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Top 3
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| Race report by Anders Myrberg |
Drivers
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On the weekend of August 12/13, the Väst-8 club (www.vast-8.se) hosted the 2nd official Swedish Championship for electric touring cars.
After having the hottest summer in 100 years, we were confident that this would be a very good race, but after being at the Worlds in Italy and the Euros in Germany, the rain seemed to follow us wherever we ended up racing. |
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Andreas' car
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| Racing started with free practice on Friday, and most drivers were out checking if and how the cars would work on this track under wet conditions. Different to the tracks in Italy and Germany, this track becomes as slippery as ice since there is quite a lot of Nitro racing going on leaving all sorts of oil and stuff on/in it. The conditions were going to be very tricky when the track was wet. More rain was better, but this track soaks up the water pretty quickly, so "balance" was the key word for good lap times. |
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The racing format was the best 3 out of 5 qualifiers. Control tires were Sorex 36R for dry, and Pit 20 D for wet. Because all drivers were using the Protoform Mazda6 body, it seemed that we could have almost designated that body as a control body without complaints. Or was there one Stratus 3.0 all-purpose?
The first round in quite dry conditions saw Alexander Hagberg take the win ahead of close buddy Niklas Nilsson. The "favorites" had all sorts of troubles but for the next round, they seemed to have their equipment in better order. |
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Andreas won this one fairly easily ahead of Joel, Alex and Viktor. Following this round, Andreas also won the 3rd, Joel the 4th and Alexander again the 5th rounds. So, Andreas was on TQ with Alex in 2nd, followed by Joel, Viktor, and Jonas
Andresson in 5th.
The finals were a challenge for all drivers as no-one really knew what to expect.
Andreas had some trouble with his car, and had to start from the pit in the first final. Definitely NOT what he had planned for his TQ spot. |
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Joel in rain
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| When the signal sounded, Joel took off and was never seen again. He was flying and was a 1/2 lap up on Viktor in 2nd after only a few laps. It seemed so easy for him, that he actually lost concentration for a moment and went off into the grass, losing 7sec. This didnâ™t make much of a difference, as he won with 7sec anyway. |
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The 2nd final saw some more action, as everybody now discovered what made Joelâ™s car so fast. He had changed the direction of the pattern on the front tires; who except him would even think of testing something like that?
Well, with all tires adjusted on all cars, the A was on its way. Andreas had a good start, as did Alex. They battled for position for 1/4 of the first lap, and when they got together for the 2nd time, they were also hit by other cars. From nowhere, Viktor took the opportunity to fly by, and got a huge lead before everybody else got their cars in the right direction. |
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| Joel was again very fast and worked his way up to 2nd, and started to chase down Viktor. Each lap he caught up a bit, but with the extremely slippery conditions he went off on the grass, and lost plenty of positions. Andreas meanwhile, having been striked out twice, had an ill-handling car. But he did not give up, and after Joelâ™s trip into the grass he moved into 2nd place. In the drama, someone turned poor Alex upside down, and his car looked like a bug on its back; unfortunately, he could really never recover from the distance he lost. |
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| As time was running out, Joel was catching Andreasâ™ "adjusted" car, and with one corner to go, Joel passed Andreas to take over 2nd place. At that time, nobody realized that this move was to decide the whole championship later on. So for the third and final A, Joel and Viktor were the only ones that could win. To everybodyâ™s happiness, the sun and some serious wind came out in time for the third A, drying up the track quickly and giving some serious traction. So, finally, we where able to see some real action. From the word âśgo,âť Andreas said âśBa-byeâť to everybody. Alex did great and took home his car in 2nd, with Viktor in "safe" distance. Joel was taken out with a massive T-bone smash, and his car really never performed well after that. |
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Podium
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In the end, Joel won with his 1st & 2nd. Andreas with a much better time due to a dry track beat Viktor on the same points. Had he been able to keep Joel behind him in the 2nd final for only one more corner, he might have been champion. Thatâ™s close⦠but itâ™s also already history.
Final results:
1: Joel Myrberg XRAY T2
2: Andreas Myrberg XRAY T2
3: Viktor Wilck XRAY T2
4: Jonas Andersson
5: Alexander Hagberg XRAY T2
6: Niclas Larsson
7: Per-Erik Nordman
8: Mathias Larsson
9: Mikael Nilsson
10: Niklas Nilsson XRAY T2 |
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