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Race report by Martin Hudy
The 2008 World Championship for 1/10 nitro was held on August 7-16 in Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal. This was the first World Championship for XRAY in this class and debut for the NT1. Although it was the first World Championship, the NT1 was the most popular vehicle at this race among the 35 cars in the field.

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The race started on Thursday with practice in the heats, and continued until Sunday. Almost all team drivers were present on the track from the first day and Team XRAY drivers were represented with drivers like last Euros TQ Teemu Leino, 2008 Winternationals winner Ralph Burch, 2008 US National Champion Paul Lemieux, 2008 Nordic Champion Martin Christensen, German Champion Robert Pietsch, 2008 European B Champion Dirk Wischnewski, World finalists Peter Jovanovic and Josh Cyrul, and many more top drivers.

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The cars were working very well from the first day when traction was not very high. Every driver had 4 practices per day until Sunday evening. Although the traction increased from round to round, the car was working very well and only very small setup changes were needed. I started with my setup from the Warm-up which was exactly same as the last European Championship in Spain, except for using a differential instead of a solid axle. I felt very comfortable with the car because it was really easy to drive yet it was still very fast. The only change that I made was that I put red (harder) springs instead of pink to the front. Since that time the car was smoother in long corners and easier to drive. I was experimenting a little bit with rear toe-in when I tried 2.5° instead of 3.0°. The car was a little faster a bit more inconsistent and because of that I changed back to 3.0°.

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Six rounds of qualifiers started on Tuesday with the first two rounds. The traction the day before was really good, but on Tuesday morning it was raining and suddenly the traction was gone. Tuesday morning started with two rounds of qualifiers with lower heats and continued with two rounds of qualifiers of higher heats in the afternoon. Because the traction was low, all drivers were sure that the fastest qualifiers would be on Wednesday morning or Thursday evening. However, the first day of qualifiers turned out to be the fastest for Peter Jovanovic who became 2nd in the first round. In the rest of the qualifiers he was not so lucky when he had some bad luck with traffic or other small mistakes.

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All drivers knew that the Wednesday morning round would be really important because the track was cold which offered higher traction and also less fuel consumption which was a big issue for some drivers. I was the first driver to make 32 laps in qualifying heat number 13. In heat number 14, Martin Christensen showed awesome driving and set a new TQ time. In the last heat, Martin Lissau went even faster and set the second fastest time of the 3rd qualifying round. The second round was not that fast and the results changed very little from the morning. After second qualifying day we had five cars in the Top 10 with Martin Lissau in 2nd, Martin Christensen 3rd, Peter Jovanovic 6th, Martin Hudy 7th, and Ralph Burch 10th.

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The last day of qualifiers was the most important when the higher heats drove in the morning and then in the evening. The morning qualifier looked really good for me when I was driving in 2nd place behind Ielasi. Unfortunately the end of the round was really unlucky for me because my mechanic told me that I finished the race so I stopped driving. I was shocked when I looked at the screen and saw that I had only 31 laps. I realized that I did not finish so I continued racing; however by then I lost more than 8 seconds which put in the 4th overall position after the 5th qualifier round.

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The last qualifier was really important for many of our drivers who still had no good runs. Although there are six rounds of qualifiers and only one is counted, it is not easy to make a good run because 10min runs and fuel consumption was against of many our drivers. Finally our guys showed their skills and Robert Pietch, Paul Lemieux, and Dirk moved into the Top 18 which secured his semi-final. Our team driver Basile Cancieldi from France was unlucky, finishing 19th and missing the semi-final by 0.6 second.
After qualifiers:
1. Jilles Groskamp (NL) - 32 Laps in 10:11.241
2. Chris Tosolini (USA) - 32 Laps in 10:11.250
3. Daniele Ielasi (IT) - 32 Laps in 10:11.904
4. Tironi Francesco (IT) - 32 Laps in 10:12.414
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5. Balestri Dario (IT) - 32 Laps in 10:12.818
6. Takaaki Shimo (JPN) - 32 Laps in 10:15.183
7. D’Angelo Giuseppe (IT) - 32 Laps in 10:16.657
8. Martin Lissau (DNK) - 32 Laps in 10:16.700 [XRAY NT1]
9. Martin Christensen (DNK)
- 32 Laps in 10:16.776 [XRAY NT1]
10. Mazzeo Alessio (IT) - 32 Laps in 10:17.260
11. Robert Pietsch (DE) - 32 Laps in 10:17.449 [XRAY NT1]
12. Paul Lemieux (USA)
- 32 Laps in 10:18.025 [XRAY NT1]
13. Peter Jovanovic (AUS)
- 32 Laps in 10:18.893 [XRAY NT1]
14. Martin Hudy (SK)
- 32 Laps in 10:19.360 [XRAY NT1]
15. Adrien Bertin (LUX) - 32 Laps in 10:19.465
16. Dirk Wischnewski (DE) - 32 Laps in 10:21.213 [XRAY NT1]
17. Ralph Burch (USA)
- 31 Laps in 09:59.355 [XRAY NT1]
18. Yuya Sahashi (JPN) - 31 Laps in 10:00.303

Although none of our guys qualified directly to the final, we were satisfied with the result because eight NT1 cars in the Top 18 was a good sign for possible success in the Saturday finals.

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Saturday morning started with 1/4 finals and only 32 drivers had a chance to drive. The XRAY machine was driven by 16 drivers which meant that exactly half of the best drivers in the world was using an NT1. This was already a great success for us but we wanted even more by putting at least few cars in the finals. We knew that we had great drivers who could win the race but we also knew that we also needed luck which is really important in 30min semi-finals.

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The first ones on the track from our team were Teemu together with Jerome Renaux, Filipe Costa, and Adrian Berntsen. Teemu had a lot of bad luck in qualifiers but now he showed his driving skills by dominating the final. He was the only XRAY driver who bumped up when Filipe finished 4th behind Hideo Kitazawa who passed him in the last pit stop. Jerome Renaux was super fast after recovering from a crash after start, moving up from last place he showed amazing driving skills and super-fast lap times and after few laps he moved into 4th position when he hit the curb and crashed; his engine died and that was it for him.

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Young talented driver Adrian from Norway was doing really well but he was unlucky as well and did not bump up into the semi-final. In the second 1/4 final we had French duo Basile and Arnaud, Josh Cyrul and Niki Duina. This final was also unlucky for us when only Josh was able to bump up into the semi-final. Josh was really fast all week and he was really happy with the car’s performance and he believed that with some luck he could easily make the main final.

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The first semi-final started in the afternoon with Martin Lissau starting from 2nd position, Paul Lemieux from 4th, Martin Hudy from 5th, Dirk from 6th, and Teemu from 8th. After a few laps the order was as we wished with Paul in a comfortable lead followed by Teemu, Martin Lissau, and me. Dirk had some engine problems and was not able to battle for high positions. It was past the halfway point when the order was still the same but suddenly the rain started and the semi-final was stopped because according to IFMAR rules the semi-finals cannot be held in wet conditions. The race directors decided to continue the race when the track became dry and the drivers would restart according to the same positions as they held at the time the rain started. Because 17 minutes were driven in dry conditions the rest of the semi-final was set for 13 minutes.

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The first unlucky guy was Martin Lissau who had to start from the boxes when he realized that his car was broken after a crash which happened when the rain started. Although he was able to start in the same lap as the others he had to stop racing after a few laps when some engine problem arose. My car was really good in the first part of the semi-final so I knew that I would have to take it easy, and if I made no mistakes I had a good chance of bumping up into the final. It looked like my dream would come true when I was driving in 3rd place which was enough for the final. Suddenly my engine started to miss out in one corner.

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I did not understand what is happening but after a few laps my front wheels started to shake and then I knew that it was not the engine but rather interference. I could not concentrate on racing anymore because I was thinking only about that corner and I was really afraid that I will break the car there. Because of that I dropped to 4th place and finished there. After the semi-final I knew that it would be only between me and Swedish driver Roland Strom who was really fast in the second part of the semi-final. After counting both semi-finals the result was that Paul, Teemu and Roland bumped up to the main final. I was really disappointed but I took it like the race was over and done for me because I believed they counted correctly.

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Although I was disappointed, I moved to the spectators’ area to watch the 2nd semi-final where we had Martin Christensen, Robert Pietsch, Peter Jovanovic, Ralph Burch, and Josh Cyrul. So there was 50% XRAY cars in the semi-final A and all of these drivers were good enough to make the final. However, luck was not on our side when Ralph was kicked out in the first lap. He had almost one lap down on the first which was too much. Although he was driving amazingly well and was setting the fastest laps of the event it was not enough to be among the Top 3 drivers. Robert was also really unlucky when he was driving in 3rd place and he had to retire from the final because of some technical issue. At the end it was only Martin Christensen who crossed the line in 2nd place. Josh was driving really well but had bad luck at the start. He was able to move to 4th place but he did not have enough time to make it to the Top 3 and so finished 4 seconds behind Adrien Bertin.

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It was 15 minutes before the start of the final when the Austrian team manager informed us that the result of my semi-final was counted incorrectly and that I should be 3rd instead of Roland. Eight minutes before the start of the final I was informed that the time keeping admitted that they made a mistake and that I was in the final. My car was not ready at all and the only thing I was able to change on my car was the receiver in order to avoid interference. My mechanic brought tires at the same time as the final warm-up time started. Although I changed to harder tires and bigger diameter in order to avoid running out of the tires, I was pleasantly surprised that the car handling was really good.

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The start of the final was really good for Paul who became a leader after 8 minutes in. Paul decided to go for a tire change and because of that he was pushing really hard. The gap between him and the rest of the field was increasing from lap to lap and he was setting incredibly fast lap times. Teemu was doing really well and after 10 minutes he moved into 2nd place. However, luck was not on Teemu’s side when his engine died after 16 minutes. After 22 minutes I was able to move into 2nd place behind Paul. Paul kept up a comfortable lead of three laps until his tire change.

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His mechanics changed the tires in one and half laps, but his engine stopped. The mechanics could not re-start the engine for more than 3 laps. They could not find the problem until they tried a different glow igniter and the engine started immediately; the battery in the glow igniter had died. Since that time I became the leader ahead of Ielasi and Martin Christensen. I knew that more than 30 minutes was ahead of me so anything could happen. I drove smoothly in order to not make a mistake and to save tires. My car was performing really well and my lead over Ielasi was increasing.

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nr.8 - Paul Lemieux (81laps) nr. 10 - Martin Hudy (78laps)
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At one point my lead was half a lap but then my car started to push and I could not drive as fast as before. The problem was that my rear tires were getting smaller and smaller and the difference between rear and front tires was bigger. In the end I could not keep the lead and I had to do one more pit stop compared to Ielasi and Tosolini because I wanted to be safe with fuel and we were on a 4.40min fuel strategy instead of 5.00min. For this reason I dropped to 3rd position. At the end it was Paul who was again fastest at the track. He was driving 0.3sec faster lap times than anyone else in the final in order to decrease the gap that he lost during the tire change. At the buzzer it was Ielasi who crossed the finish line first and behind him Tosolini, me, and Paul. The difference after one hour final between 1st and 4th was only 15 seconds.

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Although we were really close to the title we were satisfied with a podium finish and of course with the cars’ performance. XRAY was the most popular car in the race with half of the best of 32 drivers in the world using an NT1. We had four cars in the Top 10. This was satisfying result for us.

Final Results:
1. Daniele Ielasi (IT) - 184L 60:17.246
2. Chris Tosolini (US) - 183L 60:05.849
3. Martin Hudy (SK) - 183L 60:08.242 [XRAY NT1, XRAY tires]
4. Paul Lemieux (US)
- 183L 60:15.271 [XRAY NT1]
5. Jilles Groskamp (NL) - 182L 60:06.295
6. Tironi Francesco (IT) - 182L 60:18.076
7. Martin Christensen (DK) - 173L 57:18.047 [XRAY NT1]
8. Adrien Bertin (LUX) - 139L 52:43.743
9. Teemu Leino (FI) - 112L 37:27.985 [XRAY NT1, XRAY tires]
10. Balestri Dario (IT) - 52L 25:17.506

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XRAY would like to thank everybody for a great and exciting World Championship. A big thanks goes to all XRAY drivers and customers for the ongoing support and trust in XRAY products and services. Thanks go to organizers for running the event and all other teams for making this race competitive and exciting.


Martin Hudy Set-up sheet.

Teemu Leino Set-up sheet.

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