PHILIPP WALSDORF FIRST WINNER IN DEKM - BUT UNFORTUNATELY THE WATER WASHED TEH RESULT AWAY

After the testing weekend one week before the first race in Prokart Raceland Wackersdorf went on without an incident the drivers of the DEKM met again one week later at the same place to do their first competition in an electric kart. The IKMedia team had done an excellent job preparing the karts and anything else supported by Rotax and Beule Kart. The brand new Rotax Thunder on Sodi chassis waited ready to compete. Everything was looking good and the drivers and mechanics support was perfect organized.
Training went on in dry conditions without any problem like one week before. Philipp Walsdorf found himself in a position in the middle of the drivers field but was hopeful because during the race he expected to increase his performance like he had done before. When the karts were ready in the starting grid Petrus opened the sky and let really a lot of water fall down onto the racetrack. This could not be called simply rain any more, it was really a cloudburst. Race director and promotor had a long discussion whether the race should start or not. After more than ten minutes came the decision: the race will start. As to be seen later on it was not the right decision.
Three out of eighteen karts saw the chequered flag, Philipp Walsdorf first. The rest ended up nearly like in a famous german fairy tale one after the other, most of them by technical defect. Later analysis showed up that the batteries let water in and the electronics switched the system off then. In spite of intense testing sessions before the race this could not be foreseen. Some things only happen in a real racing situation.
After these technical difficulties the promotor decided to stop the races for this weekend to first find out what was happening and do whatever necessary to avoid from things like that happening again.