Norwegian National title for Adrian Bernsten

The 2010 Norwegian Championship was held at Hverven Bukta Raceway in Oslo (August 7th-8th), on their newly paved race track, which was the venue for the 1/8th Scale IC Euros back in 2003, and Adrian Bernsten sent us this report. The new asphalt gave us a faster track than ever before, with very good grip, but also a lot of tire wear, so the big question was what we were gonna do in the finals. After the first qualifying round I claimed the TQ with a 30 lap run in 7:07:149 in front of Helge Johannesen in 2nd, Xray driver Tom Erik Haaversen in 3rd and Xray driver Werner Ersland in 4th.

For the 2nd run, the track was faster and both Helge and I were both having a faster run than I had in the first run, but a mistake by me that made me loose 7 seconds, allowed Helge to claim the fastest run so far in the event with a 30 lap run in 7:05:104. Georg Ellingsen also improved his first run, by putting the 4th fastest overall run after 2 of 5 rounds of qualifying. For the third round nobody could improve their best time due to the higher weather conditions and lower track grip, so there were no changes in the top 4 spots overall.

The 4th and final run on Saturday was going to be the fastest and I changed my set-up with putting on softer springs in the front. This gave me more steering and I could managed to put on both the fastest lap time of the whole event as well as putting the TQ run. I drove 30 laps in 7:01:222, which was 3 seconds in front of Helge J in 2nd. Xray driver Tom Erik Haaversen took 3rd spot, 3 new seconds behind Helge and Xray driver Georg Ellingsen claimed the 4th and last spot to go directly to the main final. No one drove faster in the 5th and last qualifying round on Sunday, so there were no changes in the results.

Top 10 after qualifying:
1. Adrian Berntsen (Xray) 30 laps 7:01:222
2. Helge Johannesen (Shepherd) 30 laps 7:04:377
3. Tom Erik Haaversen (Xray) 30 laps 7:07:450
4. Georg Ellingsen (Xray) 30 laps 7:09:025
5. Frank Andersen (Xray) 30 laps 7:09:221
6. Werner Ersland (Xray) 29 laps 7:04:573
7. Morten Thorkildsen (Xray) 29 laps 7:13:190
8. Petter Sølvberg (Serpent) 29 laps 7:13:254
9. Joakim Nicolaisen (Xray) 29 laps 7:13:939
10.Bjørn Dahl (Xray) 29 laps 7:14:192

Final starting order after Semi finals:
1. Adrian Berntsen (Xray)
2. Helge Johannesen (Shepherd)
3. Tom Erik Haaversen (Xray)
4. Georg Ellingsen (Xray)
5. Werner Ersland (Xray)
6. Bjørn Dahl (Xray)
7. Petter Sølvberg (Serpent)
8. Frank Andersen (Xray)
9. Øyvind Andersen (Serpent)
10.Joakim Nicolaisen (Xray)

Before the final, nobody was sure what shore to use, and what size and so on. The tire wear for the qualification was quite high. I had already been testing 42–-45 shore on practice earlier in the week and I knew that this gave almost the same pace, only 0,1 second slower than 37-40 shore, but I still didn’t know if it was possible to drive the finals on 1 set. Anyway, I decided to run 42-45, Helge J ran 40-45 while Tom Erik and Georg decided to run 37-40 and go for tire change.

When the final started my car almost spun out of the track, but I managed to keep the car on the asphalt and block Helge into the first corner. It was Me, Helge and Tom Erik in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd that pulled away from the rest of the bunch, and we quickly got a big lead. Tom Erik ran on 37-40 and had a much higher pace than us, so when he first could pass Helge on the inside, he quickly got up to the rear-end of my car and started to make pressure on me. I managed to keep calm, but Tom Erik made a perfect passing on me in the corner after the end of the straightaway. Since I knew I couldn’t drive the same pace as him, he got a big lead, and kept this until his rear belt fell off. Now I had a big lead, because Helge was disturbed by a wasp and went off the track. Unfortunately, for him, his motor also stopped.  Xray driver Georg Ellingsen had also managed to pass Helge and take the 2nd spot, even though he had been in for tire change, after Helge’s many flame outs.

I could just run smoothly to the finish, but my car just felt better and better, so my fastest laptime came after approximately 30-35 minutes. After 45 minutes I could easily cruise in to take the victory, 5 laps in front of Xray driver Georg Ellingsen in 2nd. Helge and Joakim were battling for the 3rd place until the end, but it was Helge that took him with 0,6 seconds, after the young talented Xray driver Joakim Nicolaisen made his best performance this year. We will definitely see more from this guy later.

Thanks to Adrian Bernsten for the report.