Munck and Saarinen go 1-2 for Mugen at the Finnish Nitro Onroad Championship Rd.3

 

PKSRCA club hosted the third round of Finnish Nitro Onroad Championship in Helsinki last weekend. Drivers were greeted with over cast weather in Saturday morning and everybody was hoping for dry day, but just minutes before controlled practice, the skies opened and there was heavy rain for several hours. So no practice for drivers, and first two rounds of qualifying was just a waiting game to see if the weather would improve. Thanks to the organizing club whose volunteers did excellent job on drying the track before Q3 round, and drivers started to get some results on the board in damp conditions. In Q4, on an almost dry track, Teemu Saarinen was able to secure TQ run over local driver Jari Valkola.

  

Semi Finals were run on the fast improving track, and this caused problems to all of the drivers with engine tuning and chassis set-up issues. For the Final, the weather kept improving even more and the sun came out. Before the Start of the final there was drama for TQ driver Saarinen whose radio stopped working, and Teemu had to call a 10 min delay to repair his radio gear. At the start of the final, it was semifinal winners Alexandr Naumov and Tony Raikas who fought for the lead, but after a slow start, fast charging drivers Sami Munck and Teemu Saarinen caught up with the leaders. After Teemu and Sami got past Alexandr and Tony, they started to pull away from the rest of the group and were able to drive sub 19 second lap times. Sami and Teemu swapped the lead several times because of different fuel strategies. Before the last pit stops of the 45 min Final, Teemu was hit with problems and his car went off the track. After this incident, Sami Munck was able to open up cap between Teemu and himself and take the victory with 10 sec margin. Teemu Saarinen secured Nationals series win with the second place finish in Rd3.
 

 

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