The first round of the Danish 1/8 Off-road Nationals took place on April 25th under nice sunny weather at the challenging track in Hilleroed â“ the famous NXC track north of Copenhagen. The track has some high-speed jumps and nice sweepers but also has a more technical part inspired by other international tracks like the NEO 2006 layout.
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Team XRAY was well prepared and had found a good basic setup, but setups were challenging as the morning weather was 5 degrees on a dusty track with low grip. During the day the conditions changed, and for the A main it was all mostly blue groove and 17 degrees. Changes like anti-roll bar, camber links, shock springs and tyres were the big things to play around with. Team XRAY used the new shock pistons with 8 holes and these worked very well, giving you the possibility to run a harder-damped car while still absorbing ruts & holes well.
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Qualifying
The first qualifying round was won by XRAY/Novarossi team driver Rune Gustavsen, second round was won by XRAY/Novarossi team driver Claus Nielsen. Third round went to Losi driver Silas Hogholt and the last and final round went to XRAY/Novarossi team driver Peter Harder. All in all a solid XRAY result.
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New in 1:8 off-road is experienced driver Jimmy Bigum, who for many years dominated the 1:12 pancar class. After qualifying, Jimmy moved up to the semi-final, but too many mistakes in his first nitro off-road semi prevented him from moving on.
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Finals
Into the final went Rune, Claus and Peter... along with 5 different car brands amongst the 10 finalists. Rune chose BowTie M3, Claus chose HotBodies Megabite and Peter Revolver M3. For Rune it was a bad choice as the grip was too high. For Claus the final was over early on due to a broken fuel line, but for Peter the car setup and Revolver tires proved to be good.
Peter took the lead in lap 3 and held it throughout the race. For a long time Jonas Karup and Silas Hogholt fought hard for the 2nd spot, allowing Peter to build up more margin. With 5-10 minutes left, both Silas and Jonas had flameouts and so Peterâ™s victory was well secured.
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Final results:
1. Peter Harder XRAY XB808
2. Silas Hogholt Pedersen
3. Tim Culmsee
4. Jonas Kaerup
5. Martin S. Hansen
6. Robert Hansen
7. Steffen Culmsee 8. Rune Gustavsen, XRAY XB808
9. Oliver Fischer 10. Claus Nielsen, XRAY XB808
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In total there will be 5 rounds of which 4 will count. The next round will be in 3 weeks at the SOS track south of Copenhagen.
