Strong performance by the Team Serpent Sweden/HP

Team Serpent Sweden showed a strong performance at the latest Swedish championship! In 1:10 it was a complete 1-2-3 podium for Serpent with Per-Ola Hård winning, Mikael Fransson on 2nd place and Tomas Andersson on 3rd place. Staffan Karlsson, also Team Serpent Sweden, taking the 4th spot.

In 1:8 it was almost the same with Mikael Fransson in 1st place and Marcus Lindner in 2nd.

Some happy faces!

However, the competition will probably plan for revench at the next race so we have to be prepared! :-)

The dynamic duo!

No words necessary.... :-)

Back in Business!

The Swedish Championship in 1:8/1:10 Track plus 1:10 EP took place in Växjö. With the 3 classes the number of drivers was ok.

As you all know we struggled a lot during the EC in Luxembourg (if not, read the previous blogs). I am happy to tell you that we are back in business with a good 2nd place at the Swedish Championship! It was a little bit of struggle during the qualification as we missed 2 out of 4 qualification due to mechanical issues but in the end we qualified in 4th place. As we still are running the old format of racing (with direct qualifiers) we had a safe spot in the final. The weather forecast for Sunday was not the best.... rain, rain and more rain. Unfortunately the weather forecast did turn out to be correct (which is unusual...). So, we had to prepare the car for rain.

The final started really good! The setup and engine worked really good. We opted for not running with any special "Insbox" as it had stopped to rain. In the beginnig this was a good choice. Mikael Fransson and Marcus pulled away from the rest. 10 min into the final it started to rain again and the engine started to pick up water and caused it to stop. We quickly changed to another "insbox" adjusted for rain and now it was going better. However, we lost several laps..... and was down to 6th place. Not good but the car once again was running good and we could take car by car. When it was 3min left of the final Marcus was up in 2nd place and could safely bring the car to the finish line. Mikael Fransson once again made a flawless final and became the Swedish Champion and Marcus on 2nd place making it a Serpent 1-2. Björn Ohlson/Mugen taking 3rd place.

In the 1:10 it was a big battle between Mikael Fransson, Per-Ola Hård during the final. In the end it was Per-Ola Hård who got a well deserved victory with Mikael Fransson in 2nd place and Tomas Andersson 3rd place making it a Serpent 1-2-3

In 1:10 EP Alexander Hagberg was a class of his own and it was no surprise to find him on top of the podium. Mattias Johansson taking 2nd and Carl Rönnbäck 3rd.

Racing can be hard and tiring... :-) Martin Åberg from Trollhättan did take a power nap before the finals.... :-)

And my driver was also tired when driving home from Växjö. As usual sleeping with the mouth wide open. :-)

Until next time!

Wolfgang/Marcus

Swedish Nations

This weekend it is time for the Swedish Nationals in Växjö. 5:00 this morning we headed for Växjö (350km) and it did not take long before the first raindrops hit the windscreen.. :-(



Well, there was still some km to drive so there was hope. When we arrived the track was dry so we headed out directly for some practice. After some adjustment (basically hard springs) the car looked good. After a couple of hours it started to rain and it looks like there will not be dry today so we are planning for qualifying tomorrow.

While preparing for tomorrow I had to spy on the competition and found this!!!



Dirty tricks!! WTF! I wonder what technical inspection will say about this! LoL!!

Stay tuned, more reports will come.

Until next time,
Wolfgang Lindner

Time for handout tires for EC and WCs?

Have we come to a point in Nitro Track racing that we need to introduce controlled tires at the large events like EC and WC? I believe so..... Just look at what happend at the WC in Miami this year, EC-B in Hildesheim and EC-A in Luxembourg? It was very obvious that some people used tire treatment. EFRA/IFMAR are desperatly trying to find methods to detect any kind of tire treatment. I do support their efforts but it seems always to be a catch up race. New chemicals pops up which are impossible to detect. I witness this myself at the EC-A in Luxembourg. EFRA had a new test which should have detected any kind of treatment so tire impound was introduced again. However, even before the qualification started it was discovered that there was a new substances available which was not detected..... Here we go again.... Some people will do whatever it takes to win even it it means breaking the rules.

What we need are honest, fair races and the battle for winner should be on the track with equipment which is according to the rules. It is ridiculous that we chase races if they have a body which is x mm to wide or high if others can cheat with their tires.

So why not introduce handout tires? Yes, it will be more work for EFRA, Tire supplier, organisers and the racers but we get fair racing. My intention is to do some more thinking in this area (need to understand the complete picture and how the complete process should work) and further discuss this with racers and other people to see if there is interest to provide an EFRA proposal to the AGM later this year. I would be grateful for any comments in the subject!!!

Not all was bad....

Even if we had a tough time during the EC there was also some nice moments to remember. One was a very cute dog. I believed all loved this dog!