FinTrack Tour 2020 - Round 1

Valtteri Pausio reports from round 1 of the FinTrack Tour 2020 Finnish touring car championship, held last weekend (December 7-8) at the FullspeedRC on-road track in Hakkila.

Finnish Nationals round #1 was held December 7-8 at the Fullspeed RC track in Hakkila. Saturday was full of Touring Stock and Touring Modified. And Sunday were for Touring stock and for Tamiya Eurotrucks as bonus section. Both race days were going to be two controlled practices, four qualifications and triple finals.

Saturday December 7

Equipment used: Xray T4’19, Hobbywing XeRun V10 G3 4.5T, Hobbywing XR10 Pro, Arrowmax 5400mAh 2S TC Ultra Low Profile, Sanwa M12S

We arrived around 7 o’clock and started to tune the Xray T4’19 for high grip. Already in first practice it was clear that the weekend wouldn’t be a bed full of roses. The track was super technical and even the smallest error would be very expensive on the clock and for the wallet. All in all, I think that the track was very nice!

Our heat was quite well-matched so it was very easy to drive in. In first qualy I managed Feng Shui and was able to finish without errors. My best lap wasn’t the greatest but I was able to take 10th position. Second qualy wasn’t so good. But third qualy I was able to manage that same Feng Shui as first qualy and even if my best lap isn’t the best, difference between avg lap and best lap is 0.3 second and I was able to take 10th position again. I had possibilities for A-final until when on the first lap in fourth qualy I grip rolled my car and started to drive maximum attack. Although I was able to get 0.2 seconds better best lap, my starting position for finals would be 2nd position in B-final, between Mikko Mäkelä and Jani Hovi.

Finals were quite easy as I won all three without struggle, even if my spur gear stripped in the 3rd final. Car was nice to drive!

TSM-10 - Touring Modified Results
Rank Nr. Final Pilot
1 3 A Karri Salmela - AE
2 37 A Iivonen Pekko - Schumacher
3 7 A Leevi Martikainen - Xray
4 2 A Chmigal Georgy - Awesomatix
5 20 A Jere Saarinen - Mugen
6 38 A Tomi Mairue - Xray
7 55 A Samppa Orhanen - Awesomatix
8 29 A Lehto Kalle - Awesomatix
9 39 A Jarno Siltanen - Schumacher
10 59 A TOMI Westén - Xray

Sunday December 8

Equipment used: Xray T4’20, Hobbywing XeRun Justock 3650 13.5T, Hobbywing XR10 Pro G2, Arrowmax 5400mAh 2S TC Ultra Low Profile, Sanwa M12S

Just like Saturday we arrived around 7 o’clock and I started to add weight to my Xray T4’20, to get it from 1280g to 1320g, which was quite tricky because of about 50g extra weight which is already on car. After that it was time to get mentally ready for another race day!

In first practice I was the fastest on best time (3 lap). Although I had tires from yesterday.

In first qualy I was able to do 5 minutes with almost no errors, which was enough for 7th position. Second qualy was very good until I made little error which turned into a big error when I got stuck on a piece of tape. Even after that 5 second error I was 6th . I wonder how good position had been without that error. In 3rd and 4th qualy I was able to get my Feng Shui, the car was really good to drive, and I was able to get 4th and 3rd places, which were enough for 4th starting position in the A-final, behind 1st Leevi Martikainen, 2nd Tomi Mairue, and 3rd Lasse Ilvessalo.

First final went really well and I was able to hold my position until one racing fellow decided to drive through me and I lost few positions. I was able to gain my position again until the same guy decided to “gently” push me away again (thinking about this again after the finals, I made a little mistake, and because of that we crashed) I was full of anger and used my maximum attack to reach that guy and make nice overtake, until he crashed into my rear corner and the whole body got stuck, and I lost quite a few positions. After that I started to gain positions again until another racing fellow were little too ambitious to overtake me and we crashed. He was brave enough to give my position back but guy behind both of us was able to overtake us. I finished in 5th position.

In the second final I had to start hunting for positions from the last place, because of a racing situation in which I got stuck. I was 5th also in this final. In the third final we managed to race properly with Lasse Ilvessalo. Sometimes I was in front of Lasse and sometimes Lasse was in front of me. We were chasing each others pretty much the whole 5 minutes. This kind of racing is why I love this way of life! In this final we finished in order: Tomi Mairue, Lasse Ilvessalo, and me.  Overall I was 5th in Touring Prostock.

All in all, the weekend was amazing, and it was nice to see that I had made some progress because of practicing. I am satisfied about this weekend and it is nice to start season like this. See you at end of January in Kuusankoski!

TSP-10 - Touring ProStock Results
1 38 A Tomi Mairue - Xray
2 15 A Lasse Ilvessalo - Xray
3 50 A Heinonen Arto - AE
4 7 A Leevi Martikainen - Xray
5 12 A Valtteri Pausio - Xray
6 51 A Jani Hovi - Xray
7 17 A Markku Seppälä - Xray
8 10 A Marko Vähäkuopus - Awesomatix
9 99 A Juho Koskivuo - Destiny
10 96 A Artti Viitaniemi - Xray