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The Reedy Race of Europe took place last week at the Glostrup track in Denmark. This club will host the upcoming European Championship next month. This was a good opportunity for all drivers who would attend the Euros to get some practice.
The Nordic Championship was held at the same track and same weekend. This championship is a qualification only for the Scandinavian drivers to qualify for next year's Euros. |
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| Team XRAY was represented by Juraj and Martin Hudy, and from Sweden came Victor Wilck, Alex Hagberg, and the Myrberg brothers. Last but not least was Soren Boy Holst who raced on his home track this weekend. The Swedish XRAY team attended the Nordics with some other big names like Teemu Leino and Steen Graversen. In the Reedy Race, it was Martin and me who represented XRAY. Other names in the invitational class were Marc Rheinard, David Spashett, Barry Baker, the Ahoniemi brothers, and many more. |
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| Free practice started on Friday morning. With a wet track from the overnight rain, most guys kept their cars clean and didnâ™t practice. In the afternoon the track finally dried up⦠show time! In the early practice sessions it was clear that the track was very difficult setup-wise. Most teams struggled a bit to find traction but mostly steering! The track is quite small and most corners are off-camber to make it challenging. This means that the car got more understeer then normal due to the anti-banking. At the end of the day, all XRAY cars looked pretty good and well balanced. |
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At this race most team drivers used the new 2mm chassis which is made for low/medium grip tracks like here.
The chassis got slightly more grip, which was very important at this track.
On Saturday the race started. The race format for the Nordic Championship was four qualifications on Saturday and two more on Sunday with three best rounds out of six rounds. On Sunday followed by three finals with the best two counted. The Reedy Race was in final format like all Reedy Races with four final rounds on Saturday and four on Sunday. The best six out of eight rounds would count for points. |
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| In the first round of the Reedy race, I had a great battle with current World Champ Marc Rheinard. Both Marc and I had a big lead over the rest of the field. A minute before the end Marc finally got by and won the first final just 1 second ahead of me. Martin struggled a bit with the start and had to fight his way through. At the end of the day it was Simo Ahoniemi who had three wins, and Marc second with two wins. I retired in the last final to save my tyres after a driving error. |
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| After Saturday Juraj and I decided to change set-up. To increase steering we raised the rear roll-center for more turn-in. We changed the camber links to increase camber change. To get a bit more steering I changed from 30W oil to 25W oil in the front. |
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| Sunday morning started pretty good with a win. Not! After the race, my car was 4 grams underweight. I forgot to check the weight after heavily rebuilding my car⦠Oops! This dropped me far back and I had to fight back. The last three rounds of the day were pretty good and I won all three. The best final was with Marc, Simo and I battling for the win. At the end of the race it was Marc Rheinard with the overall win, Simo Ahoniemi second, and me in third place. David Spashett and Barry Baker finished fourth and fifth respectively. If that one of my wins was not cancelled, I would have the same number of wins as Marc and would finish maximum at 2nd position, unfortunately with the cancelled one win, I dropped to the third position. |
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In the Nordic Championship Teemu Leino dominated with Steen Graversen in second. Third place was Victor Wilck with his XRAY. This time we didnâ™t win but we had found important information for the upcoming Euros.
Final thoughts: |
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- All XRAY cars looked really good and were very competitive.
- The new XRAY option parts worked great.
- The track was pretty small and difficult to find a good set-up for all conditions.
- It was a good practice weekend for all and Iâ™m looking forward to the Euros. |
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