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Robert Gustafsson continues his series of wins by taking TQ and win at the 2nd round of Swedish Off-road cup.
1. Robert Gustafsson - XRAY XB8TQ
2. Andreas Edvinsson
3. Mikael Pålsson
4. Christoffer Svensson
5. Ken Johansson
6. Per Carlsson
7. Fredrik Mathiesen
8. Mikael Svensson - XRAY XB8TQ
9. Lars Carlsson
10. Niclas Sjoqvist |
| Race report by Robert Gustafsson |
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This past weekend MSK Kvarnvingarna hosted the 2:nd round of the Swedish cup, and is based in mid Sweden. Finally the weatherforecast was great a couple of days before the race, and the sun shined most time of the weekend and no rain appeared. The airtemp was between 12-18 with a bit of winds.
In the first practice round and first timed practice Andreas Edvinsson (Mugen/Picco) from the hosting club was flying on the track and was consistent. A few changes had been made for this year to improve the track, and it was really a succes. People had fun and the layout was gonna show its gonna be a tough and tight race all the way to the finishline.
The first qualifyinground was won by Cristoffer Svensson (Kyosho/RB) who really showed he adaptded well to the track and set the fastest overall qualifyingtime with 9 laps in 5.30. At the end of the qualifying i manage to get the TQ position with a win in the 2nd round aswell in the 3:rd and 2 second place finishes. |
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| Even though i didnt have any clear round in the qualifiers i manage to get the TQ, i made some stupid mistakes in every round, and i knew if i could improve a bit more i had a good shot of the win on the sundays finals, this was definately a race where you couldnt afford many mistakes. |
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In semi A there was many well known drivers, Mikael Svensson XRAY/OS, Andreas Edvinsson Mugen/Picco, Niklas Sjöqvist Mugen/RB. The first 5 minutes me and Mikael Svensson had o close battle, both of us got a quite big gap to the rest of the field and both of us could drive a bit relaxed knowing we would make the main, Mikael made some small mistakes and i managed to get the semiwin. Following me from semi A was Mikael Svensson,Andreas Edvinsson,Niklas Sjöqvist and Lars "pro" Carlsson.
In semi B we could see fast drivers as Mikael PÄşlsson Mugen/Ninja, Per Carlsson TT/OS,Cristoffer Svensson Kyosho/RB. And also David Ronnefalk Kyosho/RB made the semi, who definately will make many a-mains in the future with his very young age. Mikael PÄşlsson pretty much hade the lead from start to finish and was closely followed by Per Carlsson and Cristoffer Svensson, the other 2 who made the main was Fredrik Mathiesen and Ken Johansson.
After the semifinals i was walking the track and was quite amazed to see how well the track held up, the organizer had treated the claysurface with dustex and it was making the track really slick and kept the bumps away, there was only 1 single pothole, other from that the track was like in the first practice saturday morning.
In the A-main we could see Robert Gustafsson XRAY XB8TQ/OS, Mikael Pĺlsson Mugen/Ninja,Mikael Svensson XRAY XB8TQ/OS,Per Carlsson TT/OS,Cristoffer Svensson Kyosho/RB, Andreas Edvinsson Mugen/Picco, Fredrik Mathiesen Kyosho/RB, Ken Johansson Mugen /OS,Niklas Sjöqvist Mugen/RB and finally Lars "Pro" Carlsson Mugen/OS.
I was in pole after having the best semitime. The start went off well without to many crasches, and i manage to keep my lead, but on the 3:rd lap I made some mistakes and Mikael pÄşlsson got really close and tried to pass me but there was not enough room for the pass and he hit a concretecurb and went on the roof. When i went into my first fuelstop i was in the lead, but
surprisingly shortly after it i was notified by the speaker that Andreas Edvinsson was in the lead and i was 2:nd, and Per Carlsson was closely behind me and we got into a fight for 2.nd spot for about 10 minutes, and by that i knew Andreas was on cruise and could drive safely and relaxed, at the most he was almost half a lap ahead of me.
After 25 minutes i was safely in 2:nd place, and i knew that i had to go faster to catch up with Andreas, and i also knew i had one more fuelstop less than him, so i pushed my XB8TQ as much as i could, and i could see i inched up on him, and i managed to keep my car on the wheels even though i drove a bit on my limits making the cornermarhalls nervous everytime i passed them:-) |
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| Around 38 minute mark i got close up behind him and we had our fight for first spot, i managed to make the pass 5 minutes to go and i knew also Andreas had 1 more pitstop to do, so i knew i had the win if i kept it on the wheels. I got a gap to 2:nd spot and i drove slower to keep the car on the wheels, and i did and got away with the win. |
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This was a great weekend, no one was granted anything other than close racing, and it was offcourse a great feeling to get away with this win. My XRAY XB8TQ once again worked awesome with only some small changes from my basesetup.
Robert Gustafsson/Team XRAY |
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