EVENT REPORT >> GRIP ZERO 2012 [ROUND 2 – Roanne] | ☆RC Drift Culture☆ GängstaWerk

After an awesome inaugural round in Angoulême, Grip ZERO travelled to central France, Roanne near the well-known city of Saint Etienne, to host the second round of the season.

The championships most successful driver, Julien Vermare, took the honours of head judge accompanied by local driver Anthony Noally.

With another huge amount of registered competitors, namely 43, lining up on the starting grid, it was evident that this again would be a tough round in which to claim victory.

Amongst those 43 drivers were Dutch duo Tijs Lochbaum and Bop Westerduin of Team Wreck it Sideways, seen above in their purple machines of terror.

Travelling the long stretch from Holland in Bops spacious Mazda Eunos, the Touge Automotive sponsored drivers were keen to test their skills against the local French talent.

Bop doing his sponsors, Touge Automotive and HPI Europe, proud keeping the throttle pinned in his FC3S!

The track layout for this year’s Roanne-event was largely altered in comparison to that of last year: Newcomer, Calvo Raoul, testing the fresh layout.

Ensuring the track remained challenging, sweepers and hard transitions made up the course that would be tackled throughout the weekend, stepping up the heat from the mainly large corners that drivers tackled the year before.

Julien Noth quickly got the hang of it, laying down smooth run after smooth run!

Following qualifications, it would be round 1 winner Arnaud Lobjoie clinching the top spot with a 74 point run, simultaneously debuting his new body shell …

… followed very closely by Nuno Vieira, with a 73, and David Forestier taking the third top qualifying spot with a 72.

Evidently the standard was once again very high with only 4 points separating the top 6 qualifiers!

Having spent a large amount of time repairing his chassis, Pierre Tixier made a powerful comeback in his enRoute JXR-powered Rockstar Energy S14, taking the win in Amateur Class. The Grip-ZERO organiser was followed by David Dorvillier and Gael Moreda taking 2^nd and 3^rd spots respectively.

Pro class promised some strong contenders as always, such as Jean Philippe Junod and Johan Vermese, as Jean Philippe gladly illustrates as he hits the first clipping point hard in his Team Orange inspired RPS13.

The Pro Class final spots were taken by 22^nd place qualifier Nicolas Mentrard in his Evo X and none other than Amateur Class winner Pierre Tixier. Pierre came up against fellow team mate Jimmy Jade in the semi-finals (seen above), defeating him after 2 One-More-Time battles! Pierre’s strong competitive run would however eventually be ended by Nicolas.

Pierre’s team mate Jimmy Jade took victory in the battle for 3^rd place, defeating Grip ZERO’s youngest competitor Killian Durand-Bouzon, seen above ripping in his R35 GT-R.

Expert Class also promised an array of awesome battles. One driver to note was Sebastian Dussart, doing well to qualify in 5^th 4 spots ahead of his seasoned brother Julien Dussart, despite a lack of experience in the Grip ZERO battle-stages.

After witnessing Pro Class winner Nicolas Mentrard (Rockstar Evo X) beat the number 1 qualifier Arnod Lobjoie, to advance to the Expert Class finals, it was well known we’d be in for a treat watching Nicolas as he tried to top yet another class.

It would however be experienced TWS driver Tijs Lochbaum who would deny Nicolas a 2^nd class victory in his convertible Soarer (seen above against Johan Vermesse).

Coming up behind Tijs and Nicolas would be Portuguese regular, Nuno Vieira, taking the win in the battle for 3^rd place and consequently his very first podium finish in Grip ZERO!

Finishing on the back of a Top16 finish in round 1, it was only a matter of time before Nuno would achieve his podium finish, the Portuguese driver being considered a force amongst the championship contenders.

Here’s exactly how each Class panned out.

Amateur Class :

1^st – Pierre Tixier

2^nd – David Dorvillier

3^rd – Gael Moreda

Pro Class :

1^st – Nicolas Mentrard

2^nd – Pierre Tixier (Amateur Class winner)

3^rd – Jimmy Jade

Expert Class :

1^st – Tijs Lochbaum

2^nd – Nicolas Mentrard (Pro Class winner)

3^rd – Nuno Vieira

—– —–

Team Battle you say?

YES! Grip ZERO are cool enough to host a team battle competition too! As one quarter of ‘Team Stapam’, Florent Pallatin employed his brand new Yokomo DIB powered matte silver S15 …

… alongside Pierre Foucaud’s awesome MST FS-01D powered PS13 …

… and Stéphane Planeta’s missile-Cedric! 3^rd place Expert Class winner Nuno Veira made up the 4^th and final member of this Team Battle winning group. Unsurpisingly, Stéphanes boro-boro/missile Nissan Cedric also took “Concourse” honours, winning the ‘Best Body’ award!

Additionally at each round of the championship, there is also an award for ‘Best Décor’. It’s great to see how Grip ZERO stays true to keeping the hobby fun, and retains important elements of the hobby’s culture. This time round the award would be scooped by Jacky Moreau for this car-park scenery, including a live-action monitor! Pretty sweet details to have around your track!

Round 3 commences in October, in the town of Thiers. It’s quite a stretch to our next dose of Grip ZERO, but …

… in the mean time we’ll be taking a look at the drivers …

… teams and machines which make up this great championship…

… such as this old Team Zombie PS13 waiting for its come back to the track.

Melvyn Argento’s R34-fronted Stagea is awesome!

As are these tough Crawlers …

… and David Plechot’s stunner of a “vert-s14”.

We’d like to congratulate all organisers and drivers for all your work and determination in creating another successful round of Grip ZERO! And of course, a big shout out to all the kind photo-contributors, whom without we wouldn’t be able to produce such reports.