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| Race report by Andres Käver |
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The Baltic Off-road Championships 2011 (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) were held this year in Latvia at Turaida track. Everybody arrived at Friday midday, training runs where planned at 15:00h and one timed run at 19:00h. Weather promised to be fine, 28°C and sunny.
At first glance the track surface had very fine sand/dust and lots of it. Especially after jumps, landings were really soft. The layout was pretty simple, primarily European style â“ no big jumps. In the middle of the track was the only challenging piece, a smallish rhythm section.
Training started at the planned time, and everything seemed to be fine. But then after 10 minutes of running, engines started to run rich. We made some adjustments, and went back to the track again. And then at the 18-minute mark, we suffered total bog-down ⓠno more power⦠the same thing happened to everybody! We were absolutely confused about what was going on. Then we sadly discovered that sand/dust had clogged up the air filters and had already gotten into the engines. Bearings were dead, pistons/sleeves were almost totally worn out.
We stopped the training and I went into full-on âśengine repair mode.âť I dismantled all the team RB engines, cleaned and changed the bearings, prepared air filters for the next day. Each qualification run was done with a new filter installed.
On Saturday we had 1 training + 5 qualifying runs. It was decided that the track would be watered after every two runs. The local fire station organized long hoses and a pump for getting water at a nearby pond. So qualifiers went okay at least dust-wise, so it was down to almost bearable levels. However, it was abundantly clear that engine health would be a problem, and no matter what they tended to die at refueling.
After qualifiers, Team Estonia had 8 drivers in the Top 16, including TQ Ron Mamers on XRAY/RB. And once more I dismantled all the engines and cleaned/changed bearings. |
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On Sunday were the finals.
From 1/4 finals, three more Estonians bumped up to the semis. And after the semis, there were 7 Estonians, 3 Latvians and 2 Lithuanians who would form final starting grid.
The Buggy final was a 45 minute race in dust. Since it was really hot and sunny, watering helped only little â“ it dried up almost immediately.
Starting grid for finals:
1. Ĺ teinmans Jurijs LV
2. Ilus Kuldar EE
3. Tiit Jörg Miikael EE
4. Laidna Lauri XRAY XB808/RB EE
5. Virkus Romet EE
6. Mamers Ron XRAY XB808/RB EE
7. Sinkevicius Taurius LT
8. Treijs Roberts LV
9. Vilčinskas Igoris LT
10. Ankravs Jānis LV
11. Käver Andres XRAY XB808/RB EE
12. Ilus Robin EE
The start was a real mess as several cars flamed out, including Ron and me. So at least 4-5 cars started from pit lane. Steinmans had good rhythm and he got away cleanly at the start, chased hard by the Estonian XRAY/RB team â“ Lauri, Ron, and me.
We were reeling him in slowly, then I suffered a flameout⦠then another flameout after refueling. I yelled down to the pits to raise the idle speed on Ronâ™s and Lauri's engines, just to keep them running. Then of course we lost our brakes somewhat because the idle was so high.
At the 40 minute mark, it was down to Steinmans, Ron and Lauri. Jörg had fought for 4th place with Roberts, and I was down somewhere around 7th place. After 42 minutes Steinmans had problems, suffering a broken wheel axle after a bad landing. Ron cruised to victory, Lauri got 2nd.
Jörg had fought with Roberts right down to the finish line, but unfortunately (for them) I caught up with them a few corners before the end. I passed them cleanly, then Roberts tried to pass Jörg but overshot the corner and hit me. We tangled up somewhat and Jörg got safely into 3rd. Sorry Roberts!
So the final result was: |
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1. Ron Mamers XRAY XB808 Estonia
2. Lauri Laidna XRAY XB808 Estonia
3. Jörg Miikael Tiit Estonia
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