Joona Haatanen crowned European Junior Champion
Every year, Europe’s finest gather for the ultimate 1:8th nitro showdown, better known as the EFRA 1/8th European Championships. This year, the CRF track in Freixedas, Portugal played host to offer its challenging yet extremely fun layout to decide the victor and crown a new European Champion. The CRF track is quite unique and extremely beautiful to look at. Some call it a work of art and in many ways, it does live up to the hype. The white dirt is sealed with a glue/bonding agent to help keep the track together. The result is a very hard surface that’s almost like sandpaper. However, the weight and sheer force of the 8th scale cars hitting the jumps, the faces would get massively deformed and practically unjumpable. The track crew worked hard each night as they patched the track with cement that’s rolled onsite. While Xray’s Bruno Coelho took a surprise win in the main final, the Junior finals saw Europe’s brightest stars battle it out for top honors with Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen peaking at the right moment. In the young field of talent, Joona’s precision started to shine as the track picked up grip and his motor, car tuning, and driving all coming together for the main where he was able to win with a decent time margin back to 2nd. Leonardo Valente finished 2nd with Kyosho’s Jessica Palsson 3rd.
Source: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]
