09.03.2016
Report by J-P.Huhtala (VRC race reporter)
2016 Season 1 and round 2, Atsugi 1
Race serie of Electric Nascar truck was continued here in Kyosho works track, Atsugi 1.
This raceserie started from Halifax track, where Britain`s Graham Raistrick, Italian Ugo Calaprice and Finland`s J-P.Huhtala competed very good race of the podium places. Differences were very tiny at Halifax and finaly after very tight race, Jukka-Pekka Huhtala wonned that race before Calaprice and Raistrick.
Here in Atsugi 1, Eric Brawley from Britain was holding fastest pace at timed practice and Philippe Gross from Switzerland was the second fastest. Ok, this practice wasnt mandatory, but it gave a little idea to others, what the speed should be. And everybody was very aware that from qualifying, battle of top grid`s would start.
QUALIFYING
As the qualifying round started, pace had raised totally. Everybody noticed that, Hungarian supertalent Barnabas Toth had joined to this race. And who would be better driver to show others, how good the pace should be in here. He drove two attempts to qualify and his average was 14.9, Huhtala made 10 attempts and finaly got little better pace than Barnabas, one second under Hungarian result. But this Hungarian hasnt seriously started yet, he was just warming up. Swedish driver Andre Fossto was also in fire, with average 15.07 he was third in this round. These drivers were only ones, who got 21 laps. But there was more to come, Brule, Rensburg and Raistrick were behind and these talents havent said they last words. What was little sad, Italian Ugo Calaprice havent joined to this event. As we know how fast Ugo is, it would have been nice to have him here
BUMP UP FINALS
In this round, we got other talent to result list. Finnish Viljami Kutvonen had also joined to this event. Kutvonen and Toth gave a knock-out to everyone, as they drove so unbeliavable speed at this round. Finally Kutvonen won the round from Toth, but only with 2 seconds margin. Raistrick was behind Toth, Rensburg at fourth and Fossto at fifth place. These three drivers, Raistrick , Rensburg and Fossto were all inside 0.4 seconds. Even Kutvonen and Toth were overwhelming, we could expect very tight battle for final as drivers were so close each others. Ok, expectations of the win were at Kutvonen`s and Toth`s side. These supertalents would battle of the win and rest of the field would solve other places.
RACE
When the grid was arranged for the final, Fossto, Rajki and Brawley wasnt at the grid. This was pitty, as we knewed that there was lot of potential to among these drivers to challenge others.
When race started, Kutvonen start to hit his best. This was nice to watch as we knewed that this driver was also in reallife talent and is challenging world top drivers at 1:10 electric class.
Toth was very close range at second spot when second lap started, only half seconds distance. What was nice, Finnish driver Heikki Huhtala had made fantastic start to this and was in third place. Unfortunatelly when second lap started, at mainstraight first corner, Heikki collided to inside fence and dropped to sixth place. Now Raistrick was in third place and Rensburg in fourth place. But very close range of these two, was also J-P.Huhtala from Finland, who had started from sixth place. Rensburg and Raistrick were competing really hard about third place, but when lap four started, Rensburg went wide at mainstraight corner and J-P.Huhtala passed him. Kutvonen and Toth was running with they own race at top, Toth was pressuring Kutvonen with half second margin.
After 10 laps nothing had changed, Kutvonen and Toth were leading, chasing group was pretty stable, Raistrick, Huhtala and Rensburg were in tight battle of the third spot.
Toth was little stronger than Kutvonen, Viljami`s three mistakes were too much to challenge Barnabas of the win.
When lap 11 started, Rensburg cutted corner two and this allowed Huhtala little time to breathe. Now there was two battle pairs at front, Kutvonen against Toth and Raistrick against Huhtala. Rensburg dropped 2.5 seconds behind as he made that mistake. But no time when Huhtala at fourth place was sleeping and doned his move. Coming to turn six, he cutted and collided with fence and Rensburg went by.
In start of 14th lap, Kutvonen at lead got troubles, he cutted corner one and collided to fence. Now Toth was at the lead with two seconds margin. But not long when Toth also got problems, in very same corner where Huhtala had doned his mistake, Toth cutted, collided and Kutvonen got his lead back with one second margin. Raistrick at third position was driving very good race, hadnt got any mistakes and this was normal Graham. His gap to the leader was 4.4 seconds when 18th lap started.
Toth in second had doned furios driving behind our leader Kutvonen and had closed the gap when lap 27 started. And this pressure made result, like before, Kutvonen collided with fence at mainstraight corner and Toth was at lead. But Kutvonen hadnt surrended, he was driving furiosly and stayed behind Toth, with striking distance. There was no difference in pace between these two and that was nice to watch. Also we could see about Kutvonen`s driving, that tiny mistakes and cutting were happened, but he survived from those. But nothing were coming for free when this Hungarian supertalent was against and leading. Every corner had to be tight if you wanted to challenge him. When last minute started, Kutvonen`s attack stopped when he collided, once again at mainstraight first corner and Toth got away. Last three laps Toth didnt drive any safe, he was pushing really hard and didnt gave any mercy to Kutvonen and others. He came first to checkered flag with over four seconds margin to Kutvonen. Toth was just so strong here, made one mistake against Kutvonen`s three mistakes and drived well deserved victory. Congratulations about amazing pace and win Barnabas!!
Rensburg, Raistrick and Huhtala solved third podium place. At the end,Huhtala didnt had any weapons against these two. Instead, Rensburg was pressuring really hard Raistrick but finaly Graham was strongest and took the third place. Graham(white car) had no mistakes, well done!
Third man at flag was Graham Raistrick from Britain. As i told before, result was normal Graham. He is allways at top, also this time, he didnt got any mistakes and drove to last podium place. But this wasnt easy for him either, even Rensburg at fourth place made his mistake, he pressured Graham with close range all the time but Graham was just too consistent and fast.
J-P.Huhtala was in fifth place when time expired. Behind at 6th and 7th places, we got also very nice battle between Philippe Gross and Heikki Huhtala. These drivers battled about 6th place all 10minutes and finally Gross was 1.5 seconds stronger than Heikki. But this was tight also, very nice.
Philippe Gross(blue) and Heikki Huhtala on the battle. These two had good fight of the sixth position.
At B main, Germanys Sean Krause was strongest and took the win. With easy way he didnt got this, as Thomas Priemer from Germany was very close all the time. Priemer visit the lead first time, three laps before checkered flag but finally he had to surrender to Sean and settle to second place. At finishline, margin between these two were only 0.4 seconds.
FINAL RESULTS
A main
1|Barnabás Tóth|HU|41|10:03.810
2|Viljami Kutvonen|FI|41|10:08.068
3|Graham Raistrick|GB|40|10:06.212
4|Willem Janse van Rensburg|ZA|40|10:07.646
5|Jukka-Pekka Huhtala|FI|40|10:12.530
6|Philippe Gross|CH|39|10:10.696
7|Heikki Huhtala|FI|39|10:12.188
8|André Fossto|SE|DNS
9|Balint Rajki|HU|DNS
10|Eric Brawley|GB|DNS
B main
1|Sean Krause|DE|39|10:05.808
2|Thomas Priemer|DE|39|10:06.224
3|Milan Peka|CZ|39|10:10.688
4|Pedro Jose Lueiro Rey|ES|39|10:14.574
5|Stewart Smith|GB|38|10:04.726
6|Thomas Klingen|DE|38|10:59.198
7|Billy Yeung|HK|37|10:04.096
8|Nuno Lourenco|PT|37|10:11.524
9|Gerrit Maurer|DE|36|10:07.958
10|VRC Korea Master|KR|DNS
SEASON STANDINGS AFTER 2 ROUNDS
1|Jukka-Pekka Huhtala|152
2|Graham Raistrick|152
3|Philippe Gross|144
4|Milan Peka|128
5|Heikki Huhtala|118
6|Yuriy Meshkov|115
7|Joost Wouters|114
8|Billy Yeung|114
9|Thomas Klingen|114
10|Hans Guenther Heitsch|108
11|Erwin Fiselberger|98
12|Jonathan Csernak|96
13|Jean-philippe Csernak|96
14|Lando Landini|92
15|Viljami Kutvonen|85
16|Rumsey Rammuny|85
17|Giovanni F. Di Berardino|84
18|Tom Ebersole|83
19|Barnabás Tóth|80
20|Ugo Calaprice|78
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