August 15, 2012

Finland SC Summer Cup Rd4 report

The fourth and final round of Finland SC Summer Cup took us to Jyväskylä. The race was driven on same weekend as Neste Rally Finland. Unfortunately the RC track was too far away from WRC happenings and so we only saw lots of general traffic the way to and from track. Weather wasn’t as good in morning as it had been in previous rounds, there was constant threat of thunder storm ahead, but fortunately rain and thunder went around us and we only got very short and light shower during qualifying. Unlike in two previous rounds we had more drivers in 2wd (17) than in 4wd (16). Once again we had few drivers that had never been in an RC race.

Riku Tolonen who had already confirmed first place in series started his qualifying with same pace as he had gotten used to and took the win in first three heats before Miro Simonen warmed up in his home track and took last two heats. After qualifying Riku was in first place followed by Miro and Hannes Linnanen.

2wd qualifying Top 3:
1. Tolonen Riku
2. Simonen Miro
3. Linnanen Hannes

Even as first and second place of 4wd series was already confirmed there were lots of places still outstanding. In qualifying Mikko Pyhältö took first place once again but got a strong challenge from Jouko Leino and Sami Jalo.

4wd qualifying Top 3
1. Pyhältö Mikko
2. Laine Jouko
3. Jalo Sami

The finals saw the best racing during the whole series. There was good battles for almost all places in A and B finals. Even with three wins in the first three 2wd final heats, Riku had to do his best to keep other drivers behind him. Steady pressure from Jarkko Hyvärinen, Miro Simonen and few others forced Riku to take everything from his SC10. One of best and closest battles in SC series, Miro and Riku fought tightly for third heat victory for the entire 5 minutes. After the finish there were only 0.1 seconds gap between these two.

2wd final Top 5:
1. Tolonen Riku
2. Hyvärinen Jarkko
3. Simonen Miro
4. Luopajärvi Jussi
5. Mäkelä Mikko

In 4wd both A and B finals were also close battle for positions. Mikko Pyhältö was fastest in all final heats but behind him there were many drivers fighting for second place. Mikko Mäkelä, Jouko Laine, Tommi Suuripää and Jari Toivonen were all able to take one second place in final heats.

4wd final Top 5:
1. Pyhältö Mikko
2. Mäkelä Mikko
3. Laine Jouko
4. Suuripää Tommi
5. Toivonen Jari

Season Reacap
The SC Summer cup was able to gather a very nice amount of SC drivers during the series. A total of 26 2wd and 30 4wd drivers participated in at least one round. Most of the drivers participated in at least three rounds. Also the spirit between drivers was really great in all rounds, newcomers got all the help they needed. Also more experienced drivers were really pleased with relaxed feeling on the driver stand and in the pits.

In 2wd the Team Associated SC10 took many of the top positions but we also saw many Traxxas Slashes and Kyosho Ultima SCs there. In 4wd the Losi TEN-SCTE took all top positions. We also saw many Team Associated SC10 4×4, Traxxas Slash, Durango and TeamC cars on track. We still have one bigger SC race left in Finland for this summer, the ‘Short Course Masters’ that is held at the 2011 World Championships track in Vaasa. Planning for Winter series has already been started and we also welcome international drivers to compete in winter series to measure the SC level in Finland

2wd total series Top 5:
1. Riku Tolonen
2. Miro Simonen
3. Peltoniemi Matti
4.Kanerva Henry
5. Heikkilä Mikko

4wd total series Top 5:
1. Pyhältö Mikko
2. Jämsä Kai
3. Laine Jouko
4. Suuripää Tommi
5. Andersson Henrik

Thanks to Tero Piipponen for the report.



Usage

If you republish any elements from this page on another website, including text, original pictures or results please be sure to add a link back to this page as the source: