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Two weeks ago we had the final in the Swedish Cup, it was held at MK Eskils new track that probably is the worldâ™s longest measuring in at 536m! Mk Eskil will be the host of the 1/8track EC 2016.
Because of my work and general time in life I didn't have time to go practising on Friday so I arrived early on Saturday so that I could try the track in free practice before my official practice heat. The first impression of the track was that it was huge and LONG! The infield is quite tight and then there is a long straight which ends in a really cool banked curve. I didnâ™t really get a good feeling because there were cars everywhere so I decided to wait for my official practice.
I changed the clutch so that I could have more bottom end control to handle the tight infield it gave me a better feeling and I could start to learn the track.
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Practice went ok, and I had the best lap time but I was still learning the track. In the first qualification I changed to harder springs and just tried to do a clean run and that didn't work but I was still fastest. The second qualification I changed the differentials to a softer front that gave me better control in the infield, this time I managed a descent run and I was the only one making 10 laps, my best lap time so far was 31.5s.
In the third qualification I went a bit quicker but made a mistake and didn't improve. In time for the fourth qualification when I was about to try harder tires in preparation for the final it started to rain so no one improved.
In the end it was me first with Nicolai Hvid second and Jose Castro 3rd.
I arrived early on Sunday to test tires for the final during the free practice, the track had really high tire ware and I didn't want to change tires but the car was not good at all on harder tires so I prepared my mechanics to do a tyre change.
The final started quite bad, when the track opened my radio started to warn me about low battery....I quickly borrowed fresh batteries and managed to do some warm-up laps. I got a really good start and got a way good but then my nerves played some tricks and I almost got caught up by the rest of the field.
I managed to calm down and started to pull away, nothing really happened for me other than I started to feel the tires getting smaller and smaller but I was still the fastest and at 25minutes I was leading by quite a few laps.
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My tire change went excellent! Thank you Mackan and Hans! Short after I lost my focus and went over a curb quite hard which made that my 1st gear broke, my lead was so big so I had time to get a new gear that my mechanics quickly got in the car and I was out again. Because of the gear chaos I wasn't called in for my fuel stop so I ran out of fuel, this cost me 3 laps but I was still in the lead.
Then I lost my focus again and hit a curb and ended up on the roof.....this time it was enough for a steady driving Jose to take the lead. When I was up and running I was a lap down but I could push the car and gain between 1 and 2 seconds per lap, during this period I set the fastest lap of the race 30,7s and just at the last fuel stop we went in the pits together, when we exited I was just at his tail and after the straight I made the pass and started to pull away. When I had about a half lap lead I just took it easy to not mess it up again and that was enough for me to win.
Considering the lack of practice I am quite happy with the car but there is more to find out at this unusual track.
Joining me on the podium was Jose Castro in second place and Hans Elmerfors in third place also running a XRAY NT1 2015. Rune Stokka placed his NT1 at fourth place and ?ke Törnros finished seventh also driving an NT1. |
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1. Mickael Brandt â“ XRAY NT1
2. Jose Castro
3. Hans Elmerfors
4. Rune Stokka â“ NT1
7. Ake Törnros ⓠNT1
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