Swedish 1/10th Buggy National Cup Rd4 – Report

The fourth round of the Swedish 1/10th Buggy National Cup series was held at Green Hill race track in Stockholm. The weather was great all weekend and in 4WD Alexander Landén started off quick by TQing the first three rounds and in the process putting in the only 12-lap qualifying round of the event. The first final was at long times a very tight affair between Alexander, local driver Niclas Månsson and Elias Johansson. In the end Alexander stood victorious in front of Niclas.

The second final saw Alexander make some mistakes and he finished second behind Niclas so now it was down to the third leg to decide the win between Alexander and Niclas. Again it started out as a tight battle, but it was soon evident that Alexander could not keep his normal pace. It turned out that he and his mechanic had made a bad tyre choice and used too worn tyres so after a couple of laps the grip of the left front tyre went off completely and this left the win to Elias with the overall ranking being Niclas, Alexander and Elias.

4WD A-main results:
1. Niclas Månsson – Team Associated
2. Alexander Landén – Xray
3. Elias Johansson – Xray
4. Wilhelm Skjöldebrand – Team Associated
5. Martin Johansson Nielsèn – Xray
6. Hugo Bjurman – Xray
7. Jesper Uvehall – Team Associated
8. Klas Bredberg – Xray
9. Lukas Larsson – Xray
10.Henrik Karlsson – Schumacher

Overall in the championship, Alexander has secured three TQ spots and four podium finishes with one win out of four events in total, handing him the overall title from Niclas Månsson and Wilhelm Skjöldebrand.

4WD overall top 3:
1. Alexander Landén – Xray
2. Niclas Månsson – Team Associated
3. Wilhelm Skjöldebrand – Team Associated

In 2WD it was also a tough race to the finish where the overall victory was to be decided. The TQ spot was held by local driver Niclas Månsson with the 2 spot being obtained by Alexander Landén. In the opening leg Alexander was able to stay with Niclas for roughly the first half of the final when suddenly the motor lost its top end performance, so Alexander needed to focus on maintaining the number two spot with a motor that was barely holding up. The second leg of the final saw Alexander taking an early lead, but he was involved in an incident going onto the straight and got stuck standing against the pipes, allowing Niclas to secure the day’s victory. The third leg again saw Alexander on the losing end of a first lap incident and he fell down to tenth place. This prompted the recovery drive of the whole series where he managed to carve his way through the field and challenge for the victory of the leg, only to be beaten over the line by Fredde Mathiesen by 44 thousands of a second. This meant that Alexander finished third in the event and that Niclas and Alexander finished up on the same points in the overall standing of the series. After a long discussion about the somewhat less than clear tie-breaker rules, the overall victory was awarded to Niclas Månsson with Alexander as runner-up and Fredde Mathiesen taking the last overall podium spot.

2WD A-main results:
1. Niclas Månsson – Team Associated
2. Fredrik Mathiesen – Xray
3. Alexander Landén – Xray
4. Wilhelm Skjöldebrand – Team Associated
5.Hugo Bjurman – Xray
6. Andreas Edvinsson – Yokomo
7. Martin Johansson Nielsèn – Xray
8. Elias Johansson – Xray
9. Klas Bredberg – Xray
10.Henrik Karlsson – Schumacher

2WD overall top 3:
1. Niclas Månsson – Team Associated
2. Alexander Landén – Xray
3. Fredde Mathiesen – Xray

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]