Shepherd Driver Patrick Nähr Wins 1:10 Euro B
After a thrilling 45-minute final, Patrick Nähr won the first international title for Team Shepherd with the Velox V10 “eleven”. The “B” Euros took place last week at the fast and smooth Rucphen track in the Netherlands. Practice in heats started on Monday and was followed by two timed practices in qualifying heats on Thursday morning.
During practice, Nähr showed a good performance and set the fastest lap time of all 81 competitors. Also his English team mate Adam Catchpole was very quick setting the third fastest lap time with his Velox V10 “eleven”. Close to the top ten was Irish Shepherd driver Chris Steele ranked on the 13th place after the practice sessions.
On Thursday morning two timed practice heats in qualifying heats were run. Again Nähr and Catchpole were super fast setting the fastest and the third fastest time. In the afternoon the first two rounds of qualifying were held. Like all the week the last run of the day was the fastest so it was very important to set a good time. Nähr managed to set a good time which was only beaten by local driver and Dutch National Champion Pedro Rombouts by less than one second. Catchpole followed on third place, about four seconds behind the top duo. On Friday morning there were only little changes in the order. Chris Steele was able to improve his time and moved into the top ten. With this result Team Shepherd had three cars in the top ten with two cars ranked in the top three.
As there are no more direct qualifiers according to the new EFRA rules, everybody had to run at least a semi final to move up to the final. Nähr had no problems to win his semi final and claimed the pole-position for the 45-minute final as he was a little bit faster than is biggest rival Rombouts in the second semi. Unfortunately Catchpole had some engine problems and wasn’t able to claim a bump-up spot. Also Steele didn’t make it to the final as he had a flame out in the middle of the semi when running in fifth position after recovering from the last place.
The 45-minute final saw a good and clean start with Nähr defending his first position in the first lap. From the beginning it was clear that it will be a race-long battle between Nähr and Rombouts. In the first 30 minutes, Nähr could increase his lead to a few seconds because of a different pit strategy but on lap 126 he made a small mistake when entering the pit lane. His mechanic Patrick Schäfer received a stop and go penalty for bad refuelling and Nähr dropped back to second place. His pace was still fast and he found himself directly behind Rombouts, although the Dutch driver had to make at least one pitstop more in the last 15 minutes. The race went on and Nähr was able to take over the lead again by pushing his Velox V10 to the limit. But just before the ultimate pitstop his engine stalled in front of the finishing line because of the increased fuel consumption during the last turn. He rolled over the line and was brought back to the pits by a super fast marshal. The engine was immediately fired up again and Nähr rejoined the race in second position about four to five seconds behind Rombouts who was now leading. In the last minute, Rombouts had to do another pitstop and came out of the pit lane right behind Nähr. The young Shepherd driver had nerves of steel to defend his first position until the checkered flag four laps later.
Source: Shepherd Micro Racing
