Pierre Ronnefalk:s R/C blogg

Swedish Cup, Round 1..

2011-05-10T15:32:00.000+02:00

Then it was time for the first of five rounds of Sweden Cup 2011, which was run in Höör in southern Sweden.
We had already predicted before the race that the track would be bumpy and difficult to drive when it has not rained in southern Sweden for a long time, and it is really dry in the ground.

There were two practice rounds and then we already knew that the gridiron was a good qualifying tire at this track so we tested the Impact of preparation for the finals, and after testing the super-soft in the first practice we changed to soft when the SS was warm and the car was hard to drive after a couple of minutes.
We also practiced with a new 7-port engine, just to have an extra engine fresh as a reserve. After the training sessions so we changed back to the 5-Port.
The setup of the car was David´s new standard setup (after Worlds) and we did not change anything during the weekend.

In the first qualification round David drove as expected … fast and really good and he won the round with 23 seconds with lap times 1,5 seconds better than the others.

In the second round as he continued with GridIrion Soft and started with 3 superfast laps together with the fasters of the weekend, but then pulled down the tempo to a safe tempo as the track already started to become difficult to drive.
He also won this round, now with nine seconds, and while most were driving a little slower so he lowered his lap time by 0.5 seconds further.

Before the third round he desire to test I-Beam, Soft, which I did not understood as he never has run well and fast with these tires, but he is the driver as he make his decisions.
Just as I predicted it went not so well with these tires and now he finished 2nd in the round.

In the fourth round so he was back on GridIrion, soft (after finding that he was wrong) and although the track was now miserable to drive he gave away with a great run and also won this round and then secured overall TQ.

In Sunday's semi-practice, it was focused on testing the tires for the final, and that was Impact Medium which we thought most of. The tires worked really well and the practice also and he had no problem to run 10:30 on the engine.

In the semifinal, it was first intended that he would continue with the gridiron as the qualifiers, but then we thought it was better to drive with same tires as final he roll out on the Impact that he had driven in the semi-practice. In the semifinal he was driving as expected and he had kept a good pace and won the semifinal 18 seconds before the second car.

Then it was time for the finals and although we could easily run 9min refueling we chose the safe way and desired to refuel at 7:30 as one refueling more would not do so much.
David made a great start and immediately began to build up a distance back, but after eight laps, he said he thought the glue on the right front tire was a bit loose and he wanted a new tire at the refueling. He made some fast laps to increase the distance to the cars behind and on lap 12 he came in for refueling and we also changed the tire. The change cost about 10 seconds and he came out as a 3 and after the cars in front had refueled, he was basically caught up with them.
A few laps later he had passed cars in front of him and again he started to build a distance back. We knew that 3:d had one fuel stop less and I thought it might be tight, but when Davis ran stable with very few mistakes and good lap times the distance increased all the time. After about 30 minutes it was all lapped.
The most surprising thing that happened was when he crashed out on the straight on one lap, but when I asked afterward what happened he said he heard that several cars crashed in another part of the track and he was forced to watch to see which cars it was :-)

After 45 minutes, crossed the finish line after a pretty boring final without any fight for first place. David thinks that it is difficult to keep focused for so long and still keep a slightly lower pace compared to a race where it is fighting for the places.

In conclusion, it was a good win because we are not going to run next race in the cup as we will be at the 1/10 Pre-Worlds in Finland, so the next race will be round 3. The tire losing in the final was completely my fault, but my excuse is that I had annoying allergies in my eyes all weekend and had trouble see things clearly.

Next race will be 1/10 Pre-Worlds in Finland.

Practice / Race week in France

2011-03-22T01:07:00.000+01:00

As my work made it impossible to go to US and race “The Dirt” we desired to go to south France for some practice and then drive the Silver Pennes race some kilometers from Marsielle.

David had not been driving 1/8 nitro since the Worlds in Pattaya last November, so it felt like a good start of the OffRoad season.

We went to Lyon and when we were at the airport we also checked and took some pictures at the racetrack nearby the airport as it’s the place where Euro-B 2011 will be.

We started to visit a new track west of Lyon and nearby Adrien Bertins home where we picked up some fuel, starting box and engines.
The track was good for engine tests and had high grip and a lot of power driving.

We were keeping the worlds setup in the car to see how it should work in a European track. David started to use a 7-Port that he have been using at the worlds and 4 races before that, and switched after that to one of the new 5-port Jared Tebo World edition.
He liked the 5-Port really much as it had a smooth curve and good feeling from mid to high. On the track he was driving on the mileage was the same, but the 5-Port engine was new and tight.

Adrien was in place during the day and he drove his buggy also.
David and Adrien had different setups on their cars and David switched between them to make comparisons.
One other new thing on Davids car was the new KO Propo RXs servos, that has really interesting specifications and the feeling was better than the old ones.

Adrien was driving with one of Tebo VM bodies so it was actually two bodies with IFMAR markings on the track.

Satisfied with the day we prepared the car for Thursday practice in Pierrefeu, a track that David likes a lot.
An early morning leaving 5am and 4 hour later we arrived to the track between Marseille and Nice.

This was a new good driving with good weather compared to the Swedish snow and cold shit.
Robert Battle and Martin and Ales Bayer and some other drivers also came for practice at the track.

We went up to Pennes, near Marseille, and checked the track for the race … and it looked really difficult and fun on the same time. One unusual thing was the straight that ended in a dosed curve in concrete.
The track also had a lot of jumps in different sizes (19 of them). The pit area was roofed and placed under roof … something that was needed.

The first race day was Friday and it started with 2 rounds of free practice followed by 2 timed practice rounds, but without marshalling which was a bit strange.

David thought the track was difficult to maintain high speed on the track and all driving on the track was important. We made some small changes on the car and he felt it better to drive. The track was “dusty” and we drove all day with CityBeam (Cityblock in front and I-Beam in rear) supersoft.
The Aigion brothers were of cause fast on the track with Jerome being fasterst as it was his home track. After those David, Elliot and Battle was on the same lap times.

On saturday practice round we decided to switch from CityBeam to Impact as the track looked cleaner and better.

In the qualification round 1 we kept the car as the previous practices, and also kept Impact tires that were better than the CityBeam.
David started with number 2 after Yannick before so it was no problem with traffic.
With a really good driving and with traffic problem only twice it looked really good.
But then he made a mistake on the last lap just before the finish line which cost 4 sec and he finished 4 the in the first round that Yannick won.

The second qualifying round was overall slower than the first and David got also huge traffic problem in half of the round, but when he got passed the laptimes was better. Even this round he finished 4, and Jerome took it.

In the 3rd and last qualifying round so we tested the grid iron to see if there was any difference.
The driving was really good and the only mistake was when he has been hanging on curbs for a few seconds and some bad times at traffic.
He finished in 3rd in the round and 4th in total after Jerome, Yannick and Martin Bayer.
We was pleased with the result as it was a good start after 4 month with no nitro driving at all.

Unfortunately, it started raining after the qualifications and it was promised 33 mm in the night to Sunday and the final day.

Next day it was only to find that it had rained all night, but when we got to the track at 10am it looked okay even if the cars that came in from the finals looked anything but clean.
We made ourselves ready for the Semi practice and we had planned to test the GridIron and CityBeam tires.

In the 1/4 finals it began to rain a lot and the wind was really hard.
After the 1/4 final they called the 24 semi drivers for discuss and vote for continue/stop the race and after 12 for and 12 against the decision were to cancel the race and take the result from the qualifications.
David really wanted to drive and make some battling for the podium, but as the rain increased even more the decision was correct I think.

So Jerome was the winner followed by Yannick, Bayer, David, Battle, Boots in the top 5.

After the race we went back to Lyon and finished the trip with more practice on Monday before we returned home to Sweden again.

Racing in France

2011-03-09T08:12:00.001+01:00

This weekend we will drive a (rain !) race in France, and before that it will be couple of days practice. This is the first nitro driving since Worlds last november.

Yesterday we landed in Lyon and took some pictures at the Euro-B 2011 track that now is under preperations.

Summarize of 2010

2010-12-31T17:09:00.007+01:00

In the beginning of this year we and other wounder if David could keep the same level of success in 2010 as 2009, but with victories Swedish Nats., Nordic Championships, Euro-B and so on it felt really tough to live up to this.

The year started well as David started the year by becoming the TQ and winner of the Nitromania, which was run in Belgium with strong drivers as Adam Drake and Mike Thrue as participants.

One of them most enjoyable race of the year was obviously Neo10 that always has a very big list of top drivers.
David was struggling in the qualifications but managed to qualify for the 1/4 finals and bumped up to the semis where he stopped. An okay performance i think, even if David himself was disappointed.

In Swedish Cup, he managed to not win all the races as he did in 2009, but there is nothing that David is responsible as it was more from my side. However he won three of the races and the cup for the second year.

Swedish Nast. Was prove to be an interesting and different race if you think about track surface and tire wear. The race was Kyosho dominated with Linus Thern as TQ and winner and David as 2nd in both qualifying and the final result.

The Nordic Championships in Finland was also an exciting event when all the Friday practice rained out and all “non-Finnish” drivers were thrown straight into a race with minimal practice.
This also showed in the qualifying results when the Swedish drivers were unusually far down.
Anyway, in the finals everything changed and again it turned out that David is a phenomenal final driver as he managed to get back in the semifinal, and after 18 minutes in the main final he showed that he was the only one who survived nine minutes refueling and he won the race with big distance for the second consecutive year.

In July it was time for the European Championships in Guarda, Portugal and with track images from the Euro-Warmup it was not super-optimistic, but the organizers had done a great job on the track and everything around it was perfect. The goal was to qualify better than ninth place as he had in Austria, and of course getting to the final.
Even if David had not been on the track and run before, so he quickly came into the track layout and became 11 after practice and qualified 8th after being 2nd and 3rd in two rounds.
After a 3rd place in the semi it was time for his first European Cup final where he finished 6th and at the same time became the best junior.

In November, it was the World Championships in Pattaya, and a race where we really did not have any goal for as we had not been there practicing as many other drivers had been.
Once there it became a natural target to be top 48 to avoid driving a lower final on Saturday.
At the 4 qualifiers that were counted he ended between 18 and 27 which led to a 33rd place in the qualifiers which was good, although a 32-spot and 1/4 would have been better.
In the 1/8 final he had two flameouts as the ideling was little to low.
But it was interesting to see his speed as he was almost two seconds faster than the others in the 1/8-finale, and his fasters laptime was the fastest on the whole final day.
It would be fun to see how far he could go, but we were pleased with the results with no practice earlier, and to be at the Worlds and see the team take TQ and win the race was fantastic.

In addition to the “big” race, it has been runing some smaller races that have been both good and less good as Quackenbrueck where he was hit in the finals so that the car broke, broken clutch at Montpellier (sorry) and out-of-fuel at Kyosho Masters ( sorry again).

As the World in 1/10 electric buggy goes in Finland in 2011 David wanted to try to qualify for it, and with only one 1/10 race in the back (Swedish Nats 2009) it was at least worth a try.
The first competition of the year was in the Nordic Championships in Bergen, Norway and David ended 4tth in 2WD and become Nordic Champion in 4WD.

The other big race in the 1/10 class of the year was the Swedish Championships and again David was 4th in 2WD and again he won the 4WD and become Swedish Champion.

With a tight race calendar we could not run the entire Sweden Cup races in 1/10 but it was the last two. David have been better in 2WD in the year and was better in those races, but in 4WD he have been totally domination and won the two cup race he drove and the cup overall in the class.

At the end of the year, there has been a lot of practice in 1/10 Touring on a nearby track as outdoor racing is impossible with more than 70cm snow and tempatures down to -25.

To sum up i feel that 2010 was an equally good year as 2009, and now it's time to look at the 2011th with CHI Cup in 1/10 as the first race already next week.

With this, we give thanks for 2010 and would like to wish all a Happy New Year, and special thanks to our sponsors Kyosho, Orion, AKA, KO Propo, Upgrade-RC, Neobuggy, Dailedinc, DCD……

The Worlds in Pattaya - Qualification and Finals

2010-11-09T18:14:00.012+01:00

It was no blogging yesterday as i was so tired after a long hard day on the track that ended with the open cermony before we left to the hotel.

To Summerize the practice, it was really bad as David broke both practice round after krasching the car.

The mission at the first qualification was to make a good drive with few mistakes and don't break the car At the warmup his looked really god and he drive two laps and then we refueled so he could drive some more laps before the start as he didn't want to pit just before the start when the pitline is full of cars.
After that he made a really good driving with only a few mistakes that depended on wrong timing on the jumps.
He finished with 13 laps 10:29 and ended on 27 place in the first round wich we was very pleased with.

In the second round we had made some changes to the car to make it better to drive and the warmup was really good.
The jump was really god now, and the reason was that he moved a few meters on the driver stand to get another angel to se the track.
The clock started and he drove some good laps without any truble, but then he went to close in the turn after the straigth and broke the front lower arm of the car.

One good round, one bad ... 4 more to go and the most important is to get more tracktime to get some good driving for the finals.

For the swedish readers, i also write on race.kyosho.se

Qualifying round 3

The 3rd round was on Thursday and this round was his best so far (and for the all week) with a 18th place after a really good driving. It was still some mistakes too much, but he learning the track really good now.

Qualifying round 4

In the 4th round it seemes good also, but suddenly the engine started to go rich and stopped. We tuned it but it didn't help so something was wrong. We checked It after the race and it was dirt in the carburator so that was the problem.

After two days he now had 2 good and 2 bad round, so the friday must be a good day.

Qualifying round 5

Qualifying day two was very importen as David now was forced to have two god rounds to get his top-48 goal and get the free day for resting at saturday.

The day started god again and he made a good driving and he was 24 in the round, one more to go.

Qualifying round 6

In the last qualification round David chased the spot 32 or better to qualify directly to 1/4 final, But even with really good driving he didn't manage to get it all way as he after the last qualified 33 after team mate Tylor Vik who got the last 1/4 spot.

But after all, the top 48 place was fullfilled, and with his counted heats i think he was 18, 24, 26, 26.

1/8 Final

Sunday morning was a really hot tempature already 9 am.

David was driving his 1/8 as the second final of the day. With start number 1 he got a good start and maintained the lead for a couple of laps before Martin Bayer passed him.

A few laps after David lost his second position when his engine stopped. After we started the engine again he started to drive really fast and secure and started to pass the cars again.

Then the engine stopped for the second time and as it was on a very slow part of the track and the engine stopped because of too low ideling.

After that he pusched really hard and played around on the jumps until he made a mistake and broke the steering and the race was over.

The last happening on the race was the main final and that was a really good race. At the begining everything was about Tebo, Hara, Cody and Maifield, but Maifield broke the car after about 20-30 minutes.

Cody King was driving really good with Hara pusching behind. Tebo was battling with Maifield alot which was eating Tebos soft tires.

Tebo flamed one time when he landed after the 3 jump ... i saw it and i guess he landed on a something. This incident didn't change any position at Tebo was third before and after.

With a few minutes left Hara pressed Cody alot but he had a incredible driving and Hara was the guy doing mistakes.

After 60 minutes of thrilling final drivings Cody King passed the finish line first and become 2010 World Champion with his Kyosho / Orion / AKA package...

This was also Kyosho:s 8th WC title in 1/8 OffRoad.

To summarize the race it was a great event really well done by the organizer, and even if the track was difficult David liked it alot.

We should been at the track earlier for practice to be better prepered.. but after all i think the whole thing about practice before the event is wrong.

We thank Phil@Neobuggy to let us borrow some of his nice pictures from the race.

The Worlds in Pattaya - Practice Day 1

2010-11-08T18:53:00.008+01:00

Then we are on a new race, and it's of couse the Worlds in 1/8 OffRoad in Pattaya, Thailand.
After some days resting and preperation for the race, it's time to see what David can do at his first IFMAR Worlds. Because of the school we have not been here for practice and that makes it a bit difficult as alot of drivers will be fast from day 1

Today it was time for two rounds of organized practice on 15 minutes and David got into heat one with fast drivers as Savoya, Hara, Thrue, Yannick Aigion and more.

He started his practice in the first heat of the day and went out on a little bit wet and slippery track.
The most important thing was NOT to break the car on the hard track and just be smooth and finding the lines around. Lap time was not important at all.
The setup of teh car was identical to Tebos, just to have something to start with.
It was no big changed exept for the battery that we moved from the battery tray to the front beside the steering servo.
In the kit Kyosho gave all drivers, it was a really nice battery holder with it.

The first practice was okay as we saw it, and after the practice Adrien came with som tip about some smal modifications (as ususal) to get the setup more to fits Davids driving style.

With the new changes we drove a second round that was much better than the first one and we checked som mileage but he went out of fuel in the fueling lap and the car after hit him in the rear shock and the shaft was bent, but as it was only a few minutes left of the practice it was okay.

After the second practice we made some small changings at the kar to make it ready for tomorrow when the time practice/reeseding starts.

So to summrize the first day, the car looks good, important with smooth driving, the track is really hard to the cars, the track migth be much bumpier.

On this video i found one lap of his driving in the 2nd practice round ... 3:30 in to the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_ag4xbG6fs

Welcome to Pattaya Raceway

Some resting on the track

Swedish pit area

Our food partner@the track :-)

Swedish Cup Final in 1/10 electric buggy - 4WD

2010-10-31T12:18:00.007+01:00

Today sunday it was time for David and his Kyosho friends to chase the victory in 1/10 Electric Buggy Swedish Cup Final and the 4WD class.

It started with two practice rounds and tried different motors so find the best one for this slippery track. We changed from 6.5 to 7.5 motor and the laptime was better with smoother power. As regulated tyres it was ProLine Caliber that was not the best tires for this track, but with AKA foam insid it was perfect for him.

Quailfication 1
In the first round David made an perfect round with almost no mistakes and won it with a 14 laps result

Qualification 2
Second round and a really bad driving with a lot of mistakes and ended 3:rd in the round.

Qualification 3
In this round David drove good and was leading when suddenly something happened with the car, and it was a pin in the front driveshaft that was gone. Niklas Månson also took this round.

Qualification 4
In for the last round David hade to win over Nicklas Månsson to get the same points but win with better time. David made a really good run and even if he made one big mistake and lost a few seconds he took the win and was TQ for the second day in row … this time we hoped for better final driving.

A-Final 1
This final was the best driving of the day and it was more or less perfect. He got 14 laps with really good time and the second car was many seconds behind - a good start of the finals.

A-Final 2
Again he got away really nice, but the car behind was 1-2 second after him half of the final but then made some mistake and David increased the gap every lap until finish and he passed the finish line not just winning the race as he also won the 4WD class of the Swedish Cup, and he have still never lost a 1/10 4WD race since he started one year ago.

With this victory we one more time show that Kyosho have an dominating position in 1/10 and 1/8 offroad in Sweden and the winning for 2010 are:

Davids victories

* Nordic Championship 1/10 4WD
* Swedish Championship 1/10 4WD
* Swedish Cup 1/10 4WD
* Swedish Cup 1/8 Buggy
* Nordic Championship 1/8 Buggy
* European Junior Champion 1/8 Buggy

Other Kyosho victories
* Swedish Nationals 1/8 (Linus Thern)
* European Junior Champion 2WD (Mikael Johansson)
* European Junior Champion 4WD (Mikael Johansson)
* Nordic Championship 1/10 2WD (PerErik Nordman)
* Swedish Championship 1/10 2WD (Mikael Johansson)
* Swedish Cup 1/10 2WD (PerErik Nordman)

Swedish Cup Final in 1/10 electric buggy - 2WD

2010-10-30T11:06:00.010+02:00

It has been a long time since i blogged last and the reason is "time", but i often got questions about it and some people looks like they enjoy articles, so i will try to start with the racing blogging again, starting at this race and then our journey to the Worlds in Pattaya next week.

This weekend it's time for the final in Swedish Cup in 1/10 Electric Buggy 2WD and 4WD, starting with 2WD today saturday.

The race is held in Swedens first permanent indoor clay track in south of Sweden in a village called Onslunda, Tomelilla. The clay looks a bit as the Neo surface at Harper Adams.

Yesterday it was practice all day, and David who had been here a couple of weeks ago had his setup almost ready, and he drove really fast laps with both 2WD and 4WD.

Qualification 1
David started as car 4, and drove really good and passing the cars in front. A few laps from finish he mas two mistakes and lost 8-10 seconds, but still maintained his leading position. His best laptimes was 0,9 better than the second car.

Qualification 2
In the second round he started first and keept his lead the whole round even with super smooth driving he was the first driver in 13 laps.

Qualification 3
In the 3rd round he made alot of mistakes for some reason and drop down to 8th, but drove up to and finished as 4.

Qualification 4
In the last qualification round David made a mistake in the beginning and lost 2 seconds, but after that he drove really fast and made a new track record at 23:4 and finished with a ned 13 lap round.

So with 3 of 4 winning qualifications he got TQ in the class.

A-Main 1
In the first final David had a good start and keept the leading for half of the finale, then he did a mistake and got upside down so the second car could pass him.
Then on the last lap the leader made a mistake and this time David passed him and won.

A-Main 2
In the second final David made som mistakes when battling with the car behind and they both got up-side-down and the car after could take the lead. David managed to go up to second place in this final.

A-Main 3
3 Drivers was possible winners infor the 3rd final, and again David made some mistakes when battling his way up to the first after some incident on the first lap.
He ended 3rd after this final, and we had 3 drivers on same points and Davids teammate Mikael Johansson took the victory with better time, David ended as 3rd.

In the total of the Swedish Cup we had Kyosho winners at 1st (PerErik Nordman), 2nd (Mikael Johansson) and 4th (David), so Kyosho have a good domination in Swedish 1/10 driving.

For David he still need more experience to drive 2WD .. it's going better for each race (as he was TQ), men must be more stable in the final.

Tomorrow it's 4WD and that's the thing he really likes.

Review of 2009

2010-01-05T12:18:00.026+01:00

And so, 2009 is behind us and its time to summarize last years season before we start the new one in 2010.

Quackenbrück
There was a barely a year since we drove the first race in 2009, and it was in the annual indoor race in Quackenbrück, Germany and for that race David would test an Orion motor for the first time.
It is always a fun atmosphere at the races in Germany although Quackenbrück race is in the middle of winter so it is a race that must be run.
Cannot remember the results exactly, but David missed the final with a place.

Bischofsheim Warmup
The second race this year was the Warmup race in Frankfurt on the nice track of Bischofsheim. This was the first time that we were using the new Alpha engine, which was exciting.
The race went better than expected and David qualified for semi and final. Once in the finals so it went well until a loose flywheel nut stopped the race after 40 minutes which was unfortunate even though it was nice to see that he was hanging on the fast drivers in speed.

Euro A, Warmup
After Frankfurt it was time to go to Austria for the EC-A warmup. The weather was really nice and the track was good.
We worked together with Adrien all weekend to find a good setup, and in the end we found a good base setup that David have been using almost all races after that.
The result on the race was not so good as he broke the car in the 1 / 8 final after a bad landing.

Swedish Cup
Then it was time for the first Swedish race which was the Swedish Cup and the first race of Skövde. It was here that we saw this would be an exciting year as he showed a total dominance by taking TQ, fastest lap, win semi-finals to finally win the whole competition.

Kyosho Masters
Kyosho Masters in Frankfurt also ran on the track in Bischofsheim and this time it was both buggy and Truggy. In the Truggy David won and in the buggy he was 7th.

Swedish Cup
The second race in the Swedish Cup was held in Eskilstuna, and even here David showed a total dominance by once again becoming TQ, run the fastest lap and finally win the finals after running up from last place in a thrilling final.

European Championship B
In June it was time to go to the Gland in Switzerland to run the Euro-B for the third consecutive year. In 2008 David ended 8th place and the goal this year was to get on the podium, but there were many talented drivers in place and we knew it would be tough.

At Friday's practice it went bad, but we tested different settings, and felt that we had enough good speed to challenge. Adrien Bertin was again at the race to give support to David and his other Team Orion drivers.
After Ales Bayer took the first 2 rounds of quali David got 3rd and 2nd place in those, he won the 2 ending rounds of qualifying rounds and became TQ after having increased the tempo when the track became bumpier.
In the semi-finals, he was 17 seconds infront of the second fastest driver, which gave us hopes of a good final where David took the lead directly and held it all the way to the finished. He won the race with just over a lap.

So this race gave several titles:
• Winner of the EM-B
• TQ
• Best Junior
• Sweden as the best nation

Kyosho Masters
The weekend after the European Championship B, it was time running Kyosho Masters in Paris. This is a race you just have to run as a Kyosho driver and it was fun to go there with the victory of EC-B the week before.
This was a Buggy and Truggy race and in Truggy David ended up 3rd place.
The Buggy it was a Swedish - American fight where Cody King won, followed by David and Tyler Vik at the 3rd place.

European Championship
After 2 weeks of resting it was time to once again go to Austria for the EC-A. This was the first ever European Championship for David and it was exciting to see how he would perform.
After two days with very good qualifying he finished at a 9th place after being 3rd in the 5th round, which gave a place in the semi-finals. He could not keep up in the Semi-final after some mistakes and didn´t reach the final.
His driving raised more than one eyebrow at this race and there were many congratulations.

Swedish Cup
At the 3rd round of the Swedish Cup in Skarpnäck David had the chance to take overall victory in the cup, but we knew it would be incredibly hard when there were many fast drivers on that track.
After some electronic problems and rainy weather he was starting as number one in the final which he led from start to finish.
He was now the winner of the Swedish Cup for 2009.

Swedish Championship 2009
This year's Swedish prestigious competition would undoubtedly be the Swedish championship, which only runs every 3rd year ( between those it´s runs a national championship). We were completely convinced that it would be tough competition for there were many who really wanted to win this race, especially with some fast local drivers.
Practice went well and he was slightly ahead of Andreas Edvinsson which would provide the toughest opposition.
With good driving David won round 1, 2 and 5, which resulted in the TQ, and the times spoke for themselves as he was 7 seconds faster than anyone else and lap time as he was about 1 second faster than anyone else.
The final was over 60 minutes and for the first 15 minutes it was some fighting but after that David increased his lead more and more. After 51 minutes the cooling head of the engine broke and he slowed down leading with almost 2 laps. After 60 minutes he finished 1,5 lap ahead of the second car and he became the youngest winner of the Swedish Championships only 13-years old.

Swedish Nationals 1/10 electric buggy
David wanted to run the national championships in the 1 / 10 electric buggy as a fun thing to see how he could perform. In the 2WD class, he finished 4th after a great run but with a few too many mistakes.
In the 4WD class he dominated totally, and won the training, all the qualifying heats and three finals – this with a borrowed car that we did not change one thing on.

Swedish Cup
The last Swedish cup we was not really forced to run as the victory already was secured, but of course we did it anyway. The race was this year's big rain race which caused some hassles in qualification with broken power and other things that happened. In the finals, it was partly fight with Robert Gustafsson but David was once again the tough opposition for the rest of the field and he won the contest with 4 victories in 4 races of the cup.

Nordic Championship
The Nordic Championships were run in the Greve, Denmark and became a race with very varied weather when the 120 drivers from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland would make up the NC title.
Training was a bit unstable, but when the qualifications began he once again showed his stable and fast driving and he become TQ.
After some fighting in the semi-finals it was time for a 60-minute exciting final in which David after 30 minutes of fighting took leadership for not releasing it again. After 60 minutes he became Nordic Champion in 2009.

Pierrefeu
In November we went to Pierrefeu in France to run a GP. The reason for this race really was that we wanted to extend the season when the Swedish weather made it impossible to drive at home.
After the Nordic Championship David did not run the 1 / 8 buggy for 7 weeks and we had no great hopes on a prominent place, but once the race started David won the first qualifying round and finished in 2nd after the qualifications.
The weather was erratic this weekend but the final day was really good and after some changer on the car before the finals it went really well on this course that was a bit special to drive.
After a bad start in the final, but with a impressive driving David ended as second place between Yannick Aigion and Martin Bayer.
This was a very nice race and it's always nice to get to know new people on the races. We will also thank Yannick who took the role of the Swedish team manager and gave us all the information in a language we understand 

Kyosho Masters
The week after France we went to Tokyo to attend the Japanese Kyosho Master conducted on Kanais home track in Tokyo. After a Friday with a lot of driving the Saturday's qualifying was canceled because of rain and the race was moved to Sunday.
After 2 qualifying rounds that gave David TQ before the 15 min-long finale (due to the race on Saturday the timetable was rebuilt ).
The start went well but he was hit on the first lap so after a few laps he was on the last place. We gamble a bit with the fuel times, which didn´t went well as he got out-of-fuel on the last lap.
This was a very nice race and a interesting experience to drive this race and also visit Kyosho Japan.

Finally 2009 has been a fantastic year where David has increased his driving skills and smoothness on the track. We've also gotten to know many new people which was been very nice.

David and me want this to thank everyone who helped us to make this season possible, and especially very grateful to Adrien Bertin, whose assistance has largely contributed to the success

Kyosho Masters in Japan - Racingday

2009-11-15T22:45:00.013+01:00

Then it was time to go to the track and it was a beutiful day with sunshine and really warm weather.

Today the track looked much better than the water track yesterday.

I think it was around 70-75 drivers in 3 classes - Sport / Expert / Elite, so i don´t think the dessision to cancel the saturday driving had any affect on the number of drivers attending.

All driver together an a picture as always in Kyosho Masters

As it now changet do a one day event they changed the schedule to no practice, 2 rounds of qualifications and 10 minutes sub finals and 15 minutes finals in the classes.
This made it no space for testing and changes so it had to be testing in the qualification rounds.

In the first round David was TQ and in the 2nd we made some changes that was nog god so i think he enden 5th ... but TQ overall and thats nice.

Then it was the final and starting as car no 1 in this short final was very impartant.
The final started with David first but in the middle of the track Tanaka landing on David so he was loosing to 9th position and stocked behind some other cars.
I made a dicition to refuel after 6 minutes and maybe pass some cars when they refuled, and it worked, but in the last lap he was 5th and run out of fuel as either the engine took more fuel than i guessed or i didn´t fill it up total ... who now.

To bad but thats happend even if it was a long time since last time.

Now ( in 15 minutes) we are leaving for airport and i will summarize this trip when i got home... see you all

The prize-giving. Sadly i have no top 3 pictures as my camera run out of battery.

Our place in the "Elit" tent

Alot of Kanai made cars, from MP5 to MP9

David and me together with the president of Kyosho.

Kyosho Masters in Japan ... Qualifications or not !

2009-11-14T22:52:00.008+01:00

Saturday morning we was awaken early as we still have the european time difference in our brains, and i guess it will be changed to japanese time when we are ready to fly home :-)

Looking outside as it still was raining a little and we took the japanese breakfast and got droven to the track so see how wet it was.

Drivers was standing around the pit and waited for information about the driving of today.

The track was really wet and more rain was forcasted to come.

The always so popular Kanai was sitting inside and helped people with thier cars whilst alot of people were standing around and watched.

As the driving for was canceled for today we drove into town to look around instead.

We visit one of Kyoshos own store downtown and drove som D.nano and Mini-Z while it was raining outside.

Then it was a mall with 9 floors and only electronic products ... so impressing.

Then we finished the day with some japanese food... really good

Now it´s early Sunday morning and the sun shine outside the hotel windows. Time to get ready....

Kyosho Masters in Japan, day 2

2009-11-13T15:37:00.013+01:00

If you see some difference now it´s because i have switched to english after some wishes from drivers outside Sweden. This was the second day of our trip to Tokyo to compete at Kyosho Masters in Japan. The schedule of today was some free practise at the track, which for this year are Yuichi Kanais "hometrack" placed in or directly outside Tokyo.
The Kyosho car ( as i called MP10) came to the hotel to bring us to the track. We will stay at another hotel closer the track for the weekend, so it was only to full it up with out baggage. The jurney to the track took 2,5 hours and it was a great opportunity to se something of the city.
Wounder if they have alot of power outage in this town ... probably yes !! When we were arriving to the track the sky was really grey and dark, but so far it didn´t rain anything yet. We installed us in a indoor to prepere the car for the practice and also checked the track. It was a narrow track and it was aprox. 2.5 metres on the most places. It was croplands around the track and the surface were clay - wet clay as it was i bit muddy after earlier rain.

The track have alot of jumpt and David couldn´t wait to drive. It was only 5-7 people driving on the track all day so we spent long time do drive as much as possible. Team driver Atsushi Kawamoto were also on the track and made som practice and he was really fast but after 2 gallon of practice David and Atsushi had the same speed when ther drove together to test each other. It started to be darker and we felt satisfied with the practice for today. At the same time it started to rain, so the timing was perfect. We was spending 2 hours to make the car ready for the qualifications before the MP10 took us to the hotel and some japanese food with our Kyosho friends. Now it´s time to sleep over here for the race tomorrow ... but it still raining :-(

Kyosho Masters i Japan - Dag 1

2009-11-12T19:32:00.012+01:00

Då var det dax att påbörja resan till Tokyo genom att igen ta tåget Karlskrona – Kastrup, för att därifrån ta direktflyget till Tokyo. Denna gången behövde vi dock inte åka så tidigt för planet skulle inte lyfta fören 15:40.

Planet var en Airbus 340-300 och var övervägande fullsatt med japanska resenärer som antagligen var på väg hemåt. På flygresan som tog ca 11 timmar så försökte man sova en del även om det var svårt, men film och spel blev det i alla fall.
Efter att ha landat i kraftig sidvind med ett plan som åker fram och tillbaka så satte man foten på japansk mark för första gången.
Efter bagageutlämning och passering genom tullen så träffade vi Mitsuo Yoshimaru som är Manager för ”Over Sea sales” och tillika teamchef för Kyoshoteamet.
Åkturen till hotellet tog ca 2 timmar för flygplatsen låg söder om Tokyo och Hotellet låg i dom norra delarna. Framme på hotellet så blev det incheckning och en snabbdusch innan vi åkte till Kyosho som låg 15 min bilväg från hotellet.

Kyoshokontoret var främst ett kontor med en butik på baksidan samt en liten asfaltbana. Inne i butiken som var sjukt välsorterad fanns det en Mini-Z bana där designern av Mini-Z stod och testade lite sker och David fick genast en radio i handen och stod och körde i en halvtimme medans jag noga gick igenom prylarna i butiken för att se om man såg något intressant som man hade missat.
Det blev bla en inspektion av dom nya Kyoshoväskorna vilka såg mycket bra ut.

Efter besöket i butiken så blev det en rundvandring i kontorsdelen och vi blev bla presenterade för Akihisa Suzuki som är Chairman för Kyosho samt för Masayuki Suzuki som är president. Vidare så hälsade vi på en massa andra Kyoshoanställda som kom fram.

Efter besöket så åkte vi till en restaurant och åt lite innan vi blev körda till hotellet för att vila, vilket helt klart behövdes nu.

Lite Mat tillsammans med Mitsuo.

I morgon så byter vi hotell och åker till banan som ligger 1,5 tim från platsen vi är nu, och kommer då att bo på ett hotell nära banan.
Banan är f.ö. Kanais hemmabana där han själv kör 3-4 gånger / vecka så det skall bli intressant att testa den, ock så kan det bli regn under fredagen, men går det inte att köra så fanns det en annan agenda på vad vi skulle göra istället, snacka om att bli väl omhändertagna.

Dagens reflektion är att alla man träffar är helt otroligt trevliga, Tokyo är skitstort och bokstäverna är inte inte lätta att förstå.

Pierrefeu .... Finaldagen

2009-11-09T09:01:00.002+01:00

Då var det dax för finaldag och för en gångngs skull kunde man sova ett par timmar längre då semiträningen inte var fören 14:30
Vädret såg fint ut då det inte var ett moln på himlen.
Vi började med semiträning och hade satt på lite hårdare fjädrar bak samt började med medium Gridiron då det nu var mycket bra grepp.
Dock såg vi i första kurvan att det inte fungerade utan bytte direkt till soft istället.
Bilen gick inte riktig bra och efter träningen gick tillbaka till dom lila fjädrarna bak för det verkade vara anledningen.
David startade 1a i semi B och vi såg ingen självklarhet i att gå till final för det var ju många snabba förare på plats som oxå ville dit.
Men han gjorde en bra start och kom i väg i ledande position vilket han höll i ca 17 minuter. Då gör han semins enda misstag och lägger sig bakom en bilvändar som inte ser ett skit och både 2an och 3an passerar.
Efter att till slut ha blivit vänd så jagade han ikapp och passerade bilen framför och slutade på 2a plats.
Vi körde semin på GridIron soft och vänster fram var mer eller mindre helt slut iom den långa långa svängda rakan.
Det blev startnummer 4 i finalen och dom ändringar vi gjorde var att byta till 10000 olja i TCD diffen fram för att försöka få lite mer fart i prylarna. Gällande däck så var vi rätt osäkra på om vi skulle köra soft eller medium, dock var vi inne på Crossbrace vilket det sedan blev i soft.

Finalen skulle köras under belysning då nu solen började försvinna bakom bergen och man målade alla röda delar på curbsen i starkt orange för att synas bättre.
Man var ju lite fundersam på hur belysningen skulle påverka körningen då det helt klart var svårare att se vissa partier, och "slangarna" runt banan var en jättetjock tross som var brun.
Hur som så gick starten och han kom iväg bra som 3a direkt. Men på det andra varvet gick han på en kurbs och gled rakt fram och bil 4-9 kunde passera då dom alla låg på ett led.
Som 9:a låg han bakom dom andra och ville om för han var snabbare. Han passerade några bilar men fastnade sedan som 6a ytterligare några varv. Vi chansade lite och
gick in för tankning ett varv efter dom andra för vi visste att det var lungt med soppan (eller precis).
Det tillsammans med en skitsnabb tankning gjorde så att han kom ut på 4e platsen.
Vi blev dock fundersamma på om tanken verkligen var full för det var mer soppa kvar i tankpistolen än tidigare och hela helgen hade han kunna köra 8:20 och nu tankade vi på 8:10. Dåremot så hade Adrien bytt till ett helt annat stift och nålat om motorn totalt inför finalen. Det var bara att vänta och se om det skulle räcka.
Andra tankningen tog vi på 15:00 blankt och nu såg vi att det stämde, han hade mycket soppa kvar i tanken.
Under tiden så hade David kört upp sig till en 3e plats med 4an bakom sig och ett ökande avstånd mellan dom.
Jerome som låg 2a körde soppatorsk då antagligen locket hade fastnat i karossen vid tankningen, så nu tog david över andreplatsen efter
Yannick och som låg framför honom men hade ett varv mer. Avståndet mellan Yannick och David förblev rätt lika under resten av finalen så dom höll samma hastighet på banan, dock hade Yannick en tankning mindre.
Efter 45 minuter så gick målflaggan och det blev slutligen en 2a plats vilket vi var sjukt nöjda med.
Grattulationerna var många och efter prisutdelningen där David dessutom fick pris för yngsta förare så var det till att packa ihop alla saker och göra sig klara för att åka till Nice.
Förutom pokalen så var det en massa andra saker han fick som verktyg (ej till
bilen dock), vin, och en jättebukett med blommor, men det var bara att ge bort det då vi inte hade en chans att få med det hem.

Slutligen så kan man sammanfatta det hela som en mycket bra helg. Att inte ha kört 1/8 på 7 veckor och komma ner och prestera det han gjorde är helt sjukt. Adrien som naturligtvis var skitnöjd sa att det hade varit intressant att se ett EM om det hade gått nu för han har tagit ett stort ytterligare kliv sedan i somras.
Tävlingen i Pierrefeu var helt kanon även om det var lite strul på lördagen och dom sa att det var typ 10 år sedan det regnade på racet sist.
Hur som så kommer vi att återvända hit igen.
Nu är det flyg hem på Måndag och arbetsdag på Tisdag. På Onsdag blir det resa till nästa race och det är Kyosho Masters i Tokyo som är nästa helg.

Pierrefeu ... kvalen

2009-11-08T08:18:00.006+01:00

Det blev lite sent igår, och efter en lång dag så kändes sängen rätt lockande.

Men tillbaka på lördagen så åkte vi till banan vid 7 tiden och det var riktigt kallt ute 2,4 grader när vi kom till banan.
Först så började vi med en dubbelheatträning till och vi gick ut på medium vilket gjorde det lite för halt dock.
Det var dock rätt coolt att köra när solen steg över bergstopparna och det såg utt att den kom riktigt fort.

I första kvalrundan så bytte vi till CityBlock Soft för att få mer grepp på bilen, och det gjorde jättemycket. Första kvalet gick riktigt bra och det var inga direkta stora misstag utan dom sämre tiderna berodde mer på trafik. David kör i det snabbaste heatet med Yannick, Battle, Bayer, Boero, Vega mfl.
I slutet av heatet började det att regna och banan blev klart halare igen och det var egentligen på sista varvet som David tappade lite då han gled rakt fram på plattorna innan mållinjen och tappade flera sekunder, men tiden räckte till att vinna heatet och när dom snabba förarna hade kört klart.

Så här kan det gärna se ut flera gånger :-)

Till andra kvalet så gjorde vi inga direkta ändringar utan körde bilen som det var. Det hade regnat en stund men nu var det uppehåll och solen kom fram och torkade upp banan rätt snabbt.
I andra omgången så körde vi samma däck, men nu skulle vi ha valt medium istället och Yannick som fått fart landade på 9-5:00 blankt medans David slutade på 9-5:05 vilket var bra, men då banan torkade snabbt och greppet ökade så kom andra förare emellan och han slutade på en 5:e plats i omgången som vanns av Jerome med sin MP9.

Kul att se att en klubb har scoreboard för att visa resultaten på en sådan här tävling.

Innan 3e omgången skulle börja så var det rätt mycket strul med ström och varvräkning vilket gjorde att man hade tappat en timme ungefär. Detta gjorde att dom sista heaten skulle gå i mörker, men banan hade starka strålkastare runt om så det skulle nog fungera det med.

Till den 3e omgången så byggde vi om bilen enligt Adriens förslag för att hitta mer cornerspeed och få bilen ännu mer anpassad till banan. Det hade regnat endel igen nu så man hade spånat banan så vi satte på Crossbrace soft för att få mer högre nabbar i backen.
Bilen gick nu sjukt bra och han gjorde inga misstag under hela heatet och slutade 2a efter Yannick som bara var 2 sekunder snabbare. I några heat efter järde Jerome och det var han som kunder ta Davids TQ i totalen vilket han gjorde då han körde mycket fort och nu var all spån borta från banan. Så så här långt slutade David 2a i totalen vilket va klart bärrte än vi hade kunnat drömma om.
Man såg även i slutet att andra förare flyttade på sig för dom visste att David hade TQ chans och ville inte störa den fighten.

När det var 5 heat kvar och man körde i mörker så gick strömen i hela anläggningen igen och det blev kolsvart. När den sedan kom tillbaka någon minut efter så öppnades himelen och det började ösregna, så efter 30 minuter så beslutade man sig för att bryta och stryka den sista omgången helt.
Nu hade detta ingen betydelse för oss då det fortfarande blev Jerom som etta och David där effet.

Hur som så är det ett skitkul race med massor av trevliga förare, men i morgon (idag) är det finaler och det är då det börjar på allvar.
Det som är lite oroväckande är att finalen kommer att gå i mörker under strålkastarljus och det är helt klart svårare att se ... men samtidigt lika för alla.

Pierrefeu ... kval 1

2009-11-07T21:03:00.001+01:00

Då har vi precis kommit till hotellet efter att ha meckat färdigt bilen, och David kvalade som 2:a vilket vi är sjukt nöjda med. Återkommer med mer om en stund så fort vi har ätit.

Pierrefeu ... träningsdagen

2009-11-06T19:24:00.008+01:00

Efter några timmars sömn så var det dax att åka ut till banan, och vi var på plats vid 08:30 vilket var lungt då den fria träningen inte skulle börja fören vid 10.

Man var ju lite fundersam på hur man skulle hunna ha en fri träning på 1,5 timmar när det är typ 180 startande, men det funkar de bra för man gick helt enkelt upp och ställde sig och körde, och många bilar var det för då det hela tiden var 20-25 förare som stod och körde vilket fungerade fantastiskt bra.

Här ser man den fulla förarställningen.

Hur som så tänkte vi att det viktigaste just nu var att köra så mycket som möjligt då det var 7 veckor sedan den förra gången som David körde 1/8.
10:00 stod han på förarställningen och han körde i ett sträck tills accen tod slut en timme och 20 minuter senare, och då var han rätt slut själv oxå.
Själva körningen såg väl rätt bra ut, men det var snorhalt på banan under nästan hela tiden då det låg en massa löst damm uppepå. Yannick sa att det skulle bli betydligt bättre under dagen och det var ju bara att hoppas på.

När den fria träningen var slut så körde man 2 omgångar med organiserad träning där man slog ihop 2 heat hela tiden så även här var det många bilar på banan.

I sista träningen var banan helt annolunda och man såg att greppet var betydligt bättre än innan, så vi gick upp på medium Cityblock och bilen gick riktigt bra.
Under 8 minuters körning så hade David alla tider utom 2 liggande mellan 33:00 och 33:80 vilker var sjukt jämnt, men vi har hittat på lite till linför morgonens sista träning för att hitta lite tid att spara ytterligare.
Yannick var överlägsen med 31:90 sedan låg Bayer och David på ungefär samma tid och efter låg sedan Battle och dom andra, helt klart godkänt efter föersta dagen, men det kommer att bli ett sjukt tight race vilket är riktigt kul.

Så här glad är man efter en hel dag med bra körning.

Race i Pierrefeu

2009-11-05T22:17:00.014+01:00

Då var det dax för en av dom sista 1/8 OR racen i år, och det är en tripp till södra frankrike för att köra ett race i Pierrefeu som ligger 3 mil norr om Toulon. Trippen började med en tågresa från Karlskrona till Kastrup, och även om klockan var 05:30, så känndes det skänt att lämna ett regnigt och blåsigt blekinge mot förhoppningsvis något bättre.

David passade på att sova på tåget, mendan jag satt och skrev regelförslag till RB-Konferensen.

Framme på Kastrup, incheckade och klara. Det gick på 20 minuter ... 2:10 till planet går. Snacka om att vara ute i god tid. Bilen som låg i handbagaget väckte som vanligt intresse hos grabbarna i säkerhetskontrollen. Efter att ha fått förklara data som bränsle, motorstorlek och toppfart så kom en annan av säkerhetskillarna och förklarade att han hade en Serpent och dom är mycket bättre

På planet så hade man inte mycket annat att göra än att leka med bildredigeringsprogrammet i iPhonen ..

... men så såg man medelhavet och insåg att man nästan var framme :-)

Det är mycket bagage att ta med sig när man racar utomlands och däck är väl det som väger mest. Vi hade övervikt i alla väskor och handbagaget med bilen, alla våra motorer (Adreien skall få jobba lite oxå) vägde 13kg isf 8, och dom väger aldrig det ... men det gjorde dom idag, men efter lite förklarande så passerade alla väskor utan merkostnad.

Framme i Nice så mötte vi upp med Phil på Neobuggy för att dela hyrbilen till Pierrefeu. Resan till banan tog 1,5 timme och framme där så tog vi en inspektionsrunda på den intressanta banan med en skitlång svängande raka ( kan en raka svänga ?). Hur som så skall det bli kul att köra igen för första gången på länge och dessutom testa Yannicks hemmabana :-)

Efter besöket på banan så åkte vi till hotellet och passade på att ta en middag med Phil.

Första träningen på 1/10 banan.

2009-10-27T20:35:00.002+01:00

Banan efter ombyggnad, fler hopp planeras dock.