The third race of the FinTrack Tour took place on April 1&2 in Riihimäki, home of former European champion Juho Levänen. The tour was held in a nice sports hall and it was almost first time in use.
Again there were all top drivers in this race, with four European champions and several national champions so the race was very highly competitive.
The track was built a little differently than previous races in Kuusankoski and Ylistaro. The track had a technical layout, and stoppers was made from 50x100 wooden boards. The carpet got super-high traction due to the 1/12 race on Saturday.
According to FinTrack Tour rules, 1/12 and stock touring classes were raced on Saturday and Prostock and Modified touring classes on Sunday. Sunday started with two controlled practice rounds followed by âś2 of 3âť qualifying. After two rounds of practice in, it was clear that the track was more difficult than previous ones and almost everybody had problems to drive a clean 5 heat. In my set-up I only changed a camber link location to upper (inner) holes and made a small downstop change to both ends (more out travel 0,5mm). The car became very good and easy to drive.
Kyykkä Ari-Pekka (click to enlarge)
Crister Andersson took overall TQ followed by Simo Ahoniemi 2nd and Sakke Ahoniemi. XRAY had two cars in the final, with me in 6th and Ari -Pekka Kyykkä in 7th position with great driving. Vesa Yli and Pauli Helin were a bit unlucky all day and both were in B-main.
Standing after 3 round of qualifying was:
1 Andersson Christer
2 Ahoniemi Simo
3 Ahoniemi Sakke
4 Leino Teemu
5 Levänen Juho 6 Koivula Pekka XRAY T2
7 Kyykkä Ari-Pekka XRAY T2
8 Lehto Kalle
9 Vehniäinen Panu
10 Salminen Ari
(click to enlarge)
In the Modified finals it was expected to see very close racing between all A-finalists. It was also known that if you made any mistakes you would not win the race.
In the finals Simo Ahoniemi was most consistent and took the overall win of the race. Both XRAY drivers had good finals and very close racing with others. I had 7-6-4 positions while A-P had 5-7-7. My overall position was 6th and A-P´s 7th.
Final Results in Modified
1. Ahoniemi Simo
2. Levänen Juho
3. Ahoniemi Sakk
4. Leino Teemu
5. Andersson Christer 6. Koivula Pekka XRAY T2
7. A-P Kyykkä XRAY T2
8. Salminen Ari
9. Lehto Kalle
10. Vehniäinen Panu
The next round of FinTrack tour will be held in Laukaa, and the race is expected to be one of the biggest once again.
The standing after 3 round of national series are:
1. Sakke Ahoniemi
2. Christer Andersson
3. Juho Levänen
4. Panu Vehniäinen 5. Pekka Koivula XRAY T2
6. Vesa Yli XRAY T2
7. Teemu Leino
8. Pauli Helin
9. Jarno Siltanen
10. Simo Ahoniemi
