Lars Haugen takes Norwegian 1/12th national title

The Norwegian 1/12th scale championship was held in Spydeberg last weekend. The well organised race was run on quite a large track and attracted 21 drivers in the Modified class. The race format saw 5 rounds of qualifying, followed by triple mains. From early on it was clear that keeping good power over the 8 minute heats would be important in order to score good results. This was proven in the first round of qualifying where several drives did not make the 8 minute mark and Lars Haugen would take the first round in the highly competitive field. Helge Johansen would go on to take home two rounds on qualifying with Swede Alexander Anderson taking another round leaving Helge with the overnight TQ. On Sunday morning Lars took home the last qualifier and with it the overall TQ honours by beating Helge’s fastest run. Alexander Anderson would start from 3rd on tie-break with Øyvind Stusdal who put his car 4th on the grid.

Qualifying result:
1. Lars Haugen
2. Helge Johannesen
3. Alexander Andreasson
4. Øyvind Stusdal
5. Magnus Hedlund
6. Tom Erik Haaversen
7. Joakim Waale Løken
8. Tommy Berntsen
9. Håvard Stenberg
10.Trygve Berntsen

In the first A-main Lars, Helge and Alexander started building a gap to the rest of the field very early. Lars was defending his position well, but Alexander and Helge where in hot pursuit. Positions changed several times, but a mistake from Alexander would see him pull out with a broken car. With Helge running out of energy Lars could cruise in to a comfortable win in front of Øyvind and Joakim.

In the second final the top 4 cars where running close together from the start. Helge and Alexander would get past Lars and started opening a gap to the rest of the field. Lars would later have to retire with a broken car while Øyvind was in third position. Up front Helge was building a gap on Alexander, but at mistake left him with a broken axle in the closing stages of the final leaving Alexander with the win. Helge managed to keep a hard chasing Øyvind behind him to take the important second place in the final – still keeping him in the mix for the overall win. Before the last final Alexander, Helge, Lars, Øyvind and Jokaim could all still win the title.

In the third final Lars and Alexander would pull a gap on Helge from the start, with Helge’s car being twitchy in the opening stages but it soon settled, but Helge then was faced with quite a gap in front of him. He then started to push hard and eventually took the lead scoring the fastest laps of the race. The hard charge did however see him dump with one lap to go, and Alexander would pass to take the third final and the overall victory. Lars would also get past Helge for second in the final and with it the Norwegian Champion titel, with the rules not allowing a Swede to take the Norwegian title. Øyvind would go on to complete the podium for the race.

Final race result:
1. Alexander Andreasson
2. Lars Haugen
3. Øyvind Stusdal
4. Helge Johannesen
5. Joakim Waale Løken
6. Tom Erik Haaversen
7. Magnus Hedlund
8. Tommy Berntsen
9. Håvard Stenberg
10.Trygve Berntsen

Thanks to Oyvind Stusdal for sending the report.