Kobbevik crowned 2 time Norwegian Champion

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Tyler Hooks

0 July 3, 2018, 10:42 a.m.

By Tyler Hooks
LiveRC.com

Race report from XRAY:
www.teamxray.com

Race Report by Magne Kobbevik:

This year it was Sandefjord RC Club, that was going to host the National Championship for 2018, and they had done an extremely hard job with prices, making the arena ready for audience and drivers. One off the hard workers was Robin Houmb, that has been one off the guys from the track in Thailand (the Pataya RC track) So the surface was a little like that, and the temperature was almost the same as Thailand this weekend as well. Everything was very well organized and Torbjørn Jorgensen that had the speaker job and also was race controller, he did an amazing job! It was same feeling as any other motorsport event in high level! This was also first time electric and fuel went on same weekend.

Back to the race, since Xray driver Daniel Kobbevik had taken all the wins in the Nats rounds this year and last year, he was the favourite to take the win in both classes! But had only time to get down late friday night to just test cars to see if everything was okay. The strategy for Saturday was to use the qualification to practice on layout and find speed and setup. That strategy worked perfect and already in first qualifier round Daniel was the only one to do 10 laps. The only driver that also did a 10 lap run in qualification was also XRAY driver Lars Erik Mo!

Daniel TQed all rounds in both 1/8 E and IC, all 10 lap runs. So already on Saturday he was top qualifier with his XRAY XB8 and XB8E!

The track had been pretty beaten up during qualification and the club decided to water the track after qualification was finished on Saturday, that made the track high traction again in Sunday morning and no dust to start with. Last qualification round was in the morning and Daniel managed to put in an even better TQ time in Electro, and TQ'd also last nitro qual, so a perfect qualifications for him!

Then ready for Nitro final, TOP 3 lineup was Daniel on pole, Rune Karlsen in second and Lars Erik Mo third, both of these drivers have several championships from before, so it was time for another battle. The start was a little messy, but after one lap Rune was in front with Daniel on his wing. Lars Erik had huge bad luck and ended out last in the field. After two laps Daniel was in front and set the pace in a speed so he could go away. Rune was steady nr.2 for a while, but it seemed like XRAY driver Lars Erik had found the speed he had in the first qualifier finally and was almost on the same speed as Daniel and on second fuel stop, he had taken solid second place, and drove super smooth and there was no chance for Rune to catch up with him unless Lars Erik would get into trouble. This was also the final result of the race!

TOP 3 1/8 IC
1.Daniel Kobbevik – XRAY XB8
2.Lars Erik Mo – XRAY XB8
3.Rune Karlsen - Kyosho

In E buggy, it was again Daniel with his EZ/Hobbywing powered XB8E on pole position, Rune Karlsen second and Thorbjørn Døler with his LRP powered XB8 third!

Daniel won the first A-main easy with good margin down to Thorbjørn Døler that came second, Mathias Fink came third. Earlier in this final Vincent Rüger (The champ from 2017) had to stop caused a battery cable got loose. Vincent together with Mathias Fink is also one of the up and coming stars in Offroad Racing in Norway, so future looks good!

A2, Daniel just pushes away, and its huge fighting about second and third place. It was a lot of changes in second and third place, but in the end it was Rune Karlsen that took second and another top 3 from Torbjørn Døler with his XRAY XB8. Torbjørn had earlier this day saved a car in the big double double section and was knocked out by a car in his face when he tried to get away. Instead off cool down he just increased speed, and changed focus, he was lucky, but what a stayer! He must have senced that this was going to be a very good day for him!

A3, Daniel chose to pass and rest for the Fuel A-main. So it was super exiting to see how the podium would be. After couple of laps with fighting between Rune and Torbjørn, Rune did a mistake and Torbjørn took a huge lead, but Rune had not given up winning this final, and stayed in the game, but could not get closer, but after 6 minutes Thorbjørn was a little unlucky in landing on double double section, and Rune passed him and it was just for Thorbjørn to save the second place. The first comment from Thorbjørn after final was done was "I had Rune on the fork, but lost the fork..." That ment in total Daniel took the win, Rune second and Thorbjørn third!

TOP 3 1/8 E
1.Daniel Kobbevik – XRAY XB8E
2.Rune Karlsen - Kyosho            
3.Torbjørn Døler – XRAY XB8E

Again, HUGE thanks for an amazing championship, all did an amazing job, and the one and only Torbjørn Jørgensen, that made this to a real pleasure and exciting for all of us!