12.12.2016
VRC race reporting
SEASON 2016 electric nascartruck modified, round 12, Keitune Oval
TIMED PRACTICE
Season last race and closer of electric nascartruck series was helded here at Keitune Oval. Everybody was pointing to American Jimmy Flack, when some expectations were asked of race winner. OK, it was obvious that Jimmy was man to watch out in here, so fantastic his results are also from ovals. But in timed practice, Italian talent Andrea Giordano showed magnificent pace and left Flack to second position, with five seconds margin. As allways, it was so early stage of the event and nothing had solved yet. Everybody was looking those settings and getting miliar with the track. Third fastest in this not mandatory, starting round, was Austrian Alexander Dunkl. He was in good speed, as his gap to Flack was only 3.8 seconds.
QUALIFYING
In this round Giordano and Flack were missing, and didnt make the result. By this, Dunkl took his own and carry on his fantastic driving also in this round. Swiss driver Pierre Dumusc had also joined to this event and was immediatly on fire. He had really tiny gap to Dunkl, as it showed 0.008 after five minutes driving. Wow!
Third fastest was Valter Fagerholm from Finland. He was one lap away from those two at front, but only one 10th in average. SO, there was big chances Valter to pressure Dunkl and Dumusc in next round. But this wasnt easy place for Valter, as Jim Merrits from USA was only 0.17 seconds behind him.
Next round would be very important as allways, as solving the 10th fastest for A-main, was just starting.
BUMP UP
At bumpup Britains Graham Raistrick took his own, and was the fastest with 8.221 average.
Swedish talent, Christian Holmström had also joined to this event and was behind Raistrick`s tail, only 0.076s margin. Pierre Dumusc was third and Alexander Dunkl fourth fastest. Oval expert Jimmy Flack was "only" fifth quickest, but it was expected that Jimmy would be in top shape when race would started. His gap to TQ was 3.6 seconds.
Sixth and seventh grid went to Jim Merrits and Philippe Gross. Merrits was only one 10th behind Flack and Gross half seconds behind Merrits.
Last three guys, heading to A-main, was Milan Peka, Valter Fagerholm and Robert Smith.
What was nice to see that all these 10 drivers were all inside 6 seconds. By this, we could expect very tight and exiting final.
RACE
Last start of the season and it was well known that Raistrick needed this win to be Champion of the season. And Graham didnt let us down, he drove like multiple WC finalist should drive and took the win, by 0.8 seconds distance to Flack. In 73 laps distance , he didnt make single mistake and it was worth to watch. He totally deserved this win, and became a Champion of SEASON 3. Congrats to Graham!
1:10 ELECTRIC NASCARTRUCK CHAMPION GRAHAM RAISTRICK
Flack in second place was close, and he was fast, no doubt that. But in the end, Raistrick in first place was so tough and Jimmy had to settle fo second place. There was few tiny collides in Jimmy`s run, and pace was similar with Graham and he had to settle to second place.
Jimmy Flack and his Intercept ride
From the third place we had huge battle, as Robert Smith and Pierre Dumusc were fighting.
At finishline, Smith was only 0.4 seconds stronger than Dumusc. During this final, biggest distance between these two was only 0.9 seconds and this made this battle very interesting. But honestly, have to raise my hat and give applodes to Robert Smith. He started this final from 10th grid, drove very furios run and was incredibly fast. From 10th grid to third place was something enormouss. Great job Robert!
Milan Peka at fifth place was one lap down when time expired, Milan had great race against Dunkl, who came sixth to checkered flag.
Dumusc and Smith had great battle of third podium.
Christian Holmström and Valter Fagerholm were at 7th and 8th place. After bumpup it was looking promising for Holmström and we tought that he would be one top candidates to challenge Raistrick of first place. But something weird happend to him, as his pace dropped for the final.
Valter Fagerholm didnt have enough pace to challenge Holmström, at finishline he had 6 seconds margin to 7th place. But he had huge battle against Swiss driver Philippe Gross, who was behind his tale whole final. Finally Gross had to surrender and settle for 9th place, but only 0.5 seconds behind Fagerholm.
FINAL RESULTS
A-main
1|Graham Raistrick|GB|73 10:05.322
2|Jimmy Flack|US|73|10:06.110
3|Robert Smith|US|73|10:07.340
4|Pierre Dumusc|CH|73|10:07.736
5|Milan Peka|CZ|72|10:02.808
6|Alexander Dunkl|AT|72|10:03.254
7|Christian Holmström|SE|72|10:06.676
8|Valter Fagerholm|FI|71|10:00.846
9|Philippe Gross|CH|71|10:01.350
10|Jim Merritts|US|DNF
B-main
1|Stewart Smith|GB|71|10:05.262
2|Gary Sundman|US|71|10:07.094
3|Thomas Klingen|DE|71|10:07.712
4|Hans Guenther Heitsch|DE|70|10:00.498
5|Jean-philippe Csernak|FR|70|10:00.802
6|Stephen Cheung|AU|70|10:01.446
7|Joachim Aichmann|AT|69|10:02.854
8|Laurent Soreil|FR|69|10:08.486
9|Andre Van Zyl|ZA|67|10:03.216
10|Joost Wouters|NL|65|10:05.168
SEASON CLOSER
So, this was last race of the SEASON 3. Twelve races, starting from Halifax and ending here to Keitune Oval. It has been long season, VRC PRO wants to give applodes to everyone who has participate this series.
Graham Raistrick from Britain took his own and is 1:10 ELECTRIC NASCARTRUCK CHAMPION in SEASON 3. Big congrats to Graham, who clearly deserved this victory!!
Second place went to Jukka-Pekka Huhtala from Finland, with 2 points behind Raistrick.
Philippe Gross got third place in the series with 566 points.
VRC PRO WISHES MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GREAT SPEED IN 2017 TO ALL MEMBERS!
FINAL RESULTS SEASON 3
1|Graham Raistrick|616
2|Jukka-Pekka Huhtala|614
3|Philippe Gross|566
4|Milan Peka|556
5|Alexander Dunkl|502
6|Billy Yeung|499
7|Andrea Giordano|474
8|Jim Merritts|460
9|Hans Guenther Heitsch|449
10|Carson Yeung|441
11|Yuriy Meshkov|438
12|Aron Roach|432
13|Joost Wouters|427
14|Thomas Klingen|424
15|Gary Sundman|414
16|Stephen Cheung|387
17|Lando Landini|381
18|Giovanni F. Di Berardino|375
19|Johann Jury|352
20|Philip Lee|344
21|Steve Pitts|341
22|Jean-philippe Csernak|338
23|Mike Bridges|322
24|Laurent Soreil|321
25|Björn Siewert|313
26|André Fossto|308
27|Tommaso Andreuccetti|307
28|Karl heinz Johann|295
29|Tom Ebersole|256
30|Jimmy Flack|247
Comments
Only active members can post comments
(Total posts: 8)
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Carson Y
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Only particpate in few rounds of this series, but really enjoy in the race atmosphere and the follow up race report!
Merry Christmas!
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Alexander D
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It was fun racing with you guys and I learned a lot during this series, special thx to Jupe and Andrea.
Congrats to Graham on the series title.
Merry X-mas to everyone
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Andrea GVRC World Champion
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Very good race to follow, watch and read... Exiting!
BUT this race could be awesome if there was the battle with Graham and Jupe in track and for the title...
Anyway, congratulation to the winners and all the buddys for this (long) fantastic serie.
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Gary S.
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congrats to the winners, great racing, I even made the B in the final and 15th in the season woohoo, merry Christmas
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Billy Y
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Congratulations to the winners and Merry X'mas and Happy New Year to everyone
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Philippe G
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Congratulations to the winners, to win a serie you have to be fast on every track.
And now Merry Christmas to all.
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Jukka-Pekka H
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Indeed this was Graham's "race trick" 😁.
Im so poor at these ovals and like you said, Jimmy is absolutely man to beat in these ovals. I thought and trusted Jimmy in this case😀...and of course tought that he will win. Andrea was also in great pace but he gave up😉 and Christian was one who i trusted. But it didnt happend, you deserved this title.
But i think if you had became in second place, it would been my title because you had lower points from ninth race. Dont know, but im pleased with this. I didnt lost to bad driver😁. Congrats Graham, once again!
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Graham R.VRC CENTURION 2
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Where were you for the final race JP? I was looking forward to a good battle. ALL I had to do to get the title was beat Jimmy ON AN OVAL!!!! I am very chuffed...this doesn't happen often. Think that the overheating thing benefited my style of driving. If I had hit anything I think my car would have gone. If Jimmy had beat me (which I thought he would) me and you would have shared the title...I think that would have been a fairer result. You have been awesome on the none oval tracks.
Have a good Christmas everyone.
Graham Raistrick (pronounced race trick by the way) hee hee. 
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