| Race report by Greger Landén |
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Last weekend the Swedish championship in tenth scale buggy was held at the Karlskrona MRK outdoor race track. Firstly we must congratulate the organizing club, because they put on a great event with full food service during practice day and even breakfast service during the race days, much appreciated by many racers.
The track is a very nice facility and has an all astroturf layout. Grip level is not very high and the character of the grip takes some getting used to. Friday was practice day and we ran both cars during practice. The XB4 was almost spot on from the start, but the specific grip of the track posed some challenges in finding the right balance for the XB2. we ended the day with an OK feeling, but maybe not great. |
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| 2WD |
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Saturday was 2WD day. After the practice session the previous day, we had made some over night changes, including going to a softer wind on our Hobbywing motor. The weather was also very moody and rain and sun was coming and going quite frequently, so the race got delayed at the start but once we got going it was quite obvious that the changes we had made had worked out really well , and the car was working really well in both wet and dry conditions. The track is also the home track of full time raver and 8th scale world champion David Ronnefalk, so we knew we had or work cut out for us to be able to battle for the win. First qualifier went really well for Alexander until the last lap where he misunderstood the message from the lap counting system and thought he had finished when in fact he had one more lap to run, this cost him a bunch of seconds, and he finished fourth in the round as David took TQ honors that time. Second round went better and with no mistakes on goal passages Alexander managed a second in the round with David yet again on top.
The race was stopped and re-started several times on account of the weather, and at this point it was declared a wet race, so now tire choice also became a factor. In the third round Alexander managed to TQ as well as in the fourth round that was really wet, where our car worked really well.
This meant that both David and Alexander had two TQ rounds each, but David got pole on a quicker tie breaker run. So top three starting order was David, Alexander and Wilhelm.
In the first round of the finals David made a first lap mistake, and let the other guys through, this meant that Alexander coudl take the win and David finished second. Second final no mistakes were made and Alexander and Elias got locked in a battle for second position which let David run freely at the front. adn could take the win. By this Alexander and David had both gotten a 1-2 which meant that only those two could win the event, and that they at worst had a second place. Since David was really quick when running undisturbed the only thin Alexander could do was to try and stay with him in the beginning and try and pressure him, so all chipson one bet was the strategy. Sadly Alexander made an own mistake pretty much identical to the one of David in A1, so the race was lostat the first lap. Anyway a really good result!
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| Top 10 2WD |
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1. David Ronnefalk
2. Alexander Landén - XRAY XB2
3. Elias Johansson
4. Wilhelm Sköldebrand
5. Niclas M?nsson
6. Henrik Karlsson
7. Calle Svensson
8. Marcus Lind
9. Hugo Bjurman - XRAY XB2
10. Markus Andreasson
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| 4WD |
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Sunday was 4WD time, and the weather was much better. The race could be run in virtually all dry conditions. Alexander was on pace from the start and it was all through qualifications a game between David and Alexander who were really quick and all rounds ended up David first and Alexander second, so they lined up first and second for the finals with Elias again in third.
First final got off to a good start until the last part of the first lap for Alexander where he slightly touched a pipe going in to a double and lost some speed and in the process got tangled by another car. This left him on the roof and passed the loop in tenth place on the first lap. He now picked up the chase and manged to pass almost the entire field ending up in second place behind David when crossing the line for the finish, Good job and a good showing of the speed of the XB4
Second round was again a clean start, but David's car got caught by the wind going over the first big jump, and came down like a leaf blowing in the wind. In its bouncing around David's car collected Alexanders on landing and they were now both way down the order. Bad luck for both and one of those things that just can happen. They both pushed their way up the field and they finished 2nd and 3rd respectively with Elias taking the win. Top three finished within 0,7 seconds of each other!
Third round we had three possible winners in all the top three qualifying cars, but again we saw Alexander in an incident on the first lap where he was hit by another car going over the second double and again fell down the order, which in practice ended his chances to get the top spot. David won the round and secured the overall win, and Elias came in third which handed him second place, and Alexander took the final step on the podium. Congratulations to David for the double Swedish championship win, we knew it was going to be tough, but at least we made him go the full distance in the finals :-)
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| Top 10 4WD |
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1. David Ronnefalk
2. Elias Johansson
3. Alexander Landén XRAY XB4
4. Niclas Mansson
5. Hugo Bjurman - XRAY XB4
6. Wilhelm Skjöldebrand
7. Marcus Lind
8. Rasmus Thulin
9. Lukas Larsson - XRAY XB4
10. Calle Svensson
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