August 28 - Of the 16 IMCA World Championships the Barcelona one was undoubtedly the most thrilling, full of drama. Four racers out of 24 succeeded to join the 20 preselected racers: Antonio Ortega, Al Paterson, Pal Hanson and Francesc Reyes. The race was already on when, ot once, someone discovered that Jordi Girald should have been in, instead of Reyes. For the Spaniards that gave no problem, since they race as a nearly perfect national unity.
There were 4 Quarter Finals, with the 3 first of each Quarter making the move to the Semis.
At Quarter D Brian Saunders (GB) was leading until mid-race with Daniel Gonzalez (E) as second and Gabriel Inäbnit (CH) as third. Giovanni Mon-tiglio (I), who had to prepair his car frm scratch, could maintain the third place only during the two first segments, but then dropped in the stan-dings. During the second half of the race Saunder's car missed speed on lanes 5 and 6, making him dropping from first to sixth. Gonzalez took the lead. Meanwhile Philip Kremer (D) and Al Paterson (RSA) could move up in second and third position. Positions changed no more during the 2 last segments, so that Gonzalez, Paterson and Kremer made the move and that Inäbnit, Montiglio and Saunders were out. 
Quarter C was full of surprises since the car of Christoph Kremer (D), having won earlier the Franco Gianotti Trophy, was not working at all, and since also Gustav Heymann's (RSA) car was too slow. Nick de Wachter (NL) was leadeing from start to finish, followed by Michael Niemas (D) and Francesc Reyes (E). They finished in that order. Heymann, Marcel Oosterling (NL) and the very unlucky Christoph Kremer were all out.
In Quarter B Brazil's "Gugu" Bernardino was initially leading, being passed in the second segment by Ralf Seif (D), who'll set the pace until the finish. In third position we found Youri van Rossem (B), followed by Chris Radisich (NZ), Pal Hanson (N) and Benny Justice (USA). At half race Radisich could pass Youri, to take the 3rd place. Positions seemed to be stable but at the real end of the Quarter "Gugu", deslotted and was passed by both Radisich and Youri. He was out, just as Hanson and Benny Justice. 
In Quarter A Jozef Miskolci (SK) caused a stir by leading during four segments with a car built from four year old scratch pieces. He was followed by Kai Kivekäs (SF) on a car prepaired by Germany's Matthias Parke. In third position we found "Piki" (B) on a car lacking terribly speed. Then came Geert Mertens (B), Fred Hood (USA) and Antonio Ortega (E). At mid-race Hood could pass Mertens. He was attacking "Piki" in third place, when at once he suffered from thorn braids, making him dropping in fifth place. In front Kivekäs could pass Miskolci, lapping him twice and being the fastest of the quarters with 121 laps, against 119 for de Wachter, Miskolci and Gonzalez. Niemas and Seif realised 118 laps, "Piki", Paterson, Reyes, Philip Kremer and Youri 117 laps.

In the Semis we find one MoMo MP4 (Kivekäs), 3 Momo MP2 (Paterson, Miskolci, Radisich), 5 PlaFit LS (Niemas, Kremer, Seif, "Piki", Youri), 1 PlaFit Excel (De Wachter) and 2 Schöler (Gonzalez, Reyes). Except for Philippe Kremer's car, none of the PlaFits LS seems fast enough to win the race. In Semi A we receive a first prove of that: Michael Niemas, with speed problems on the fastest lanes, can pass Jozef Miskolci for the 4th place, but fails to pass Philip Kremer on the third place. Eventually De Wachter (1st), Gonzalez (2nd) and Philip Kremer (3rd) will make the move. In Semi B Ralf Seif was initially leading, but dropped after braids problems in fifth position, headed by Kivekäs, Al Paterson, "Piki" and Youri. In the last segments Reif can pass Youri, but fails in 4th position. The 6 finalists are Kivekäs and Paterson on MoMo, "Piki" and Philip Kremer on Plafit LS, Nick de Wachter on PlaFit Excel and Gonzalez on Schöler.
During the 4 first segments of the Main Final Kai Kivekäs (SF) is leading, with Nick de Wachter (NL) and Daniel Gonzalez all time on the lead lap. The 2 PlaFit LS cannot follow, and loose several laps. Al Paterson is the back bencher up from the first segment. During the 5th segment Gonzalez can pass Kivekäs, with De Wachter nearly a complete lap behind. However, he starts a terrible come back. At the start of the 6th segment the 3 leading cars are less than 10 metres apart. De Wachter can pass without problems Kivekäs and comes within 2 metres from Gonzalez with 1'30" to race when he deslots. Then he makes a second come back, comes nose to tail with Gonzalez's car, but deslots again. The battle is over. Gonzalez wins with De Wachter 3 metres behind and Kivekäs some metres further. Philip Kremer is 4th, "Piki" 5th, Paterson 6th. A splendid final, full of thrill!

16th Model Car Worlds, Main Final, with f.l.t.r. Philip Kremer (D), who finished 4th; Al Paterson (RSA), who finished 6th; and "Piki" van Rossem (B), who finished 5th.

It was an extremely strange Mello Yello this year. Things started very well organised with racers being invited in the enclosed zone to fit under eyes of the race direction their handout motor and their handout tyres. Tamar Nelwan was so kind not to start in the Worlds, so that he had enough time to organise the technical control perfectly. Scrutineering was done by Kai Kivekas and by Jozef Miskolci. Although the complete procedure took 4 hours, everybody was happy: this year there was absolutely no place for racers trying to cheat the others.

26 racers (half of them youngsters, other half amateurs) started in the 3 x 6' Quarter Finals. And then, at once, the most stupid thing that I ever saw in 45 years of slot-racing happened: Tamar Nelwan decided completely on his own to hold a post-race TC where at once two cars were penalised with 10 % of their achieved laps, because they were at once ...too low. But how a car can be too low after only 18 minutes of racing, using hard rubber tyres loosing only 1mm of height after more than 3 hours of racing. All those cars came directly from the enclosed zone to the track, thus even if someone had the intention to cheat the others, it was to be done during racing time, so that nobody did something illegal. Being too low after 18 minutes of racing can have only 2 causes: or clearance was at the limit on the initial TC, and then it was Tamar's task to warn the racers; or clearance came down due to an accident. Victims of Tamar's extremely stupidity were Juanma Torres and Michael Philip-paerts who both missed the move to the Semis for a too low clearance.
But even before the Tamar-comedy the race was full of drama. During the first Quarter Gert Klinge, who was leading his Quarter, at once complained that one of the handout controllers, fixed on the track, was not working properly. He was so furious that he retired immediately. One Quarter later I decided that Francesc Reyes should use the same controller on the same lane, and nothing was wrong with the controller. Meanwhile top-favourite Michael Niemas had quit the race after only 50 laps with a car not functioning at all. So with Torres, Philippaerts and Niemas we lost 3 candidate-winners at the Quarters.

Top-3 at the Amateur's World Championship with f.l.t.r. the moral winner Al Paterson (RSA), the eventual winner Antonio Ortega and Norway's Pål Hanson (3rd). Why Al has a Nelwan t-shirt is for me a mystery. Perhaps because Al was the major victim of the Nelwan-comedy?

At the Semis the Tamar comedy was complete: the 2 first of Semi B were all 2 too low: Jordi Girald (who won his Semi after a superb combat with Reyes), and Francesc Reyes himself. So 2 non qualified racers Al Paterson and Antonio Ortega could make the move to a completely falsified Main, together with Nick de Wachter who, obviously saved his car for the Main. In the other Semi Philip Kremer, Daniel Gonzalez and Youri van Rossem made the move without any problem. Top 6 of the combined Semis were Philip Kremer (158 laps), Jordi Girald (158 laps), Francesc Reyes (157 laps), Nick de Wachter (156 laps), Daniel Gonzalez (155 laps) and Youri van Rossem (154 laps). Under normal circumstances that should have been the 6 racers of the Main.
In the Main Nick de Wachter took immediately the lead, followed by Gonzalez, Youri, Kremer and the two miraculously survivors of the Nelwan-comedy: Al Paterson and Antonio Ortega. That were the positions after the first segment.
Already in the second segment it became obvious that justs as the cars of Christoph Kremer, Ralf Seif, "Piki", and Niemas himself - all 4 abnormally slow at free practice preceeding the race - Youri's car lacked terribly power. Fact is that poor Michael Niemas - who assembled also the cars of Brian Saunders, Giovanni Montiglio and Arttu Salomaa - had so much work to do before the Worlds, that he missed time to prepair all Nismo cars correctly for the Mello Yello and the Worlds. Youri thus dropped in fifth position, without any means on a come back.
In front Nick de Wachter had not the smallest problems to pull away from Gonzalez and Kremer, digging in the second segment a gap of 2 laps over the 2 others. In the background the two amateurs, racing in place of Reyes and Girald, Al Paterson and Antonio Ortega, were struggling for the Amateur's World Championship. Up from the 3rd segment it became obvious that Paterson was too strong for Ortega. He even succeeded to pass Gonzalez for the 3rd place, after Daniel was also passed by Philip Kremer. Things changed no more and Nick de Wachter (NL) won the race in 199 laps, 2 more than Philip Kremer in 2nd, 3 more than Al Paterson in 3rd and 4 more than Daniel Gonzalez in 4th. For De Wachter it's already his 5th world championship's title.
Sensation after the race when it appeared that Al Paterson was too low. Not he, but Antonio Ortega won the Amateur's title! Ortega was already present at the Chicago Worlds in 1988, together with the best Spanish delegation of that moment: Armengol, Mateo and Laborda.
What should we learn from the Nelwan-comedy? (1) That only the race director can order a post-race TQ, not a self-nominated race director. (2) That a post-race TQ after the Quarters is totally meaninless. (3) That the rule book so specify in clear terms that clearance starting the race should always be 1.2 mm and may never drop under 1 mm. (4) That the sanction for too low clearance must be limited at maximum 3 laps instead of 10 % of the achieved laps.

Right: the Nissan Nismo of Antonio Ortega having won the Amateur's World on a MoMo MP2 chassis.

This year the Franco Gianotti Trophy went over 7 rounds, the first having been earlier disputed at Euregio Raceway. Of those rounds the Saleen S7R of Kremer/Kremer/Seif won 4 rounds. The Maserati MC12 of Niemas/"Piki"/Youri won twice, but was disqualified once. Aston Martin won surprisingly the European Championship with Saunders & Heymann. The opening round at Euregio went to the Maserati MC12 of Mertens/Christoph Kremer/Jan Gürtzen. Among the GT2 cars (not present at Euregio) the Ferrari F430 won 5 out of 6 rounds: twice the #63 Scuderia Ecosse of Mertens/Philippaerts/Cuppens, twice the JMB of De Wachter/Klinge/Oosterling, and once the AF Corse of Vidal/Girald/Sarra-bia. Porsche won only once with Niemas/Youri/Ph. Kremer. 
In the individual ranking Christoph Kremer collected most points, 72. His son Philip Kremer was second overall with 64 points and won the Franco Gianotti Trophy for youngsters ahead over Michael Niemas (52 points) and Youri van Rossem (48 points). Among the seniors Geert Mertens was 2nd (3rd overall with 61 points), with Ralf Seif as 3rd (53 points). There were 54 entrants.
The Nations Cup was won by Germany, despite the fact that they were missing 3 racers. Initially the Germans digged the gap, but at the Mello Yello Junior & Amateurs Worlds and at the 16th Model Car Worlds, the German racers disappointed (except for Philip Kremer's car, none of their Plafit LS cars was really competitive), so that Spain could come back at 5 little points. With non competitive cars in both Worlds, where they came no further than twice the 5th place) the Belgians, having been all time in 2nd position, were even passed for the 3rd place by Holland, where Nick de Wachter collected no less than 52.5 points at the 2 Worlds, against 18 for Belgium. The Commonwealth Team finished 5th, ahead of Scandinavia, America and Italy.