The eighth race of 2011 season was the final race of the season, and the title was going to be decided on the results of this race. The season was composed of eight races with two throw-outs. I didnâ™t participate in the first two races. In the third race I was leading but a bad battery connector came loose and caused me to finish 6th. After that I won the next four races in a row, but because I had no spare races available to me, the gap from 2nd and 3rd places in the league was tight and I needed a perfect race in order to win the national title.
Qualifying
Qualifying was kind of hit-and-miss for our team. I had two good run which gave me the TQ. Rami Ksantini showed that good practice gets good results, and got 7th place. Aviv Maimon had a good pace and looked promising for the final, but suffered engine problems and qualified only into the quarter-final along with Asi Bitton, Guy Michael and Erez Even Hen (my trusty mechanic!).
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Buggy Final
Quarter finals: Despite changing to another engine, luck wasnâ™t there for Aviv as his engine failed on him again, ending his race sooner than expected. Asi also suffered from engine problems. At the end, Erez and Adi bumped up to the semi-final.
Semi finals: As the semi-final began, I started first and held that while Yaniv Sivan right behind me. We stayed pretty close for several minutes and than I started to push harder and opened a safe gap which also gave me pole position for the main final. Rami Ksantini showed again that he has good pace and got himself the 8th starting position for the final.
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Main final:
The final began and I immediately pulled away from the field. After several laps I made a mistake and Yaniv Sivan passed me, only to have his own mistake soon. From this point I pulled away again securing my lead with a safe gap. When pit stops were about to take place, Yaniv ran out fuel. From that point my lead was secured and I only had to take the car to finish line in one piece. Nevertheless, I kept stretching my lead even more, making it three laps over the entire field, showing a strong finale to the season.
My mechanics during the final moments of the race, were looking more nervous than.
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Race No.8 Buggy Results:
1. Dotan Halevy XB808 2011
2. Yaniv Sivan
3. Meir Azulay
4. Dan Price
5. Paul Price
6. Itai Atedgi
7. Guy Rinkevich 8. Rami Ksantini XB808 2011
9. Or Levi
10. Omer Assayag
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Truggy Final
Right from the start, Aviv Maimon (who started 5th), quickly was fighting for the lead. After several minutes of battle, he settled for 2nd. He held this position to the end and secured his 3rd place for the season.
I would like to thank XRAY for their amazing cars and support; this was really a great season for all of us. I'm already looking forward to the next season and to race as much as possible with these amazing cars!
