The first Rounds of the Swedish Nitro Series, "SNS" and Swedish Cup, "SC" was run last weekend at the long high-speed track in Ă–rebro. The SNS is a warm up race to the SC and a chance for beginners to meet and get help from the more experienced racers. The SC is the National series that will be a part of the races that will decide the seeding for next year's championships.
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The SNS started really well for XRAY drivers Niklas Hakansson and Mickael Brandt, where Mickael was keeping up with the fast Kyosho driver Roland Ström. In the first qualifier Mickael got off to a good start and qualified 2nd behind Roland, but in the last two laps he was having transponder problems (not counting) so at the end Mickael qualified 3rd and Niklas ┠who was picking up the pace during the day ┠just missed out from the top 4. In the semis Niklas easily went through to claim the 6th starting spot.
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Just before the finals a short downpour started and Mickael decided not to drive and instead all focus was put on Niklas' car to make a good rain setup in a short time. When all the cars that was going to drive lined up for the start there was a short delay and since the rain had stopped, Mickael decided at the last minute to start the finals so he left Niklas' car to another pitman and changed tyres to rubber tyres on his car and came to the startline just in time for the warmup lap.
At the start there was chaos but after a couple of laps it seemed that Niklas clearly had the best car and since he didn't make any mistakes he slowly pulled away to a clear victory with 4 laps in front of Team Serpent home driver Christoffer Hallborg and 5 laps in front of Mickael who made the best of a dry setup with rain tyres making it 1-3 for XRAY!
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If the SNS started good, the SC didn't. Niklas had 3 "okay" qualification rounds and ended up 5th just 0.2sec outside of top 4. For Mickael the qualifications where horrible due to a failing receiver battery.
Niklas and Mickael ended up in the same semi which started out in wet conditions. Again the "Rain King" Niklas started best and pulled out a big lead until the track dried up⦠then Mickael was clearly was the fastest driver and so picked up from last to 2nd position in 5 minutes when the rain started again.
Both XRAY drivers easily managed to hold their positions until the end making them bump up as 1-2 from the semis, only for Mickael to be disqualified because of his wing being too high after some crashes in the wet.
But still, we had Niklas in the main and since the track was wet we had good hopes for him.
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The final started with the usual rain chaos but this time it was Roland Ström who had done his homework best. He was on really soft rain foam tires in the semi-wet and seemed to be able to push better than Niklas on regular 37 shore tires who was having a tough battle with team Autopartner driver Magnus Vässmar for the whole final but in the end it was Magnus who had a slight edge with his grooved tires which made the top 3 as Roland, Magnus and team XRAY "Rain King" Niklas in 3rd position.
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At the end the NT1 had shown really good pace when the track was dry and combined with Niklas wet setups and some wet tire tests the races in Sweden looks really good for Team XRAY.
SNS Results
1. Niklas Hakansson XRAY NT1
2. Hallborg Christoffer 3. Brandt Mikael XRAY NT1
4. Ek Pettersson Michael
5. Ström Roland
6. Andersson Martin
7. Trtica Nicola
8. Andersson Alexander
9. Runesson Klas
10.Vässmar Magnus
SC Results
1. Ström Roland
2. Vässmar Magnus 3. Niklas Hakansson XRAY NT1
4. Andersson Martin
5. Andersson Alexander
6. Trtica Nicola
7. Suneson Edwin
8. Husman Andreas
9. Runesson Klas
10.Gidlund Tomas
Best racing regards Mickael & Niklas Team XRAY Sweden
