08-10.05.2009 - Radical European Master Spa-Francorchamps

Summary

RADICAL EUROPEAN MASTER

Tatiana Calderon and Natacha Gachnang are leading the Radical European Master Championship after the Spa rounds. Vincent Nicolet and J-F Ruchonnet in the team's other car also scored a podium finish in Belgium.

The Hope PoleVision Racing team was ready to tackle Spa after a day's testing on Wednesday. Jean-François Ruchonnet was feeling a bit of stress on what was his official career debut as a racing driver. His team-mate, the talented driver from Fribourg Vincent Nicolet, qualified the #61 Radical SR5 in second place. Nicolet made a great start and shot to the head of the SR5 class followed by Natacha Gachnang in the other HPVR car, which she qualified in third place. The two drivers had a ding-dong battle, and it was Natacha who came out on top just before handing over to her young team-mate, Tatiana Calderon from Colombia. Nicolet pitted a lap later and Ruchonnet took over. He drove a fault-free stint and crossed the finishing line in third place. Calderon lead for most of the race until a small mistake near the end cost her first place. She recovered to finish second.

A shower fell on the Spa at the start of the second race of the weekend. All the cars came in to shod rain tyres. When the lights went green Ruchonnet had a problem starting his engine. By the time he finally got going all the other cars had overtaken him. He made a great comeback picking off his rivals one by one. Unfortunately, he came to grief in the very tricky Eau Rouge corner and his Radical ended its race in the wall. He got out of the accident unscathed.

In #60 Tatiana Calderon drove a plucky race. At the end of lap 1, she was in third place and did her whole stint in the middle of the Radical SR8s (200 bhp more powerful). She handed over to Natacha Gachnang in pouring rain, and the Swiss pushed very hard and got up to second place as well as being the quickest on the track in the SR5 category. Natacha saw the flag in second spot. This second podium finish gave the HPVR women drivers first place in the overall SR5 classification.