Vässmar & Nilsson win at Swedish nationals

Last weekend the Swedish electric on-road Nationals was held in the town of Växjö, in the south central part of Sweden. The race was run in 1/10 Touring Modified and 1/12th scale Modified on a pretty challenging track with some tight 180 degree corners and tricky chicanes. In 1/10 TC most of Sweden’s fast drivers were in attendance. The qualifiers got underway on Saturday after a whole day of free practice on Friday with three out of five rounds to count. In Q1 Magnus Vässmar took the round in front of Niclas Nilsson and Markus Hellquist. Q2 had Niclas taking the round in front of Markus. Q3 was a blueprint of Q1 with the order being Magnus, Niclas and Markus. Q4 went to Niclas with Magnus in 2nd, so for the final round Magnus and Niclas had 2 TQs each. Q5 was run on Sunday morning and some bad driving from Niclas destroyed his chances to take the desired pole position letting Magnus taking the round in front of Markus and Daniel Carlsson securing Magnus the overall TQ.

In the first A-final Magnus opened a good gap right away allowing him to easily taking the win. Behind him there were some tight fights and in the end Daniel Carlsson finished 2nd ahead of Michael Nilsson. Markus and Niclas suffered from some bad driving. The second A-final saw a very tight fight between Magnus and Niclas from start to finish. Niclas tried to make moves to get passed but Magnus finally took the win just 0.2 seconds in front of Niclas. This handed Magnus the overall win so he could sit out the last final. In leg number 3 Niclas could take a comfortable win in front of Markus and of Daniel making Magnus, Niclas and Daniel the top 3.

Touring Car Modified Top 10:
1. Magnus Vässmar
2. Niclas Nilsson
3. Daniel Carlsson
4. Michael Nilsson
5. Markus Hellquist
6. Mikael Fransson
7. Oliver Olsson
8. Jonas Andersson
9. Christian Holmström
10.Mattias Johansson

In the 1/12th scale class drivers from Sweden and also Norway battled it out. After practice Niclas Nilsson, Alexander Andersson and the Norwegian 1/12 Euro 2013 A-finalist Helge Johnesen were on top of the timing sheets. In Q1, Niclas had problems with traction rolling while Magnus Hedlund was fastest. In Q2, Niclas superglued the front sidewall of the tyres to get rid of the traction roll problems which helped and placed him behind Helge and Alex. Q3 had Niclas taking TQ 1 lap ahead of Helge and Alexander and this should also hand him the overall TQ as no one would come close in Q4 and Q5. The final starting order then had Niclas starting from pole position with Alexander Andersson and Helge Jonnesen behind.

In the first A-final Niclas lead for more than 6 minutes until he ran into problems with a backmarker causing the body of his car to tuck virtually destroying his run so he only ended in 3rd position behind Alex and Helge. A2 saw Niclas starting badly and both Alex and Helge passed him but during the race Niclas’ car got better so he could take the win from Alex and Helge. The third and decisive final had Niclas run into trouble with a backmarker again allowing Helge to pass but Niclas was able to regain the position and eventually taking the win and the Swedish 1/12th scale national title.

1/12th Top 10:
1. Niclas Nilsson
2. Helge Johannessen
3. Alexander Andersson
4. Daniel Carlsson
5. Magnus Hedlund
6. Maxx Rosén
7. Karl Ullenius
8. Lars Haugen
9. Hans Lyxell
10.Jonas Eriksson

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]