Jonas Kaerup dominates Nordic Championships

Held in Denmark from June 2nd to 5th, the drivers from Finland, Sweden, Norway and host nation Denmark, were greeted with a beautiful new astroturf track prepared by the DHI-CUP crew in Odense. The weather was awesome, blue sky and 25 degrees all four days and Jonas Kaerup sent us this report.

Thursday and Friday were free practice days, and although the format used Schumacher Yellow minipins as control tire on driven wheels in both classes, most spend the days modifying their tires with less pins and glue on the sidewalls. Young (punks) hotshots Otto and Oskar Levin were fast in both 2wd and 4wd, but preferred running on slick clay like their home track in Tomelilla (home of the first EOS). So they struggled a little with all the grip. TLR 22 cars were in strong attendance, and looked fast, especially the local drivers who wisely chose to run in mid motor configuration. The new Schumacher 2wd & 4wd were also a running well in hands of Finish driver Petri Strøm and local distributor Ulrich Rasmussen. Although rear motor 2wd cars seem to struggle on high grip surfaces like Astroturf, local driver Jonas Kaerup, shoved good pace with his Team Associated B4.1 and B44.1 .

Saturday was all about 2wd.

Qualifying went Jonas Kaerup’s way TQ’ing all four rounds with his GM powered Associated RC10B4.1 , behind him was Lasse Nielsen and Rasmus Nørdgaard both driving the new Losi TLR 22 in mid motor configuration. The biggest surprise was to see the fast young Oskar Levin ending up in the B-main. Bad luck and refusing to run mid motor on his Losi, probably cost him a lot.

In the finals Jonas Kaerup drove away from the pack, taking full advantage of his pole position, and despite having turned 34 years old, managed to win the overall 2wd title with his Masami style RC10B4.1 . Second and third went to Lasse Nielsen and Lars Alex Jensen both driving Losi TLR cars powered by GM 9.5 motors. Most of the A finalists chose to use Schumacher’s new cut staggered front tire mounted on wide wheels and glued on both sides. Kaerup commented that this front tire setup made his car a lot better on this high grip astroturf track.

Interestingly most of the Danes ran 9.5t motors even though there was no motor limit at the event. Speed controllers with stock timing were in good use around the tables, and motors reaching 100 degree Celsius was not the exception. The Swedes and Norwegians ran more powerful motors like 6.5-7.5t with no timing..

1. (TQ) Jonas Kaerup – Team Associated B4.1 / GM120 / GM PRO 9.5 – Denmark
2. Lasse Nielsen – TLR 22 / Tekin / GM PRO 9.5 – Denmark
3. Lars Alex Jensen – TLR 22 / GM120 / SP 5.5 – Denmark
4. Christer Rasmussen – Team Associated B4.1 / LRP / GM PRO 9.5 – Denmark
5. Petri Strøm – Schumacher Cougar / CS / CS 6.5 – Finland
6. Martin Sørlie – TLR 22 / N/A / N/A – Norway
7. Jan Larsen – Tamiya TRF201 / Tekin / Speed Passion 5.5 – Denmark
8. Otto Ausfeldt – TLR 22 / Speed Passion / Speed Passion 7.5 – Sweden
9. Rasmus Nørgaard – TLR 22 / Tekin / GM PRO 9.5 – Denmark
10.Ulrich Rasmussen – Schumacher Cougar / Speed Passion / Speed Passion 8.5 – Denmark

The nations cup (were the team managers from each Scandinavian country picks 3 drivers to pick up points from their overall position) was won by Denmark.

Oskar Levin (EOS A finalist) and only 16 years old won the Junior title and the B-main with his Speed Passion powered Losi TLR22. A driver to watch for the near future. He finished 13th at the Worlds Warm up race in Vaasa in 2wd …

Saturday evening the club had arranged for an outdoor barbecue, with lots of beer and good food. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves :-)

Sunday belonged to 4wd.

4wd electric cars are fast on astro turf, and although there was a lot of talented drivers taking part, it was difficult for most to get a clean run on this twisty, tight and fresh astro turf track. In fact a lot struggled to go faster in 4wd that they had done in 2wd. Clean runs would be the order of the day.

Q1 went to Kim Nielsen who managed to do the loooong double in one without crashing once with his Speed Passion powered Tamiya TRF511. 14 laps in 5.min 21 was Kims time. The Tamiya 511 belt car is a popular car as many Danes, Swedes and Norwegians seem to have chosen this weapon. In second local hero and DHI cup race director for many years, Christer Rasmussen ran a safe run choosing to do the double in single-single with his LRP powered AE B44. Third in the round came Oskar Levin with his Speed Passion powered TRF511 .

Q2 was won by Jonas Kaerups GM powered RC10B44.1 in 14 laps 5min 13 seconds. Oskar came second with his Tamiya.

Q3 and Q4 both went to Jonas Kaerup, so the top 3 looked like this:

Jonas Kaerup AE/GM
Kim Nielsen TRF/SP
Oskar Levin TRF/SP

The finals were a messy affair. The double/triple jump, cost Kaerup a broken car in A-final 1, so that was won by Kim Nielsen with his TRF511 belt car in front of young Oskar.
The 2nd A final saw Kaerup get a good start and jump his way to a good lead and a 5 second win, with Kim Nielsen in second. So the 3rd A final would be the decider, and sure enough it would all come down to who would be the bravest over the jumps. Kim overtook Jonas in midair over the double/triple only to loose it again in the next corner. The two drivers put on an awesome show, with lots of overtaking, and midair battles. In the end it came down to the last lap, where both nose to tail made the double/triple, but Kim rolled his car on pipe and thereby lost his chance of overtaking Jonas for the 4wd Nordic title.

1. (TQ) Jonas Kaerup – Team Associated B44.1 / GM120 / GM PRO 8t delta – Denmark
2. Kim Nielsen – TRF511 / Tekin / Speed Passion 4.5 – Denmark
3. Oscar Levin – TLR 22 / GM120 / SP 5.5 – Sweden
4. Jan Larsen – TRF511 / Tekin / Speed Passion 4.5 – Denmark
5. Otto Ausfeldt – TRF511 / SP / SP 5.5 – Sweden
6. Christer Rasmussen – Team Associated B44.1 / LRP / GM 6.5t – Denmark
7. Lasse Nielsen – TRF511 / Tekin / GM PRO 4.5 – Denmark
8. Petri Strøm – Schumacher SX2 / CS / CS 5.5 – Finland
9. Martin Sørlie – AE B44.1 / Orion / Orion 5.5 – Norway
10.Ulrich Rasmussen – Schumacher SX3 / Speed Passion / Speed Passion 5.5 – Denmark

Oskar Levin made it to the third spot on the podium, even though he never felt really at home on the Astroturf. Denmark managed to win the nations cup in 4wd too :-).

All in all a perfect weekend, with lots of new cars, good racing and an after party at Jonas’ place that went on, way to long. Thanks must go to the organizing Odense club for a well run race and to all the Scandinavians participating in this event. Kai Koivorante from Sweden is some what of a Nordic Championship hero, having been to every single one of the events. Apparently the 1:10 Nordic Championships have been run since 1989 and seen more than a few great champions getting their break at this event. Jukka Steenari and Teemu Leino to mention a few. The event changes between Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, but we are not sure if there is any particular order. We never need a referee at these events, since all participants are relatives of former Vikings, we settle all arguments with swords, beer and clubs :-) . HAHA

Thanks to Jonas Kaerup for the report / Images: RaceRCV2.dk