Roy Gjemble sweeps Norwegian 1/10th off-road nats

The 2013 installment of the Norwegian National Championship was hosted by the Innherred Rc-Bilkubb in Levanger, Norway. The IHRC Raceway is an astroturf covered, 230 meter long high-speed but technical track that again proved to be a real challenge for both drivers and cars. The same track and club is likely to be the venue and host of the 2014 Nordic Championships as well so it was a good opportunity for the racers to get some track time. The race format saw the 2WD class raced on Saturday and 4WD on Sunday. This year, for the first time in Norwegian electric buggy history, the 4WD class winner would be awarded what is considered the highest achievement in sports in Norway, His Majesty the Kings Trophy.

Saturday morning everyone woke up to a bit of grey but dry weather. As soon as the drivers meeting started however, the heaven opened up and the rain just poured down. For the track this is not an issue, as the water very quickly drains, but of course more of a challenge for drivers and especially the electrical equipment. But as qualifying got underway everyone would soon be aware that it would be a challenge to deny this year’s National Cup winner, Roy Gjemble (Kyosho) the 2013 national title. TQ’ing the first 4 rounds of qualifying secured the overall TQ for Roy in front of one of the top drivers from Sweden Jan Dahl (TLR). Qualifying third was former National Champion Martin Sørlie (TLR).

During the afternoon the heavy rain would eventually come to a stop and the track started to show improving grip levels even though it never dried completely for the entire competition. When the first leg of the A-final was started Roy immediately pulled away from the field with his Team Orion powered RB6 and never looked back. The battle was on from 2nd place down and in the end it was Martin Sørlie who claimed the second place with his Team Orion powered TLR 22 just 2 seconds in front of multiple National Champion Ketil Pettersen running a Centro 4.2 converted B4.2 with the Swedish driver Jan Dahl driving a TLR 22 in a close fourth place.

The 2nd leg was almost a repeat of the first leg, Roy quickly gapped the field and an intense battle for 2nd place arose. The win in the this race again went to Roy and by that he secured the 2013 2WD Norwegian National Champion title. Runner up in the 2nd leg was Ketil Pettersen and the third place went to Martin Sørlie with Jan Dahl in a close 4th place again. So except for the title, the rest of the podium was still very open. At the end of A-final number 3 Jan Dahl took the winning honours and by that he secured the overall runner up position. Roy was a few tenths behind Jan Dahl in the 3rd leg after an intense battle for the last few laps. Ketil Pettersen, albeit leading the last leg for a number of laps, ended up 3rd and that also is his overall position in 2WD.

Top ten result 2WD:
1. Roy Gjemble
2. Jan Dahl
3. Ketil Pettersen
4. Martin Sørlie
5. Andreas Daving
6. Frode Skauen
7. Tommy Landgaard
8. Stein Ove Nordahl
9. Thomas Værnes
10.Niklas Bjørkå Roos

Sunday morning the weather looked better and despite a few drops in the very early hours, the track dried up quickly, lowering lap times and intensifying the racing in the 4WD Buggy class. Qualification round one was run on wet tyres though. The first round was won by Roy running his Turnigy powered Durango DEX410v3 clocking in 10 laps in 313.697 seconds. Compared to the 2WD class the day before, in 4WD Team Associated driver Ketil Pettersen running a B44.2 was much closer finishing only 3 seconds behind Roy. Niklas Bjørkå Roos (Team Associated), the 2012 2WD National Champion, finished the round in 3rd place, another two seconds behind Ketil. The lap times of the best drivers were in the high 30’s, quickest lap of the round was Ketil’s 30.771. By the time the last heat of the second round was about to go out, all top drivers opted for dry tyres which quickly proved to be the right choice for the round. Lap times immediately dropped and this time Martin Sørlie proved to be the one to beat. Martin scored a 10 lap in 303.349 for the second round and he finished half a second in front of Roy Gjemble who set the quickest lap of the day so far with a 29.299 seconds. Round three of qualifying saw another drop in lap times and by now the track was dry, the sun was out and everything was set for high pace racing. This time heat 3 saw several changes in the lead but in the end Roy took the round over Martin by 4 seconds with 11 laps in 320.167 seconds and by again lowering the track record to 27.858 seconds. In the fourth and last round of qualifying Roy Gjemble and his Durango were again unbeatable setting the fastest time of the day with 11 laps in 315.247. Martin came in some 5 seconds behind and a further 5 seconds down Andreas Daving running a B44.2 came in third position. The qualification top three saw Roy Gjemble in front of Martin Sørlie and Ketil Pettersen.

The start of A-final number one saw a bit of controversy on the first lap; as Roy led the pack down and through the first few turns he clipped the inside pipe and crashed into Martin Sørlie. After the first final the drivers agreed it was a race incident but nevertheless in the heat of the moment the referee awarded the car number 1 a stop & go penalty. The crash left Martin in sixth position and from the penalty Roy got back out in fourth. By the end of lap 1 Ketil was now in the lead, with Andreas Daving in second and Roy back up to third position with a hard chasing Martin in fourth. At the end of lap 2, Ketil had opened a gap of about a second on Andreas who had both Roy and Martin in tow. On lap 3 Roy got pass Andreas and was now running flat out to reel in Ketil. Martin unfortunately made an error on this lap but quickly recovered to pass Andreas again on lap 4. On lap 5 Roy spotted a wobble by Ketil on the twin double jump just after the straight and went full throttle, jumped both doubles in a single 9 meter jump to fly past Ketil, landing perfectly diving into the right hand 180 degree turn just after the double jumps into first place with Ketil now half a second behind. The two first drivers now opened a gap on Martin and Andreas who were fighting for third. The next couple of laps the positions remained the same, but Martin was now catching up to Ketil and the gap up to Roy in first was 1.1 seconds. The positions remained like that until the very last lap of the race when again Ketil had a wobble and needed marshalling on the obstacles after the straight. This let Martin by and he gave everything to try and catch up with Roy who was in the lead. In the middle of the infield Roy was about to pass a lapped car when the car suddenly and momentarily stopped just in front of Roy leaving no room to pass. Roy had to wait for the marshall to remove the car in front before he could go; Martin on full throttle was now only half a second behind Roy, but overcharged on the wall of death when Roy kept his calm and took home the first leg victory, three seconds in front of Martin in second and Ketil seven seconds behind Martin in third.

The start of the second leg was not as dramatic as in the first A-final. Roy opening up a one second gap to Martin on lap 1, 3rd qualifier Ketil Pettersen dropped back to fourth after a wobble that let 4th qualifier Niklas Bjørkå Roos pass. On lap two Martin, chasing the leader, had a wobble landing the double jump at the exit of the 4.2 metre high wall of death leaving a gap of 5 seconds up to Roy. On lap 2 the battle was on for 3rd place between Niklas, Andreas and Ketil. In front coming up the wall of death, Roy cut the top corner too close and clipped the inside pipe, tumbled down and had to get marshalled. This let Martin catch up and pass, now with Roy just behind. On the next couple of laps it was Martin just in front of Roy and both were on fire showing spectacular driving but then Martin again missed the landing after the wall of death and tumbled which was enough to let Roy by again with an immediate half a second lead. On the next lap Martin tried everything and pushing too hard so he flipped his buggy in the 180 degree turn following the big table top jump leaving Roy some room the breathe up front again. From this point on Roy was on cruise control and he secured his 2nd leg win and by that the overall win, the National Championship title and the prestigious His Majesty the Kings Trophy which was handed over by the mayor of Levanger at the prize giving ceremony.

Top ten result 4WD:
1. Gjemble Roy
2. Pettersen Ketil
3. Sørlie Martin
4. Bjørkå Roos Niklas
5. Skauen Frode
6. Værnes Thomas
7. Daving Andreas
8. Steen Karlsen Ole
9. Langaard Tommy
10.Nordahl Stein Ove

Source: IHRC [ihrc.no] | Podium Images: Roy Medias