Round 3 of the Swedish National Cup was held at the beautiful new astro turf track in Karlskrona. The facility is newly built and maintains a great standard, and the club Karlskrona MRK organized a top notch race weekend for all participants.
The track was an open flowing layout with some interesting jumps and a fairly low grip type of astro turf.
In 2WD David Ronnefalk, who also lives in Karlskrona when he is not travelling the world racing, put on an exhibition of great driving skills when he swept all qualification rounds as well as the two first A-mains to take the overall win. What was left was for the other to fight for the remaining podium spots. Alexander qualified 3rd behind "Fredde" Mathiesen who had found good speed in his XB2. In the first A-main Alexander was unfortunately taken out in the second corner when trying to avoid running into Fredde going into a jump section.
(click to enlarge)
Alexander was able to re-focus and was able to go from last to third in the first final. In the second final the start was much cleaner, and the fight was on for second place between Fredde and Alexander. Fredde had an unfortunate landing after one of the big jumps and Alexander was able to pass and retain 2nd position going across the line. In the third final David elected not to start and Fredde and Alexander were going to battle it out for the runner up spot. Alexander was able to put pressure on Fredde from the start and after a couple of failed overtaking attempts he was able to make the move stick and get a gap and maintain the lead the rest of the race to secure second place overall and best placed driver under 17. Fredde was able to stay in second to secure third overall. Double XB2 on the podium!
In 4WD the race to try and catch David Ronnefalk was on again. David made a great round of qualification runs and was able to take the TQ spot. Alexander lined up second for the triple A-mains. The first round was quite uneventful for the top two cars where they got a gap to the rest of the field early on and David was alos able to get a good gap to Alexander and control it across the finish line. In the second run David made a first lap mistake and let Alexander by, and now the chase was on. Alexander was able to drive fast and hold his line making it hard for David to pass, after a couple of failed passing attempts, and some very sporting driving from David, Alexander was able to take the win by less than three tenths of a second. In the third final it was game on again and since no one else could challenge for the top two spots Alexander could go all out to try and pressure David. Alexander was able to stay with David for the first two minutes but soon after that made a small mistake but landed on his wheels, however that gace David the breathing space he needed and he was able to take advantage of it and control the race from then on. Still a great race and great to be able to race with David. Alexander secured second place and best placed driver under 17 in 4WD as well.
Hugo Bjurman who was driving really well this day put his XB4 on the third podium spot, so again a double podium for XRAY.
