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| Race report by Adrian Berntsen |
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The 2011 Norwegian Championship was held on April 16-17 at Spydeberg which has been the venue for a lot of races during this indoor season. For a long time before this event, it looked liked there wouldnâ™t be any Norwegian Championship for the 1:10 Touring Car classes since we only had 10 drivers signed up for the race in each, while the Norwegian Federation rule was a minimum of 15 drivers signing up to make it a official Norwegian Championship. Luckily for both 1:10 Modified class and 1:10 Stock class, the Norwegian Federation allowed a minimum of 10 drivers to still make it an official Norwegian Championship. In the 1/12th scale class this was no problem at all, as approximately 30 drivers signed up, including three Swedish drivers who made their way across the border because they were extremely satisfied with the arrangement of the Nordic Championship earlier this season.
My biggest problem for this race was to keep motivated for driving the last indoor event, as many other drivers had found their way over to Miami to compete in the 1:8th scale IFMAR World Championship. So in between every qualification and final I followed the live feed from the US on the computer.
XRAY represented 50% of all the drivers (5 out of 10): Adrian Berntsen (me), Petter Berntsen, Joakim Nicolaisen, Marius Nicolaisen, and Petter Solvberg.
The qualification system in use was the round-by-round system with 3 out of 5 rounds counting.
During the qualification I won the first 4 rounds, which gave me the TQ spot in the finals. There was a big battle for 2nd place all the way to the last qualification round as both Petter Berntsen and Joakim Nicolaisen could take the 2nd place for the final. After 4 out of 5 rounds, Petter had three 2nd places counting, while Joakim had one 2nd place and two 3rd places. Both Petter and I faced problems and had to retire in the fifth and last qualification round, so this allowed Joakim to take the win in this round to make him overtake 2nd spot from Petter going into the final. The perpetually-unlucky Marius Nicolaisen got a clean run in this round to take 2nd place and 4th spot overall qualified. This gave Team XRAY all top 4 spots after qualification:
Top 10
1. Adrian Berntsen XRAY T3â™2011
2. Joakim Nicolaisen XRAY T3â™2011
3. Petter Berntsen XRAY T3â™2011
4. Marius Nicolaisen XRAY T3â™2011
5. Kjell Gunnar Guttormsen
6. Christer Antonsen
7. Petter Solvberg XRAY T3â™2011
8. Goran Langsholt
9. Gunnar Andersen
10. Tor Erik Wold
A-main leg 1
Before this final we knew that it would be a big battle for the Top 5 spot between drivers like me, Joakim, Petter, Marius and Kjell Gunnar. After the start signal, I manage to pull away from the field as Petter and Joakim crashed during the first few laps. This gave me a big lead, while Marius Nicolaisen overtook the 2nd place and Kjell Gunnar was in 3rd. Unfortunately for Marius he made a mistake in the middle of the race which cost him not only 2nd spot but he also dropped all the way down to 5th. Joakim and Petter started to catch up one driver at a time, with Joakim managing to get up and overtake 2nd place from Kjell Gunnar with 1 minute left on the clock. At the end of the first exciting final, I won approx. one lap ahead of Joakim Nicolaisen (2nd), Kjell Gunnar (3rd), Petter Berntsen (4th), and Marius Nicolaisen (5th).
A-main leg 2
In this final we got a clean start, and also this time I quickly manage to get away from the rest of the field. Since Joakim already had one 2nd place from the first final (while Petter only finished 4th), Petter had to push hard to get by Joakim to prevent Joakim from taking his second 2nd place finishing in the event. Since I was all by my own, I could focus on driving without making mistakes and cruise to victory becoming the Norwegian Champion for my fourth time in the four last years. Joakim and Petter fought all the way to the end, and when the clock passed the five minute-mark, Joakim finished 2nd once again, only 0.2sec ahead of Petter Berntsen in 3rd.
A-main leg 3
I was already crowned the 2011 Norwegian Champion and as I always do I drove the last final as well to make the fight for 2nd and 3rd as fair as possible. Petter had to win this final to take 2nd place overall, while Joakim only had to finish in front of Petter or hope that I would win this leg as well to secure him the 2nd place overall. As the final went off, everything looked to be just the same as the last final. I managed to pull away from Joakim and Petter and the rest, while Joakim and Petter were fighting for positions. Joakim managed to stay in 2nd until he made a mistake and went a little too wide in a corner, and let Petter pass him. Unfortunately for Joakim, he rolled in the same corner as he and I had an accident when I was lapping him. But anyway, I finished 1st in this final, while Petter finished 2nd and Joakim 3rd. This made the young talented XRAY driver take 2nd place overall which is his best ever result in the Modified class in Norway. Petter, on the other hand, was a bit disappointed by finishing 3rd as he felt he had the pace to finish better. But still, it was a good result for XRAY, as all the three podium places all went to Team XRAY.
Top 10 overall
1. Adrian Berntsen (TQ) XRAY T3â™2011
2. Joakim Nicolaisen XRAY T3â™2011
3. Petter Berntsen XRAY T3â™2011
4. Kjell Gunnar Guttormsen
5. Marius Nicolaisen XRAY T3â™2011
6. Christer Antonsen
7. Goran Langsholt
8. Petter Solvberg XRAY T3â™2011
9. Gunnar Andersen
10. Tor Erik Wold |
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