Last weekend it was time to start off the Swedish Cup series for the year. The evant was hosted by Karlskrona MRK and held at their indoor facility in Kallinge. As always with Karlskrona MRK the arrangement is excellent, and the operation with proper food cooked by the club right at the track is always nice. We must send a big thank you to the organizers for the effort and the friendly atmosphere.
In 4wd practice we had a very strange problem where the car was behaving badly in sharp left hand turns and easily traction rolling, which felt very uncharacteristic for the XB4, which normally is working well in these conditions. After some fault tracing we found that the motor in the servo had lost power and wasn't able to resist the forces in sharp turns, thankfully a change of servo solved the issues.
We used a basic setup for eos carpet, which worked good as a starting point, we made some changes during the day playing around with ride height and going up in diff oil, which improved the car a bit. We were also trying out some new ideas with the Hobbywing electronics that seemed to work out well....
In qualifying it was evident that several drivers were really quick, but in the end it was Elias Johansson who came out on top with David Ronnefalk lining up second and Alexander third.
In the firtst A-main Alexander stayed with the front pack for the first two laps, but then went just a bit tight on a track marker and got slightly stuck, and had to let Wilhelm Skjöldebrand by. They had a really good battle together for a few laps before a small mistake where Wilhelm left the door slightly open after the straight gave Alexander the possibility to re-take 3rd position.
Second main started less eventful and the race was very static. Elias and David pulled away slightly, but in the end David lost some pace and Alexander was able to catch up, but had to settle for 3rd again just 0.1s behind David.
This meant that Elias had secured the top spot going into the final round and opted out on the final round. David was then starting on pole and Alexander lead the chasing pack behind. David had secured a podium spot, but it was still open as to who would take the final spot. This was open between Alexander, Wilhelm and Hampus Berg. the fight was intense, and at one time they were all running three-abreast across a double jump... Alexander managed to stay in the lead of the chasing pack behind David, and in the end David stripped his spur gear handing Alexander the win and second overall. It is really nice to see how fast the top level of drivers in Sweden are going right now.
(click to enlarge)
4WD Buggy Results
1. Elias Johansson 2. Alexander Landen â“ XRAY XB4
3. David Ronnefalk
Again both cars have been working great and to come away with the lap record in 2wd in this competitive field feels really great!
