World Championship : : The lower finals; Roelof made it through to the 1/16th
Posted by Bart_Banaan on 2007/10/13 10:15:25 (1691 reads )
The lower finals; Roelof made it through to the 1/16th
Roelof and Fedor were placed in the odd 1/32th final on the sixth place on the starting grid. The warm-up of his 1/32nd final went fine; Fedor had to adjust the engine a few times, but before the start of the 1/32nd final, the engine ran fine. The start of the odd 1/32nd was a bit messy; Roelof held the inside of the first corner, but was hit by an other car, and lost control for a moment. This made the other drivers pass Roelof and Roelof had to work his way up through the field. After the ten minutes of racing Roelof had passed almost all cars and was driving on the 3rd position.
Then the car driving on the second place was given a 'Stop-and-Go' penalty because his pitmate made a mistake during his fuel stop, so Roelof could take over the second place and kept that place.
Roelof finished SECOND in his 1/32nd odd final and was qualified for the odd 1/16th final ....
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In the warm-up of the 1/16th final Roelof had some minor problems with his new tyres, but he engine was running fine and full of convidence Roelof rounded his warm-up laps. In de meantime Fedor went to the racing commission to get the fuel bottle refilled again. Fedor had to fill it with the racing commission since the event was driven with obligated Tornado 25% fuel. All drivers had to use the same fuel which was handed out by the racing commission. Just before the start Fedor refilled the tank of Roelofs' car and after a few seconds the engine stalled! Fedor took the car quickly to the pits to restart the engine and Roelof could start his 1/16th final from the pitlane. On the track the engine gave some problems; just like in the fourth qualification heat, the engine started to get rich just before entering the straight and stalled again! The car was brought back to the pits and was started again, and in the next round, on the same spot (just befor the straight) the engine stalled again! It was very fustrating for Roelof and Fedor because they had overcome the problems before and now the same problem as in the 4th qualification heat was back!
Roeloef knew that the same problem was back, and his chance for a good 1/16th final was over; very pitty.
The problem with the engine occured after refuelling with the fuel out of a different can of (obligated) fuel; which could indicate that there was something 'wrong' with the fuel. Not only Roelof was struggling with the engine; more drivers had problems to get their engine tuned. It is not normal that the pit has to adjust the engine settings time and time again after tanking! One of the other drivers who also had many problems with getting the engine right was Rick Vrielijnck who had to withdraw from his 1/8th final after only 10 minutes because his engine would not run well on the handed out fuel.
The big problem with the handed out fuel is that the fuel which is left over after a heat must be returned to the racing commission. All the left overs are put together in a tin and during the next heat this 'collection of fuel' is handed out again to the new group of drivers. When there for example two different production batches are mixed or when the fuel is not shaken well before handing out. This could mean that the right mixture can be corrupted and that the fuel is not exactly the mixture what it should be.
The race commission leader Sander de Graaf did not receive any official complaints yet, but there are more drivers with problems to adjust their engine. Today there will be a investigation on the fuel subject.....
For the Team of Roelof and Fedor it was very disapointing that they ran into problems, since the pace of Roelof in the 1/32nd final was very, very good. With a simular performance in the 1/16th final it would have been possible to reach the 1/8th final!
Stay tuned for more updates!!
RickV had to withdraw after 10 minutes in his final due to problems with the engine
