June 4, 2014

Haaheim takes TC Mod title at Nordic Championships

Haaheim takes TC Mod title at Nordic Championships

The Nordic Championship was held at the Lørenskog Modelbilklubbs track near Oslo, Norway. The 2-day event attracted about 30 drivers in the Modified Touring Car class. A Stock class was also run as a support class with some 20 drivers in attendance. The race format saw 5 rounds of round by round qualifying with 4 of them being run on Saturday and the last one on Sunday, followed by triple mains. In qualifying it early came clear that it would be a three horse race for the TQ, with local star Helge Johannessen, Swedish ace Daniel Carlsson and the youngster Nikolai Haaheim outpacing the rest of the field. Local star Helge Johannessen would eventually claim the overnight TQ in front of Nikolai Haaheim who had his best result deleted as he was late for marshalling in a leg.


Come Sunday morning Nikolai was on a good pace to challenge the TQ time, but he would miss it out after a mistake. Helge also made a mistake and the last round of qualifiers would go to Daniel, while Nikolai would fall down to third on the grid.

Modified class qualifying result:
1. Helge Johannessen – ARC
2. Daniel Carlsson – Yokomo
3. Nikolai Haaheim – Yokomo
4. Tom Erik Haaversen – Yokomo
5. Rune Svestol – Xray
6. Trygve Berntsen – Xray
7. Georg Ellingsen – Xray
8. Bjørn Dahl – Xray
9. Lars Haugen – Xray
10.Thomas Holmesland – ARC

In the first A-final Helge and Daniel got a clean start and they where following each other closely and started to pull away from the field. Nikolai had a bad start and dropped behind Tom Erik who was running third. Nikolai’s car settled and he began to push hard on Tom Erik who started to struggle with the car. Nikolai made it past Tom Erik and pulled away. Up front Daniel was following Helge closely. The latter then would make a mistake that saw him retiring from the race. Daniel now had a huge gap on Nikolai in second. However Nikolai was pushing hard and closed the gap, after a couple of charges from Nikolai, Daniel would cross the line first. Tom Erik came in third.

In the second final Helge would strip his car’s spur gear sending him off with no breaks at the end of the straight on the first lap. Daniel now was running first with Nikolai second and Tom Erik third. Daniel built a small gap on Nikolai in the opening stages, but as Nikolai’s car settled he was clearly emerging as the fastest man on the track being all over Daniel’s rear end. Daniel was doing a superb job, keeping his tight lines making it close to impossible for Nikolai to find a way past. Eventually Nikolay would find a way past Daniel with a spectacular pass through the chicane after the straight. Daniel finished second leading the standings with the first final being the fastest.

Helge would sit out the last final with no chance for the title or a decent result, letting Daniel and Nikolai battle it out themselves. Both of them had a clean start and pulled away from the rest of the field. As in A2 Daniel would open a small gap in the opening stages, but as Nikolai’s car settled he could once again start to push hard. Nikolai was all over Daniel who again was doing a super job of defending his position. After running almost side by side down the straight, Daniel would slightly miss the breaking point and Nikolai made it past. Daniel was then pushing hard to stay with Nikolai, but would unfortunately roll his car giving Nikolai room to breath and to take home the crown. Daniel finished the final in second place in front for Tom Erik.

Modified class top 10 result:
1. Nikolai Haaheim – Yokomo
2. Daniel Carlsson – Yokomo
3. Tom Erik Haaversen – Yokomo
4. Thomas Holmesland – ARC
5. Rune Svestol – Xray
6. Lars Haugen – Xray
7. Georg Ellingsen – Xray
8. Trygve Berntsen – Xray
9. Bjørn Dahl – Xray
10.Helge Johannessen – ARC

Thanks to Oyvind Stusdal for sending the report.



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