24.10.2016

Report by J-P.Huhtala (VRC race reporter)


VRC PRO 2016 SEASON 3 1:8 NITRO BUGGY ROUND 4 NEO 9


At qualifying Markku Honkanen from Finland was on his own, when he wonned this round with 6 seconds margin before other Finnish driver Ari Koski. Third place went to Sweden, Robert Hillman doned nice run and was about 8 seconds behind TQ. Fourth and fifth in qualifying was Jonas Larsson from Sweden and Tommi Vacklin from Finland. Larsson and Vacklin had pretty similar pace with Hillman, as these three drivers were all inside in 0.4seconds.
Warren Jones from USA drove to 6th and Mikael Yrjänäinen to 7th grid. Also these drivers had pretty same pace, Jones was almost 11 seconds and Yrjänäinen 12seconds from the TQ.
After these drivers, rest of the field was Uwe De Zwart from Austria, Jarno Halonen from Finland and Charly Bruneteau from France. These three drivers had about 20 seconds gap to TQ Honkanen.


Honkanen had good race, even he was complaining his style.

It was expected, that final would be very interesting. Ok, Honkanen was big favourite to take this round, but he needed clean run. Six seconds margin to second grid Koski wasnt big, as we all knew that everybody could raise they pace for the final.
After the start it looked that Hillman from Sweden was on fire, he got his rhytm very quickly and went to the lead in opening lap. But already in first lap he got trouble and in this group of talented drivers, it wasnt allowed. Ok, all drivers had some ”bumps” during the race, but it was well known that you had to be fast and precise to earn something also from this track.
As it was mentioned that Honkanen would be favourite in this event, so he was. Honkanen drove very good run, even he was complaining his ”not consistency style” after the race. Looking his run behind ”bluewhite glasses”, it was fabulous running. By this, Honkanen got well deserved win, but he didnt get it easy as the other laprobot, Larsson from Sweden, was in rhytm and pressured Honkanen whole final. Larsson stayed mostly all the time under 5seconds margin behind Honkanen and this was fabulous job from Jonas. Finally when time was expired and they crossed the finishline, gap between these two were 3.6 seconds.


Larsson almost got it, victory was only 3.6 seconds away.

Warren Jones, who started from 6th grid, crossed the line in third place. Warrens gap to winner was over 26 seconds. Watching Warrens ”flying”, he got fabulous final and he deserved that third podium.
One lap behind the winner, in fourth position was Ari Koski. Koski was in stable position, as he had 4 seconds to third place Jones and almost 6 seconds to 5th position Hillman. Hillman got fifth place, but he had to make full job to get that one. When Hillman in fifth, De Zwart in sixth and Yrjänäinen in seventh place crossed the finishline, they were all inside 4.5 seconds. Fantastic race by these three, this was fun to watch.


Warren Jones drove well deserved third podium.

Behind Yrjänäinen, in eight position, was Tommi Vacklin. Tommi who started from 5th grid, couldnt hold his pace and consistency during the final. But all in all, great achivement in this group of ”supertalents”.
Last but not least, who crossed the finishline, was Jarno Halonen from Finland.
Jarno had decent pace in qualy, but unfortunatelly he got too much ”bumps” during the final and this ruined his chances.
French Charly Bruneteau didnt start for the final.

At B-main, we saw very fast run by Andrea Giordano from Italy. With his result he was third fastest man during the finals. This was remarkable to see, as Andrea was 12th after qualifying. "Practice makes perfect" like Andrea says, but indeed, you need more than just a practice to get this kind of result. Its talent and skills!!! Great job Andrea!

In SPORT level we saw very good pace by Britain`s Kyle Boon. Kyle was setting the pace and totally crushed his fellow competitors. At finishline he was three laps ahead of Gavin Powell from Britain, who got the second place. Third podium went to Spanish David Camino Benito. Powell and Benito fighted really good race of that second place and they switched places whole final. Going to last lap, Powell got ahead of Benito and got that second place, only 0.8 seconds margin.

In CLUB level podium places were pretty stable. Australian B Howard was the fastest and got first place with 24 seconds margin before Spanish Pablo Izquierdo Lopez. Third place was driven by Kenneth Dennison from USA.


FINAL RESULTS

A-main PRO

1|Markku Honkanen|FI|62|30:02.069 2|Jonas Larsson|SE|62|30:05.680 3|Warren Jones|US|62|30:28.308 4|Ari Koski|FI|61|30:03.520 5|Robert Hillman|SE|61|30:09.263 6|Uwe De Zwart|AT|61|30:10.934 7|Mikael Yrjanainen|FI|61|30:13.726 8|Tommi Vacklin|FI|60|30:01.857 9|Jarno Halonen|FI|58|30:23.591 10|Charly Bruneteau|FR|DNS

A-main SPORT

1|Kyle Boon|GB|58|30:31.006 2|Gavin Powell|GB|55|30:29.308 3|David Camino benito|ES|55|30:30.140 4|Soon ming Sung|MY|54|30:13.563 5|Kristian Lohse|AU|54|30:14.135 6|Kason Russell|US|54|30:18.315 7|Corentin Richard|FR|DNS 8|Joe Giddey|US|DNS 9|Björn Sundling|SE|DNS 10|Rudolf Sicher|AT|DNF

A-main CLUB

1|B Howard|AU|54|30:22.957 2|Pablo Izquierdo Lopez|ES|53|30:07.863 3|Kenneth Dennison|US|52|30:24.426 4|Per Kristian Haave|NO|52|30:25.285 5|Heinz Müller|AT|52|30:43.022 6|Brad Bowman|US|51|30:21.231 7|Lennart Sahlman|SE|DNS 8|Laurent Le brun|FR|DNF 9|Luis Gudino|MX|DNS 10|Jonathan Wolfe|GB|DNS


SERIES STANDINGS AFTER 4 ROUNDS

PRO level

1|Tommaso Andreuccetti|426 2|Brad Thorn|381 3|Andrea Giordano|378 4|Jonas Larsson|357 5|Klas Norman|353 6|Peter Haaima|352 7|Robert Hillman|336 8|Billy Yeung|314 9|Carson Yeung|289 10|Giovanni F. Di Berardino|241

SPORT level

1|Kristian Lohse|453 2|Alessandro Turini|406 3|Jeremy Wrigley|401 4|Frank Wagner|293 5|Tyler Mackenzie|286 6|marshall kirkholm|263 7|Alain BIDET|244 8|Soon ming Sung|239 9|Jörg Liesigk|232 10|Kyle Boon|231

CLUB level

1|B Howard|465 2|Kenneth Dennison|404 3|Steinar Ovlien|351 4|Brad Bowman|336 5|Pablo Izquierdo Lopez|335 6|Madyoyo Man|319 7|Brad Dalbec|294 8|Karl heinz Johann|272 9|Lennart Sahlman|262 10|Ari Koski|261

Comments