The RC model championship called Moravian Le Mans Series for electric powered 1/10 prototypes and GT cars was concluded earlier this month in Rychvald with a special night race. The meeting started in about 9 PM with practices and qualifying practices. All competitors were then divided into four finale groups. Each of them then ran four 10 minutes heats, which means that the entire race was 40 minutes long. The race started in about 10:30 PM and finished at 3 AM the next day. After a series of races, where the participation was reduced mainly due to poor weather condition, this race held in a close building on a special carpet attracted two dozens of drivers in three categories: LMP1 (9 cars), LMP2 (7) and GT (6). There was also one touring car running as a Guest. Moreover two cars ran on a Sorex 40 tyres. Despite now still categorised as LMP2 and GT respectively, the next year they should have their own category called Le Mans-40.
Qualifying
Among 23 presented drivers there were several novices in the series. While Pavel Rajdus, a brother of currently championship leading Tomáš Rajdus, was as a very experienced driver the main contender for the race victory, debuting young Juniors Jakub Zapletal and Lucie Krejčí were still in their learning process. Lucie is already a second woman joining the series this year. The last debuting driver was Libor Holub. While it was his first 2WD category race, he was a successful 4WD driver so easily qualified to the Finale A for the six fastest drivers. Jakub Šimurda, a GT regular, now moved to the LMP1 class and with his Porsche 956 imediatelly set his first overall pole position. He was less than 0.1 seconds quicker than Roman Krejčí (Camel Brun Porsche 962C - Xray X10 for the first time in MLMS) and already mentioned Pavel Rajdus (Toyota GT-One - Xray X10 Link). Libor Holub was fourth ahead of improving Rostislav Zapletal and championship leader Tomáš Rajdus. His usually main competitor during the year, Luděk Maléř (Jaguar XJX-14) was only 8th and second in Finale B, behind Jiří Adámek who returned with his Jaguar XJR-14 after skipping almost entire summer season but the Blansko race. While Rajdus and Maléř were fastest LMP2 drivers, the best GT drivers were Pavel Melicher (new Corvette C6.R) and Jura Hrabec (new Saleen Mustang - Xray X10 Link), both fast enough to get in the Finale B.
Race
First heat started with a battle between Roman Krejčí and Pavel Rajdus after Šimurda made an error in the first lap. Krejčí was then mainly leading closely followed by Pavel Rajdus until lap 40, when Rajdus had to turn to the pits for repairs, while Kuba Šimurda had to stop for repairs of a damaged pinion after only 7 laps. Both returned back before the 10 minute limit. But after seven minutes Tomáš Rajdus also retired so the first heat of Finale A became an easy victory for Roman Krejčí ahead of debuting Libor Holub. With half of the Finale A contender being delayed with damaged cars, third overall after the first heat was B-Finale leader Jiří Adámek and Luděk Maléř, also B-Finale contender, who was also a leader of the LMP2 class. Roman Štalmach, who was second in LMP2 after Tomáš Rajdus and Petr Goluch were delayed with repairs, ran ninth but was also the fastest driver with Sorex 40 tyres. Štalmach, who is the promoter of this Sorex 40 class, originally promised about five drivers but only he and Ondřej Macháček actually arrived.
In the next quarter of the race it looked for an overall victory for Roman Krejčí but he became another A-Finale driver to suffer. His battery came low so he lost concentration and crashed. With a broken T-bar he continued for a short time before the battery came completely flat. So Libor Holub running his Xray X10 Link for the first time ever appeared in the lead after 20 minutes, something that nobody really expected. Pavel Rajdus won this second heat ahead of Kuba Šimurda. Tomáš Rajdus once again retired and lost this race already. Jiří Adámek had also bad luck and retired from the heat after 6 minutes.
The final two heats were highlighted by a battle between Pavel Rajdus and Kuba Šimurda, both catching the delay fromt he first heat. Both heats were won by Šimurda ahead of Rajdus. Roman Krejčí and Tomáš Rajdus were about two laps per heat slower. In the end Pavel Rajdus managed to win his first MLMS race overall ahead of another debutant Libor Holub. Roman Krejčí, a LMP1 champion was one lap behind. Regular and effective driving brought LMP2 victory and fourth overall to Luděk Maléř. Šimurda also improved and was classified sixth behind Rostislav Zapletal. Petr Jaremejko, the only driver using wide 235 mm prototype defended 7th position with falt battery just one lap ahead of improving Martin Krejčí who was full 8 laps ahead of Tomáš Rajdus, who lost many time in the first two heats. In any case he became LMP2 and overall champion of MLMS 2010. Jiří Hrabec was 10th overall and first in the GT category, after the GT champion Pavel Melicher lost more than 5 minutes with repairs in the heat 1 and despite finishing all other heats among the top 10, he could not manage to improve better than to 16th overall. So second position in the GT class went to debuting Roman Holaň with Nissan Skyline. Štalmach, 13th overall and 3rd in LMP2, was the best Sorex 40 driver. Fastest junior driver was Jakub Zapletal, closely followed by Vojta Jaremejko. Petra Vykydalová won among the ladies ahead of Lucie Krejčí. She was able to beat Ondřej Macháček.
Final standings
So the second annual of Moravian Le Mans Series was successfully concluded after seven races (Rychvald, Blansko, Frýdek-Místek Sokol, Frýdek-Místek Speed Arena, Zlín-Otrokovice, Brno and Rychvald Night), which were visited by 55 diferent RC drivers. Tomáš Rajdus became overall champion despite starting season with a GT car and then moving to LMP2 where he scored his championship points. He won two races overall. The second position oveall went to Ludek Maléř, also a LMP2 driver. The third overall for 2010 belongs to Pavel Melicher, who despite running in GT all season, won one race overall and with two other podium finsihes could almost win overall had he no problems in the last race. Point differences among the top 3 driver were very small (63.5 - 59 - 58.14). Roman Krejčí, one of only two LMP1 regulars was classified fourth overall ahead of Goluch, Šimurda, Štalmach and Zapletal.
