Last round of Winter Jumps series was held last weekend at Helsinki. There was a hobby show called Model Expo. Track was quite big with lots of jumps and EOS carpet was the racing surface. Race started on Saturday with 2wd controlled practice, followed by three rounds of qualifying. Qualifying format was quite interesting with best result to count. After qualifying Joel Valander had a best time so he would be the TQ followed by Jörg Tiit and Joona Haatanen.
Joel Valander won the first final with comfortable gap to second place. Joona Haatanen won second leg. In third leg Jörg took the lead early followed by Joel. Joel got very unlucky mechanical failure and Joona won the last leg.
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2wd Final results:
1. Joona Haatanen 2. Joel Valander - XRAY XB2
3. Markku Honkanen
4. Jörg Miikael Tiit
5. Ari Heinonen
6. Karri Salmela 7. Tuomo Otsavaara - XRAY XB2
8. Jani Hovi 9. Lari Jäppinen - XRAY XB2
10. Pekko Iivonen
Joona Haatanen also won the overall series of six races (4/6) to count. Joel Valander was second and Ari Heinonen third. Sunday it was time for the 4wd class. Format was same as Saturday. Many drivers were struggling to find right timing for the jumps with the fast 4wd cars as the jumps where quite low but fast with short landings.
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Joona Haatanen got the TQ by 0.08 seconds in front of Joel Valander and Markku Honkanen. Finals were pretty tight racing. Joel wrecked on big double in opening laps in first leg, Joona took leg one. Second final was great battle between Joona and Joel. Joel was right in the gearbox of Joona but couldnâ™t get by. Joona won with 0.5seconds, and also won the race. Joel knew that if he finish second overall in the race, he would be crowned as overall champion. Last leg Joona won and Joel came to finish line with safe second place, and took second place in the race and first place in the championship!
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4wd Final results:
1. Joona Haatanen 2. Joel Valander - XRAY XB4
3. Markku Honkanen
4. Ari Heinonen
5. Lauri Ruotsalainen
6. Touko Silpola 7. Lari Jäppinen - XRAY XB4
8. Tuomo Otsavaara - XRAY XB4
9. Ari Koski 10. Toni Niinivirta - XRAY XB4
So Joel Valander won the overall series with 380 points in front of Joona Haatanen and Ari Heinonen.
Joel's comments:
"My XRAY cars were absolutely great whole weekend with Hobbywing and Highest electronics. I posted fastest lap of the race in both classes. This time track was just better than me. But still very happy to get the 4wd overall title, and second in 2wd is not bad at all! It was also nice to see that XRAY and EuroRC team was well re-presented in both A-mains."
