Race Gallery Winternats 2009 - the race:

Alex and Peter made sure each car was built along the lines of the rulebook.

Kescha´s office.

Kurt and Björn tried to decide who would race what while Alex and Peter tried to decide whether Kescha´s loaner cars were legal or not.

Alex´pit looks better organized each year.

Marcel and Björn testing their new cars.

Kurt F. and Thomas took a close look at Pascal´s Gp12 powered bracket car.

Marcel, Pascal and Björn.

Fabio was armed with pen and paper to keep track of his PR times, Thomas kept track of his potential opponents and Kurt was his stoic self.

Dani emerged as a (very) serious contender in just about any class he entered - capping it off with a win in the tough SS class.

Claudia´s and Dani´s Kentaur powered SS contenders.

Roger´s cars were amongst the neatest in the field, his attention to detail should earn him some good results in the next few years.

Björn and Kurt were still discussing strategy, Alex still can´t stand the pink bicycle on Kurt´s Ala Kart.

Kurt explained the ins and outs of successful bracket racing to his team driver Björn - Dani seems skeptical whether Kurt´s ideas work.

Kurt F. has built several very good looking and well running cars over the last few months.

Swiss precision at work - Jürg vs. Roger, Alex (from Austria) the official chief starter.

Kurt B. and Dani are sent on their way by Alex.

Roger brought a Ford sedan to race Claudia´s rebodied Willys in PS - nice body, Claudia!.

Alex and Claudia watching the tree.

Claudia´s other Willys was run in PR and SS.

Fabio was one of several rookies to threaten the perannual favorites, finishing 4th in PR.

Jürg and Kurt B. in SS.

Not sure who told what joke here - Kescha, Marcel, Alexander and Thomas sharing a laugh.

Björn and Thomas enjoyed Peter´s new creation, Dani was not in the mood for jokes and concentrated on beating his opponents.

Thomas was slowly getting tired of being beaten by Kescha in Gp7 and decided to avenge that in every other category.

And then, it was time for the concours d´elegance!

Just a few of the many beautiful new cars.

Alexander´s and Marcel´s newest racers, Roger´s ´57 in the background.

Thomas´Slingshot and Gp7, Claudia´s Willys and Peter´s TF.

Peter´s Fireball 500 and Kurt F.´s ´55 Nomad and Slingshot Dragster.

Alex´Christine and Novacaine - the latter was voted the best hardbodied car.

Peter´s Drag Pickup ran in Gp12.

Jürg´s Henry J and Anglia.

Björn and Kurt checked out the concourse cars.

Dani´s Wynn´s Jammer Dragster not only won the SS race, but also the Best engineered award.

The top honors went to Peter (Lexan), Dani (Best Engineered) and Alex Mahl (Hardbody).

Peter had a mixture of old and new cars all worthy of a top finish in the concours and the race.

Kescha took a break from his office duties to prep the track...

...and then held a short speech about Russian politics of the late 18th century.

A lovely young lady was asked to draw the winners of our raffle:

Kurt Fink got a couple of T-Shirts from Hans Rzany´s Slotrunners Track and Kescha,

Björn Gnant was the winner of a pair of front wheels + a set of wheelie bars sponsored by WRP,

Claudia got another set of front wheels (as she did last year) plus a drag interior from WRP,

Alexander Koch won a Parma Holeshot chassis sponsored by Eagle Distributing,

Nicolas and Marcel both got a S16D drag arm from Pro Slot,

Kurt Bilgeri was the lucky recipient of a big block drag motor by Pro Slot,

Roger Lüber received a Gp12 motor, again sponsored by Pro Slot,

Jürg Broder was happy to hear that he now owned...

...a Pro Slot Gp20 motor,

Kescha took a quick look at the flowcharts and called the racers to the starting line.

where Alex was already waiting for the first pair.

Roger´s Mopar was the winner over Jürg´s Fiat 500 in round one.

Nicolas and Peter were next,...

...and Nicolas was already smiling before he moved on to the next round.

Roger Meile (of Meile Metallbau) from Switzerland stopped by to see how the chassis he cut for Kescha were running.

Alex had no troubles (yet) beating Fabio´s FC in two straight.

Dani had the better car and some luck against his significant other Claudia.

Alex´ Vega was the second car to run a .950 in round two.

Thomas started his revenge against Kescha with a win in the 2nd round of PS.

He also ended Dani´s fine run in the quarterfinals.

Thomas had to give his best to overcome Dani´s great running Chevy.

Kurt also had a fine showing with his red Mustang, but couldn´t match Alex´record hunting Vega.

Thomas lost to Alex wth his Chevy Pro Mod, but still had the record breaking Studebaker.

But the win was not without sacrifices, as Alex popped a blower and was asked to add a blower restraint system to comply with the newest safety rules.

The car was ruled to be safe for the next round (it also helps, when you are the tech inspector).

Here is a close up of the latest blower restraint - courtesy of the NHRA.

Semifinal time in PS: Alex had the better 1/32 scale FC.

Alex beat Thomas in a battle of the two favorites with a perfect RT and another .950, finishing the race in 1st and 2nd place and also snatching the record away from Thomas with a .946 on a single in the finals.

Kurt B. and Alexander (red Camaro) in PR rd. 1 action - Kurt won in 3.

Claudia avenged her PS loss to Dani.

Peter tried his luck in PR with a Gp20 powered car - tame compared to his earlier effords with an ulta-short Gp7 car.

Jürg´s Santa was sent home to the North Pole by Alex.

The two concours winners met in rd. 2 - Alex had great RTs and ran close to his DI to put Peter´s FC in the Box.

Claudia did a great Job as our new chief starter, allowing Alex to concentrate on his RTs for a few minutes.

Thomas´RTs helped him to prevail over surprising rookie Nicolas (piloting Roger´s Slingshot) in rd. 3.

Kurt B. and his nephew Fabio had a family reunion in rd.3, with the youngster beating his uncle and moving on to the semis.

Kescha´s Casper moved quietly but effectively into the final round, the only noise coming from the frequent visits into the catch bag.

The white ghost ran out of luck against Thomas in the final round, losing twice by 1/1000 of a second.

Two of the nicest cars in PR - Alex´ Nova and Kurt F.´s Nomad.

Jürg´s wheelstanding Bug and Marcel´s Charger.

The new timer couldn´t keep Alex and Kurt from joking around on the starting line.

Claudia and Roger tested their cars.

Claudia then brought her other Willys to match up with Jürg´s Santa.

Alexander kept busy by working on his new AA/FC.

Alex was cutting up some new bodies, warming up to cut through his opponents.

Kescha trued some tires for his assault on Gp12.

Alexander and Marcel made some test laps with their Gp20 and Gp12 cars.

The pyromaniacs from Cologne then ended Saturday´s action with their rocket cars.

Kescha´s new glue roller kept both lanes equal and the racing close.

Kescha´s Slingshot was too tough for Jürg´s Anglia,...

but the bag was too tough for Kescha´s Slingshot.

Two minutes and two runs later, the rail marched on to round two.

Roger loaned his Slingshot to Nicolas and borrowed Kescha´s rebodied Altered (painted by Roger) to compete in S16.

Thomas prepared his lane for his race against Alex, while Kescha took a quick break from his office to (again) repair the front end on his car.

Peter´s new Dragster/Coupe was tested by Claudia´s Willys.

But the Gasser was just a bit slower and was back in the box after two runs.

The two Nostalgia Fuelers of Kurt Fink and Nicolas (out of Roger´s stable) were next, Kurt´s Ramchargers digger slowed from it´s earlier pace, but still prevailed in three.

Kescha was back in his office while Claudia cheered on the other racers...

...and Alex found some time to relax.

Kescha´s win over Kurt B. ended round one.

Dani´s Slingshot was progressively getting quicker and faster, upsetting Dominik, Peter and finally both of Kescha´s cars to reap a very deserved title for the best engineered car.

Traction was not the problem for Kescha´s rail - slowing down was.

Dani had no such problems, and helped his cause with some good RTs.

Kescha couldn´t beat Dani with his dragster and fared no better with the Porsche in the final round.

This was probably the biggest upset of the Gp12 race - Peter´s heavily favored Olds Aero was sent home by it´s driver´s erratic RTs and Kurt B.´s FC.

Kescha´s Opel seemed to like it´s new motor and was the quickest (though not the winning) car this year, while Roger´s Escort was plagued by all sorts of problems.

On to Top Fuel: Thomas had a pair of new cars, both on TR chassis.

Alex improved on his personal bests and had little trouble in beating Jürg´s Wilh. Tell dragster.

Peter´s Superman rail was too quick for Roger´s new ride, but the latter´s high speeds indicate that there´s enough power to make him competitive soon, with only the lack of traction keeping him from running with the big dogs.

Peter´s .001 win over Alex was not the closest race - Kescha had even less of an advantage in his race with Thomas in rd. 2.

Kurt was ready for his first ever Gp20 race, running a car co-owned by Silvano/chassis (who had to fly to Japan on this weekend) and Kescha/motor.

Unfortunately, these two cars both crashed into the bag at the same time, resulting in some cosmetic changes to both. Kurt kept his cool and even ran a .792 to beat the Ian Hill built Corvette driven by Roger.

Roger´s new ´57 Chevy was a bit erratic and thus no real match for Peter´s very quick Mercury.

Another pair of very clean cars (that´s before they got covered in glue) - Roger´s ´57 and Peter´s Gp20-winning Merc.

Kurt was getting the hang of Gp20 glueing quick!.

Peter barely scraped by Kurt in rd. 2.

The race was again watched by a bunch of interested spectators.

The story of the semi-finals: Kescha had some braking issues with his War Eagle Firebird,...

...but thanks to some help from Alex, managed to repair the car in time (2min) for the second run...

... to move straight into the final round.

Some impressions: Roger´s pair of Slingshots.

Alex´weird creations.

Thomas´new drag bike.

Dominik introduced his GF Yvonne to slot drag racing.

The latest Winternationals T-Shirt.

And the winners are: Peter Kouba gets a set of WRP wheelie bars along with the long distance award.

Fabio and Kurt get a set of wheelie bars from WRP and a consollation trophy for their efforts despite a definite lack of luck.

Alex Mahl gets a Pro Track T-Shirt and a trophy for the first perfect RT of the race.

Dani Singer gets a very useful chassis jig sponsored by Precision Slot Cars and a Pro Track T-Shirt for the best engineered car.

Peter wins another Jig by Precision Slot Cars and a Shirt from Pro Track for the best Lexan bodied car competing in the race.

Alex gets the 3rd jig given away by Precision Slot Cars and another Pro Track Tee for the best hardbodied car.

The trio from Cologne, Germany, Marcel, Alexander and Pascal, gets a special recognition for their spectacular rocket cars.

Alex gets a JDS dragster body and a Lexan interior from WRP for finishing 3rd in PR.

Kescha accepts a pair of front wheels from WRP and a body from JDS for being runner up in PR.

Thomas is the winner in PR and gets a WRP chassis + wheelie bars for his efforts.

He also receives a JDS body and WRP interior for 3rd in PS.

Alex is the big winner here - 1st and 2nd and a bunch of chassis and bodies from WRP and JDS.

A JDS body and WRP driver for Alex and the 3rd place in SS.

Kescha is happy getting another WRP chassis + JDS body for his ru in SS.

Alex presents Dani Singer with a chassis + wheelie bars sponsored by WRP for winning SS eliminator.

Kescha finishes 3rd in Gp12 and gets more JDS and WRP goodies.

A third place finish for Thomas Schäfer in Gp12 nets him a JDS altered body and a pair of WRP wheels.

Alex finally wins Gp12 and a WRP chassis.

Peter Kouba beats Alex for 3rd in Top Fuel and can now start building a Slingshot dragster with the body sponsored by JDS.

Kescha doubles up (again) in TF and doesn´t want to share his winnings with Alex.

Thanks to JDS, WRP, Precision Slot Cars, Pro Track and Eagle Distributing for your support!!! - Kescha gets more stuff for 2nd and 3rd in Gp20

Peter wins his first Winternationals title in Gp20 (most of his cars use WRP chassis) and can continue doing so with a new chassis sponsored by WRP.

A third place in AA/FC also gets him a WRP driver and a JDS dragster body.

Thomas Schäfer from Berne, Switzerland, runs new personal bests in Gp7 (AA/FC) and wins a WRP chassis + JDS Lexan body.

Kescha´s 4th Winternationals title in Gp7 brings him a new WRP AA/FC chassis to build another (hopefully) winning car for 2010.

Thanks again to everyone for coming and racing with us, see you in 2010!!!