The 11th edition of the Grand Prix des 3 Frontières was held on the 13th and 14th of december. 150 drivers met in the Bassompierre hall, Longwy, for a race that became famous in the winter calendar.
For that race, the club had bought a new carpet which was only used once before at the last round of MRC Winter Series.
The track :
The hall was busy with a Basket-ball match until 10.30 pm on Friday. MRC club members had to work late at night to build such a beautiful track.
Stock class – the race:
Frenchman Jeremy Delalondre driving a Yokomo BD7 topped the timesheets for free practice. With the rankings made on the 3 fastest consecutive laps, no more than 20 drivers were in contention for the A-main.
That left for tight qualifying. Markus Kreder eventually won all the 5 qualifying runs to grab the TQ spot. Markus finished last year’s GP in 2nd position and is driving an ARC R10 2015 car this year. The Taiwanese car proving to be super fast on Longwy’s carpet. Only Philipp Hagnauer could threaten him during Q3. In the other rounds Makus TQed with a comfortable margin. Delalondre and Hagnauer were tied on points for the 2nd spot, but Delalondre took it thanks to a faster time over 5 minutes. The grid was completed by 2014 Stock French National Champion Walter Pollet-Villard in 4th driving a PRT electronic powered TRF 418. Just behind him, we had luxembourgish Xray drivers Marc Schilling, Joe Streff and Gilles Choque who took 5th, 6th and 8th, inbetween them was German Winter Series champion Jan Bickendorf in 7th. Arnaud Mathieu from Thionville came in 9th with young Steve Favrelle from Nantes completing the grid for his first GP appearance.
BQ was Manuel Henriet driving an Awesomatix A700. With only 3 cars in the pits, the russian brand seems to be old-fashioned. A new car is scheduled for the beginning of next year which is set to be sold with kit-included tuning parts. Other good drivers who qualified in the B main were PRT electronic boss Yoann Bukowski in 14th, just in front of past modified french Champion Loïc Etienne. 2014 Stock class French vice-champion Pierre Delorme came in 19th and MRC Longwy driver Maxime Lazarz completed the B-main grid.
A1 saw a clean start. Kreder hold the lead despite a small mistake at the 3rd turn. Delalondre tried a move at the end of the straight which was denied by Kreder resulting in a loss of control for the frenchman. Hagnauer took over the 2nd spot followed by Bickendorf in 3rd who as always made an amazing start. Behind, Marc Schilling, Walter Pollet-Villard and Joe Streff were battling for 4th when Pollet-Villard made contact with Schilling. Streff went through and ran nose to tail with Schilling to the end of the race with Schilling ultimately overtaking Streff to take 4th.
A2 saw again a clean start. No positions were exchanged during the first lap. Pollet-Villard tried a move on Hagnauer at the end of the straight but both made contact creating a break between the 2 leading cars and the rest of the pack. Steve Favrelle made a huge come back from 10th on the grid. Some dramas took place at the front of the race, with Hagnauer giving up after his early contact and most noticeably Kreder who had to retire with mechanical failure in the 11th lap. Delalondre took over the lead and won in front of Marc Schilling and Steve Favrelle who started 10th ! A great showdown was set for A3 as 4 drivers could still take the overall win.
In the last main, Kreder and Delalondre quickly opened a gap over their pursuers. The frenchman putting Kreder under high pressure. The german kept his head cool and did no mistake. After a small coming togather on lap 16, the pair made contact on lap 24 with Kreder suffering a bodytuck. Delalondre waited, allowing Kreder to retake the lead but Bickendorf took advantage of the crash to get inbetween them and immediately tried to overtake Kreder. Both made contact which saw Kreder’s car get airbone. Bickendorf took the last main, with Delalondre in 2nd, Kreder finishing 5th.
Manuel Henriet won the B-main. Jean Delorme from Montbrison took the C-main. Julien Jost won the D-main and young belgian Athan de Witte won the E main.
The stock class winner of this 11th GP3F is a frenchman for the first time in years as Delalondre took the overall win. Jan Bickendorf, regular MRC racer came in 2nd. Markus Kreder had to settle for 3rd.
Modified race :
Biggest field ever in the masters class with 49 racers. Fresh winner of the Charity race and ETS rd.1, Ronald Völker was huge favorite. He topped the timesheets after free practice.
During qualifying, Völker proved to be unbeatable, taking 4 TQs out of 5. Only a small mistake at the beginning of Q3 kept him away from a clean sweep. Swedish driver Alexander Hagberg qualified 2nd, for his first appearance at the GP. The Xray driver would benefit of Völker’s mistake to take Q3. His luggage being lost during his flight, he showed up at the hall on Saturday morning only with one car and his transmitter.
Behind, it was an all german affair, Marc Fischer drove his Serpent ERYX 3.0 to 3rd, Yannic Prümper came in 4th. Only non-german with Hagberg, multiple french champion Loïc Jasmin qualified 5th. Marco Kaufmann drove his T4 to 6th, just in front of Julian Borowski, driving a Serpent. Normally a stock driver, Valentin Hettrich took 8th. 9th for Freddy Südhoff who surprisingly was driving a Yokomo for the event. Freddy will race for HPI/HB in 2015 with the new Pro5 seen at the worlds. Tim Wahl got the last A-main spot.
Finals were not spectacular. With each driver being a little faster than his follower, overtaking opportunities were quite rare. Yannic Prümper still found a way to overtake Marc Fischer at the end of A1. As they were about to complete the final lap, the Yokomo driver went full throttle over the curbing to snatch 3rd from Fischer. Despite Fischer being irate race referees said the move was fair. The move had ultimately no impact on the overall ranking.
Ronald Völker won this 11th GP3F, Alex Hagberg came in 2nd for his first attempt at the GP. Marc Fischer took the remaining podium spot.
Complete results :
http://www.myrcm.ch/myrcm/main?pLa=en&hId[1]=arv&dFi=longwy&dId[E]=18663
