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EFRA GP, Boullay-Mivoye, May 2008
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Ow glorius mud! The first international GP of 2008 was won by the Cleon driver Ken Walckiers. |
The Cleons performed very well.
Besides the 1st place there was made a 4th (Andreas Kamp) and 5th (Vita Padevet) place as well. With 3 Cleons in the top 5 this was a very good result and a nice start of the international racing season.
We arrived late friday evening and started the free practice on saturday morning.
It had rained during the night and the track had turned into a pool of mud. After 2 minutes of driving the car gained minimum 5kg of mud. Cleaning the cars was very difficult as the track is made of sticky cley. But as the day progressed the sun was showing his smiley face and together with the effort of the people from the club the track soon dried.
Qualifikation sessions ended at the end of the day somewhat abrupt as thunder and rain again set in. It was now time to relax and enjoy a good atmosphere and party at the track organized by the club. Some special French soup was presented with little snacks for free by the club.
Sunday morning the streets where dry and so was the track. The skies were showing a pale sun but it looked much better than saturday. After the last qualikation round we saw all cleons directly qualified for the semi finals. Except of Tim Vander Elst, he had been somewhat unlucky and started in the 1/4th finals. This he easily won and progressed to the semi final as well.
The semi A was held first. Just before the start of this semi final it started to rain, it poured down as if it did not rain one month. Cars turned into brown/grey cley monsters. Ken soon overtook Pascal and moved in slowly on Mikael. It rained so much that after 5 minutes the cars were again clear and mud was washed off by the rain, we could again recognize the paint schemes.
After about 10 minutes racing Mikael made a mistake on a jump and Ken now was immediately on his tail. It did not take long for Ken to overtake one of the French top drivers on his home track. After taking a comfortable lead of 50 meters Ken secured this distance and cruised to the checkered flag. Second was Mikael, 3rd Pascal, 4th Andreas and 5th Vita.
This lateron proved to be the final result.
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During the small pause between the two semi finals it continued raining. As there were no cars on the track spreading the water the holes now became pools and soon the complete track turned into a big mud pool with loads of water and completely flooded areas.
The final B started and it soon became clear that no car would drive without trouble.
Number 1 of the B final made 4 laps after numerous repairs. Average speeds were around 5km/h just to avoid the big water bassins on the flooded track. Many cars got drowned and there were times that no cars were seen on the track due to all the repairs nescesarry.
The organisation took a wise descision in cancelling the main final as all finalists feared their electronics and engines to be damaged.
It was a somewhat strange feeling and atmosphere when this announcement came, but all pilots agreed to the descision made by the race commitee.
Many thanks to all that came and made it a good weekend.
Though it ended abruptly we deffinately will return to one of the great tracks France has to offer.
Salut!
1. Ken Walckiers (BE)
2. Mikael Laurent (FR)
3. Pascal Cocquempot (FR)
4. Andreas Kamp (DE)
5. Viteslav Padevet (CZ)
