Shepherd driver Maxi Vogl won the German Open Indoor Masters the second time in a row ahead of team mate and 2012 German vice-champion Daniel Sieber. The race took place at the Faszination Modellbau fair in Friedrichshafen in the south of Germany and attracted 35 drivers in the 1:8 scale class.
On Friday the track was open for free practice and both Shepherd drivers had good pace. Qualifying was held on Saturday and Maxi and Daniel showed great performance. At the end it was Maxi taking the TQ less then 0.1 of a second in front of Daniel with both drivers being the only ones to reach 18 laps in qualifying securing themselves the pole positions for the semi finals.
In the first semi, Daniel kept the lead from start to finish, bumping up to the final in a convincing way. In the second semi, Maxi had no problems to win the heat cruising to the victory three laps in front, and taking pole for the 30-minute main final as he was some ten seconds faster than Daniel.
At the start of the final, Maxi defended his position and was followed by Daniel and Nicolai Bähr. These three drivers stayed close together in the first laps until Maxi made a small mistake that cost him some time. He recovered in third position and started to hunt down the leading cars. Also Daniel made a small mistake and Nicolai took over the lead for some laps with Maxi closing in lap by lap. As the first round of pit stops came up Maxi took over the lead followed by Daniel in second place. For the following minutes it was a close battle for the lead, but Maxi planned one pit stop less than his rival.
But at 24-minutes an accident happened when Ingo Wussler, the mechanic of Dirk Stammler, went to recover Dirk’s car after a driving error. While he was running back to the pit lane, a car hit his foot and he collapsed on the track. The race was aborted immediately and an ambulance was called as it was clear that his leg was broken. The race organisers took the result from the last lap that was completed by all drivers and Maxi was declared the winner followed by Daniel and Dirk. According to the latest information Ingo is on the road to recovery and Team Shepherd wishes him all the best.
Maxi had the following to say: “My Velox V8 and Sonic engine were perfect all weekend, but I’m still shocked because of the tragic accident. I wish all the best for Ingo and I hope he recovers soon.”

Source: Shepherd Micro Racing