Lindners Racing Adventures: Report from EC 1/8 2012 in Vila Real/Portugal

Sorry for not reporting more from the EC in Vila Real but there was no time left considering all the prep work and racing… and late night parties… J For those of you out there who thinks this will be a “normal” race report (with setup details and more) I will make you disappointed. This report is more about the development of the sport considering the latest EC. From Sweden it was Niklas Johansson, Christoffer Hedlund and Marcus Lindner who were up against the European competition but we also had a dynamic team of mechanics, therapist (!), mentors on site: Janne “Kapten” Nilsson, Johan Bornetjärn, Niklas Nilsson and me.

It was an interesting week to say at least! The track in Vila Real is really nice, the facilities really good, the food was excellent and really close racing. But let us start from the beginning. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was set out for practice with 15min runs for each heat.

It was evident from the first outing that this is going to be an expensive race…. The tire wear was super high (min. 0,5 - 1 mm/min). The first question which popped up in my head was: Will our 25 sets of tires be enough for the race?!?!? Just to compare: We used 18 sets during the WC in Miami last year and that was a 10 day race…… L On Monday we did engine tests and initial setup elaborations keeping in mind that the track would hopefully improve during the week. For some of us it was also the matter of understanding how to manage tire additives which stupidly enough had been approved at the latest EFRA AGM (or did anyone at the AGM understand what they voted for?)

Talking about the track, the tarmac is super rough and we did already suspect from the very beginning that there will not be super traction even after a week of racing due to the surface structure. Some attempts had also been made to prep the track with Tornado “trackbite” but it just disappeared down in the tarmac leaving nothing on the surface…. How about EFRA doing inspection of tracks before giving green light to awarding an EC…

During practice the normal fast guys set the pace: Robert Pietch, ? Balestri, Lomberto Collari, Picco, Kurzbuch. The Swedish guys had some work to do… J

On Thursday two controlled practice and two qualification rounds was planned. Reseeding was done after the practice and I was a little bit surprised that Marcus was on the 7^th of 8 heats running with names like Micheal Salven, Rick V, the Salemi brothers, Mark Green and others. What the f-k was this? When checking it seems that Marcus is EFRA A driver this year… Was that even published? Oh well, can´t harm to understand how fast we need to go… J

After Thursday qualification Marcus was 31^st (of 77 drivers). Niklas and Christoffer did have some issues and was further down but there was still 3 qualifiers to improve the results. However due to that it was really warm (around 30 degrees) every day it was clear for all that the first qualifier on Friday morning will be the deciding one. The 3^rd qualifying round did run good and Niklas, Christoffer made some good runs. Marcus hade some slight issues during refueling but it was not too bad. When the complete round was finished after the 8^th heat there was a delay. No one understood what was going on…. After a while all team managers were called to an information meeting….. What the f-k was now going on? When all the team managers was gathered we were informed that there had been issues in the 8^th heat. 2-3 drivers were stuck before coming into the pits due to issues with the tires when measuring with the sniffer. When it was less than 1 min before the heat should start those drivers were released and could entering the pits. The heat started with all the drivers. After the heat there was an official protest from Italy stating that it was not a fair race. They requested that heat 8 should be rerun. EFRA officials informed us that they took a decision to rerun heat 8. No discussions was allowed from the team managers….. It did not take long until there was a official protest from another country requesting that the complete round 3 should be rerun…. OMG! The interesting thing was that this time team managers were allowed to vote to take a decision. Stupidly enough the majority of team managers voted for a complete rerun….. I am pretty sure that this was not the liking of the drivers, not even in Italy…. So, here we go 2-3 drivers make that the rest 74 have to suffer….. If this “incident” would have happened in any of the lower heats if would never, never resulted in either rerun of a single heat or a complete round rerun!!! So here we go again, there is difference between people and people…. EFRA, this was not handled in a good way…….

The complete mess with the round 3 rerun meant that Niklas and Christoffer lost their good runs and as you can imagine they were not happy. Chances of making faster runts in the remaining rounds were slim because of the rising temperature….. Sh-t!!

It was clear that Robert Pietch did rule the qualification. He completed every round and was clear ahead of the competition with several seconds. He was basically in another league compared with the rest of the gang.

For the Swedish drivers it was 35^th place for Marcus (1/8-final), 44^th for Christoffer (1/16-final) and 47^th for Niklas (1/16 final).

All the finals were set for Saturday and Christoffer did a good run in his 1/16-final bumping up to 1/8-final. Niklas decided not to take part because of the stupid and messy Friday qualifying and I do understand his decision. EFRA races are not on top of our wish lists for the future….

Marcus and Christoffer run the same 1/16 final. As I was mechanic for Marcus I did not have so good view on Christoffers run. For Marcus is started good and the pace was good. In the second refueling I made a mistake…. I had forgotten to fill up the refueling gun… F-K!! Grapped the fuel bottle quickly and splashed in the fuel…. Midway thru the final it was evident that the gearbox decided to switch gears much earlier than before which made it difficult to get the correct speed. Marcus ended up on 5^th place and 36 overall. Christoffer was 37^th overall.

As for the semi final and final I assume that you all have checked the results and maybe also the live streaming. I must say that Robert Pietch continued his super pace from the qualification. He won his semi with ease without any issues. The final was a little bit more exciting due to different tires strategies. Robert changed tires 3(!) times, Balestri 2 times and Collari only once. Due to this the lead changed over and over again due to the strategies. Robert Pietch also got issues with the engine 10 min from the end and it was not reving good going out on the curve leading out on the straight. It was a very, very close battle to the end but Robert was able to overtake Collari who had been in the lead and became a super worthy EC 2012 champion!

It is evident that EFRA need to get a grip on the situation when it comes to race procedures and technical rules. As it is at the moment the sport is developing into the wrong direction if you ask me. I have been discussing this matter with a drivers, mechanics, team managers from other countries and they all agree that something need to be done.

EFRA, here are a couple of suggestions!

- Shorten the free practice from 3 to 2 days

- EFRA to ensure track layout and conditions

- Treat all people the same….

- Get rid of tire additatives. It is stupid!! (Even EFRA officials started to talk about controlled tires for the future….)

If EFRA can take the above things into considerations I believe we will still have some hope for our sport.... If not, we are coming faster and faster to and end for this class....

Until next time!
Wolfgang/Marcus

Some pictures from the race: