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Round 4 of TORC was held in Bumod Bursa on 3-4th of October. Weather was rather cooler this time, relative to Round 3 which was held couple month back. Race was also decided to run in counterclockwise, opposite to normal direction.
I came to the track on Friday for some free practice, to test different engines and also to see how my Efra setup would perform on this low traction, open layout track.
As I quickly realized that my original Bumod setup was significantly better, I did some changes towards that direction, and then I was more comfortable driving the car.
Saturday was scheduled to run 4 practice and 4 quali runs for 4 categories, EP stock and mod, GP 1-8 and 1-10. It was nice to see some new faces, originally running off-road but now decided to give a try to Nitro Touring, with NT1 chassis. Nearly all of them did pretty well, they got used to it really quickly.
In practices and qualifiers I continued to make small adjustments to the car which further improved drivability and corner speed. At the end of the day I TQed 3 runs already which put me directly to the final. Sunday morning, 5th round was also run, and after the super pole action and semifinals, grid completed for the main final. It is unfortunate that many XRAY drivers had very unlucky problems in Semis, but thatâ™s racing. We still had 3x NT1 in Main final, me, Halit and Alain, all contending for the podium.
Race started well for me as I quickly opened a gap to the rest of field, and took control from early on. In 25 minutes, I had my scheduled tire stop which also went faultless thanks to Umut Turkay and Fatih Esen. In the end, it was maybe the cleanest race for me with no mistakes at all, finishing 8 laps in front of XRAY driver, race organizer, Kankaların Kralı Halit Korpe, who also had a fast pace but suffered from couple flame outs and offs during the race.
Back in field Alain had some problems as marshal lifted his car from fuel tank strap, opening the cap and pouring all fuel at the back of the car. He lost a lot of time but climbed back to 4th position at the end.
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1-Mustafa Alp-NT1
2-Halit Korpe-NT1
3-Mert Ekinci
4-Alain Sarafyan-NT1
5-Serdar Sakallıoglu
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This year with switch to Team XRAY, I saw that NT1 is truly the most durable and reliable car on the market. I did not have one technical failure on the car at all 4 rounds, which also helps mentally as I trust the car more and concentrate only on my driving line, and setup of the car.
In the end of this season, I won all 4 rounds counted by TORC, to have another National Title.
Overall standings:
1-Mustafa Alp-NT1
2-Halit Korpe-NT1
3-Kubilay Kutuk-NT1
I want to thank my sponsors XRAY, Team Ncrc, Efmod and Hipex for their continuous support. Huge thanks to my mechanic Umut TĂĽrkay and Fatih Esen, as well as my family & friends who always supported me. Last but not least Halit Korpe, race organizer and best XRAY teammate. Thank you all
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