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The third round of the Norwegian Cup was held on June 9/10 in Hof just a 1-hour drive from Oslo. The weather was really nice and warm (27â“29°C range). That along with good driving at a fairly fast and difficult track made this a race to remember.
Team XRAY drivers Rune Berget and Morten Thorkildsen attended the race and had made some good preparations and both felt pretty confident with their cars; both were on a good pace. Rune Karlsen was TQ (this is his home track) ahead of me (Morten) and Rune was in 9th.
Sunday morning we made the last preparations on our cars and felt strong for both our semis trying out a new shock set-up that really worked well and made our cars even faster through some heavily rutted sections. Unfortunately Rune experienced some trouble in his semi due to really tough track conditions and he had to retire even though he was on a good pace for making it into the main. I started in first spot in my semi but after only one lap I had a glow-plug failure and quickly fell behind by 2 laps down to the #5 spot. Driving like mad, I made 5th position in the last lap so I barely made it into the main.
In the main final I started in 10th position, full of confidence as I knew my car was one of the best, if not the best car on this rutted up track. Quickly within a half lap I was pretty amazed to be in third spot driving close to my maximum potential but the car was perfect and really worked well for me and made my job easier. Rune Karlsen was in first spot but flamed out and did so several times more during the race and was out of the battle early. Pal Lovdal and I were battling for the lead for a good 15-20 minutes as he had a different fuel strategy and needed one less pit-stop than me. I managed to make up for that and after 35 minutes I found myself 1/2 lap ahead of him and just running at my own pace trying to save the car and making it to the finish.
Then disaster happened. My fuel line broke at 38 minutes just when I was about to make my last pit-stop. I lost 2 minutes and was a lap down on Pal with only 5 minutes to go. Back on the track I wasnâ™t able to catch him for the win. I did however set the fastest lap time for the whole race. XRAY⦠the only car with an under 40sec lap time...
Taking 2nd at this race made me overtake Rune Karlsen in the overall standings in the Norwegian Cup. Iâ™m feeling confident for the next race in Tromso at the end of this month.
Final results:
1. Pal Lovdal
2. Morten Thorkildsen, XRAY XB8EC
3. Kyrre G. Jakobsen
4. Ronny Arnesen
5. Jan Erik Kasa
6. Erik Fink
7. Stig O. Alstad - XRAY XB8EC
8. Anders Mehren
9. Jan Erik Kronheim
10. Rune Karlsen
Race report by Morten Torkildsen |
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