Adrian Bernsten dominates Rd2 of Swedish Nats

The 2nd round of the Swedish Nationals was host by MHF Skarpnäck on ”Flatenbanen” in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden and Norwegian racer Adrian Bernsten sent us this report. The race was held during the weekend of 4th – 5th June. Classes included were 1:8th scale and 1:10th 200m. I competed in both classes using Xray cars and Capricorn engines. This track is the biggest in Scandinavia and we had approximately 18seconds laps with the 8th scale cars, and 20seconds laps with the 10th scale. This track really showed the difference between good and bad engines. Even though top speed was important, the track was also pretty technical so you also needed good bottom power as well. With my Capricorn LAB-E01 SQ engine in my NT1 and the Capricorn LAB21-BC engine in my RX8 I didn’t have any problems with the power at all, as my engines was of the best during the whole race in both classes.

My father and I traveled to Stockholm already on Wednesday evening to get to practice the whole day on Thursday and Friday to hopefully get to the track to put pressure and fight with Alex Hagberg on his hometrack in the 1:10 200mm class. Already on Thursday I found the pace in both classes so when Alex also came on Friday we had almost the same pace.

Other Norwegian attending this race was the fast Xray driver Lars Haugen. He arrived on Thursday evening and he had no problems founding the pace and again the Xray RX8 proved how good and competitive it is.  As most of the Swedish drivers arrived on Friday, the three Xray RX8 drivers Lars Haugen, Christoffer “Tosse” Hedlund and I were the fastest during practice.

Qualification

1:10th scale
In the first qualification round it was I that TQ’d with 21 laps @7:17:105. Alex finished 2nd in this round with 20 laps @7:02:686. Young talented Swede Markus Hellquist finished 3rd with 20 laps @7:13:161. Both Alex and I faced problems in the 2nd round and, while Markus improved his time to 20 laps in 7:08:986. No one improved their time in the 3rd round, but in the 4th and final round we had the “rocket round”. I started good and was heading forward to improve my TQ’ time by 4 seconds. Unfortunately I traction rolled and lost almost a lap. Therefore I was sure that Alex would beat my best time, but he finished in 21 laps @7:18:692, 1,5 seconds behind my TQ time. Therefore I had the TQ for the final. Xray driver Mackan Göransson took 3rd position overall by making it 20 laps in 7:07:281, while Markus dropped to fourth. But since they in Swede drives with the old final-system, we four was directly qualified to the final.

1. Adrian Berntsen 21 laps 7:17:105
2. Alexander Hagberg 21 lap 7:18:692
3. Mackan Göransson 20 laps 7:07:281
4. Markus Hellquist  20 laps 7:08:986

1:8th scale
In the first qualification round it was Marcus Lindner who TQ’d with 22 laps @7:01:888 in front of Patrik Sahlin with 22 laps @7:06:812, and Bengt Andersson with 22 laps @7:14:118. I made a mistake early on in this round, and lost too much to make it even top 4. Anyway, I managed to put in the fastest laptime of the whole event with two 17.9 second laps in a row. Also Xray drivers Lars Haugen and Christoffer Hedlund who both had the pace to go into top 4, faced problems during the first qualification round. But in the second qualification round I drove a very good run finishing 23laps @ 7:12:508, 7 second faster than TQ time from first round. Marcus Lindner kept his time from the first round, while Bengt Andersson improved his best time to 22laps @7:03:335. In the last qualification round it was very close between the drivers and it was many drivers that could claim the top 4 spots and therefore go directly to the main final. In the end I TQ’d in front of Marcus Lindner, Bengt Andersson and Christoffer Hedlund. Niklas Johansson got the unlucky 5th position, only 0,2 seconds behind 4th place.

1. Adrian Berntsen 23laps @7:12:508
2. Marcus Lindner 23laps @7:14:180
3. Bengt Andersson 22laps @7:00:782
4. Christoffer Hedlund 22laps @7:02:733

Final

1:10th scale
Before the start of the final, the most people expected it to be a fight between Alex and me. Both of us planned to drive the whole final without tire change. Alex ran 40-42SH while I ran 42-45SH. As the final started, I took the lead in front of Alex, and we got a small gap to the rest of the field. But after only a few laps, Alex made a mistake in the difficult chicane, giving me a chance to drive without anyone putting pressure on me. I had a approximately 5 second lead into the first refueling. Then I got a stop’n’go for bad refueling, I wasn’t supposed to have. The referee gave the stop’n’go to me while it was Micke Brandt who should have it, since our car bodies was “quite similar”. There the youngster Markus Hellquist overtook the lead, and since he drove with 37-40SH I had no chance of making the gap smaller. Alex also was driving fast until someone crashed into him and broke his rear shock.  So now the fight was between Markus and me. Markus had approx. half an lap lead when he went in for tire change. This allowed me to overtake the lead by 1,5 lap. Markus had fresh new tires and continued driving superfast and really showed that he is a man to follow in the future. When we passed the 45 minute mark, I won by 10 seconds ahead of Markus Hellquist in 2nd, while Micke Brandt finished 3rd. My tactic worked perfect, and tire wear and so on was exactly as my father and I expected.

1. Adrian Berntsen
2. Markus Hellquist
3. Mickael Brandt
4. Mackan Göransson
5. Andreas Böök
6. Staffan Karlsson
7. Josè Castro
8. Martin Aberg
9. Sonny Ahlström
10.Alexander Hagberg

1:8th scale
When the final started I was not very confident since I missed the three warm up minutes, and went directly to the start line. Therefore I used a few laps to get into the car, and when I finally manage to push I manage to get a growing gap to the other drivers. When we had passed the 15-20 minute mark I had lapped the entire field once and had a big lead I manage to keep. Due to the old asphalt and high tire wear, everyone had to change tires and I did it after 25 minutes. Even though everyone else had two mechanics to change tires, my father only used 10 seconds more by doing it himself. Those 10 seconds hadn’t much to say since I was driving faster than everyone else, and after the 45 minutes mark I had lapped the whole entire field with two laps or more, taking the win, in front of local driver Niklas Johansson, ( 4th place finisher at B-EC 2011 in Hildesheim), with Bengt Andersson in 3rd.

1. Adrian Berntsen
2. Niklas Johansson
3. Bengt Andersson
4. Marcus Lindner
5. Stefan Andersson
6. Hans Lyxell
7. Patrick Sahlin
8. Michael Hahne
9. Christoffer Hedlund
10.Patrik Johannson

All in all it was a very good weekend; I TQ’d both classes, put the fastest lap time of the whole event in both classes, and won both classes.

Thanks to Adrian Berntsen for the report.