Kobbevik doubles at Norwegian 1/8 Nats Rd1

Round 1 of the Norwegian 1/8th Off-road Nationals was held in Kristiansand in the South of the country. The astro turf track is located in a motocross area and the weekend started off with a bit off rain, but it changed to sunshine and hot weather, with a slippery track in the morning and raising grip levels during the day. This year saw some changes such as the running of both the nitro and electric classes on the same weekend – mainly to try and reduce travelling costs but also attract new drivers to the classes. For the first weekend of the year things looked promising so far and the next round will for sure attract even more entries. Racing wise and in the Nitro class it was Serpent driver fast local Tom Erik Haaversen who set the track record and was the man to beat this weekend.

The first qualifier started and it was Xray driver Daniel Kobbevik who TQ’d the first round, and he was just getting faster and faster during the day, and in the fifth qualifier he put in a new track record with a margin of seven seconds, handing him the top qualifier spot from Tom Erik in 2nd. The semi B was easily won by Tom Erik while in the semi A Daniel had a moment some three minutes before the end when his buggy’s receiver battery connector died. But luck was on his side as the time was still good enough for P6 on the A-main starting grid. At the start of the A-main Daniel instantly jumped into the lead but Tom Erik got into his rhythm soon and started to pick up on Daniel’s pace. The speed up front was high and after some mistakes of Tom Erik, Daniel was able to pull away. Tom Erik then got into trouble with his buggy’s engine and after changing the glow plug he was able to recover a bit, however it was too late to snatch one of the podium spots. Up front Gisle Brøvig (Kyosho), Egil Amtedal (Serpent) and Bastian Andreassen (Serpent) fought for the P2 and P3 spots and in the end to was Gisle in 2nd and Egil in 3rd while Daniel took a convincing win and with it a new track record with 96 laps in 45 minutes.

Nitro Buggy final results:
1. Daniel Kobbevik – Xray/FX/Runnertime
2. Gisle Brøvig – Kyosho/Werks/Werks
3. Egil Amtedal – Serpent/O.S./Runnertime
4. Bastian Andreassen – Serpent/O.S./Runnertime
5. Danny Kwiatkowsky – Kyosho/Reds Racing/Byron
6. Helge Olsen – Serpent/O.S./Runnertime
7. Hans Magne Berg – Mugen/Bullitt/Nitrolux
8. Tom Erik Haaversen – Serpent/O.S./Runnertime
9. Dan terje Bjornflaten – Serpent/O.S./Byron
10.Sani Gunic – Mugen/OS/Byron

Over in the 1/8th E-Buggy it was again Daniel Kobbevik with the TQ and win as Vincent Rüger and Thorbjorn Doler rounded out the top 3 results.

Thanks to Magne Kobbevik for the report.