AE Wins 1/10th Nordic Champs

Held in Denmark from June 2nd to the 5th, the drivers from Finland, Sweden, Norway and host nation Denmark, were greeted with a beautiful new astroturf track prepared by the DHI-CUP crew in Odense. The weather was awesome, blue sky and 25 degrees all four days. Thursday and Friday were free practise days, and although the format used Schumacher Yellow minipins as control tire on driven wheels in both classes, most spend the days modifying their tires with less pins and glue on the sidewalls. Young (punks) hotshots Otto and Oskar Levin were fast in both 2wd and 4wd, but preferred running on slick clay like their home track in Tomelilla (home of the first EOS). So they struggled a little with all the grip. TLR 22 cars were in strong attendance, and looked fast, especially the local drivers who wisely chose to run in midmotor configuration. The new Schumacher 2wd & 4wd were also a running well in hands of Finish driver Petri Str?m and local distributor Ulrich Rasmussen. Although rear motor 2wd cars seem to struggle on highgrip surfaces like Astroturf, local driver Jonas Kaerup, shoved good pace with his Team Associated B4.1 and B44.1. Saturday was all about 2wd. Qualifying went Jonas Kaerups way TQ'ing all four rounds with his GM powered Associated RC10B4.1 , behind him was Lasse Nielsen and Rasmus N?rdgaard both driving the new Losi TLR 22 in midmotor configuration. The biggest surprise was to see the fast young Oskar Levin ending up in the B-main. Bad luck and refusing to run mid motor on his Losi, probably cost him a lot. In the finals Jonas Kaerup drove away from the pack, taking full advantage of his pole position, and despite having turned 34 years old, managed to win the overall 2wd title with his Masami style RC10B4.1 . Second and third went to Lasse Nielsen and Lars Alex Jensen both driving Losi TLR cars powered by GM 9.5 motors. Most of the A finalists chose to use Schumacher?s new cut staggered front tire mounted on wide wheels and glued on both sides. Kaerup commented that this front tire setup made his car a lot better on this high grip astroturf track. Interestingly most of the danes ran 9.5t motors even though there was no motor limit at the event. Speed controllers with stock timing were in good use around the tables, and motors reaching 100degree celsius was not the exception. The Swedes and Norwegians ran more powerful motors like 6.5-7.5t with no timing. Sunday belonged to 4wd. 4wd electric cars are fast on astro turf, and although there was a lot of talented drivers taking part, it was difficult for most to get a clean run on this twisty, tight and fresh astro turf track. In fact a lot struggled to go faster in 4wd that they had done in 2wd.. Clean runs would be the order of the day. Q1 went to Kim Nielsen who managed to do the loooong double in one without crasching once with his Speed Passion powered Tamiya TRF511. 14 laps in 5.min 21 was Kims time. The Tamiya 511 belt car is a popular car as many danes, swedes and norwegians seem to have chosen this weapon. In second local hero and DHI cup race director for many years, Christer Rasmussen ran a safe run choosing to do the double in single-single with his LRP powered AE B44.1. Third in the round came Oskar Levin with his Speed Passion powered TRF511. The finals were a messy affair. The double/triple jump, cost Kaerup a broken car in A-final 1, so that was won by Kim Nielsen with his TRF511 belt car in front of young Oskar. The 2nd A final saw Kaerup get a good start and jump his way to a good lead and a 5 second win, with Kim Nielsen in second. So the 3rd A final would be the decider, and sure enough it would all come down to who would be the bravest over the jumps. Kim overtook Jonas in midair over the double/triple only to loose it again in the next corner. The two drivers put on an awesome show, with lots of overtaking, and midair battles. In the end it came down to the last lap, where both nose to tail made the double/triple, but Kim rolled his car on pipe and thereby lost his chance of overtaking Jonas for the 4wd Nordic title. Report and images courtesy of Neobuggy.