pererik.nu

It's been a while since my previous post from the nordics, I've attended one more race during the time passed.

It was the swedish cup round 1 held in Eskilstuna on their 1/8th scale track. A really big one for 1/10th buggy which proved quite difficult for some people and not too bad for others.

Before the race a few things were quite clear.

1. Magnus Vässmar & Tommy Bergfelt were going to be super-fast in 4WD
2. The race management was going to be somewhat different
3. I wouldn't go home happy from the race. My history of racing in Eskilstuna pretty much underlines that statement

The race week was hectic as always since a lot of work had piled up after the nordics which were the previous weekend. Both the SP2 and FS2 cars were not prepared, the last one to arrive was the SP2 that I picked up on wednesday. I built that one on friday wanting to test a few things with the new chassis for the race, with my target to use it as a race-car for all dirt tracks including the euros, it felt important to try it out as soon as possible. I finished the last few details other than a few setup steps such as camber and ride height on friday evening, not leaving the track until very late. I only got a couple of runs of practice on friday since I wanted to get my new car ready, the track was not too easy to find the fastest way around in just a couple of runs since it was soo big, but I managed ok anyway.

The car was ready on time for the first timed practice on saturday, everything felt good, I opted to use the longer ball ends for my rear shocks and stick with the standard SP2 single mouting hole suspension arms with great success it seemed. My pace was ok in practice heading into qualifying everything felt good. A poorly glued tyre kept me from competing in Q1, Q2 on the other hand really turned the tables with proper tyres I set the TQ time with 7 seconds margin and a fastest lap time 1,2 seconds ahead of Otto Ausfelt's best lap. The remaining 3 runs was all about figuring out how the Proline Caliber tyres were working since it was my first time using them, a superb tyre indeed!

Finals went smooth except for another poorly glued tyre in A-main 2 (really embarrassing) made the race go to the third final were I handed Otto the lead for 2 laps until the order was restored and I was back on top.

I won the race ahead of Otto and the youngster Oskar Levin grabbing the last podium spot ahead of Daniel Persson.

Sunday's 4WD event was one to forget really, I found it hard to focus and couldn't really keep my head down during the day, neither was the car working very well feeling extremely loose through every type of corner, a bit understeery on entry and anything could happened while on power, not a very preferable scenario. Anyway I qualified third behind Magnus and Tommy as one would expect really. The last qualication round was cancelled since the rain started falling heavy from the skies allowing the finals to start earlier not to make the track too wet.

Once a-main 1 started the track was really wet making a boat seem more appropriate for that kind of racing. Anyway all cars made it to the start, 4 cars didn't make a full first lap and another 4 cars including mine broke down through the rest of the final. The first a-main was the last heat of the day since it proved too dangerous for the electronics to continue. Johannes Edren did the best job in the rain and won the race ahead of Tomas Karlsson and myself finishing in third place. For me it's a good result to come from the race with a win and a third spot, especially since the big guns in 4WD were still behind me, things are looking rather good in the Swedish Cup which also ranks for the Worlds next year.

My next race is the swedish championships on home soil on about one months time. The cars feel ok, both easy to drive, but I'm not expecting to be the fastest man out there, stability might prove decisive to my advantage on the other hand.