Riihimäki 24-25.03.2001
The fifth and last race in the FinTrack
Indoor series was held this weekend in Riihimäki, about 70 km north
of Helsinki. It would be the first race for me there and I have to say
that the facility was really good. The track was a copy of the LRP Touring
Car Masters track in Germany. It was a bit smaller though, as the lap times
were around 10-11 seconds, while at the LRP race they have been around
14 seconds. I had not practiced at all since the last race 5 weeks ago
so when there was a chance to race both days at Riihimäki I grabbed
it with both hands. On Saturday there was the last race in the FinTrack
Indoor series and on Sunday just a national race with a much smaller start
list, but still very impressive. In hindsight I'm very happy that I run
both days as the track was the best carpet track I have ever raced on.
Saturday
Began with a 3.5 hour drive...and
we were at the track at 07.00...so as you can imagine we started quite
early. As I knew beforehand that the track would be a copy of the LRP track
I had a setup on that was basically Masamis setup from last years race
there. So the day started with free practice in heats with about 15 drivers.
It's always quite hard to get a clear picture of how the car is working
with so much traffic on the track, but I was reasonably happy with my car.
The fast guys were like usual Teemu with the Axis and the Ahoniemi bro's
with their Corally's. Teppo Kauppinen (a.k.a. TC3 nerd..) made an interesting
comeback to the touring car scene after a 9 month break...now running the
Associated car (don't you think you would have done better with the SW,
Teppo? hehe). Qualifying started badly for me. 
Was
making mistakes and the car was a little difficult. I made some changes
to make it better, put red (GT4) springs front and changed tires. My only
set of Pit's was beginning to wear out (not possible to get them here anymore)
and since the grip was getting quite high I mounted a set with Yokomo 138M's
that I raced for the rest of the day. So in second qualifying the car was
a lot better but I was pushing too hard and made mistakes. So for the final
qualifying I had to get a decent run...did not want to race a c or d final!
Well, I managed to put a decent run together which placed me in the b final.
I would have liked to be a bit higher up but... The car was working well
now and I was quite happy with my lap times, I think my best lap time was
10.8 seconds which was not too far off what the top drivers did. Sakke
was TQ ahead of Teemu although Teemu looked to be the faster, he was just
making small mistakes. My own finals was no high point...my car was becoming
a bit difficult again. I should have changed tires to the 138G's as I would
find out later. The a finals were well worth watching though. Teemu and
Sakke put on a great show as they have done so many times this winter,
so much fun watching them battle. Teemu won it in the end ahead of Sakke
and Simo.
Sunday
We stayed at the track after the
race on Saturday and got a couple of practice runs before we headed off
to the hotel. In practice I tried the 138G's and found the car much easier
to drive with those. I also tried some new setups on the rear suspension
(read about this in the new parts tested section). In practice on Saturday
night and in the beginning of Sunday many drivers run the HPI tires that
are the control tire at the LRP race and 12 turn motors, but the competitive
instinct took over for most and they put those things to the side! Myself
I run with 12 turn motors all day and I was positively surprised with their
performance. My results were not very good in qualifying. I was basically
running with a rear end setup that did not work. See the problem was that
even though the car was very fast it kept grip rolling as soon as I touched
a tape line. Actually my lap times were around 10.5 on Sunday, and that's
with a 12 motor compared to the 8 I was running the day before, so I was
really happy with that and that's why I did not change it soon enough.
I was hoping that I could keep it together for 5 minutes but I couldn't,
but I guess a better driver could have. After I changed the car back to
what was a lot easier to drive my lap times were still only 0.1 slower
so that was the right thing to do. Anyway, my 10.5 lap times were actually
very close to the leaders, so I was happy with that again as I was running
a 12 turn. For the finals (B) I got my car working well and I think I was
pretty much the fastest car. I got second in the first one after starting
7th, helped by other people crashing like mad people... In the second final
I was about to take second place after 5 laps when someone decided it was
a good idea to crash and land in front of me as I turned in at the end
of the main straight, full throttle. The result was a broken caster block,
kingpin screw and a badly bent driveshaft (xtra hard universals). That
was a bit sad as I was coming up through the field and having a good time...but
those things happen. Teemu, Sakke and Simo Ahoniemi put on a good show
on Sunday as well. Simo was TQ and they all won one final each but in the
end it was Simo winning it.
There was 49 racers in mod on Saturday
and 21 on Sunday. So now the carpet series is over here and it's time to
wait for the summer. Overall we had about 70 racers in the mod class in
the FinTrack series which I think is quite a good turnout. Actually there
is still one carpet race in Finland next Saturday but I won't go. Good
Luck to those who will! Some of us Finnish drivers will head to Germany
6-8.4 for the LRP Touring Car Masters which will then definitely put an
end to the carpet season.
For me the asphalt season can't come
soon enough since I have always enjoyed racing outdoors much more than
indoors. The calendar for this summer also looks promising with quite a
few touring car races so hopefully it will be a great season!
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