Florian Joos Xray T4 European Reedy Race Winning race report Set-up

For a couple of years now, the EOS (European Offroad Series) kicks off at the Nurburgring. The race has always been held during a big event for simulator racing. These RC races always attracted a lot of spectators.

Uwe Reinhard always tried to make one big race that combines both off and on road races. For the 2018 event, he finally managed to persuade the organisers to give him the big arena for this race.

As the timing for the onroad race was not optimal (many people were still racing outdoors), Uwe and Scotty integrated the Reedy Race of Champions as well in this event. The RROC is a completely different racing format, where the racers are divided into 3 alternating groups and have to race 12 times. First place gets 1 point, 2nd place 2 points and so on. The person who has the least amount of points (10 out of 12 count) wins the coveted RROC title. It was also the first time that the race was held for stock cars.

I participated in the RROC modified class (because I finished 24th in the ETS championship) and the ETS warmup with my stock car.

The RROC was an awesome event. I was able to race with all the top drivers and learned a lot from their driving lines and how to attack and defend. My dad managed to improve my T4 2018 over the runs, and I managed to get within .2 of a second of Ronald Volker’s fastest laptime. I was more or less on par with the other racers.

In stock, there were some 40 drivers. The track layout was technical but fun. It reminded a bit of the Tamiya track in the USA, where most of the Reedy Races were held in the past.

With most of the top drivers running in the RROC, both Oliver Havranek and I had a chance to win the event. Oliver missed however the first part of the training, so he did not have so much time to learn the track. Our toughest competitors were Marcel Krause and Steven Olsen, both running Awesomatix and Louis Kretschmer, a Serpent team driver.

The free practice went very well, and I was in front after the first runs. During the timed practice, my dad and I decided to use our racing tires and run them in. I finished in P3, just in front of Oliver but behind Louis and Marcel.

The first qualifier went very well. I was now running on the second run of the tires and the car was perfect. I managed to win the qualifier, with Oliver in P3.

For Q2, we left the car unchanged and I used my second set of tires. The car was even better, but I had a problem with a back marker and lost a lot of time. I finished in P3 overall. Oliver had an issue as well, but his fastest lap time was really good.

I had a passenger for one of the races!

We left the car unchanged for Q3 and Q4, but it started to understeer too much. Oliver found some good pace, and finished both qualifiers in P3.

As the car was still understeering, we decided to switch our body for Q5. We were running an ULT Bittydesign M410, but switched to a LW Protoform type S, just like Oliver was running. In order to compensate the improved steering, my dad only left 1 screw open on the motor mount

The car was now again on pace, but still a bit of understeer. It was especially clear in the chicane coming onto the main straight. That was the portion I lost valuable time. Louis won Q5 and Oliver finished in P2, just in front of me.

The starting grid would thus be; Marcel Krause (Awesomatix), Louis Kretschmer (Serpent), Florian Joos (Xray T4 2018), Oliver Havranek (Xray T4 2018) and Steven Olsen (Awesomatix).

Before the finals, my dad made some changes to the car to improve it further:

• 7000 diff instead of 6000 (to get some more onpower steering in the long double left hander)
• 2 holes free in the motormount to get more steering
• 0,5mm extra bumpsteer shim

I had to start 3rd on the grid. Normally I am a bit nervous before the start, but my battles with Marc Rheinhard , Yannic Prumper, Marco Kaufmann and the others in the RROC had a calming effect on me :)

In the third lap, Louis overtook Marcel, but I kept close to them, running lap times that were a bit faster. When Marcel had a problem with a back marker, I took P2 and was reeling in on Louis to challenge him for the lead. I passed Louis when he found a back marker in his way and took the victory in A1. Oliver also had some problems and finished in P5.

In A2, Oliver was challenging me hard for P3, so I pushed hard and tried to get ahead of Louis. I managed to get into the lead by lap 14 and opened a bit of a gap to Oliver. When someone crashed in front of me, the marshal put the car back on the track but unfortunately blocked my sight. I lost my car and Oliver took the lead. Oliver took a nice victory, with me in P2, followed by Louis, Marcel and Marco Buhmann.

At the start of A3, I knew that if I finished in front of Louis and Oliver, I would win the race. Marcel and Louis made a perfect start, and I and Oliver were following them closely. While racing each other, Oliver and I tangled and I had to settle for the 4th position. I later managed to pass Oliver again for P3, but could not come back to the leaders. Lucky for me, Marcel won the race. The overall result was

1. Florian Joos (Xray T4 2018)
2. Louis Kretschmer
3. Marcel Krause
4. Oliver Havránek (Xray T4 2018)
5. Fabian Nitschke
6. Steven M. Olsen
7. Marco Buhmann
8. Alexander Müller
9. Christian Lütjen
10. Christian Drießle

It was my first big race I've won, so I am extremely happy with it :)

Set-up

Attached you will find the setup with which I finished the race.

Thanks to my sponsors :)

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