Team EuroRC on a hot streak in Finland

Last weekend (23-24.5.2015) team EuroRC participated in two races. In Turku the first 1/8 electric race was held of the season in the Finnish Open series. In Finland there is two 1/8 off-road series. Finnish open which is more casual club racing and then the national series. The electric class has really grown the last years and is now as large as the nitro in Finland with expectations of it to grow bigger this summer.

Joel Valander one of our promising young guns brought his Hobbywing powered Xray XB8e to the race. New to 1/8 racing he had never raced this track and struggled some in practice and qualifying and adjusting to the style of racing 1/8. Starting 6th on the grid with a total of 3 Xrays in the finals. But A1 started with huge mistake which left him last after the first lap. Playing catchup the rest of the final he finished 3rd. A2 and A3 went smooth and zero mistakes secured him the win in both. Winning A2 with 1 lap and A3 with a 8s gap. Taking home the podium in style. Joel comments the race afterwards:

“I had some close racing with fast local guys. Hobbywing powered Xray XB8e 2015 was dialed. No broken parts no setup changes, just charging the batteries. Looking forward to 1/8 National series Huge thanks to EuroRC and my other sponsors”

The podium:
Valander Joel
Alho Tommi
Virtanen Ilkka

The second race of the weekend was on road nitro racing, 1/10th and 1/8th. Both classes have seen some growth the last years and there was a nice turnout for the seasons first national race. The race was held in Kuusankoski, one of the iconic out door tracks of Finland with a long history of hosting the first race of the season. The track is quite technical and slightly smaller than most tracks. Especially the main straight with a turn in the middle and with plenty of chicanes make for close racing and highlights driver skill over engine power.

In 1/8 we had Risto Rönnqvist driving with his Xray RX8. Risto has been racing 1/8 for a while and has always been a solid performer. With plenty of experience he had his Xray running smooth early in the morning and just made few adjustments during the day on the familiar track. Risto started in the final on fourth place. With some thight racing with Henry Fredriksson and Teemu Saarinen the final was for sure to be interesting. However Tomi Mairue had some problems in the lead and had to repair his car. While Fredriksson and Saarinen ran into trouble, Risto was able to run at a constant pace and finnish first in the 30minute final.

Risto did not have the fastest lap in the finals but he was the guy to run most laps in the 30minute final. Nitro is a good example where its important to have a good solid car for the long finals so you do not make mistakes. Risto made good work running consistent lap times and I am sure the victory tastes sweet :)

Podium:
Risto Rönnqvist
Eetu Pesonen
Teemu Saarinen