Round 2 of the Estonian Off-road Cup was held on June 16 in Tartu. The weather was rather nice at 20â“25°C under sunny skies. This track is almost brand new, so itâ™s still in development, lacking mostly jumps⦠itâ™s just a few bumps on the track. The surface is clayish, slippery and fairly dusty.
Our team (Andres âśakaverâť Käver, Rando âśrandomâť Mere and Jaanus âśjankoâť KeskĂĽla) tried to arrive day of Friday but had no luck. Work, packing and car building just took too long. We arrived approx at 17:00 and started to search for setups. I concentrated mostly on my brand new XT8 Truggy (got the build finished just before leaving for Tartu). I ran it first with the kit default setup, then changed the middle dif to 3000 oil and the rear to 1000 oil. The track was really slippery, so I changed the rear shock to 900 and this helped some more. Quick look at clock â“ it was already 00:30 â“ and we were off to sleep.
buggy podium (click to enlarge)
Race Day
We go back to the track at 08:00, did some more runs with the Truggy and then over to the Buggy. We installed new alum rear uprights, changed the diffs a little bit â“ but biggest problem was engine â“ itâ™s just too old and slow! My new engine was somewhere in delivery.
Qualifications
I really pushed hard and tried to find the limits of the XT8 Truggyâ“ and made a lot of mistakes. But it was clear from the start that this Truggy is winner. I got 4th in the first heat, and in the 2nd and 3rd heat I just fooled around trying to find suitable driving lines for this track. Jaanus had a really good, controlled run with his XT8 and claimed TQ. And then he made a good run in Buggy also, pushing his EC to 2nd spot. I fought with my buggy engine all day and was nowhere â“ 14th place. So we qualified directly into the final in Truggy.
Buggy semis
Janko drove a perfect semi and won. My semi went under the bench⦠the engine died 3 times.
truggy podium (click to enlarge)
Truggy final
Everything went as planned as Janko and I pulled away from the rest of the pack. Altogether there were four XT8s in the final. I was on lap 21 when disaster struck â“ no more steering! The steering servo horn had come loose. Getting it fixed took some time and when I got back onto the track I was in 4th or 5th place. Janko was already gone, no hope there. But second was possible. With some pushing I had it. At the finish Janko had a 5-lap lead on me and I had 6-lap lead on 3rd place.
Final results in truggy:
1. Jaanus KeskĂĽla XRAY XT8
2. Andres Käver XRAY XT8
3. Martti Siimsen
4. Guido Saksman
5. Anti Anton
6. Janis Ankravs 7. Marek Männing XRAY XT8
8. Antero Haljand 9. Allar Rebane XRAY XT8
10. Rando Mere
Buggy final
I was out of final, so I helped my team members. Janko started from 2nd place and Rando Mere had TQ. Rando kept to his beloved diff setup 60k-100k-950. In the middle of the race Janko was 7 secs behind Rando when the engine stalled right after refueling. Fetching the car from the end of the pits and starting it up again took some time and Janko drop some 25 secs behind of Rando. He tried to catch him but was unsuccessful.
Final results in buggy:
1. Rando Mere 2. Jaanus KeskĂĽla XRAY XB8 EC
3. Taivo Murumäe
4. Kuldar Ilus 5. Bruno Vaher XRAY XB8 TQ
6. Toomas Ramm XRAY XB8 EC
7. Rainer Pohjala XRAY XB8 TQ
8. Jaanus Saare
9. Edgars Cipans
10. Margus Hanvere
