The Swedish Nationals 2005 took place in Borås near Gothenburg. We arrived on Friday before lunch time. The track was a multi-surface track with clay, gravel, asphalt, cementstones and wood with two jumps. It was free practice first on Friday afternoon and then timed practice for re-seeding. After the first timed practice Magnus Pålsson Xray/Siro was 4:th and myself (Niklas H) Xray/Siro was 7:th of a total of 80 drivers, it looked very promising for the qualification.
On Friday night it started to rain and it stopped on Saturday morning, so it was a total different surface on the track. Magnus and I did not run the second timed practice for reseeding because it was so wet on the track. The track started to dry up and it was time for qualification rounds.
After two rounds and the two first heats in round three it started to rain heavily so no one raced the five last heats in round three. There where a driver meeting, because nearly the half of the track was under 10 centimetres of water. It was decided that it was no meaning to race any more heats. So the standing after the qualification was: Magnus in 4:th and I was 28:th. I made some wrong tire choice and the motor flamed out in one of the heats because of too low idle. On Sunday it was time for the finals. It stopped raining once again in the morning and the clouds went away so the track started to dry up fast. At lunchtime it was time for my final.
(click to enlarge)
The motor was good, the car was handling excellent and it was extremely fast on the track. After three laps I was second and I was in the lead the next lap - I never lost first place. I won my quarter-final easily with nearly half a lap and my best lap time was 33,19 nearly a second faster than the day before.
(click to enlarge)
I raced in the same semi-final as Magnus. Magnus was invloved in a crash at the start and I moved to 5:th place after the first lap. On the third lap I started to have radio interference at the same place every lap, it was full throttle or full brake so I lost several places and because of that and I inished in 9:th place. After the start crash Magnus was driving fast and took position after position and ended up in 4:th place.
source www.miniracing.nu (click to enlarge)
In final Magnus started in 9:th place. It was a very close race, in the front Linus Thern went away. Racing for second position it was a battle between four drivers for 30 minutes Magnus, his brother Mikael, Robert Gustavsson and Christoffer Svensson, they changed position several times. In the end it was Mikael taking 2:nd position and Magnus 3:rd.
1. Linus Thern
2. Mikael Pålsson 3. Magnus Pålsson XRAY XB8
Our next race will be the Scandinavian Championships in Hilleröd, Denmark.
