Finnish 1/10th Buggy Championship Rd1 – Report
The first round of the Finnish 1/10th Buggy Championship was held in the sunny city of Vaasa, Finland. The Vaasa track is famous for hosting the IFMAR 2011 Worlds and the track was in perfect condition and with the weather being nice it was a perfect weekend of RC racing. The race standard in the Finnish Championship is very high with some of the fastest drivers of Europe attending. In the 2WD class which was run on Saturday, Joona Haatanen, Joel Valander, Karri Salmela and Mikko Luopajärvi all showed incredible speed and the competition was tough. Joona managed to combine his pace with amazing consistency and had a perfect qualifying taking the TQ in all of the four rounds. Behind Joona, Joel started from the 2nd spot, Karri from the 3rd and Mikko from P4.
In the mains Joona continued his domination and managed to win the first two finals with Mikko taking advantage of the small mistakes made by Joel and Karri. In the end Mikko managed to finish 2nd, Joel 3rd and Karri 4th. Behind Karri Juha Aromaa took home the 5th spot and Konsta Saarinen finished 6th.
2WD final results:
1. Haatanen Joona – Team Associated
2. Luopajärvi Mikko – Team Associated
3. Valander Joel – Xray
4. Salmela Karri – Team Associated
5. Aromaa Juha – TLR
6. Saarinen Konsta – Xray
7. Siltanen Jarno – Schumacher
8. Gabrielsson Jamiel – Team Associated
9. Niinivirta Toni – Xray
10.Mäki Oskari – Team Associated
Sunday was 4WD day and the weather was even better than the day before and the battle for TQ was a 4-horse race. Joel managed to TQ the first two rounds while Joona managed a god run in Q3, making Q4 the decider. After leading for most of the race Joona had an accident and could not manage to beat Joel meaning Joel would start 1st, Joona 2nd, Karri 3rd, Mikko 4th and Konsta 5th.
Joel then won the first A-final in front of Joona but Joona managed to win the second final in front of Joel meaning the third and last final would decide the winner. Joel and Joona were fighting aggressively and both were leading at some point but in the end Joel managed to fight of Joona to finish 1st and take home the win. Joona was 2nd, Mikko 3rd, Karri 4th, Oskari Mäki 5th and Jarno Siltanen 6th.
4WD final results:
1. Valander Joel – Xray
2. Haatanen Joona – Team Associated
3. Luopajärvi Mikko – Team Associated
4. Salmela Karri – Team Associated
5. Mäki Oskari – Team Associated
6. Siltanen Jarno – Schumacher
7. Kyykkä Ari-Pekka – Xray
8. Saarinen Konsta – Xray
9. Ullakko Ilmari – Team Durango
10.Otsavaara Tuomo – Xray
Source: Hobbyfactory [hobbyfactory.fi]
