November 18, 2014

Norwegian National Winter Series Rd1 – Report

Norwegian National Winter Series Rd1 – Report

The first round of the Norwegian National Winter Series was organised by the Kvinesdal RC Club in the South of Norway with a record entry of over 80 drivers in attendance. Held in the classes of Touring Car Modified, Touring Car Stock 13.5T, Touring Car Recruit 21.5T and 1/12th scale Modified the race format saw three rounds of qualifying with the best result to count followed by triple mains. In the Touring Car Modified class raining Nordic Champion and Schumacher team driver Nikolai Haaheim would secure the overall TQ by topping all three rounds of qualifying. A close 2nd was Team Associated driver Petter Berntsen, Oskar Fjeld (Yokomo) followed in 3rd while Rune Svestol (Xray) came in 4th.


Norwegian National Winter Series Rd1 – Report

In the opening A-main Nikolai made a jump-start and was given a stop and go penalty and this allowed Petter and Oskar to pull away right from the start. Nikolai closed the gap but made contact with Oskar as he tried to make a pass, resulting in Nikolai to drop further down. This also allowed Petter to pull away and to take the win in the first leg. Nikolai eventually closed on Oskar again and made the pass to secure the 2nd place while Oskar finished in 3rd. In the 2nd final Nikolai had a clean start and he took the win from tone to tone win with Petter in a close 2nd and Oskar in 3rd once again. Come the last final Nikolai made a clean start again and opened a gap to Petter and Oskar. As the final went into its second half, Petter was emerging as the faster driver and started closing in on Nikolai. In the closing stages Nikolai ran into some traffic that slowed him down and allowed Petter to come right on his tail. However, Nikolay kept his cool and finished in 1st spot, three tenth of a second in front of Petter. Oskar once again finished in 2rd.

Touring Car Modified top 10:
1. Nikolai Haaheim – Schumacher/Muchmore
2. Petter Berntsen – Team Associated/Hobbywing
3. Oskar Fjeld – Yokomo/Muchmore
4. Tobias Sanden – Yokomo/Muchmore
5. Rune Svestol – Xray/Muchmore
6. Oystein Nygaard – Xray/Muchmore
7. Christian Aarli Hunsbedt – Xray/Muchmore
8. Haakon Nygaard – Xray/Orca
9. Geri Bjarte Terum – ARC/Muchmore
10.Lars A. Andersen – ARC/Muchmore

In the Touring Stock 13.5T class Roger Berntsen would secure the TQ with his Team Associated in front of Jonas Ramsrud and buggy driver Egil Amtedal who had borrowed a touring car for this occasion. In all three finals, the top three drivers from qualifying would follow each other closely to finish in the same order as they started.

Touring Stock 13.5T top 10:
1. Roger Berntsen – Team Associated
2. Jonas Ramsrud – Serpent
3. Egil Amtedal – Yokomo
4. Espen Fjeldvaar – Tamiya
5. Jone Stakkeland – Xray
6. Steinar Orholm – ARC
7. Daniel Sindland – Xray
8. Kjetil Nordfonn – ARC
9. Anders Kleven – Xray
10.Emil Sorland Solberg – Xray

The Touring Recruit class attracted many local talents who all put on a great show giving the spectators great confidence for what the future holds. In the end, Anders Engedal secured the victory with a win in the second and third leg.

Touring Recruit 21.5T top 3:
1. Anders Engedal – Xray
2. Andreas Bryne – Schumacher
3. William Sorland Solberg – Xray

In 1/12th Modified class Euros finalist Helge Johannessen would dominate qualifying, securing the TQ with a run over one lap faster than Lars Haugen in 2nd. Tom Erik Haaversen would follow in 3rd. Helge would carry his dominant pace into the final, scoring easy wins in all three legs with the battles for the runner-up spot being much more interesting. In the opening final both Tom Erik and Oyvind made mistakes early on, allowing Lars to build a gap. Oyvind was able to close on Lars in the last minutes of the final, attempted a pass but he could not make it through and Lars would be able to secure the 2nd place in front of Oyvind. Tom Erik would finish 4th after a battle with Joakim.

In the second final, with Helge pulling away up front, it was again Lars and Tom Erik whose mistakes allowed Oyvind to pass into 2nd. With a 4 second gap on Tom Erik in 3rd Oyvind accidentally went off the track giving 2nd to Tom Erik. Finally Oyvind recovered to 3rd in the second A-main.

In the final leg, with Helge up in front on his solo run, Lars, Tom Erik, Oyvind and Joakim were following each other closely in the opening stages. Some minutes into the race Lars would make a small mistake allowing Tom Erik to pass into 2nd place. Oyvind was preparing an attack on Lars as well but he made an error again and would later have to retire. Tom Erik made a mistake later also, allowing Lars to pass again to secure 2nd overall.

1/12th Modified top 10:
1. Helge Johannessen – Team Associated
2. Lars Haugen – Team Associated
3. Tom Erik Haaversen  – Xray
4. Oyvind Stusdal – CRC
5. Joakim Waale Loken – Yokomo
6. Bjorn Dahl – Xray
7. Trygve Berntsen – Xray
8. Christian Hovden – Yokomo
9. Trygve Bull Freng – Xray
10.Lasse Andresen – Team Associated

Thanks to Oyvind Stusdal for the report.



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