24.02.2016
Report by J-P.Huhtala (VRC race reporter)
2016 Season 1 and round 1, Silver Dollar 1
1:8 Nitro buggy spec season started from here, Silver Dollar 1 track. This track is amazing off-road track, it is located in Chico, Northern California. It has got serious jumps, very interesting infield, two ”table-top” corners and fast back straight.
QUALIFYING
This event interested many off-roaders, as there was overall 115 drivers who took part to this event. In PRO level TQ was drived by Hans Magne Berg from Norge. With 33.8 average, his gap to second place was 1.335 seconds. This second grid went also to Norge, drived by Danny Kwiatkowski. To third place got Tommaso Andreuccetti from Italy. His distance to TQ was 1.454 seconds. Swedish driver Jonas Dalensjö drived to fourth grid and Tony Dugan from USA got the fifth grid. Jonas lost 1.877 and Tony 7.28 seconds to Hans Magne.
By these times, expectations for great race was true. As we looked those average times, Kwiatkowski and Andreuccetti needed one 10th faster pace so they could challenge Hans Magne at lead.
RACE
From the tone, our TQ driver Hans Magne Berg started his consistent and fast driving. He got two drivers behind his tail, Kwiatkowski and Andreuccetti was keeping him under pressure. Finally Andreuccetti`s pace wasnt enough to challenge Berg and even Kwiatkowski, and he slowly was dropping from these two. Kwiatkowski was holding his position behind Berg`s tail all the way up to 13th lap, when Berg at lead, made a mistake and flipped his car. Car was lifted by marshal and this took about 3 seconds. This allowed Kwiatkowski to pass him and now Danny was leading, almost 2 second margin to Berg. But this didnt last long, as Kwiatkowski had to come for refuel in lap 15.
Hans Magne Berg heading for mainstraight.
As Berg got the lead back, visit also at refuel and got back to the track, Kwiatkowski had moved to first place. Berg had losted time in that refuel lap when he flipped his car at front of the rostrum jumps, and this mistake made Kwiatkowki`s lead possible. Berg and Andreuccetti were drivingside by side behind the leader, they margin to leader was almost 4 seconds. Also Swedish Jonas Dalensjö had joined to this ”train”, but unfortunatelly he made his mowe at lap 20. He also flipped his car and marshal was needed. From this point Jonas couldnt gain his position back, behind Berg and Andreuccetti. Next laps Berg and Andreuccetti were driving good battle, at lap 26 Andreuccetti rhytm was little pit losted and he made few widelines and this allowed Berg`s get away. From that lap when Andreuccetti was turning to rostrum straight, it looked that he was coming to the pits, but no. He just went totally wide in that corner and collided straight to pitlane wall. Marshal had to lift his car back to the track and this incident costed almost 6 second`s.
Now Berg had moved to the lead, as Kwiatkowski had visited for refuel and was now 4.5 seconds from the lead. Andreuccetti was right behind Kwiatkowski`s tail. But this wasnt over yet, at lap 27, Kwiatkowski collided with inside pipe at corner 7 and marshal was needed. By this mistake Swedish Jonas Dalensjö went by and got the third position.
Danny Kwiatkowski and Jonas Dalensjö on the battle.
Now Andreuccetti`s attempt to come for refuel, went perfectly, no mistakes entering the pits, but he dropped to fourth place. Four minutes was left and order at top were Berg, Dalensjö, Kwiatkowski and Andreuccetti. But now Dalensjö was in trouble, Kwiatkowski was pressuring really hard and Dalensjö made a mistake when he was comig to corner three. His line went totally wrong and he collided with outside pipe.
Nearly three minutes was left from the final and Berg was in the lead, with huge 10 second`s distance to Kwiatkowski. Dalensjö were at third and Andreuccetti fourth. This was going to be Hans Magne`s race.
And once again something happend to Dalensjö, maybe it was cause of tight battle but this Swedish driver accelerated from turn 6 and marshal was needed when he collided with inside pipe. This allowed Kwiatkowski some time to breathe.
Berg passing Tommaso Andreuccetti.
Hans Magne Berg was on fire, he had almost 12 seconds lead and it was pretty obvious that without any mistakes, this Norwegian ”off talent” would drive to victory. And so he did, this was finalized very clearly when Kwiatkowski at second Place, doned his final mistake. Very same corner than earlier, corner 7, he cutted to inside pipe and once again, marshal was needed. Berg at the lead was very aware about this and his only job was to drive ”safe” last laps and get the win. As the first and second places seemed very stable, fight of the third podium place was very hard. Dalensjö and Andreuccetti both got mistakes during the final, maybe Dalensjö had a little better pace, but he had more those mistakes comparing to Andreuccetti. This fight ended when Dalensjö also maded his last mistake at lap 32, flipped his car in front of the rostrum and this took 6 seconds. Berg drived to win, Kwiatkowski in second and Andreuccetti at third position.
In SPORT level victory went to Ruben Martins from Australia. Rubens pace was good and only driver who challenged him a little, was Ivan Mencucci from Italia. Mencucci came second to checkered flag and French Jean-Francois Lambert got the third podium.
In CLUB level win was drived by Francesco Vaselli from Italia. Anders Rydstedt from Usa came to second and Nathan Mcloughlin from Britain to third place. At the end Rydstedt gap to winner was 5 seconds.
A main PRO
1|Hans Magne Berg|NO|35|20:12.897
2|Danny Kwiatkowski|NO|35|20:30.625
3|Tommaso Andreuccetti|IT|34|20:04.015
4|Jonas Dalensjö|SE|34|20:06.937
5|Peter Haaima|NL|34|20:09.111
6|Tony DUGAN|US|34|20:21.788
7|Michael Olsljung|SE|34|20:23.178
8|Robert Hillman|SE|34|20:35.129
9|Mattias Norén|SE|33|20:08.163
10|Holger Wolf|DE|33|20:30.251
A main SPORT
1|Ruben Martins|AU|34|20:22.157
2|Ivan Mencucci|IT|33|20:00.892
3|Jean-françois Lambert|FR|33|20:06.677
4|Will Alderman|US|33|20:07.229
5|Zac Karr|US|33|20:16.934
6|Frank Wagner|DE|33|20:18.402
7|Thorsten Kettner|DE|33|20:24.266
8|Takaaki Kubo|JP|32|20:05.628
9|Sebastien Herissard|FR|32|20:19.032
10|Robert Ingles|US|DNS
A main CLUB
1|Francesco Vaselli|IT|33|20:12.226
2|Anders Rydstedt|US|33|20:17.271
3|Nathan Mcloughlin|GB|31|20:02.295
4|Tyler Mackenzie|CA|31|20:10.129
5|Carlos Suarez|US|31|20:15.472
6|Leon Degen|CH|31|20:32.120
7|Todd Lyons|US|30|20:38.255
8|George Lindsey|US|28|20:32.688
9|Jason Chappell|US|DNS
10|Russell Freeman|AU|DNS
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