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Race report by Dotan Halevi
The 2010 Israeli national racing season for 1/8 buggy and truggy first race was full of action. The renewed track at Rishpon was finished just a week before the race, so practice in race conditions was very limited and the track surface changed every heat. It got rougher every time, very slippery at some areas, and very sticky in other areas. The front active diff did a very good job with its variable lock characteristics at the different grip levels of the track.

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The level of the top drivers has also increased as old drivers returned and new drivers joined the national league (new to the league, not new to racing). At both categories making the A main was a lot more difficult and nothing was certain. Even qualifying was closer than ever and every millisecond made the difference.

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Our truggy team did very good job. Ofer Rozen won the first semi and secured the 2nd starting position for the final. In the second semi, Hovav Siboni finished 3rd. Hovav made the final the second time and it’s only his second race! The newest member on the team, Kobi Cohen, changed places with Hovav the whole time and only because his engine flamed out didn’t made final. The truggy final was very hard on cars and drivers as the track was in very bad shape by then. After the 30-minute final, Ofer finished 3rd only 2 seconds behind 2nd place driver Yaniv. It was definitely a promising start for the season. Hovav finished 7th which is very good for his second time racing.

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Our buggy team also did very good job. Gil Werthaimer had returned from a year off and after getting his senses back he made it all the way from the ?-final to the A final and 7th place. Tomer Grinberg was last year’s truggy champion who made the switch to buggy and joined XRAY. This was his first race ever with a buggy and without any practice beforehand he made it into the semi-final; he probably could have made the A final but an engine flameout took that chance away. Ronen Alkalay drove well as always but had also engine problems and didn’t make the final.

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As for me I had a quite interesting semi-final as I battled closely for the lead with Koki Anton and Nir Sivan for few laps, then I had two flameouts probably because one of the exhaust gaskets got out of place. Thanks to my team I rejoined the track quickly and took 4th place. In the final I started 7th and even before the first turn I was knocked back to the very back. I took it easy and safe the next few laps using other driver's mistakes to move up and few laps later I took the lead. I held the lead until the finish and took home the victory.

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Buggy final results:

1 Dotan Halevi XRAY XB808

2 Alon Maltzov
3 Guy Rinkevich
4 Amit Bublil
5 Golan Levi
6 Paul Price
7 Gil Werteimer XRAY XB808
8 Omer Assayag
9 Nir Sivan
10 Yaniv Sivan

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Truggy final results:

1 Nir Sivan
2 Yaniv Sivan
3 Ofer Rozen XRAY XT8
4 Tzahi Seeik
5 Or Cohen
6 Itzik Vanunu
7 Hovav Siboni XRAY XT8
8 Boaz Odani
9 Omer Assayag
10 Aviv Maimon