The fifth and penultimate race in the RMC Clubsport was Henri’s ‘home race’ this year. The Vogelsbergring, which is not far from his home town of Schöneck, is a winding, tight drivers’ track that, above all, leaves no time to breathe. A new asphalt and slightly different track conditions should additionally ensure exciting racing last weekend.

“Pretty bad luck in qualifying but we did not gave up.”

Henri was able to prepare for the race in Wittgenborn in recent weeks with a total of three test days and, as always, we arrived with a lot of courage and confidence. The objective for us was to achieve another podium finish and slowly but surely climb further up the rankings. In Wittgenborn this could be realistically possible and Henri prepared for it in the best possible way. The first day of testing on Friday went accordingly very well. Henri was able to confirm his good performance in the past races and, above all, quickly find his speed. On Friday we finished the test day as the fastest micro rider on the track.

On Saturday, a total of 6 training sessions were on the program for the Rotax Max Micro class. After the experience from Bopfingen, where Henri struggled with the high temperatures during the race day, we skipped two sessions to focus on qualifying and the two races the following day. The speed was very good throughout and Henri could look forward to the races with confidence.

At 8:00 am the warm-up of the Rotax Micro class started, which were sent together with the faster Rotax Mini class on the narrow track. Unfortunately, this was to become a disadvantage for us. In the warm-up Henri landed with a 0:51.414 on third place. The pole was taken by Maxim Becker (0:51.223) followed by Julian Dümmer (0:51.403).

The timed practice did not go according to plan. Henri was already in the second round quite rudely cleared by a faster Mini driver, who unfortunately tried very impetuously to overtake at a difficult place. Henri spun after a contact on the rear wheel and slid hard over curbs and meadow. He managed to pull his kart back onto the track with 4 minutes remaining. With dirty tires and an adjusted front axle, it was only enough for P7 in the end with a 0:51.611. In the end, the Mini driver was stripped of his best three laps in qualifying by race control for the action. For us, however, this meant starting at the back of the field for the first time this season.

After the visible disappointment from qualifying, the signs in the first race of the day were ‘attack forward’. Already after the start Henri could find himself in 5th place. A very brave and good start brought Henri in position with connection to the leading group. Already in the second lap Henri could work his way up to 4th place, directly behind Julian Dümmer, who continued to convince with a good speed. Unfortunately, we lacked this in the first race. We quickly noticed that something was wrong and that Henri was struggling to keep up with the leaders. He finished the race in 4th place, 9.362 seconds behind the race winner Maxim Becker. After the race we unfortunately found out that it was not ‘just’ a misaligned front axle, but a crooked waist of the chassis that caused Henri problems in the first run.

With a straightened chassis we started from the second row of the grid into the last race of the day. With another good start Henri was able to get into P3 behind Lennox Litzinger and from that moment on he was fighting for the third position. With exactly the same fastest race laps (0:51.282) the runner-up was unbeatable for Henri in this race and he finished the race on P3.

After the unfortunate course in the qualifying and the problems with the Chassi Henri could fight his way forward and in the end still get the third place in the daily ranking. We book the race experiences on Henri’s experience account and take them to the next race.

  • To come: Third round of the Rotax Max Challenge Germany 03./04.09.22 on the same track