Mikael Fransson wins 2013 1/8th Nordic Championship

Last weekend the Nordic Championship 1:8 Track took place at Hverven Raceway just outside Oslo in Norway. The track hosted the European Championship back in 2003 and is placed with a beautiful view over the Oslo fjord. We had perfect conditions for practice on Friday and the track was super fast. Saturday came with a clear blue sky and sun throughout the whole day. As the weather forecast predicted rain on Sunday we decided to run the entire event on one day, this is possible in the land of the midnight sun. A new time scheme was made with 3 qualification rounds and all finals, with the last final run at 21:30.

This high grip track is demanding on the engines and it was very difficult to run 5 minutes without a fuel stop. In the qualification only a few drivers managed to go the whole distance without refueling. The superfast swede Niklas Johansson set the best time with a fantastic new qualifier-record of 25 laps 5.10.71, followed by Lars Haugen 24 5.05.92 and Mikael Fransson 24 5.09.07. Niklas also managed to set a new track record of 11.97. That is one second faster than Massimo Fantini in the A Euros back in 2003!

Qualification:
1. Niklas Johansson – Xray/Picco – 25L 5.10.71
2. Lars Haugen – Xray/Orcan – 24L 5.05.09
3. Mikael Fransson – Serpent/Orcan – 24L 5.09.07
4. Christofer Hedlund – Xray/Orcan – 24L 5.09.45
5. Bengt Anderson – Serpent/Novarossi – 24L 5.10.82
6. Marcus Lindner – Shepherd/Novarossi – 24L 5.10.98
7. Stefan Andersson – Shepherd/Sonic – 23L 5.00.26
8. Svein Harald Ytternes – Shepherd/JP – 23L 5.01.64
9. Frode Rasch-Olsen – Xray/Max – 23L 5.02.08
10.Karl Ullenius – Xray/Orcan – 23L 5.02.18

Now the stage was set for some exciting finals.

The semi finals went off and the main favorites went thru with only some small incidents. Semi B was won by the 2011 champion Marcus Lindner followed by Lars Haugen, Christofer Hedlund and Erik Arntzen. In Semi A Niklas Johansson got off to a good start and pulled away from the pack with a blistering pace but ran into some trouble half way thru and lost 30 seconds. Mikael Fransson won in front of Niklas, nitro veteran Bengt Andersson and Stefan Andersson. Frode Rasch-Olsen and Per-Ola Hård got the two best times and made the last two places in the final.

After the two semi finals we got the starting list for the A final:
1. Mikael Fransson – Serpent/Orcan
2. Niklas Johansson – Xray/Picco
3. Marcus Lindner – Shepherd/Novarossi
4. Bengt Andersson – Serpent/Novarossi
5. Lars Haugen – Xray/Orcan
6. Stefan Andersson – Shepherd/Sonic
7. Frode Rasch-Olsen – Xray/Max
8. Erik Arntzen – Xray/Novarossi
9. Christofer Hedlund – Xray/Orcan
10.Per-Ola Hård – Serpent/OS

The final got off to an incredible pace. Niklas was leading after round two and was able to set some fantastic laptimes with several under 12 seconds. On lap 9 came the new incredible lap record of 11.86. After Niklas followed Mikael Fransson, Marcus Lindner and Bengt Andersson. 13 minutes into the race Niklas’ engine flamed out. He came back on the track again but lost more than 2 laps. Soon after trouble struck again and Niklas lost one minute in the pits. Meanwhile Fransson built up a good lead of one lap over the chasing pack with Lars Haugen climbing steadily from 5th place to 4th and then 3rd with steady driving and a 5 minute fuel stop strategy. At the half way mark Fransson had a comfortable lead of 2 laps over Lars Haugen with Bengt Andersson and Marcus Lindner in a tight race. Lindner who had good pace at this time ran into some trouble and lost one minute in the pits. At the 25 minute mark most of the racers decided to change tires, but Lars Haugen drove on without a change and suddenly found himself in the lead. Lars made a mistake and almost missed out on a fuel stop losing 6 seconds and Fransson took over the lead again. Fransson with fresh tires drove a steady race from that point and stretched out to a comfortable lead once more. At the end Fransson was 10 seconds in front of Lars Haugen setting a new final record. Bengt Andersson finished in third place with Frode Rasch-Olsen in forth.

Final result:
1. Mikael Fransson – Serpent/Orcan – 209L 45.04.58
2. Lars Haugen – Xray/Orcan – 208L 45.02.35
3. Bengt Andersson – Serpent/Novarossi – 205L 45.03.43
4. Frode Rasch-Olsen – Xray/Max – 202L 45.11.26
5. Marcus Lindner – Shepherd/Novarossi – 197L 44.00.81
6. Niklas Johansson – Xray/Picco – 184L 45.05.65
7. Stefan Anderson – Shepherd/Sonic – 133L 38.50.18
8. Per-Ola Hård – Serpent/OS – 58L 13.43.31
9. Christofer Hedlund – Xray/Orcan – 22L 4.50.94
10.Erik Arntzen – Xray/Novarossi – 12L 2.32.94

Thanks to Lars Haugen for the report.