There were a lot of participants once again and a lot of changes in some of the top drivers equipment. Current Greek National Champion, Harris Katikas had just changed from his trusted Losi XXX-S Graphite to a brand new Xray FK05, along with one more Losi driver, Antony Antoniou.
(click to enlarge)
The race started with the 1st heat of qualifying. I missed this heat as I was preparing my car for the slippery conditions with some setup changes. In this heat Papachristos made a good run and had the provisional pole with a time of 17laps in 5:13:482. Harris Katikas also made a descent run with his new FK 05 and was placed in 2nd place.
(click to enlarge)
In the second round of qualifying I managed to take part as I had just put together my car after changing shock oil, springs, height, roll bar settings and a few other details.
I would start this first and final chance to qualify from the back of the grid as I had no time in the 1st round of qualifying. As soon as I heard my number for the staggered start I managed to overtake the cars in front on me quite easily. My car handled incredibly well and I could position it between other cars with great accuracy. Power as always was very good. In the end I managed to TQ this run and also take pole position for the finals with a time of 17 laps in 05:08:502. The rest were as follows:
The finals were up next and everyone was ready for a good show.
In the first final I was very confident that I could maintain my good performance from qualifying and that I wouldnâ™t be threatened by anyone. Little did I know of what was about to happen!!
My car took of well from the 1st spot on the grid but when we approached the 1st high speed corner ..snap!. the back end was way out and then a few meters later I was doing donuts in the racetrack! I tried to get back with the rest of the field but the car was all over the place completely out of control! Finally I managed to get into a rhythm with absolutely feathering the controls of my transmitter in order to fight the instability I was suffering. Somehow I managed to climb back to second place but very far behind 1st place man, Harris Katikas with his new FK05. Vagellis Papachristos who was in second place on the grid suffered some problems with his motor and failed to finish in a good position.
(click to enlarge)
After this final I went back to the pits to check what was wrong with my car and the handling was suddenly so bad. Unfortunately I did not have enough time to check my car carefully so I went to the second final with no major changes.
The result was again the same. For some reason the car was just sliding completely out of control and I could not make it go straight. I decided to pull over to the pits as there was no point in trying to drive it. In the meantime Harris Katikas was absolutely flying with his new Xray T1FK05 and took another victory securing his overall win of the race. In the 3rd final I decided to run just to pick up some points. I ended in 8th place, again facing terrible handling problems. Harris won this final as well, clearly being in complete control of the whole field and enjoying driving his new car.
Final overall positions after the 3rd final were as follows: 1. Katikas Harris XRAY T1FK05
2. Papachristos Vagelis Pro4 3. Antoniou Antonis XRAY T1FK05
4. Gavriilidis Vasilis Pro4 5. Doukakis John XRAY T1FK04
6. Nikolakopoulos Nick XRAY T1FK05
7. Tolis Vagelis Pro4
8. Zacharopoulos K Losi
9. Mitropoulos Dimitris Pro4
10. Eleutheriou K Tamiya
(click to enlarge)
So this race marked the debut of the new FK05 and what a debut it was! It won all three final rounds in the hands of new team member Harris Katikas proving what a fast and easy car it is to drive.
So a big congratulations to Harris for his excellent performance and very well deserved win as well as for all the racers for putting a great show in this extremely high speed racetrack!
