Fourth round of the Dutch Nationals was held at the MBC track at Gouda. Team Magic drivers Rob Janssen and Richard Arts participated this race with their TM E4RS III Plus.
Rob finished on second place on the podium, a step forward for a second national title; and Richard completed the podium on third place. Well done guys !
Original report of Rob Janssen:
On Saturday both Richard and I went to the track of MBC de Sluis at Gouda. This time a big track for stock racing. From the beginning our cars felt ok to start with and felt we had a good base to work on for the weekend. With not many people at the track we could make a lot of tracktime to test set-up.
At the end of the day we both tried out some different things which we felt comfortable with. We both ended with a different set-up, but on the track in laptimes it didn’t made a big difference.
Sunday morning we all need to start on new tires. So Q1 is always difficult as we don’t know how the car will react on new tires. When doing a warm-up lap I felt the car was a little more understeered as I was used to drive with the older tires. Getting used to this costed me a few laps and in the end I ended up 2nd 2 seconds behind Robert Krens.
For Q2 I felt good as I knew I could be faster on used tires, but I made a small mistake with charging so started the race with a battery of 8.2 volts instead of 8.4. I decided to do a few laps to feel the car. In Q3 I wanted to give it a shot for TQ but after 1 lap my car stopped. After the race I found it was the sensor wire, can’t see anything broken at it but a new one in the car fixed the problem immediately.
In final 1 the car felt really good in the warm-up lap. The first full lap I noticed I needed to hold back to don’t hit Robert in front of me, so I knew I was faster. But from my side a mistake and sending it into the fence at the start of the straight ended my race. I did 3 more laps to feel if the car was ok and pulled out to save tires for Final 2 and 3.
Final 2 had a good start. The first few corners Robert made some strange lines and I could get to the inside on the racing line. A little hit, but I passed him and from here I finished the race in 1st. Richard was close by the first few laps but after a minute or 2 I pulled away.
In final 3 we again had a close start. Also this time saw Richard being a little faster the few laps so needed to defence him instead of attacking Robert in front of me. A small hit between Richard and me costed me a little time but unfortunately saw Richard going into the grass. I fought back to second and came really close to Robert on 1st position. I think the race needed 2 more laps and I would have him.
In the end I climbed the podium second, behind Robert. Richard came in third overall.
Original report of Richard Arts:
Great weather all weekend, with temps up to 25 degrees. Training on Saturday went really well. The track had good grip, better than expected. Track layout is a technical infield, with fast corners coming onto, and from the straight.
Good high speed steering is needed to stay full through the 2 turns coming onto the straight. But the infield has also 3 consecutive 180 degrees turns, that needs a well balanced car. From the start my setup felt pretty good, so I could focus on the details.
Discussing with Rob for changes to test, we both could improve our cars. However with the lack of timing on Saturday, this was mostly based on “feel” , and hand-timed laps.
Confident with the car for the quali’s and finals on Sunday, it was all about driving clean and making no mistakes. Each qualification I changed the setup slightly and was able to post 3 consistent runs. Top 3 was really close, and this would show in the finals.
The first 2 finals I was able to drive consistently and stay close to the leader but never close enough to challenge first spot. Third final I was a bit unlucky and ended up in the grass after a light contact with Rob’s car. I still managed to close the gap to 3rd and 4th place, but was not able to overtake.
All in all, I’m happy with the result. Again the car was really nice to drive, with great response to setup changes.
A-final Result:
1. Robert Krens
2. Rob Jansen – Team Magic E4RS III Plus / HRC Racing
3. Richard Arts – Team Magic E4RS III Plus / HRC Racing
4. Rick Van Den Akker
5. Martijn Spaans
6. Fokke Groen
7. Tim Streefkerk
8. Fons Stabel
