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The end of season cup took place last weekend in Caldas de Reis at the Correcaminos Club. In this race, some business generously sponsored with a lot of prizes such as tires, fuel, caps... JPA Sport & Modelcoruna were included. The great racers of Galicia were there, including Ivan Cerdeira (current Galician Champion) with his new car NRB 3. XRAY was represented by Team Driver Cristian Villar.
The organization was very good, and the race was run in reverse from what it usually is. The finish line, pit lane, jumps, etc. were modified for the race. Some areas were considered as âśtrapsâť â“ like a wet flat area with no traction â“ and took a lot of technical skill to navigate them... even still, there was a lot of skidding all morning. |
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Practice started at 10:30AM and really showed the difference between drivers that were used to running the other way and those that didnâ™t. Later on, the âśmagicâť of some drivers became apparent... they were flying around the track giving great performances.
From Cristian Villar:
âśIn the first qualifier, I tried using 300W front and 250W rear, and light-blue springs at both, but the EC didnâ™t have a good feeling in the bumps and jumps. Next I changed the oil and springs to 450W and white springs at both ends. The car improved a lot, with only some sway-bar adjustment needed to make it work perfectly on the slippery, bumpy track.âť
Qualifying positions:
1. Jose Porto
2. Cristian Villar XRAY XB8EC
3. Ivan Cerdeira
4. Jose M. Mato
5. Alberto Gonzalez XRAY XB8EC
6. Jose A. Couto
7. David Louzao
8. Daniel Suarez
9. Jose Rama
10. Jose Martin |
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In Semi A, Jose Porto won by 1 lap ahead of Ivan Cerdeira. Ivan didnâ™t have a good setup for his new car at our home track. Alberto Gonzalez was 3rd with a good semi-final and few mistakes.
In Semi B, Cristian did a good job, in no time at all he was in a position to pass into the final. However, in the first pit stop his car flamed out in the pit, and then it happened again in the middle of the same lap. The mechanics changed the glowplug and Cristian ran fast laps and finished 4th in a terrific semi-final.
Starting grid for final:
1. Jose Porto
2. Ivan Cerceira
3. Jose M. Mato
5. Alberto Gonzalez.
9. Cristian Villar |
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The final round was difficult for Cristian Villar, on a course where passing other cars was really difficult due to the narrowness of it, and we had to add in the bumps too.
After the start flag dropped, Cristian from 9th place got an amazing start and jumped into 4th after passing the first jump. On the second lap, Jose Porto and Alberto Gonzalez flipped over and opened things up for an attack on Porto, who seemed to be taking a conservative pace in order to not overtax his. (He had made a bad tire choice.) Five laps was the length of the leadership. The Team XRAY driver passed the others drivers at the end of the finish line, and it seems that nobody could follow him. At the 35min mark, when Cristian was passing the 2nd place driver for second time, he suffered two stops just like in the semi-finals. By then, Porto was driving so fast that in no time to got onto the back of Cristianâ™s car. Although this time, bad luck didnâ™t strike and gave Cristian a break; he got an extra lap and finally won the race on his own merit. Alberto Gonzalez got a remarkable 4th place of in his first year of competition.
Final results:
1. Cristian Villar XRAY XB8EC
2. Jose Porto
3. Jose M. Mato
4. Alberto Gonazalez XRAY XB8EC
5. Ivan Cerdeira
6. Jose M. Martn
7. Fran Eiras
8. Jose A. Couto
9. Marco A. Fdez
10. David Louzao
Congratulations to everybody and specially to Team XRAY. |
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