Johansson and Landen win Swedish Cup

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Tyler Hooks

0 Aug. 14, 2018, 9:40 a.m.

By Tyler Hooks
LiveRC.com

Race report from XRAY:
www.teamxray.com

Race report by Greger Landén

This weekend Västerås MS organized the final round of the Swedish Cup Championship. Going into the race the total victory in both classes could go to any of the trio of Alexander Landén, Elias Johansson and Wilhelm Skjoldebrand.

Weather prospects were a bit worrying so it was decided to run all the 4WD qualification rounds during saturday afternoon/evening. Alexander was able to produce the fastest qualifying round of the 4WD event, but it was Elias who took the overall TQ spot with two TQ runs.

Going into the finals the starting order was Elias, Alexander and Wilhelm. However, during the night there was a change in the weather, so the finals were run in wet conditions. We made some adjustments to the car to soften it up, and changed the motor and speedo settings, so it would work better in the wet conditions. In the first final Elias fell victim of an early mistake which let both Alexander and Wilhelm past. Alexander kept the lead for a couple of laps, but also made a mistake and let both Wilhelm and Elias by. Alexander made his way past Elias, but there was no way to catch Wilhelm, too much time had been lost. Alexander felt that the driveability wasn't completely there with the changes that we made to the setup, but a change to the difs made all the difference. The second run followed much of the same pattern, but this time it was Alexander, who was really happy with the setup change, who took the win with Wilhelm in second and Elias again in third. Going into the last round only Alexander or Wilhelm could take the overall win. Alexander got off to a really good start where both Elias and Wilhelm suffered from early mistakes and Alexander produced an almost flawless run in the wet, so he could take a comfortable win. By this he took the win in the race as well as the 4WD Swedis Cup championship for the third year running!

4WD Buggy Race Results:

1

Alexander Landén – XRAY XB4

2

Wilhelm Skjoldebrand

3

Elias Johansson 

4WD Buggy Championship Results

1

Alexander Landén – XRAY XB4

2

Elias Johansson 

3

Wilhelm Skjoldebrand

In 2WD, things were also working really well. With the additions of the low towers short front dampers, and the graphite parts for the front end being different from last year's car we could use a slightly different setup compared to last year with better responsiveness but still being forgiving to drive on the high grip bumpy AstroTurf track.

In the qualifiers Elias had the pace and took all four rounds followed ahead of Wilhelm and Alexander. In the first round of the finals Alexander made a mistake in the start and dropped down to the fourth, but made it back up to third. The battle was instead between Elias and Wilhelm who traded places with Elias coming out on top. In the second round Alexander had a much better start and by the second lap he was up to first place and held that for four laps until him and Elias tangled and got stuck. The other cars caught up and hit them and unluckily Alexanders car got flipped and needed assistance while Elias car got loose and he could continue in the lead and take the second final and the overall win with that. Alexander fell down to fourth place, but was able to claw his way back to second. Going into the third final this meant that it was between Alexander and Wilhelm with Martin Johansson Nielsèn with an outside chance to get second overall. In the last round Alexander got the jump on Wilhelm in the first corner, but the whole final developed to one long battle between the two where they changed places numerous times and the race wasn't decided until the last corner where Alexander came out on top and Wilhelm finished second. In the end this meant that Alexander got second overall and Wilhelm third. This was also the order they finished in the overall cup in 2WD with Elias on top.

2WD Buggy Race Results:

1

Elias Johansson

2

Alexander Landén – XRAY XB2

3

Wilhelm Skjöldebrand

2WD Buggy Championship Results

1

Elias Johansson

2

Alexander Landén – XRAY XB2

3

Wilhelm Skjöldebrand