2015 1/8 scale Nordics were held in Vantaa, Finland. Racers came from Finland, Sweden and Estonia. Track was pretty technical with many jumps and tight corners but it was still pretty long. Lap times were around 38 seconds. Surface was hard packed clay and it went pretty rough on the finals day. I participated in the electric class.
Friday was a practice day with free practice, and two controlled practice rounds in the evening. It rained almost whole day, but track crew did good job and controlled practice started on time. Some drivers did not drive in those two practice rounds because it was still wet. I decided to skip first round and drive second round. Car was feeling good and I was ready for Day 2.
After 4 qualification rounds I was on 3rd place. There were four 10 minute long finals so anything can happen.
First A-main was really crazy. First lap was chaos and positions changed around. Me and Marcus Sandberg had a great battle in the front and we were overtaking each other. Then Max Mört catched us. Marcus made a mistake and there was 2 more minutes to go. Me and Max had amazing fight. Last lap Max made amazing pass on me when I over jumped big double. Almost right after that heâ™s car shut down. I cruised to win.
On second A-Main Max was unstoppable and finishing order was almost same as a starting order.
Third A-main I made a move on Marcus and I was second. Max was again on a great pace and I couldnâ™t catch him. I finished second of the round.
It was time for a last deciding A-main. I knew I had a shot for the win. But things went around before the race even started. One of my motor wires came loose on the warmup and my car came late to the grid. I had a drive through penalty and race was pretty much over. Next time I will check my wires for sure for mechanical stress!
I am still happy for a second place. My XRAY XB8e was really good. Final results Top 5:
1. Max Mört 2. Joel Valander ⓠXRAY XB8E
3. Sandberg Marcus
4. Lauri Ruotsalainen
5. Joonas Hyvärinen
