It was a cold Friday morning after putting all the equipment in the car the night before I could get an extra 10 minutes of sleep. After meeting Amit on the way and drinking some coffee, we arrived at the track at exactly 1 minute before 8:00AM. Slowly, after more people and then race organizer Golan came and things started to move, time-keeper Dotan and referee Yusi arrived and the racing started.
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The day was divided into three heats of 7 drivers apiece (first heat: practice, 2nd and 3rd heats: qualifiers). I decided like I always do at Ramat-eishay to start with old rubber (not that old: 2 heats of 5 minutes old). The car was good and the engine worked perfect; however, I had a minor problem with rear end being too loose, then after the heat I discovered that the rear stabilizer was out (and fixed it).
The second heat was much better. Still using old rubber, by the seventh lap I was on provisional pole, with Nir in 2nd and Nir in 3rd. In the third heat (new rubber) the car had too much grip (all the time on GRP jolly A compound), so I had to back off a bit or the car would just traction roll. This allowed Nir and Yaniv to pass me. Nir ended up taking TQ, with Yaniv 2nd and me in 3rd. Danial who was driving an XRAY XB8-TQ ended second in the C-Main and he bumped up to the B-Main. Amit was running his first 1/8 buggy race and with the new Losi 1:8 buggy. After qualifying 2nd place behind Itzik in the B-Main (driving XRAY XB8-TQ) they started well. Amit won the main and Itzik came in 2nd; both bumped up to the A-Main.
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The A-Main started with Nir (driving SP2 wc) on pole, Yaniv (driving CL 1) in 2nd, and myself (driving XRAY XB8-TQ) in 3rd. Gil was 6th (driving XRAY XB8-TQ) and Itzik (driving XRAY XB8-TQ) was in 8th after bumping up from the B-Main. After clearing the first corner I made a mistake and dropped back a bit but I made it up to 3rd place to chase the leaders. From that point to mid-race it was Fight Fight Fight! with only a few seconds separating 1st and 2nd and 3rd.
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At some point I overtook Yaniv only to be passed by him a few corners later in midair; he jumped and landed a few centimeters ahead of me⦠one of the best moments of the day! After mid-race Yaniv developed brake problems so he backed off a bit which left me and Nir to fight for the lead. With only 1 minute to race ┠and the gap measured in mere seconds ┠Nir came up to pass some back-markers, and in the last lap I passed him for the lead and held it all the way to the end to win by 4.58sec! Yaniv came in 3rd, 1 lap down. The race was perfectly organized with great judging by Golan Levi and Yusi Stern and timekeeping by Dotan Halevi.
Results: 1 Dan Price XRAY XB8 TQ
2 Nir Sivan
3 Yaniv Levi
4 Liran Strugano 5 Gil Wertheimer XRAY XB8 TQ
6 Itzik Avidor XRAY XB8 TQ
7 Amit Bublil
8 Idan Kizel
