First ever official Swedish Touringcar Nationals was held February 22-23. Race was organized by BorÄşs MRK on their permanent indoor carpet track in Viskafors.
Track
The layout of the "Nat's" track was done about 2 weeks prior to the race and was ok. A little bit to many hairpins to be a really good racing track though, making it difficult to pass without touching...
Qualifying
View of the track (click to enlarge)
In round one was Joel Myrberg with his new TC3 car blistering fast sitting on the TQ spot in front of Mikael Fransson with his Xray.
Round two was even faster with Jonas Andersson setting the pace with his shaftdrive HPI prototype. Now in TQ spot in front of Joel and Mikael. This was the top-3 order even after all rounds being run, even though booth Joel and Mikael improving. Viktor Wilck with his Hara edition was fourth.
In total 5 rounds but the qualifying with just the best heat counting. If a round-by-round system been used Joel Myrberg would have been TQ as Jonas only had one heat better and faster then Joel.
Joel Myrberg ? Yes, you might have figured it out, its Andreas Myrberg's younger brother. He's been racing RC cars for only a little bit more then 2 years.
Final 1:
Final start (click to enlarge)
Jonas and Joel opened up a small gap but soon got together and Mikael got by for the lead. Joel was soon on his tyres again and closed the gap down to inches in the end. When Mikael totaly screwed up his finish, Joel got by and won the final with 0.001 sec. Jonas was third, Victor Wilk fourth and Daniel Holmesten was up from his 10:th qualifying to fifth position.
Final 2:
Front view (click to enlarge)
Shortly after the start Joel took the lead in front of Jonas. They tangled together some and Joel was on the outside of the track with the bodyshell on the inside of one of his rear wheels. He spun around some and crashed again and then the body was ok again. Meanwhile Mikael Fransson was leading comforably this time and won it. Fransson, Victor, Jonas, Joel & Niklas Johansson. Now it was only Fransson, Myrberg and Wilck that could win the championship - Jonas was not able to do it after his not so good results from the first finals.
Final 3:
Rear view (click to enlarge)
With Jonas not able to win it - nobody bothered with him taking off in a very comfortably lead. The driving behind Jonas was very nervouse and a lot of misstakes from most of the contenders. Mikael had to retire though with and broken rear wheel so he could just watch Victor trying to catch up Jonas for the win (Victor had to win the final to make it home). Joel made to many small misstakes and could'nt quite catch up Victor either. Joel had to overtake Victor if he would win... So even though Mikael could'nt drive his championship home on his own - he won anyway!
Multiple Swedish Champion Mikael Fransson took yet another championship with his Xray. This might be his 15:th campionship (most of them in 1/8 Track and 1:12) - impressive!
Results
Xray of Mikael (click to enlarge)
1. Mikael Fransson / Xray
2. Jonas Andersson / HPI
3. Joel Myrberg / TC3
4. Viktor Wilck / HPI Hara
5. Magnus Vässmar / Schumacher
6. Niklas Johansson / Schumacher
7. Daniel Holmesten / TC3
8. Alfred Widmark / TC3
9. Mikael Nilsson / Corally
10. Magnus Viktorsson / TC3
