Finnish Nationals 2019 round 3 Race Report

Third round of Finnish nationals were held at Joensuu. Here's a race report from our team driver Konsta Saarinen.

Third round of Finnish nationals were held at Joensuu. As usual friday was free practice day and my XB2 and XB4 were dialed on that technical astroturf track and I was pretty confident with my driving.

Saturday morning started with two practice rounds. After that we had four qualifying rounds and I was able to put my XB2 on second grid behind Haatanen. First final started and in opening lap I made small mistake and dropped fifth. But I made my way back to third after great battle with Valander and Gabrielsson. Second final I was just driving alone and finished second. Last final was tight battle with Salmela but I came a bit too short and got third from that final and in overall results I founded myself in third place.

Sunday was 4wd day and I was very confident. I missed first practice because I broked my car in warm up laps. In second practice round I was able to make best three consecutive laps with over one second margin to Haatanen and Valander. Qualifying started out good and I got TQ from first round. Second round I made few mistakes and I got third from that round. Right after the heat it started rain and I started wrenching my car for wet conditions. When the rain stopped we decided to run one more qualifying. As in 2wd I was able to put my XB4 on second grid.

First final started and it was quite a messy heat but after all I got second place. I wasn’t very happy with my car and I made some setup changes for the next final. Second final was bad for me even the car was much better and I ended up third. For the last main track was bit more dry and my car was feeling awesome. I was able to challenge Haatanen right from the start and had good battle with him but small mistake in last minute dropped me from his rear bumber and I just focused on keeping that second place which I did. Overall I finished second.

Happy to make podium in both classes but I still need to find some more speed to challenge for a win. Can’t be more happier how my Hobbywing powered XB2 and especially XB4 worked on changing conditions.

Photos: Valtteri Eklund

Full results 2WD: http://www.myrcm.ch/myrcm/repo...

Full results 4WD: http://www.myrcm.ch/myrcm/report/en/47555/238397