David Ronnefalk wins Swedish Cup

7/2/2014
By LiveRC Staff
LiveRC.com

Here is a small "delayed" report from the Swedish Cup this past weekend! 

Weather forcasts didn't look very great for the weekend and there were some discussions if the race was going to be postponed to another weekend later this year or not.. The decision they made was that we were going to race, and if it would be too bad they was only able to cancel the race at the track and not before the race.. So with crossed fingers we went to to the track located about 4.5h from our home.. When we arrived the track didn't look too bad even with the huge amount of rain they had. Layout looked cool, a bit on road style with only 2 jumps on it, though we were only able to clear one of them due to the take off being very strange built.. 

We came to the track in the morning and practice started at 8am with two rounds of practice before five rounds of qualifying to follow.. Track was a bit wet so I didn't drive the first practice. Second practice started and track was getting better and better for each heat.. Car felt pretty good in practice and just hoped we could get some rounds of qualifying in before it would start to pour down. Sky was totally covered by a dark dark cloud and it was just a question when it would start to fall.

 

 

We were able to get 3 rounds pretty dry before it would start to rain in round 4.. We decided to cancel the last round because it was just getting worse and worse. 2 out 4 was counting and I was only able to get 8th overall due to some mistakes and one round DNF.. TQ went to my bro Christoffer Svensson who ran great all day. 

Sunday looked mostly the same weather wise so we were hoping for the best. Semi finals started and in the first one Christoffer had a flame out which was pretty strange, they didn't know if it was marshal or anything that hit the flywheel or so as the engine ran great after the fired it up again. He was close to catch the 6th place but was just a few seconds short, very dissapointed of course.. My semi started and I was 4th on the grid, got a horrible start as carsh were crashing everywhere.. Marshal didn't see my car and I was upside down for 8-10 seconds. By then I was of course dead last and had to catch everyone again.. Car was not very good as the track changed a lot since qualifying and I totally chose the wrong tire so I had basically same or even slower pace than all others.. This meant I had to really stay out of troubles and mistakes to even make it in to the main. Some rough laps to follow and it looked very bad for a while.. I put myself together and started to run very consistent laps without mistakes. With 5min to go I was in 8th with 10seconds up to 6th and last bump up.. I catched a little bit and luckily the two guys in front made a mistake each which allowed me to pass. On the last lap we were all together and I was 5th with 6th and 7th right behind me.. I was able to keep it together and finished 5th in the end. Maybe the worst feeling I have had so far this year haha!

I made some changes for the main, I put 7k/10k/3k oils in the diffs to get some power and rotation through the corners as well as I put SuperSoft Typos on for the final. I knew my car was going to be way better than in the semi and I was pretty sure that I would have a chance for the win. We went out on the warmup and directly I felt WOW!! My car was way way better and I felt it was at least 1 second a lap faster than in the semi.. I started 6th on the grid as my semi was the faster one. Already after the first lap I was up to second and two laps later I passed for the lead. My car felt amazing again and I could open a gap of 10 seconds to 2nd place pretty fast. After the third I had some mistakes and 2nd was able to close right up to me.. We were fighting for a few laps when I came together with him after a jump. I waited and let him go, but on the lap after he had a nightmare as a car flamed out right in front of him and of course he crashed right into this car. I got by while he got marshalled only to run a few metres before another crash.. That horrible lap for him cost him 12 seconds and I was back up in front with a comfortable lead. I never looked back after this and was able to go home with the win. 2nd place got a very bad end to his race with a broken clutch spring which meant that I was 2 laps ahead of the next driver who came in second bcause of this!

However a great final with a track that was the best it had been all weekend.. Right when everything was finished it started to rain so we were lucky!

 

 

 

Thanks to all sponsors! Euros are coming up soon, can't wait to try to defend my title since last year!

Kyosho, Orion, AKA, Ko Propo, RunnerTime, Takashima Design, Maugrafix, LMR, GHEA, MIP, DCD, Dialedinc, Neobuggy.net, LiveRc.com

 

 

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