Wischnewski triumphs at 1:10 Bumod GP

After one hour of racing in intense heat it was Dirk Wischnewski who is the first ever 1:10 Bumod Grand Prix Champion. The German Team Xray driver took the win ahead of Thailand’s Surikarn C. and Austrian Gerhard Kandelhardt to make it an all Xray NT1 podium in Turkey. The race started off with a very fast starting Kandlehardt leading the field ahead of Top Qualifier Surikarn and Wischnewski. Starting from the no.2 spot on the grid Jilles Groskamp got sideways at the first corner after his team fitted new unscrubbed tyres right before the start. Driving his prototype Serpent 7XX Groskamp soon found his way to the front. After 10 minutes the Dutch ace was looking in control opening up a 10 second gap over ‘Kandi’ but drama was to unfold as the receiver battery fell out of his car. This left the Austrian in the lead followed by Surikarn and Richard Furtner but just coming up on 15 minutes he ran out of fuel.

Surikarn suffered the same faith just as his car passed the pitlane and he dropped down the order. Wischnewski was now in the lead from Furtner and Kandi but former Electric Touring Car World Champion Surikarn was on a charge. At half race distance he was back up to second but five minutes later he again ran out of fuel. The leader now had a three lap advantage and had switched to cruise control as he was guided through the race by his pitman Bertram Kessler of SMI Motorsport. The race was for the other two podium placings but fastest man on the track was Groskamp who had rejoined with a new battery fitted. Benefiting from fresh tyres he was able to record a time of 19.289. A number of engine cuts and a loose left rear wheel meant the 2008 Worlds Top Qualifier would eventually finished a disappointing 8th 25 laps adrift of the winner. Surikarn got back up into a solid second, one lap up on Kandi, Furtner and Dirk Stammler who after 45 minutes were all running on the same lap. In the end it was ‘Kandi’ that claimed the final podium placing finishing just four second up on Stammler’s Serpent 720. American Scott Rister, who made the most impressive pitlane exists once DJ Apolaro had fuelled him up, took his Max powered Xray to sixth.

‘I am very happy with this win’ said Wischnewski after the gruelling and very hot 1 hour race. ‘I started with very big tyres and the car was not so good, then I made a mistake which cost me around 5 seconds. I then started to settle down and drive my own race and this plan worked out well.’ Runner up Surikarn said he was caught out after richening his OS engine for the hot conditions. Able to run 5 minutes and one lap yesterday, this was not possible today and he paid the price. The Thai driver struggled with a very loose car over the last five minutes as his tyres started to go. ‘Kandi’ was delighted with his impressive start but had a problem when the strap on his fuel tank lid broke making it very difficult and slow to refuel. The former European 235mm Champion was pleased with third saying the it was a very long race due to the high temperatures.

1/10th scale final results
1. Dirk Wischnewski (DE) – 173 Laps in 60:08.222
2. Surikarn C. (TH) – 172 Laps in 60:20.288
3. Gerhard Kandelhardt (A) – 169 Laps in 60:13.025
4. Dirk Stammler – (DE) – 169 Laps in 60:17.036
5. Richard Furtner (A) – 168 Laps in 60:10.824
6. Scott Rister (USA) – 162 Laps in 60:10.652
7. Gorkerm Gur (TUR) – 159 Laps in 60:15.641
8. Jilles Groskamp (NL) – 147 Laps in 60:09.237
9. Martin Petrov (BUL) – 142 Laps in 60:06.037
10.Serdar Sakallioglu (TUR) – 122 Laps in 60:02.718

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