1st round Swedish Cup 12-13 May
Last
weekend the first major race in the classes 1:8IC and 1:10NT took place in
Växjö. This is a small but nice track in south east of Sweden. The weather forecast
for the weekend was of a really mixed nature, with sunny and relatively warm
temperature on Friday and Sunday but Saturday did not look good..... More about
that below.
We
headed towards Växjö after lunch on Friday and had a nice 250km drive. When we
arrived at the track some drivers had already arrived but it was not crowded in
any way, so we unloaded the car and prepared for the first outing. We opted to
race with the NovaRossi PTS engines from last year at this first event because
there has not been any good weather (=read warm) to test the new NovaRossi
Keep-On engines.
We
started the first test with the same setup as previous weekend tests in
Gothenburg. The Serpent 966Evo did look good from the beginning but we were not
100% sure about the pace due to that no timing was available. However we continued
with more engine and clutch tests and settings. End of Friday we felt ok with
the preparation for the race. Talking about preparation how about this picture
from technical inspection… not too much and not to little… just about right! J
 |
| Good planning Wolfgang, good planning... |
Looking
out from the hotel window on Saturday morning did not make us happy.... :-)
rain...
When
we arrived at the track it was wet and basically it did rain the whole day. 4
qualifying rounds was planned but it was obvious that no one (ok, maybe one or
two dare devils) would put a car on the wet track. Finally the race officials
cancelled the qualifying sessions and decided to move the 4th qualification
round to Sunday. This was a good decision because who wants to race in wet
conditions.... Now we could spend some quality time with race friends whom some
we haven't seen since last year..... :-)
Sunday
looked good with clear blue sky’s and sun (although a little bit cold in the
morning). A practice session was scheduled before the first and only
qualification session. We took the chance to use this practice session for
final tuning of the car before the serious stuff started. Our experience from
last year was that the PTS engines with the new cooling head caused us some
confusion for how warm the engines should be operated for optimal performance.
Anything under 130 degrees would make the engine too rich but it was also very
sensitive for fine tuning. There was a big difference in humidity between
Friday and Sunday (although the temperature was the same) and because of this
we had to tune the engine a lot during Sunday practice but in the end we found
it reasonable ok to run around 135-140 degrees.
Having
just one qualification round is a bit of a gamble but on the other hand it is
the same for all participants.. :-) We felt well prepared but we were not sure
about the pace compared to the rest. However the qualification run did go
really well, Marcus drove a stable but also fast run. He had to keep the pace
up not losing tire temperature and it looked good. The result? Well, how about
TQ! A really good start of the 2012 season. It was a close deal as Niklas
Johansson (Xray/Picco) was only 0.5 sec behind after a 7 min. Bengt Andersson
(Serpent 966/Novarossi PTS) was also running good an took 3rd spot.
After
the qualification session we made some analysis of tire wear and we concluded
that we needed to do a tire change around 24 min. Our plan was also to refuel
every 4 min. The final started good. Marcus and Bengt started with a good pace.
Niklas Johansson hade to start from the pit as his engine flamed out during the
starting procedure. It took not many laps until the first back markers had to
be overtaken. This was a real gamble. Two times Marcus was suffering by being
hit by back markers but overall drivers did give each other room during
overtaking. After 10 min Marcus did just briefly hit a curb and on power the
car flipped. Bengt was now able to go into the lead but Marcus could quickly
gain grounds by some good driving. Tires were also getting better when the size
was more "right" compared to beginning. Bengt had an incident with a
back marker and this gave the opportunity for Marcus to take the lead again.
Around the 20min mark Marcus wanted to change tires. This was slightly earlier
than originally planned. Tire change went reasonably well. Niklas Johansson was
now able to take the lead as Bengt Andersson was involved in another incident.
 |
| Some happy faces from the podium |
The 2nd set of tires was not
good.... at the time we had no clue why... Well, 2nd place is not bad and there
is still plenty of time left of the final. However the luck should soon turn
around.... when there was 10 min left
of the final the engine flamed out and also hit the glowplug.... :-(
Quickly
change the glowplug and refuel but considering a 1min 37 sec stop on a 14 sec
lap you lose places.... Marcus was able to give a good fight and retook 3rd
place when there was 5min remaining of the final. Niklas Johansson drove a good
final and was awarded 1st place. His pace was hard to beat this time. Well done
and well deserved! Bengt Andersson ended up 2nd and Marcus on 3rd making the
complete podium.
Overall
we are satisfied with this first race of the season considering the good
performance in qualification and 3rd place overall.
We now have a two weeks break from racing as I am heading to US for a two week business trip and Marcus is heading towards Netherlands doing aerodynamic measurement on a Eco Marathon race vehicle.
Until
next time!
Marcus
and Wolfgang
