Winter Jumps 2016 finale – Report

The final round of the Winter Jumps series was held this past weekend in Helsinki during the Model Expo hobby show. The track was laid out using “EOS carpet” and lots of jumps, making for a fun weekend of racing. The event started with controlled practice of the 2WD class followed by three rounds of qualifying of which the best one would count. Joel Valander would come out fastest from Jörg Tiit and Joona Haatanen. In the opening A-main Joel would take a comfortable win but Joona stroke back in A2, shifting the decision for the overall win to the third and final A-main that Jörg would lead in the early stages. Joel got a very unlucky mechanical failure that allowed Joona to take the win and with it the overall victory. Joel ended the day on the runner-up spot from third placed Markku Honkanen.

2WD A-main result:
1. Joona Haatanen – Team Associated
2. Joel Valander – Xray
3. Markku Honkanen – Team Durango
4. Jörg Miikael Tiit – Schumacher
5. Ari Heinonen – Team Durango
6. Karri Salmela – Team Associated
7. Tuomo Otsavaara – Xray
8. Jani Hovi – Yokomo
9. Lari Jäppinen – Xray
10.Pekko Iivonen – Schumacher

Joona Haatanen would also take the overall series title by winning four of the six rounds. Joel Valander came in second and Ari Heinonen rounded out the top 3.

On Sunday the 4WD class was run in the same format at Saturday’s 2WD event. Many drivers were struggling to find right timing for the jumps with the fast 4WD cars as the jumps where quite low but fast with short landing zones. Joona Haatanen made the best out of the conditions and he took the TQ some 0.08 seconds in front of Joel Valander and Markku Honkanen. The finals then offered pretty tight racing. While Joona took the win in A1, Joel wrecked his car on the big double in the opening stages. A2 then offered a great battle between the two with Joel being right on the tail of Joona’s buggy but he couldn’t get by, allowing Joona to take a second win and with it a second overall. Going into A3 things were still pretty intense as the race for the overall championship was on. Joel had to end the day on the runner-up spot in order to take the title so he drove a clever race in Joona’s slipstream to take the second place overall and with it the 2016 4WD Winter Jumps title.

4WD A-main result:
1. Joona Haatanen – Team Associated
2. Joel Valander – Xray
3. Markku Honkanen – Team Durango
4. Ari Heinonen – Team Durango
5. Lauri Ruotsalainen – Team Durango
6. Touko Silpola – Schumacher
7. Lari Jäppinen – Xray
8. Tuomo Otsavaara – Xray
9. Ari Koski – Team Durango
10.Toni Niinivirta – Xray

With Joel securing the overall title, Joona Haatanen came in second from third placed Ari Heinonen.

Source: EuroRC [eurorc.com]