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| Race report by Adrian Berntsen |
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The fourth and final round of the Norwegian national outdoor series was held at Sorlihavna race track in Lorenskog, just outside of Oslo on Sunday 4th of August. The race saw a record entry of drivers with 27 drivers attending in the 1:10 touring modified class which is more than any other races this season. For myself, this was the one and only race I was able to take a part of this season.
Sorlihavna racetrack is a pretty small and technical track which suits the modified-class perfectly, and this track is my favourite TC track in Norway. I decided to some practice earlier in the week to find a good base setup before the event on Sunday. Unfortunately heavy rain on Saturday made the track complete different and the traction on Sunday morning was very bad and the car went from âśpretty goodâť to really bad.
As Q1 started, many drivers struggled to finish their 5 minute heats without troubles. The only driver to finish his race without trouble was Xray driver Oskar Fjeld who actually sat his fastest overall qualifier in Q1. After Q1 were I lost 9 seconds after suffering a âśbody tuckâť actually in the middle of the straightaway, I was sitting 2nd but I knew that I could pretty easily have had the TQ spot if it wasnâ™t for the problems.
In Q2 nobody overtook the TQ spot, but both Georg Ellingsen, Tom Erik Haaversen and Thomas Holmesland, all driving Xray improved their time and passed me in overall result as I again had problems as my car made randomly spins and I also had to be marshaled a couple times.
So for the Q3 I made big changes on my car, with changing to softer shock oil, softer rear diff oil and adjusted the droop in the rear. This all helped a lot, but now the car went from super oversteered to super understeered. But I knew that I just had finish my heat, then I would probably be TQ even though the car was not perfect. At the start of my qualifiers, I was able to drive pretty fast and consistent and was aiming for a 23 lap run, approx. 8-9 seconds ahead of the final TQ time, but just after the 4 minute mark, I got a DNF as I broke my rear belt.
This meant that I had to start from the 6th position in the final as also Rune Svestol also managed to beat my âśfastestâť qualifier time. Thomas Holmesland managed to take the TQ honour with 1,5 sec in the last qualifier driving an impressive run. Xray had 6 cars in the final, which in fact were the 6 first cars.
So for the finals I had a big job to de as I for all the finals needed to pass 5 cars in front of me to get into the lead and take the overall win.
In the first final I had just decided to go all in. I actually overtook Rune Svestol who started 5th right from the start, and tried to put some pressure on Tom Erik and Georg who was 3rd and 4th. Thomas (1st) and Oskar (2nd) pulled away already on the first 2 laps. So when I passed Georg and Tom Erik I had to catch up on the two guys in the front. After 7 laps I was able to overtake the lead from Thomas and after that I just focused on driving safe without mistakes, and in the end I cruised in to Leg 1 win 6 seconds ahead of Thomas who finished 2nd. Roger Berntsen finished 3rd from 8th position!
In leg 2 I knew that I just had to do the same as in leg 1, but in the start I had a roll when trying to pass Georg who was 3rd of 4th and I then dropped down to 8th. But even though this made my job even harder I still had that faster pace than any of the other drivers in final and I was still able to take the win in leg 2 aswell, 7 second ahead of Thomas who finished 2nd also in this final. That meant that I also secured the overall win.
In Leg 3 I also managed to take the win. Oskar and Roger were battling for the 2nd place in this main and also for the overall 3rd place. Thomas got a DNF in this run, but he was still secured 2nd spot overall after coming 2nd in the first two finals. In the end Oskar was able to take the 2nd place in this final while Roger finished 3rd. This meant that Oskar took the overall 3rd spot in the race. |
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| Top 10 final results |
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1. Adrian Berntsen - XRAY T4
2. Thomas Holmesland - XRAY T4
3. Oskar Fjeld - XRAY T4
4. Roger Berntsen
5. Kjell Gunnar Guttormsen
6. Georg Ellingsen - XRAY T4
7. Tom Erik Haaversen - XRAY T4
8. Rune Svestol - XRAY T4
9. Arild Andersen
10. Stig O. Alstad
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| In the overall series the battle for the win was between XRAY drivers Thomas Holmesland, Oskar Fjeld and Christer Antonsen. But with Christer only managing to get in the C-main at the last event due to suffering with speedo overheat, his chances was pretty much already spoiled. That meant that the title was going to either Oskar or Thomas. Even though Thomas finished better in the last race, Oskar stilled had more points than Thomas, and therefore Oskar A. Fjeld took his first Norwegian National Outdoor series overall win! Congrats to him! |
| Top 3 overall series |
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1. Oskar A. Fjeld - XRAY T4
2. Thomas Holmesland - XRAY T4
3. Kjell Gunnar Guttormsen
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