This time the event was held in the small village Viskafors and hosted by Boras MRK. This is also an 8th scale clay track with some other surface materials as well. This track is a very high speed track with a fairly big jump section that is crucial that you are able to clear in one go consistently if you want to be able to compete at the top level. We had to tune the car to be really consistent over this section, and maybe sacrifice some grip in the slower twistier parts of the track. The car was still so well balanced so the loss of traction wasn't really an issue, the car was still really easy to control.
In qualification Alexander was able to TQ the first two rounds quite nicely, but Niclas Mansson TQ'd the next two rounds with a better third result, so Alexander lined up as number two for the three mains.
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In the first main Alexander made an early mistake and dropped down to 9th place during the opening lap. Niclas Mansson was able to carve out a gap over the field and could control the first final from there. Alexander started a frantic chase to get back to the top he was able to seek his way back to 3rd place rolling over the finish line only 0.9s behind the second placed car. In the process he was able to set a new lap record of 33.312s which was a really good place since no other driver in the final was lapping in the 33's.
In the second main Alexander started out a bit more conservatively, and this time it was Niclas Mansson's turn to make an early mistake Alexander took it easy and let the number three car by and had to wait for a couple of laps before he could find a way past. After that he was able to comfortably control the rest of the final from the front and finished first with almost a full 14s margin, again lapping in the lower 33's.
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This all meant that it was down to the last final to decide the winner, it was all between Niclas M?nsson and Alexander. After a clean start Alexander was running second after breaking free from the number three car. He knew he had to win to take the overall victory and started to try and reel in Niclas. Maybe the pace was a little too high and Alexander traction rolled on a concrete section and got a bit stranded in the grass. By this the race was practically over and we had to settle for 2nd overall. Still a really good result and a really nice fight with Niclas M?nsson. We also came away with the lap record by more than 0,2s so the car was working extremely well :-)
In the end this second place gave Alexander the overall 3rd place in the Swedish National Cup series. This also means an overall double podium for XRAY XB4 as the win was taken by fellow XRAY driver Malin Karlsen
