Tampere 23.02.2002

The third race in the FinTrack series took place in Tampere in the middle of Finland. I had to drive down to Tampere through one of the bigger snowstorms of  the winter and was pretty much the only car on the road during the early morning hours. But I made the 240 km alive. 

The track was smaller and slower compared to the Seinäjoki track but the grip was better.

The race was dominated by stardrivers Juho Levänen and Sakke Ahonemi. They were some 7 seconds faster than the rest of the field in qualifying but behind them it was close. The A final was within 12 seconds and the B within 9 seconds. Juho Levänen won all three A finals and has now won almost every race this winter.

The Yokomo drivers had found some speed after the dissapointing last race when no Yokomo was in the A final.
Always fast Henrik Hokkanen drove really well to qualify in fourth place and also finished fourth. Antti Ollinmäki also drove very well and finished 8th. I was really impressed with the way his car was handling, very stable, looked easy to drive and also fast. He used a similar set up to Tosolinis Novak race set up but with stiffer springs and harder damping, so that's something that could be worth trying.

Both new Yokomo driver Eero Laine and Olli Löflund had made improvements since the last race and ended up in 12th and 15th place.

My own race was a disaster. I ended up in the C main. The reason for this is hard to understand because the last qualifying round I drove without any big mistakes, the car was handling ok but  the laptimes were just slow. The setup from the last race did not work so well here, probably because of higher grip and a slower and tighter track layout but also the tyres and inserts could have something to do with it.  In the finals I found some improvements but I really have to do something before next race. 

marsstar23@hotmail.com

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