Last weekend was the start of the Finnish nitro buggy season. This year the first race was held in Turku. The track was pretty rough with a good amount of jumps, and traction was good all day long. On the morning the track wasn't really all that bumpy, but it got bumpier as the day went on and so clean runs were hard to make.
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I tested two different set-ups in two practice runs and car felt okay with both set-ups. The fastest drivers were turning 43sec laps while most of the rest were turning 44-45sec laps. After two practice runs it was time for three rounds of qualifying, with the 2 best out of 3 rounds counting.
In the first run I was not driving well and I made several mistakes, finishing 7th in that round. Ari Heinonen - the championship winner from last year - won that round. In the second round my throttle servo died before the round started, so I was unable to drive. The second round was won by JQ (Joseph Quagraine), giving Ari and JQ the same amount of points going into the third (final) round. In the third run, Ari won and took TQ with me only 0.1sec behind and JQ trailing me in 3rd place only 0.8sec behind. JQ ended up in 2nd overall qualifying place. I ended up 5th after qualifying and started 3rd in the semi.
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There was a 3-hour break between last round and the semi, as they drive all the sub-finals in between. Time for some rebuilding!
In our semi, Ari started on pole position and we had great race for the most part. I made only 1 fuel stop while Ari did 2, and so I got an advantage from that and was able to lead all the way to the end. After a great second semi run, it was no surprise that JQ pulled out all the stops and won that semi.
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So the starting order for final was me (1st), Ari (2nd), and JQ (3rd). I was a bit late for the start of the final and so I could not do any warm-up laps before the start. I had a really close race with JQ and Ari for the first 5min. Minor tragedies struck my fellow racers, with JQ breaking a servo and Ari having had some bad laps. I took advantage of this and pulled out to a comfortable lead. At the end I had put a 1-lap gap between me and Ari, with Ari finishing 1 lap ahead of Juha Sartesuo (3rd).
Final results:
1. Teemu Leino XRAY
2. Ari Heinonen
3. Juha Sartesuo
photos copyright http://wormhole.coolsoft.fi (click to enlarge)
