Riihimäki 16.3.2002

The fifth and last race in the FinTrack winter series took place in Riihimäki about 70 km north of Helsinki. 

The track was a copy of last years LRP race track but smaller. The track was a litlle bit on the thighter side but it was still quite driveble and the grip was pretty good. 

The race was dominated by Juho Levänen. With the Ahonemi brothers participating in the 1/12 Euros and Teemu Leino decided not to race Juho took pole position with 7 seconds ahead of Tomi Myöhänen who was 0,7 seconds ahead of Yokomo driver Henrik Hokkanen in third. As expected Juho had an easy ride to victory and he actually won all five races in the winter series so he has been really fast this winter, remember to keep on eye on him at this years LRP race.

Four Yokomo drivers was in the B main which was quite close, all drivers within 5 seconds after qualifying. Joseph Quagraine finished in 15th with his MR4TC, Olli Löflund was 16th, Antti Ollinmäki 17th and I ended up in 20th place. 

This race was a little bit better than the last  last race for me. In the first round of qualifying I drove really safe with the intention of making no mistakes which I managed to. I arrived to the race with a set up that I hadn't tested but in time for the first gualifying I had put on the old setup. In the second qualifying I continued to drive safe which  I've found to always be the fastest way around for me and suprisingly I was almost 10 seconds faster and was in 16th place. I had made some fine tuning, I put on the 1mm trailing steering blocks that seemed to smooth out the turn in so the car was quite easy to drive, which I think is the most important thing on carpet with the Yokomo because it's a very aggressive car, the laptimes will be good if the car is easy to drive. In the third I desided to push a little bit harder but  that didn't work out and I made a mistake in the beginning and that was it. The finals didn't go very well becauce of some problem with my motor that had mysteriously lost power. 

After all, I think I made some progress this winter although I didn't do as many races as last season and with limited testing. Anyway the MR4 TC Special wasn't as easy to set up as I first expected but here is my final setup :

-Masami's SP basic setup 
-with Tosolini type rear link
-orange springs front and rear
-60mm rear dampers, 59.5 front
-40 front and rear oil, 50 rear in high grip conditions 
-standard SP upper deck

At last a summary of the carpet season this winter. 

-The racing was close behind the stardrivers Levanen and Ahoniemi. 
-Over 100 drivers participated in the series in stock and modified
-Take Off Cs control tyres are very longlasting 
-The track layouts were much better this year, the Seinäjoki track was especially nice. 
-The cars were faster than ever before, even with 12 motor limit
 

results
 
 

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