Ressar claims second space on Monopoly

XRAY XB8 wins the Baltic Championship

 

Peleka-Cuka Racetrack was the venue for the Baltic Championship this year. The event attracts the best racers from the Baltic States every year and this year was no exception. The track was dusty and pretty loose. The race consisted of 2 controlled practice runs, 5 Qualifying runs and 3 Final heats.


 

The first part of Friday went okay, but in the middle of the second round of Qualifying a massive thunderstorm started and the racing was stopped for that day. I had a 2nd place in Nitro with Hendrik Lainemäe taking the overnight TQ.

Saturday morning looked promising, the track had dried a bit and was hard-packed with lots more traction. But in the middle of the day the heavens opened again and more rain stopped the racing again. For me however, the day was done, I managed to get into the semi-final without problems.

Sunday started out nicely. In the semi-final I decided to just have a safe and conservative race, just to get into the Final, by the end of the Semis I found myself in 4th on the Final Grid, which was a surprise to me, because I didn't think that my Semi run was that good. The racing ended with the Nitro Final run. The whole weekend the weather had been a major factor on and off the track. Set-up and tires needed changing constantly, so much even, that I didn't even have any tires on my car at the start of the warm-up time for the start, which was actually a very good decision, because right before moving to the grid the rain started once again and I had my rain tires ready and waiting. Putting those tires on was one of the most important decision of my weekend. The race started with a small drizzle, but before the first pit-stops that drizzle changed into heavy rain and my tires had started to come alive, having had a poor start on the dry track, I could start charging back to the front of the pack, which was led by Pole Position starter Hendrik Lainemäe, followed by Taurius Sinkevicius. At one point of the race one of the Estonian marshals gave a small wave to my car like it was broken and needed inspecting, so in the next pit-stop we took a few seconds to see if there was something was wrong and one of the rear tires broke form being in contact with a piece of concrete which was used as track markings at some places on the track, which meant I couldn't go flat out on the fast sections of the lap. The rain came and went many times, making the track very difficult to race on, and before the last pit-stops I managed to climb to second place. A few laps later I heard yelling from the mechanics and saw that Hendrik had made an error before a difficult jump section and had a flame-out, which gave me the lead. I could race to the end safely without damaging the car any further. I managed to win the race with one lap gap in front of second place finisher Taurius Sinkevicius and Martins Steins. The car worked perfectly, only small changes were necessary to accommodate the major bumps and changing conditions
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Final result 1/8 Nitro:

1. Rainer Ressar – XRAY XB8

2. Taurius Sinkevicius 

3. Martins Steins 

4. Hans Hannus 

5. Jaanus Saare 

6. Risto Haug – XRAY XB8

7. Hendrik Lainemäe – XRAY XB8

8. Dobelis Gints

9. Agris Zibvulis

10. Robin Ilus 

11. Kuldar Ilus 

12. Jörg Tiit