Shepherd Success at HobbyPro Open
Last weekend, the annual HobbyPro Open race took place at the TRC track in Hong Kong. More than 100 drivers entered the race with Ronald Völker, Simon Kurzbuch, Jilles Groskamp and Patrick Schäfer representing the Shepherd factory team. Additionally the Shepherd mechanics Armin Weihert and Alex Kempe travelled to Hong Kong offering assistance to every attending driver.
In the 1:8 class, it was this year’s World Championship finalist Simon Kurzbuch taking the TQ honours with his Velox V8 “eleven”. With a new track record he secured himself the pole-position for the 30-minute A final. Patrick Schäfer managed third position after some radio problems in the two fastest qualifying rounds meaning his time from the slower second round was the one to count.
The final saw a clean start with Kurzbuch keeping the lead in front of JJ Wang. In the middle of the race Kurzbuch changed tyres, but Wang stayed out on the track taking over the lead. With fresh tyres Kurzbuch started to catch up and took over the lead again two minutes before the end crossing the finishing line in first position. JJ Wang was second with Wong Ming Chung completing the podium. Schäfer again had some problems with his radio equipment and came home in fourth position.
In 1:10, the battle for the pole position was between Dutch top racer Jilles Groskamp and German ace Ronald Völker. At the end Groskamp was half a second faster and claimed the pole position for the final with Ronald Völker lining up second, both using the Velox V10 “eleven”.
The final saw a close fight for the victory until the very last lap. At the start Groskamp defended his lead followed closely by Völker. After some minutes Hung Cheung Hang was closing on the top due because of a different pit strategy. After he passed Völker he also tried to pass Groskamp. Unfortunately he crashed into Groskamp’s car putting it on the roof which ended all hopes on the victory for Groskamp. Towards the end of the race, Völker caught up lap by lap and the crowd saw an intensive fight for the first position. In the very last lap Völker passed Hang with a nice manoeuvre crossing the finishing line less than 0.2 of a second in front of the Worlds warm-up winner of 2006. Groskamp completed the podium in third place.
Source: Shepherd Micro Racing
