Laukaa FinTrack, 21-22.07.2001
One week after the last race at
the high speed track of Hyvinkää it was time for the last two
rounds of this summer's FinTrack series. These two races was held at Laukaa.
The track was built this summer so it would be the first race(s) ever on
this track. The scenery at the track was astonishing...really amazing.
I have never seen a nicer place for an rc track. The track itself was quite
simple. It was ok to drive but I would not say it's the best layout I have
run on.
Anyway after a couple of bad races
I thought it was time to stop the disappointing results so we decided to
go to the track on friday to get some testing done. Arrived at the track
at around 1pm on friday. Started off with the 'standard' Special setup
and the car worked ok. It was just understeering a bit too much. We were
four Yokomo's that were testing at the track and I have to say that we
got all cars working quite well then. On the Special we were running green
rear springs which really made the car easy to drive.
Saturday
It was expected that it could rain
on saturday and rained it did. Went to the track quite late in the morning
as we had been there testing on friday. But before I even had a chance
to run on the track it started raining. It rained on and off all day. The
race was still run 'as usual', though. I decided that it was best to save
my equipment so I did not do any racing while the track was wet. I just
see no point in running electric rc cars in standing water... The only
sort of dry round of qualifying was round three. I did that but it was
not easy to get a feel for the car in those half dry, half wet conditions
when you had not done any running all day. I did a time that placed me
somewhere in the b...but I don't remember where anymore. Anyway that was
the only run all day for me as the rain returned just after my qualifying
run. The race was run as normal as I said. Here are the results:
1. Yli Vesa (Corally)
2. Westerlund Janne (Corally)
3. Saarinen Teemu (Corally)
Sunday
Well the weather was a lot better
on sunday so this time we could do a normal race. Still had a hard time
with my car though...it was so strange to drive. There was no concistency
in the handling at all. Like usual I qualified somewhere in the b. We had
two Yokomo's in the a, that's nice! Teemu Saarinen was tq with his Corally
ahead of Juho Levänen's GM. Simo Ahoniemi qualified down in fifth
although he looked to be the fastest car on the track. My b finals were
good and bad...the first one was really nice as the car was for once working
like it should. I had changed to one step softer rear springs (silver)
as the car was overheating the rear tyres in the last qual. As I said the
b final was really fun as I did a lot of great close racing with many other
drivers. Even though I changed nothing for the second b and the conditions
stayed pretty much the same the car was once again really difficult so
that was not such a nice race. I sort of knew what the cause of these problems
was already, but it was not possible to fix it while at the track. Simo
won the race even though he started down in fifth. Second was Juho and
third was Jarno Siltanen on his home track. The best Yokomo finished fifth
which was also where he finisehed in the FinTrack final results.
1. Simo Ahoniemi (Corally)
2. Juho Levänen (GM)
3. Jarno Siltanen (Xray)
4. Tommi Torikka (AE)
5. Henrik Hokkanen (Yokomo)
6. Teemu Saarinen (Corally)
7. Aki Leppänen (Xpress)
8. Tony Raikas (Corally)
9. Kalle Lehto (AE)
10. Jussi Kankaanmäki (Yokomo)
FinTrack final standings:
1. Simo Ahoniemi
2. Juho Levänen
3. Teemu Saarinen
4. Tommi Torikka
5. Henrik Hokkanen
So the only national race left in
Finland this summer is the Finnish Championships which will be held 18-19.8
at my hometrack here in Vaasa. Now a 4 week break for everybody to prepare
for that race. Ciao.
home