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T4 on podium at Finnish Nats R1
Dec. 04, 2015
Linked to:   XRAY T4 2016 Specs
 
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First round of Finnish touring car national series FinTrack-tour was run 28.-29-10.2015 at an old warehouse called ‶Bunker※ in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. This year FinTrack-tour consist of 4 indoor races and 2 outdoor races and classes to be run are Modified, 13,5t blinky ProStock and 21,5t blinky Stock. This years spec tire is the same as the popular ETS series, so Volante 28 V5 is used. Ideal location near the harbour brought many Estonian drivers to the race and also Russian drivers came with great numbers.

Track made by the organizing club Fullspeed RC was smallish and really challenging, featuring a high speed shicane after the main straight and some pretty narrow parts. From the practice it was clear that the track was a real challenge with quite low grip.

Qualifying:

In Modified first two rounds were fight between Karri Salmela and XRAYdriver Henry Salmén, Karri taking the first round and Henry taking the second round. 3rd round saw Karri showing dominant run while 12th scale ace Vesa Yli, Joni Minkkinen and Eetu Pesonen had close battle for second place, with Joni getting the second spot for the round. 4th round had Karri again taking the round and securing the overall TQ while Kalle Lehto got up to speed getting second before the XRAY of Henry Salmén.

Modified A-final grid for the finals:

1. Karri Salmela
2. Henry Salmén - XRAY T4
3. Kalle Lehto
4. Joni Minkkinen
5. Vesa Yli
6. Eetu Pesonen
7. Tomi Mairue
8. Tony Raikas
9. Jussi Kankaanmäki - XRAY T4
10. Markus Afelt

Finals

First final was pretty much straight forward from qualification with Karri and Henry running away from the rest of the field, Karri winning the final and Henry coming second with Kalle 3rd. Second final saw mixing up in the order with Salmela breaking his car and Salmén making mistakes leading for Kalle Lehto and Joni Minkkinen 1-2.

For the last final Karri, Henry and Kalle had possibility to win the race. Kalle got taken out right off the start and Karri cruised to victory after some pressure by Henry on the first two minutes.

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Modified top 10
1. Karri Salmela
2. Kalle Lehto
3. Henry Salmén - XRAY T4
4. Joni Minkkinen
5. Vesa Yli
6. Eetu Pesonen
7. Jussi Kankaanmäki - XRAY T4
8. Tony Raikas
9. Tomi Mairue
10. Markus Afelt

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Stock

Stock class had strong showing by Eetu Laaksonen, winning 3 out of 4 qualifying rounds and all 3 finals. Joonis Oksanen ran great finals getting second from starting 4th on the grid with Estonian driver Risto Haug rounding out the podium.

Stock Top 10
1. Eetu Laaksonen
2. Joonis Oksanen - XRAY T4
3. Risto Haug - XRAY T4
4. Jona Oksanen - XRAY T4
5. Tero Niskanen
6. Mikko Mäkelä
7. Leevi Loukola
8. Miikka Luhta
9. Pekka Kuronen - XRAY T4
10. Jukka Laaksonen

ProStock

Vesa Yli was the class of the field in ProStock class, winning 3 out of 4 qualifying rounds and winning last two finals taking the win. 1:5 Offroad European Champion Jörg Tiit fought to second place with Markus Afelt getting 3rd.

ProStock top 10

1. Vesa Yli
2. Jörg Tiit
3. Markus Afelt - XRAY T4
4. Marko Vähäkuopus
5. Lasse Ilvessalo - XRAY T4
6. Sami Salmela
7. Lauri Malinen - XRAY T4
8. Tuomas Afelt - XRAY T4
9. Risto Haug - XRAY T4
10. Hans Hannus