Kodal RC hosted the second round of the Norwegian Championship. Rune Berget and Sturla Braten represented Team XRAY Norway along with two other good Norwegian XRAY drivers Kim Juliusen and Patrick Mork. The track was very well prepared for the race and the weather was extremely good at around 30°C and sunshine the entire weekend. Free practice started on Friday, on Saturday there were five qualifiers, and the finals were on Sunday. Around 50 drivers were present at the event, with sponsored/factory drivers from Kyosho, Hobao, Associated, Losi and XRAY.
After qualification, Rune Karlsen was on top followed by Rune Berget, Ketil Pettersen and myself in 4th place. The TQ driver qualified directly to the main final (45 min). Rune Berget and I started 1st and 2nd in our semi-finals (20 min). We drove safely and ended in 1st and 2nd in our semi. XRAY driver Kim Juliusen came in 3rd place in the other semi, so we had three XRAY drivers in the main final. Patrick Mork lost the bump-up from the semi by one position. This was his first race with XRAY, and he as very happy with his car's performance.
(click to enlarge)
In the final I got off to a clean start, and battled for the lead for the first 15 minutes before something strange happened to my car. After the final the front diff felt very hard; we still haven't found out what was wrong. I also had two stops due to an optimistic fuel strategy. Rune Karlsen won the event ahead of Ketil Pettersen. Rune Berget was in 3rd until his engine stopped at 5min before the end.
1. Rune Karlsen
2. Ketil Pettersen
3. Morten Thorkildsen
4. Pal Lovdal 5. Rune Berget XRAY XB808
6. Kim Juliussen XRAY XB808
7. Jan Erik Kronheim 8. Sturla Braten XRAY XB808
9. Per Tore Pettersen
10. Jan Erik Kasa
11. Ronny Myhre
14. Patrick Mork XRAY 808
We were very happy with the cars' performance this weekend, and we mostly ran the same setup. No large adjustments were needed throughout the weekend.
