, where Onno lost at least 60 laps, struggling with lanes 6 and 8. But during the night section the Corvette won the second place one Ono improved a lot on the three outer lanes. In the morning session the Corvette was leading the session, ahead of Niemas/Grund until the real last section, where Onno had to go to the slow black outer lane. Just before Willem Kloppenburg gave a demonstration when he even moved up into third position overall, letting the Lambo of Tamar Nelwan (NL)/Gabriel Inäbnit (CH) up to six laps behind, with the four last segments to go. At those four we saw a struggle between Onno and Tamar, where despite of Onno's best efforts, Tamar was the strongest. Ono started his four runs with nine laps advance over Niemas/Grund in the morning session. At the end he finished eight laps behind Niemas/Grund, but could conserve his second place in the morning session.
Nick de Wachter disappointed. His Maserati was not really competitive. In the day section, and especially in the night section, there were serious problems with a completely unreliable motor. Initially the motor was so slow that he lost lap after lap nearly a full metre on the straight. And then at once the motor was a real bomb, allowing a fastest lap in 6"301. But some segments later the motor was again unbe-lievable slow. I saw the same thing with the motor of Bunenberg/Van Bernheim. Another motor, the one of Hernandez/Flick, was a pure disaster, failing to work properly during the complete race. For the rest I saw brilliant close racing with Hubert Jacob (F) struggling against Borge Haug (N) during 15 minutes, without the smallest deslotting of both. Another brilliant passus was the fight between Philippe Laudet (with his impossible chassis bought from Napoleon I), Remco van Waaij (NL) and Marcel Oosterling (NL)/Henri van Gool (NL). There was some great racing at Merlijn, and what a pitty that there were only five GT2 cars. Indeed, in GT2 there was no struggle. Kivekäs/Eskman were much too strong, whilst Huys/Van Campenhout were too strong for Andersen/Krogtie/Bråten. Sensatiional was the Porsche of Dirk Baele/Gerry de Roeck, on a Slotvision chassis - a perfect SILENT car - going very fast, but unfortunately assembled five minutes before the race (or was it DURING the race?), thus too unreliable.
Contrarily to what happened in Oslo the new ProSlot PS4000-IMCA motors were a pure disaster. They were unequal in a high degree. Of the 27 motors we received, 8 could not be used, most of them with a blocked armature. That's no serious business, completely unworthy the great reputation of Dan Debella. At any rate I refuse to use such unequal motors at the 2008 Sprint Worlds withy the Ferrari F430 Challenge cars. For those races I'll go back to the old Bison Mk3 motors with closed can, to be raced under 18.5 Volt with a 44/12 gear ratio. At Igarashi one can buy 12 dozens of motors (normally used in the medical sector) with a certificate that they function for 99.50 per cent equally. I cannot organise a fair world championship with such unequal motors. At Merlijn I admired such guys like Oscar Hernandez, Chris Bunenberg, Andy Flitz and Michael van Bernhem that they even accepted to race such fucking shit motor as the one they received. I am 45 years involved in slot-racing, but never ever I saw such a mess of so-called perfectly equal motors. What we received was PURELY A SHAME!

Nevertheless I wish to give my good old friend Dan Debella the credit he normally deserves. For the Endurance World Championship I'll order 48 motors of type PS4000 IMCA, hoping to find at least 16 plus or minus equal. Indeed I'll restrict number of cars to only 16, with 3 racers per car - 8 of them racing 12 continuous hours in GT1 and 8 of them racing 12 continuous hours in GT2. After having lost € 6,500 sponsoring, due to clowns - style Hugo Dekker & Cie - subscribing a half year earlier, and then refusing to show at the real last minute, I wish by all means to recuperate the lost money. The lonely way is to subscribe 16 different € 500 sponsoring contracts with 16 different FIA GT teams anno 2008. It's my intention to let the 8 GT2 bodies anno 2008 by only one specialist [Nick de Wachter] and to let those bodies being raced by 8 teams of 3 drivers being less experienced than the full pros. The 8 2008 GT1 bodies [4 Covettes C6-R, 2 Aston Martins DBR9, 1 Maserati MC12 and 1 Saleen S7R] should be assembled by the professional experts themselves. So, for the Herentals Endurance Worlds I have the following teams in my mind:

#1 Vitaphone Maserati MC12	Børge Haug (N)	Glenn Wennerberg (N)	Francesc Reyes (E)
#3 SRT Corvette C6-R	Ralph Seif (D)	Alex Ortmann (D)	Christian Schnitzler (D)
#4 PK Carsport Saleen 7R	Jozef Miskolci (SVK)	Ladislav Szalai (SVK)	Laco Koterba jr (SVK)
#5 Phoenix Carsport Corvette C6-R	Nick de Wachter (NL)	Tamar Nelwan (NL)	Gabriel Inäbnit (CH)
#6 Phoenix Carsport Corvette C6-R	Wim Kloppenburg (NL)	"Piki" van Rossem (B)	Youri van Rossem (B)
#10 Gigawave Aston Martin DBR9	Tim Tyler (AU)	Chris Radisich (NZ)	Fred Hood (USA)
#12 Luc Alphand Corvette C§-R	Michael Niemas (D)	Philipp Kremer (D)	Christoph Kremer (D)
#33 Jetalliance Aston Martin DBR9	Fola Osu (NIG)	Kai Kivekäs (SF)	Günther Riehl (D)
#50 AF Corse Ferrari F430 GT2	Javier Checa (E)	Carlos Checa 'E)	Jose Javier Checa (E)
#51 AF Corse Ferrari F430 GT2	Antonio Ortega (E)	Albert Ortega (E)	Alvaro Sarrabia (E)
#55 CR Scuderia Ferrari F430 GT2	Al Paterson (E)	Craig Strydom (RSA)	Anthony Bartlett (RSA)
#60 Prospeed Porsche 997GT3-RSR	Herman James (USA)	Mark Campbell (CDN)	Terry Dalton (CDN)
#61 Prospeed Porsche 997GT3-RSR	Emily Kuipers (NL)	Caroline Schnitzler (D)	Roger Schmitt (USA)
#62 Ecosse Ferrari F430 GT2	Kristof Huys (B)	Björn v Campenhout (B)	Hubert Jacob (F)
#95 Advanced Ferrari F430 GT2	Gert Klinge (B)	Remco van Waaij (NL)	Rolf K. Andersen (N)
#98 BMS Italia Ferrari F430 GT2	Marcel Oosterling (NL)	Henri van Gool (NL)	Philippe Laudet (B)

For the rest we can let the FIA GT rules like they are, incl. weight calculator and control of it (what wasn't be done at Merlijn), under the condiition that we see NO RACERS in the race direction stand, only technical directors. Bob Demeyer is the ideal man to handle the weight calculator thing. For the lonely Maserati MC12 and the lonely Saleen I suggest the use of a 0.6 diode restrictor. The struggle between Kloppenburg's car and Nelwan's was the best thing I saw at Merlijn. Let's make the most thrilling Endurance Worlds we can imagine at Herentals, with the Bad Boys struggling against the Seif/Ortmann/Schnitzler combination, with the Nelwans struggling against the Kloppenburgs, the Slovaks against the Norvegians, the new Osu-Kivekäs-Riehl combinat§ion against the Tyler/Radisich/Hood combination. It will 10 times better than what we had initially on paper.
Biggest deception at Merlijn were the Aston Martins DBR9. Sure, Fola Osu won concourse with a splendid DBR9, but during the race the car was nowhere. Already during the day section Fola had to struggle until the last minute to maintain his car in the top-7 group for the night section. During the night section, the car dropped into 10th position after a complete disorganisation (at a given moment Baudach, later Fola himself, could even not find their own controllers), and could never come back. With their broken rear spoilers the four Astons finished as four simple rags. That, that broke my heart of a true Aston supporter! [JPVR]

EPC 2008 Rnd #1 - 2nd DKPM,  ROEDOVRE (DK) - February 29-March 1, 2008 (IOC-RACE)

R.SEIF/A.ORTMANN/CAROLINE SCHNITZLER WIN

Great performances by Manfred Stork (2nd) and the Checas (4th)

EEC 2008 Rnd #1 - 2nd BADET 12 HOURS,  OSLO (N) - February 2-3, 2008 (IOC-RACE)

NIEMAS/KREMER (GT1) & KIVEKÄS/EKSMAN (GT2) WIN

Maseratis unbeatable (rules to be modified) - PlaFit SLP pulverises Schöler