The race saw the classes of 1/10 electric modified, 1/10 nitro touring and the class I participated in this time, 1/8 nitro track. Most competitors was at the track during the whole of Friday doing free practice, and the Saturday saw both 2 controlled rounds of practice, and then qualification for the Sunday finals.
When the qualification finished at the Saturday evening, the top 5 was separated by only 0.5 seconds, making this one of the closest 1/8 Track qualifications Sweden has seen for a long time. I finished 3rd in the qualifications, giving me the first starting position in Semifinal A.
After 41 minutes of driving, Niclas Nilsson was in the lead, just ahead of me, with 3rd place car being several laps behind. It all came down to the last pitstop. He went into the pits, and I stayed out for a couple of laps more. Then I came into the pits and my father refilled the car over 1 second faster than any of my previous stops, giving me room to full throttle out of the pits, getting out ahead of Niclas. I pulled out a small gap to around 1,5 seconds, and even though Niclas made some really fast laps in the end, trying everything to catch up, it was to late and I was able to cross the finish line 0.8 seconds ahead.
(click to enlarge)
1. Markus Hellquist - XRAY RX8
2. Niclas Nilsson
3. Niklas Johansson
