We have received a race report from TLR's championship team driver from Greece, Nick Floudas. A multi-time National Champion, Nick has been laying to down in Greece, and again took no prisoners at the 4WD leg of the 2014 Greek Nationals!
"The Greek 4wd Buggy Nationals was run first weekend of December as a make-up date from its postponement in June. This meant the weather would alter the track conditions greatly from the sugared, high-traction track that we knew to a track with ever-changing conditions. It was loamy and wet Saturday, then moved to dry and dusty on Sunday for the finals.
I had not run my 22-4 much in recent months due to the weather, and given the expected inconsistent track conditions, I opted for a safe setup. The plan was to concentrate my driving, tires and the changing conditions. Come time for qualifying, I started out strong by taking the 1st and 2nd round TQ's on the moist track, breaking into 18 lap runs. In the 3rd and 4th rounds, I got 2nd for each round which meant the 5th round would decide TQ so I would push to the max! The sun was drying the track surface, so the track was going to be quick. I TQ’d the last round with the best time of the day, 18 laps 5:10, to secure the overall TQ spot!
Starting from TQ, my plan was to control the race and pace as much as possible. In A1, I had an unfortunate incident while leading and finished 2nd. For A2, the changing track caught me out a bit with a poor tire choice, but I still ran strong to take a 4th place finish. I still had a chance at the overall title going into A3, but I had to not only win, but also beat the fastest time set in A1.
Somehow, I felt little pressure...I took a gamble and made some changes to my car going to a different spring and mounting some tires that felt good in the dry. The race was very close and exiting: I was running on a TQ pace having 2nd place right behind me, only a half second back each lap. Despite the pressure from 2nd place, my 22-4 was on rails and so easy to drive that I did not make any mistakes and took the win! BUT...was the heat fast enough to secure the overall win??? We raced at the screen to see that I had done it by 0.090 of a second!
I was the 4WD Buggy Greek National Champion! And now adding this to the 2WD Buggy Greek National Championship I won earlier this year, I am the Double Greek National Champion for 2014!"
Great job by Nick again, keeping TLR on the top step of the podium, and keeping the winning ways of the 22-4 rolling!
1/8/2014
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