Finnish Winter Jumps series was held 11-13 of March at new and interesting location. Race was held outside Finland at capital of Estonia, Tallinn. Drivers came from Finland, Estonia, Russia and couple else countries.
Friday was free practice day and we got to the track early to get lot of track time. Together with Team EuroRC / XRAY drivers we got cars to good setup for the track
2wd was held on Saturday. I was fastest after controlled practice round's. In qualifying I had couple mistakes but I was able to get solid positions and TQed one round. I was starting second on the grid behind Joona Haatanen.
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I was able to win first final as Joona made a mistake, and I won first leg with about 5 seconds gap to second place driver Jorg Tiit. In second final I was third as I made couple mistakes. In last final I capitalized Joona's first turn wide line, and went to inside. After that I was able to get a little gap as drivers behind me were fighting from positions and I finished first and won the race.
Lari Jäppinen also did a good job putting his XRAY XB2 to second position. Also Eeli Vieno did awesome job making his first Winter Jumps A-main!
XRAY XB2 was really easy and solid to drive with Hobbywing and Highest electronics.
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2WD Top-10 Overall:
1. Joel Valander - XRAY XB2
2. Joona Haatanen
3. Jorg Miikael Tiit
4. Max Mört
5. Jarno Siltanen 6. Lari Jäppinen - XRAY XB2
7. Markku Honkanen
8. Pekko Iivonen 9. Eeli Vieno - XRAY XB2
10. Samppa Orhanen
After 2WD race, we had 4WD controlled practice. After two rounds of practices, my best three consecutive lap times were almost second faster than anyone else. Car was awesome, and I was ready to go sleep.
Then it was time for qualifying and it went awesome for me. I TQed all four round's with two seconds or more. Karri Salmela was starting behind me and Ari Heinonen third. Lari Jäppinen, Hendrik Lainemae and Toni Niinivirta also were in the main with their XB4 '16 cars.
In first final Karri pushed hard behind me but then he made a mistake and I cruised to win with about 5 seconds gap. In second final I had a terrible first lap, as I hit the track marker and flipped my car and I was on the back of the field. In last main I decided to push hard right from the start. I did that and I was pulling gap to second place with fast lap times. I won the last final with a comfortable lead and won the meeting.
My XRAY XB4 2016 was clearly fastest car on track. Also other XRAY drivers did a good job, as we had four XRAY's in the A-final.
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4WD Top-10 Overall:
1. Joel Valander - XRAY XB4 2016
2. Ari Heinonen
3. Joona Haatanen
4. Markku Honkanen
5. Karri Salmela 6. Lari Jäppinen - XRAY XB4 2016
7. Max Mört
8. Samppa Orhanen 9. Toni Niinivirta - XRAY XB4 2016
10. Hendrik Lainemae - XRAY XB4 2016
