| Race report by Søren Boy Holst |
|
After a long winter season with some really good results, and an overall 2nd place in the championship, it was time for the first race of the outdoor season. For the first time ever that I can remember, I wasnâ™t prepared for this race. I had been very busy with work and a lot of personal stuff, so I didnâ™t even have a chance to look at my car before this race, and had had no practice at all.
The first race of the championship was held on a big nitro track in Næstved, 80km from Copenhagen. The weather forecast was promising for a dry race, but the skies didnâ™t look like they were going to cooperate |
|
(click to enlarge) |
| On Friday night I went to the track to go through 2-3 batteries of practice, but this was ruined due to interference on my Spectrum unit â” for the first time ever. My practice was limited to 3 meters. Saturday morning was race day, and I had changed back to my transmitter with regular frequencies. Since it was my first time ever on asphalt with the T2, I had no idea about the set-up, so I had to try a lot of different things. I never really found a good set-up, but it got better during the race. |
|
|
After the first round of qualifying, I had the TQ spot with a 2sec lead over the next driver, but in the next round Pelle Martin made a better time than me. In the third and last round I improved, but the time was not better than Pelleâ™s, so I had to settle for 2nd start position on the grid. Actually it was quite close in the top 6, with only a few seconds were separating the drivers.
For the first final my car felt okay. It was still to loose with the rear end, especially in two of the turns, but I could control the slides. Pelle took the start from Pole and I was behind him, closely followed by Johan Eskildsen. After 2 laps I made a mistake on a curb, and dropped to 4th place. I had to push the car a lot, but got closer and closer. Johan was in 2nd place and Søren Lorentzen in 3rd (also making errors), so I got closer. In front Pelle had problems with the motor, and had to retire. I passed Johan and Søren, but I had a big battle with Søren right behind me. He had more motor power than me, and was gaining on me, but at the second last lap Søren made a mistake, and I could cruise home for victory.
For the second final I tried changing my front tyres to get more steering, but this was a bad idea. My rear end was sliding even more now, and not only in two turns this time. Pelle again had a good start, and pulled away from the rest of us. My car was very difficult to control this time, so I had a very hard time keeping Johan behind me. We changed positions a couple of times, and suddenly Michael Præst was behind us and started to participate in the battle as well. So there we were⦠three cars right close to each other, changing positions several times. On the very last lap, I got on the inside of Johan, but my rear end slipped and I dropped down to 4th place. Michael passed Johan in the very last turn before the finish line, and took 2nd place. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
For the last final everything was open. I changed back to my âśoldâť front tyres from first final. The start was fine for all of us, I was right behind Pelle with Johan behind me. My car was better this time, but once again Pelle was a little bit faster. I tried to catch him but I couldnâ™t, so I just drove carefully and tried to save my power, maybe I could get lucky that Pelle would dump or something. After 4 minutes I was lucky, Pelleâ™s car stopped once again with motor problems, so I could drive home on cruise control and take the overall win. Johan was behind me, but not close enough to be a threat.
So the first time out with the T2, I got maximum points. This time the luck was on my side, but I plan to be much more prepared for the next race.
Final results of round 1 of the Danish Championship
1. Søren Boy Holst XRAY T2
2. Johan Eskildsen
3. Pelle Martin
4. Søren Eskildsen
5. Michael Præst XRAY T2
6. Ken Flydal
7. Michael Ravn XRAY T2
8. Søren Lorentzen |
|
