Inaugural Bumod GP is GO!
The early silence caused by rain and a wet Bumod track has been broken with Jilles Goskamp and his Max powered prototype Serpent 7XX taking to the drying track to officially get the inaugural Bumod Grand Prix in Bursa, Turkey underway. Sliding around for the first few laps, the 2008 World Championship Top Qualifier quickly built up to speed as others joined him on this very fast flowing track. Running under the watchful eye of the car’s designer Michael Salven, Groskamp looked impressive. Fresh from victory at last weekend’s Euro Touring Series electric touring car race in Holland the Dutch ace said, ‘The track is still slippy but the initial feeling is the car’s balance is very good’.
Others to join Groskamp early on where 2002 Electric Touring Car World Champion Surikarn C. at the controls of his Xay NT1. After his run the Thai driver said some of the corners are still slippy but he liked the layout of the track. As more and more drivers take to the track it shouldn’t be long before we have a fully dry track.
In 1:8 top female racer Sabrina Lechner and factory Mugen driver Robert Pietsch used the slow track to run in new engines. Lechner has switched to Max Power engines in her Serpent 966 while Pietsch has a fresh Novarossi in for the weekend. After watching his new 1:10 200mm creation go around the track in the hands of Groskamp, Michael Salven made a dash for the rostrum to get his first laps of the Bumod track with his Mega powered 966. Looking fast from the off, the German later commented ‘1:8 is going to be a full throttle festival’.
With more and more drivers taking to the track we should start to see grip levels increase allowing the visiting international drivers to tune in their cars to a track which until now have never driven on before. With flood lights all round the track and no noise restrictions there is a strong possibility that testing will continue well into the night here. We will bring you a final update later with news from some of the other big names making the trip to Turkey including America ace DJ Apolaro, who is also debuting Serpent’s 7XX prototype this weekend, and Shepherd headman Patrick Shafer.
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