The first round of the Dutch 1/8th off-road nationals took place at the Mach One track in Hellmond on a redesigned astroturf track. The circuit bit sports high speed chicanes and very technical and bumpy sections meaning loads of set-up work to do for the drives in Saturday’s practice sessions. Sunday saw an early start of the proceedings with as over 70 drivers attending. Qualifying round one was dominated by Team C driver Jordy Velder with round two and three being won by TLR’s Bart Mullink. After a promising start into the day the heaven opened sometime during qualifying round two meaning a lot of hassle for the pilots. At the end it was Serpent driver Kay Koops who took the overall TQ for the final with Bastiaan Ghielen (Mugen) and Bart Mullink in tow. Five minutes into the final disaster stroke for Bart who stranded with an empty fuel tank but he quickly found back into action and chased Kay and Jeffrey who left Bastiaan behind. Around the 15 minutes mark Kay experienced engine problems handing Jeffrey the lead but only until Bart was able to overtake him around the 20 minutes mark eventually winning the race with one lap over Jeffrey and Jordy.
Top3 result
1. Bart Mullink – TLR/Novarossi/Merlin/AKA
2. Jeffrey Halsema – Serpent/OS/Tornado/Tourex
3. Jordy Velder – Team C/Werks/Tornado/Tourex
Thanks to Bart Mullink for sending the report.
