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“One Team Show” (04/04/2006)

By:
Laurant



Report by Stelios Procopiou


The 2006 season started at the magnificent Modelsport Racing circuit next to Nuevo Campo sports center.

A perfect day for racing. Sunshine and with air temperatures up to 27. The circuit looked perfect regarding grip.

Team Modelsport still celebrates there fantastic result. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th Place for Team Modelsport.


And is not only for Team Modelsport a fantastic result, is also for Serpent, Mega Engines and Runner Time Fuels. Many thanks to Serpent, Mega Engines and Runner Time Fuel for there Support.

We had 22 Race entries which is a very good and promising number. Most of the Drivers were practicing all the week but Saturday (as always) was the busiest day for practice.

Very few drivers used the one hour free practice mainly because of the Australia F1 GP. That was also the reason that the race start at 10:30 instead of 9:30.

Race Day (Sunday) we had 5 Qualifying Rounds and the Finals.

After round one Charis Theodosiou was on provisional TQ closely followed by Costas Michaelides. Both Drivers had 18 Laps. None of them were happy because they knew that top Qualifier in Modelsport Racing Track could go up to 20 Laps. Nicolas Zachariades, Spyros Charalambous, Yiannis Victoros were facing technical problems.

After Round 2 Nicolas Zachariades was on Provisional TQ with 19 Laps. Nicolas kept his TQ up to the 4th qualifying Round. The Track even though looked that had very good grip, Lap times were much higher than fastest lap record.

In Round 2, 3 and 4 Costas Michaelides had problems with spur gears and clutch. Charis Constantinou was struggling for grip, Spyros Charalambous was facing engine problems and Yiannis Victoros was trying to get the best out of his new 710 Serpent.

Nicolas Zachariades didnt enter qualifying Rounds 3, 4 and 5. He was confident with his result and his car and watching on the track grip, it was getting worst. As the temperatures were rising grip was decreasing.

Round 5, last chance for all the rest to get the Pole position. Spyros Charalambous didnt let the chance to go away and with a superb drive he took Pole Position with 19 Laps in 5:00:320.

Nicolas took 2nd place with Charis Constantinou grapping 3rd place from Charis Theodosiou who did not race the last qualifying Round. Yiannis Victoros had also a good last qualifying round that put him in 4th place. Charis Theodosiou was placed in 5th place with Costas Michaelides on 6th place and still with the same problems (the spur gear was destroyed 5 laps before the end).

Dimitris Panayiotou took 7th place in Final A. It was his first time to race with Cyprus top drivers and he was really excited about it (all the best Dimitri for future races). Savvas Theofanoudis took place 8th with Christodoulos Souglis in 9th.

The Main 40 minute A Final was taken place at 16:30. It was still hot and low grip.
The race was on and Spyros Charalambous lost his advantage and fall down to 9th place after an accident he had in first lap. Nicolas Zachariades took the lead and he was leading the race for 50 laps.

Spyros Charalambous was pushing very hard and he managed to fight with Nicolas for 1st place after lap 50. Charis Theodosiou was in 3rd place but well behind the first two (4 laps behind). Costas Michaelides after a crash he had on first lap he managed to climb on 4th place (1 Lap behind 3rd place). Yiannis Victoros was 5th (1 lap behind 4th place), Charis Constantinou in 6th with problems but still fighting, Dimitris Panayiotou in 7th and Savvas Theofanoudis in 8th. Christodoulos Souglis and Menelaos Palaontas did not start the Race.

After 50 Laps it was very close with the lead changing between Nicolas and Spyros. Everybody though that 1st and 2nd place were already decided. It was on Lap 65 where Charis Theodosiou went off because of Transmitter signal problems. Costas Michaelides moved to 3rd place Yiannis Victoros to 4th and Charis Constantinou to 5th Place.

The Race kept some more surprises for the drivers, mechanics, and funs. Nicolas engine turned off and Spyros increase the lead he had at the time. Costas Michaelides was pushing at that time really hard. It was he chance to get Nicolas and fight for 2nd Place.

Nicolas problems continue for the rest of the race and it was easy for Costas Michaelides not only to pass Nicolas but also to produce a gap ? laps from Nicolas who was fighting to keep 3rd place.

And suddenly a new surprise was expecting everybody. Spyros was facing Clutch problems. He was in the pits for repair.

This is where everybody starts calculations. Costas Michaelides was 5 Laps behind the Leader. Could he make it?

Yes, Costas Michaelides managed to pass Spyros and open a gap of 8 Laps. Spyros was back. Only a big mistake or a failure could cost Costas Michaelides the race.

A failure was there!!! No Breaks for Costas Michaelides on the last 25 laps. Costas lap times were on 18:000 on those last laps. Spyros was flying on the Track. He did the fastest lap of the day 15:365.

Costas Michaelides finally finish 1st with 144 Laps and 40:01:003. Spyros finished 2nd with 140 Laps and time of 40:03:000. Nicolas managed to keep 3rd place which keep him close to his main rival for 2006 Championship (Spyro Charalambous). 4th Place for Yiannis Victoros, an impressive come back from our past 2 times off road Champion.

Charis Constantinou was 5th and Charis Theodosiou in 6th. Savvas Theofanoudis in 7th and Dimitris Panayiotou in 8th.

For Serpent Series the honors goes to Costas Michaelides, Spyros Charalmbous 2nd Place, Nicolas Zachariades 3rd Place, Yiannis Victoros 4th Place, Charis Constantinou 5th Place, George Eleutheriou 6th Place, George Plitas 7th Place, Nicolas Staurou on 8th Place, Andreas Popou on 9th Place.

See you all at the next race meeting 9th April at Modelsport Racing Track.


Stelios Procopiou