Ladies & Gentlemen... start your engines, s'il vous plaît. The ESC launched the new season with the France GP. The first official collaboration between the German ESC and the French Challenge Scootentole was a great success for organizers, visitors and participants.
Of course the SIP Team was there, too. While the Austrian part of the team had already been leaving for France on wednesday, we arrived in Mirecourt thursday afternoon, together with a nasty wind that made it difficult to set up our pavillons. But knowing that every minute we wasted on the campsite equalled lost track time, we managed to get everything in place quickly... Different to many other venues, this kart track offered you the chance to train on a couple of days before the actual race. A welcome change, especially for the German pilots.
The races took place on saturday. Each class had 2 qualifyings in the morning and 2 races in the afternoon. We had been worrying about the weather for days, because the forecast had predicted heavy rain for saturday, but we were lucky and the first drops were not falling until the evening. So all the drivers could enjoy the maximum grip of the track and use it to the best of their abilities.
The ESC classes were redesigned to go with the already existing French classes. Which means, that alongside the well known tuning and standard classes, the ESC has now additional 'street-racer' classes (sf and lf) for widely original scooters. And the collaboration obviously pays off: Never before in the ESC history were there so many startes as in Mirecourt.
Also very exciting: Many riders had built a new engine/scooter for 2011 and were able to (or had to) start in a different class. Which is why the cards were reshuffled in many ways. Markus of the STOFFI/SIP racing team is driving in K2 this year. But unlike his competition, his scooter is not equipped with a falc engine, but with the new Polini Evo, which has 1/3 less power on the dyno, but is just as effective as the other new italian tuning cylinders on the race track. Congratulations to a more than deserved 2nd place. Robert was able to score with one win in K2, while Christian Rapf of Undis Team won the second race.
As we have an official media partnership with the ESC for this season, our camera team came with us, to gather some impressions for all those whe did not have the chance to be there. The video will be following soon...
All in all we were able to be part of an extraordinary event that brought the international racing scene together yet another bit closer...
Congrats to all winners!
SIP TV Mirecourt ESC 2011 from sip-scootershop.com on Vimeo.
For more pix check out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sipscootershop/sets/72157626772914211/
See you in three weeks at the 'Run & Race' in Liedolsheim. Stay cool!
Posted
Jun 07 2011, 12:27
by
sibylvane