published: 2012-07-21 18:20:50 (59808) Author: Oli_M |
Bayer Defends LS TC Title! |
| Martin Bayer sucessfully defends his EFRA European Title as he wins Main Final in Valencia |
 Going into the Semi Finals, the biggest unknown was whether the cars would be able to last 30 minutes on their single tank of fuel. In the first Semi Final, incidents on the first lap saw an early departure for last years runner up, Dario Veseli (HR), whilst current World Champion Guillaume Solon firstly got hit by a back marker, dropping him down, and then ran out of fuel on the final lap. This all allowed Guido Ruster (DE) to win the first Semi, followed by Matieu Briere (FR), Gianmaro Martelli (IT) and Olivier Sampietro (FR). Solon would have to wait to see if he had been quick enough to progress. |
 The second Semi Final had Martin Bayer (CZ) lead almost every lap, as pole sitter Alain Bernard Arnaldi (FR) made a mistake early on, but held on to second. Also moving up were Markus Feldmann (DE) and Christoph Flakowski (DE). Andrea Catalani (IT) also got into the Main Final as the fastest loser, with Solon just scraping in as Martin Lissau (DK) also ran out of fuel on his penultimate lap and was thus 2 seconds shy of making the main final.Bayer would start on pole for the Main Final, followed by Arnaldi. Ruster, winner of the first Semi would start fifth. |
 Into the main final and Bayer led away, but was hit by Arnaldi on the opening lap. Bayer held onto the lead, but Arnaldi was relegated to the rear of the field with a stop-go penalty. This put Feldmann into second, with Flakowski and Catalani battling for third.Feldmann and Bayer pulled away at the front of the field, with Bayer extening his lead as Feldmann also increased the gap to third. Arnadli meanwhile was working his way up throgh the field, and by the 10 minute mark, the battle for third was between Flakowshi, Martelli, Arnaldi and Catalani. |
 By half distance, Arnaldi was up to third and started to pull away from Flakowski and Catalani. The gaps up front remained static, until Arnaldi got his second wind and started to reel in Fledmann.Lap by lap the gap came down, until with 5 minutes to go, Arnaldi was looking for a way past Feldmann. But, a few laps later, Feldmann ran out of fuel, giving Arnaldi an easy pass and second place, whilst Catalani moved up to third. But none of this affected Martin Bayer, who led the field home with a clear half-lap advantage, despite very cautious driving in the last few laps to make sure he had enough fuel. |
2012 EFRA LARGE SCALE TOURING CAR CHAMPION MARTIN BAYER - CZ - RS5 Chassis / Modellsport Engine / PMT Tyre 2nd - Alain Bernard Arnaldi - FR - Genius/Abbate/GRP 3rd - Andrea Catalani - IT - Genius/Abbate/PMT 4 Matieu Briere - FR - FG/Hobbycenter/GRP 5 Olivier Sampietro - FR - S88R/S88R 6 Christop Flakowski - DE - FG/Lissau/GRP 7 Guillaume Solon - FR - Contrast/Abbate/GRP 8 Gianmarco Martelli - IT - RS5/Modellsport/PMT 9 Markus Feldmann - DE - Lauerbacher/Abbate/GRP 10 Guido Ruster - DE - X1/KDE/PMT |
 Congratulations to Martin Bayer for defending his title, and well done to all the main finalists.Thanks go as always to the event organsers who ran the meeting on time and had prepared a superb track. Stay tuned to www.EFRA.ws for more news next week, as the RC Racing TV team splits, half of us heading straight to the Netherlands for the Electric On-Road World Championships, which kick off on Sunday, and the other half back to the UK for the Large Scale Off-Road Euros, which start later in the week. Bye from a very hot and sunny Valencia! |