| Race report by Adrian Berntsen |
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The fifth and last round of the Norwegian National Winterseries was held on the weekend of March 14th in Moss, approximatley 50km south from Oslo, Norway. The race was held at the Borg Miniracing Clubâ s new permanent track, so weâ d had opportunity to do some pre-testing before the race. Due to the technical layout, I didnâ™t have a good feeling before the race, because I hadnâ™t managed with the layout in earlier practice.
When we came to the club race â“ which was, as always, held the day before the âśrealâť competition on Sunday â“ I surprised myself by putting down a much higher pace than in practice. I improved my fastest lap time from 12.0 to 11.4sec. This gave me a lot of confidence before the race on Sunday since my laptimes were faster than the other drivers.
So before the race on Sunday, it was clear that it wouldnâ™t be a battle between drivers for the 1st place, but rather it would be a battle for 2nd place between the other drivers. The big favorites for securing 2nd place were Tamiya driver Petter Berntsen, followed by XRAY driver Joakim Nicolaisen. |
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When the qualification round started, I set the pace and finished 26 laps @ 5:06:296. This would be the TQ time, because I couldnâ™t manage to drive faster than that in the other qualification round. The 2nd spot went to Petter who got 25 laps @ 5:10:568. This was 1 second ahead of Joakimâ™s fastest qualification round (he drove 25 laps @ 5:11:584).
Top 3 after qualification:
1. Adrian Berntsen XRAY T3
2. Petter Berntsen
3. Joakim Nicolaisen XRAY T3
For the first final, I made a clean start and pulled away from start to finish. Petter Berntsen had back luck and crashed. After the first five laps, XRAY held the top 3 spots. Me (1st), Joakim Nicolaisen (2nd) and Marius Nicolaisen (3rd). Unfortunately, Marius crashed and got a DNF. After a bad start, Petter started to catch drivers one after the other. He climbed all the way from 9th place to 3rd, only 0.4sec behind Joakim in 2nd.
In the 2nd final, we got a cleaner start than in the first final. I had a higher pace than the rest of the drivers with 0.5â“1.0sec faster lap times than the rest. Petter got his fastest absolute time in a final, and finished 1 lap ahead of Joakim in 3rd. We both made too many small mistakes, so I hoped for a clean run for the next final. However, it was clear that I had won the race and also won the overall national winterseries championship.
For the 3rd final, I hoped to make a clean run without any mistakes, and also make a fast run. I started with a very high pace, and kept running like that until the end. I had the fastest laptime of 11.336sec, with a median time of 11.399 after 27 laps. I drove 27 laps @ 5:07:783, two laps ahead of Petter who claimed 2nd place in the race and in the overall winterseries championship. Joakim got 3rd place in the race, but it was Christer Antonsen who got the 3rd place in the overall winterseries championship. |
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Top 3:
1. Adrian Berntsen XRAY T3
2. Petter Berntsen
3. Joakim Nicolaisen XRAY T3
Top 3 overall winterseries:
1. Adrian Berntsen XRAY T3
2. Petter Berntsen
3. Christer Antonsen |
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