The Finnish Open race was held at Tampere. The track was hard-packed clay with good traction as there has been no rain in the last three weeks. The track was holding up really well all day long. The layout is pretty awesome with many different kind of jumps, tight corners, and a long straight. It was sunny all day so it was perfect for racing for the approximately 60 drivers that attended.
In two practice runs I tested two different sets of tires and different rear camber link positions on the shock tower. The car was working well, but I wanted it to be better.
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In first qualifying round I got TQ ahead of Joseph Quagraine by 0.4sec (it was super close) and Ari Heinonen finished third. I felt that the car was a little tricky to drive, but wasn't sure if it was because of the new tires or setup, so I decided to run the second round with the same setup. We all made many mistakes in the second run but I was able to pull out TQ, and I was sure now that I needed to make some changes to make the car more stable as I couldn't drive with that setup for the 45min final. So in the third run I made the front wheelbase shorter so the front wheels would get more weight, and I also changed the rear anti-roll bar from 2.6mm to 2.8mm to make the rear end run more flat and better over bumps. These changes worked really well and I made my best run of the day and got TQ by almost half a lap ahead of Ari.
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In the semi-final I decided to keep everything the same. I got into the lead, but after 3 minutes they stopped the race due to a computer problem. After couple of minutes they decided to make start straight away again as everybody was fine with that. The "Biggest Loser" was Arto Heinonen in that, as he had a brilliant start in first run but had very bad luck in the second start. I won the semi by a lap ahead of JQ. In other semi, Ari was looking really strong and he easily took the win for that semi.
So for the final top 3 were: 1. Teemu Leino XRAY XB808
2. Ari Heinonen
3. Joseph Quagraine
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From the start of the final we had good battle with JQ, passing each other several times. It was a difficult final as in the evening the wind stopped and all the smoke and dust stayed over the track plus sun was shining now straight in our faces, so we made many more mistakes. Ari was a little distance back, and JQ and I had a bit of an advantage over him as we both made 9min per tank but Ari was getting only 7min 30sec per tank. When we came to the third pitstop, JQ and I just got past him with a few seconds' lead and JQ started to get some radio problems. In the end I took the win with JQ finishing second and Ari finishing third.
Final results:
1. Teemu Leino XRAY XB808
2. Joseph Quagraine
3. Ari Heinonen
4. Petri Mylläri
5. Jarno Siltanen
