The finale to the 2009 Eurotour took place in Rugen, Germany from 2nd-4th October and provided a befitting climax to what has been an excellent season of European F3F competition.
A quick review of the Top 10 pilots shows that the field was very strong with many internationally recognized pilots from the world of both F3F and F3B – in fact few Viking Races have featured such a star-studded roster. To achieve a Top 10 position in such company would be a great achievement….
Going in to the final round of the competition, eight pilots were in contention for the top spot, currently occupied by the UK’s Greg Dakin. What a thriller!
Unlike other Eurotour events, a place at the German Open is not available to all international pilots, as its used as a qualifying round for national team selection. As such, there is a strong bias towards German pilots and that means a high prevalence of quality fliers.
Conditions were very challenging across the three days. Despite the coastal location, pilots were subjected to a mix of good and bad air, plus the additional hazard of a low setting sun.
Flying style also played a major part in the proceedings, with the new dynamic turn technique pioneered by the Herrig’s and French pilots in full display.
In practice, Martin Herrig and Kyle Paulson looked to be the in-form pilots, but unfortunately Andreas Herrig destroyed his Freestyler before the competition started, resorting to a newer and slightly larger variant for the main event. However, this ultimately worked in Andreas's favour as he took top spot overall and reinforced his position as one of Europe’s finest F3F as well as F3B pilots.
Alexis Marechal, a main contender for the overall Eurotour title, flew his new Alliaj hollow model very well. This looks to be a large airframe with good aspect-ratio, and clearly worked well at the higher wing loading (auw 4kg+).
Austrian wonder boy Stefan Holbfer secured third place, reinforcing his earlier win in Cannes and impressing many with his quality flying. Stefan also holds the fastest recorded time in F3F – 27.xx seconds and F3X-Insider hotly tips Stefan at the forthcoming 2010 Viking Race in France!
Martin Herrig’s form was a little sporadic in this competition, which may have been down to fatigue, having travelled from the closing F3B event in Munich – which needless to say he won! Regardless, a fourth place position is very credible in such a hotly contested competition, particularly when conditions were so variable.
Kyle Paulson looked very sharp in practice and flew well in the competition to secure fifth place. Winning the first round (in his group), Kyle looked set for a really good result. Ironically, fifth place was perhaps something of a disappointment, as he was positioned amongst the top three pilots for the most part of the competition.
Klaus Kowalski took sixth place using his rather shabby but still impressive Caldera, ahead of Espen Torp’s Cyril in seventh position. Tim Bigley flew well and managed eighth place flying his Freestyler.
Mike Muller and Stefan Eder filled the last of the two Top 10 spots. Both Mike and Stefan won rounds. Mike pocketed his 1000 points in Round 3, whilst Stefan flew his Crossfire Evo to 38.94 seconds in challenging conditions, and took Round 7.
At the close of proceedings, Alexis Marechal from France had done enough to claim the overall Eurotour League win, pipping The UK’s Greg Dakin by two points out of a possible three hundred. Germany’s Siggi Schedal completed his F3F season with an excellent third place.
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