Round 3 of the Spanish National Championship was held on July 11-13 at the Valladolid track. Except for a few raindrops on Saturday, the weekend weather was perfect: slightly cloudy with temperatures around 25°C.
Qualifying saw Edu Escandon (XRAY/SIRIO), Victor Pelaez (XRAY), Xabier Arana (XRAY/MEGA) , Inaki Pahissa (XRAY/MAX), and Mikel Angulo (XRAY/MEGA MF) among the first 10 drivers. Rain started lightly falling in the 3rd round of qualifying, and the organization decided to halt the race and wait until the track dried out. Despite the track being dry, times didnâ™t improve so it wasn´t until the last round when the final results would be decided.
XRAY driver Edu Escandon (click to enlarge)
During this round only Josue Artiles (SIRIO) managed to improve his time. The rest of direct qualified included Oscar Cabezas (3rd), Xabier Arana (2nd) and Edu Escandon setting a magnificent pole position for XRAY; he was the only driver capable of making 17 laps in this track, setting the fastest lap and the track record.
Qualifying results: 1. Edu Escandon XRAY NT1
2. Xabier Arana XRAY NT1
3. Oscar Cabezas
4. Josue Artiles
5. Juan Hidalgo 6. Victor Pelaez XRAY NT1
7. Hugo Santos XRAY NT1
8. Carlos Peracho XRAY NT1
9. Inaki Pahissa XRAY NT1
10. David Jimenez
SEMI-FINAL B
Semi-final B saw Victor Pelaez and Carlos Peracho running away from the rest of the pack. The two of them battled until Carlos run out of tires, leaving Victor in 1st place. Unfortunately, XRAY driver Carlos Peracho couldn´t manage to finish the semi-final due to tie wear and this left the door open to Cayetano Martinez and Israel Solis.
SEMI-FINAL A
Semi-final A was led by Juan Hidalgo followed by I?aki Pahissa for the first 5 minutes, until I?aki made a mistake which left him with almost no possibility of winning⦠and moreover he also ran out of fuel. Later on Juan hidalgo had engine trouble and this allowed for a very tight battle between five drivers of whom only 3 would qualify for the final. Of these five drivers, Javier Alonso had problems with tire wear. Finally, those who qualified for the final included Mikel Angulo (XRAY/MEGA), Pedro Azurmendi (XRAY) and Hugo Santos (XRAY/SIRIO).
Finalists (click to enlarge)
MAIN FINAL
The final was led by Josue Artiles from beginning to end. Edu Escandon followed Josue until he had to make a tire change. Victor Pelaez ⓠafter a great start ⓠpaced him in 3rd place and would have been benefited by his strategy since he wasn´t going to make a tire change. Unfortunately, his engine broke around the 10min mark, leaving him in 10th place overall. Hugo Santos (who had the same strategy and didn´t made a tire change) ended up in 2nd place overall. After changing tires, Edu made a wonderful recovery and finished in 3rd place overall.
Final results:
1. Josue Artiles 2. Hugo Santos XRAY NT1
3. Edu Escandon XRAY NT1
4. Oscar Cabezas
5. Cayetano Martinez 6. Xabier Arana XRAY NT1
7. Israel Solis 8. Mikel Angulo XRAY NT1
9. Victor Pelaez XRAY NT1
10. Pedro Azurmendi XRAY NT1
Team XRAY - 6 XRAY drivers made it to the main final (click to enlarge)
