It is certainly like a dream come true. Being able to take the double on the first round of the Swedish National Cup is a really great start to the outdoor season!
The event was held at the Boras MRK track in the small village Viskafors. It was a great event, apart from the temperature that was between 5 and 10 degrees the whole weekend......
2WD
Saturday was 2WD day, and we were unsure where we would stand in performance, especially as we only had two practice sessions under our belt with the new XB2 DE kit. We had played around in testing with weight distribution and flex settings to find the right feeling, but had no way of knowing where we would stand in competition. In practice we felt that we were OK on pace, but we were surprised when Alexander was able to TQ the first round of qualifiers. By now Alexander was really starting to get to grips with the new car in race pace so he was able to TQ the second round as well and put in a second place result in the third round. By this, the overall TQ was in practice secured, which was nice going into the finals.
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In the finals a lot of pot holes and small bumps were starting to form on the track, so both finals got to be very eventful. Both of the first finals in the end came down to really tough battles with Niclas Mansson, but with good driving, and a little bit of luck, Alexander was able to take the first two rounds and stand as the final victor in his first race with the new XB2 DE.
4WD
Sunday was 4WD day. Compared to 2WD we knew quite a lot about the setup of the car going into the race since there was a Swedish National Cup race at the same track last year which we raced with the '15 car in a very similar configuration to the '16 car. The car worked really well with virtually no changes to last year's set-up, it actually just behaved even better, so we knew from the start that we were in with a good chance. Alexander was able to TQ the first three rounds, so he used the fourth round to try some new stuff just to learn something for the finals.
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By the finals the track had gotten even bumpier and a bit more of a lottery with all the pot-holes, so the first laps when the field was bunched up were always a bit exciting. However, in both of the first two finals Alexander was able to start pulling out a lead after a couple of laps and keep it under control until crossing the finish line. The car was working overall really well at this track on the combined surface, and the improvements of the '16 were quite apparent.
