Left part of the track.                                           Right part of the track.

On Saturday the qualifications started and it was clear that you needed to do a 25 lapper to be in front.

After the 1st run Pietsch with the Mugen MRX4X was 1st followed by me in second. The 2nd qualifyer my

Mugen car and JP engine were really fantastic and I was in 2nd the hole run, 0.5/1 sec. behind Pietsch,

unfortunately I touched a curb on the 2nd last lap and this finished my run. However the overall order was

still Pietsch 1st with myself in 2nd.

The 3rd run showed that the track lost some speed and nobody really improved. In the last run I really push and

it was good for 2nd place but then on the 3rd last lap I had trouble with overtaking and I lost 1.5 seconds, but

luckily it was still good enough to take 4th overall.

This was the result after 4 rounds of qualifying:

1. Rober Pietsch         Mugen MRX4X        Novarossi   RPM

2. Andrea Christiani

3. John Ermen

4. Rick Vrielijnck         Mugen MRX4X        JP Eagle     Kawahara

The other guys had to battle for the remaining positions in the lower and semi finals, in the end this was the

starting order for the main final.

1.   Rober Pietsch         Mugen MRX4X        Novarossi   RPM

2.   Andrea Christiani

3.   John Ermen

4.   Rick Vrielijnck         Mugen MRX4X        JP Eagle     Kawahara

5.   Walter Salemi         Mugen MRX4X        SM

6.   Adrien Bertin

7.   Christophe Louis     Mugen MRX4X         GRP          GRP

8.   Romain Picard

9.   Patrick Shafer

10. Stephane Riccobono

     Mr Jean-Paul Calandreau and me preparing the engine.

     Car Before the final.

Then around 15:30 the final started, I had a decent start and after the first lap Pietsch was leading with me in 3rd

After about 10 minutes I started to have problems with the chassis touching the asphalt and I couldn't push as I

wanted, however I needed to stretch my tire change untill the 18 minute mark at least so i lost time on Pietsch.

Then after the change it took some laps to get the tires run-in and I could start making up some time again coming

from 2 laps down in 3rd making it 1 lap down in 2nd on Robert Pietsch who was still in the lead with his Mugen MRX4X.

At this time I knew I basically started on way too small tires and that I was going to have the same issues again

anytime soon. Then with 12 minutes to go I noticed that the chassis was dragging again and I just took it easy

from there, the engine was going a little rich due to this but still the pace was reasonable.

In the end Robert Pietsch with his Mugen MRX4X took the win with me in 2nd, 1 lap down on him. In 3rd was

Christophe Louis 2 laps down on me also with a Mugen MRX4X, great performance also by him!

This was the finishing order:

1.   Robert Pietsch           Mugen MRX4X          Novarossi         RPM

2.   Rick Vrielijnck            Mugen MRX4X          JP Eagle           Kawahara

3.   Christophe Louis        Mugen MRX4X          GRP                 GRP

4.   Romain Picard

5.   Patrick Shafer

6.   Stephane Riccobono

7.   Adrien Bertin

8.   Andrea Christiani

9.   John Ermen

10.  Walter Salemi          Mugen MRX4X           SM

I would like to thank the RSMA organisation for the great race and facilities.

Many thanks to my sponsors: MID Mugen Seiki, JP engines, Kawahara tires and optionals, Tornado fuel,

Sanwa, LRP. Also many thanks to my father Herman and my friend Richard for the pitwork and the pictures.

I hope to see everone again at the Efra GP in Heemstede, Netherlands.

Rick.V

    X Crew.

    Team Mugen top 2.