The first round of Dutch Nationals was held on 22 April at the mythic track of Apeldoorn, Netherlands. As usual, the Dutch TM drivers joined by Stefan and Jannick Rommens from Belgium participated this national event, in Stock category (the most represented and competitive).
Rob Janssen set the pole position, and won all the three finales, followed by Roy Bakker and Sybrand de Boer. Richard Arts finished 5th, while his brother Ronald finished 8th.
Original Report from Rob Janssen:
Last weekend we had our first round of Nationals at my Local Track AMCA. It promised to be a good weekend with good competition and some good weather.
The weekend before we had our first club race to do some testing which resulted in a good basic set-up for the start of the Nationals. The base was made from last years last outdoor races.
As from the beginning the car was doing really great. It was the best when it was a little colder. On warm conditions I need to find some improvements on creating more front steering and bite without losing the rear.
As it is my local track I was ‘favorite’ from the beginning and didn’t disappoint as I was doing the fastest laps on Saturday in stock class. I also did some testing with new tires to have a good starting point for the Sunday. With some good confidence I went home and prepared the car for the races on Sunday. In the first controlled practice run it immediately was clear I was doing the fastest times. This also was the case in Q1 and Q2 to secure pole position. In Q3 I did some set-up changing to test something. But didn’t work out as I hoped so for the finals I went back to my ‘old’ set-up.
For me the finals were really easy as nobody came really close to me. Behind me were some battles for position 2 and 3 which of course didn’t help them to get to me.
Again I was really happy with the handling and performance of the car! I’m looking forward to the TOS and ETS on my local track!
Overall Ranking:
A – 1. Rob Janssen – TM E4RS4
A – 2. Roy Bakker
A – 3. Sybrand De Boer
A – 4. Elibert Sievers
A – 5. Richard Arts – TM E4RS4
A – 6. Jan Kraanen
A – 7. Wesley Van Dijken
A – 8. Ronald Arts – TM E4RS4
A – 9. Michel Peterse
A – 10. Thomas Buijze
B – 11. Max Hordijk
B – 12. Tjitte Miedema
B – 13. Jari Van De Wal – TM E4RS4
B – 14. Joop Voorn
B – 15. Roy Visser
B – 16. Fokke Groen
B – 17. Stefan Rommens – TM E4RS4
B – 18. Martin Komen
B – 19. Jannick Rommens – TM E4RS4
B – 20. Donny Van Der Kogel
C – 21. Anton Huijser
C – 22. Jos Remmerde
C – 23. Ingmar Heinz