Johansson doubles at Swedish National Cup Rd2
The second round of the Swedish National Cup was held at K-raceway and hosted by the Karlskrona MRK club. The event marked the start of the outdoor season for many as the opening round was cancelled. In the 4WD Buggy class Alexander Landen set the pace in qualifying to line up on the 1 spot in front of Elias Johansson in 2nd and 1/8th scale Buggy specialist, Hampus Berg 3rd.
The first run of the finals was really exciting. Alexander went a bit wide just after the start and Elias was able to squeeze by early. Alexander stayed with him putting pressure on him, and Elias hit a marker and flipped so Alexander could get by. Now it was Alexander in 1st and Wille 2nd for a couple of laps, when Alexander hit a bump and traction-rolled after the main straight to let Wille by. Again, Alexander picked up the chase and put pressure on his opponent, and when Wille went slightly wide after a landing Alexander shot by and re-took the lead. It stayed like this until the penultimate corner where Alexander got stuck on a lapped car that rolled just in front of him when he was coming over a small jump. Wille was able to get by and take the win and Alexander second, total heart-break after an otherwise brilliant run. The second leg was less eventful as Alexander and Elias broke away a bit and Alexander was pulling away somewhat when he flipped coming off the long table jump, and let Elias by. He was chasing down Elias after that, but couldn’t get past. This meant that both Elias Wilhelm and Alexander could win it going into the third leg. At the start of A3 Alexander got away clean and took a tone to tone win in good form, but the track was getting slower and slower so he lost the count-back against Elias on a slower winning time meaning Elias took the win from Alexander and Wilhelm.
In the 2WD class and already early in the weekend it was quite obvious that the race was to be about mainly three drivers, it was Alexander, Elias Johansson and Wilhelm Skjöldebrand. During the qualifiers Elias secured the TQ by taking all rounds, with Alexander to follow in 2ne place and Wille lining up 3rd on the grid for the finals.
Alexander decided to go with a slightly different setup and a wider car in the finals which allowed him to push more. This was obvious in the finals where Alexander was able to stay with Elias pretty well in the first one, and when Elias ran into some trouble with lapped traffic he was able to capitalise and take the win in the opening final. In the second leg, it was a really close race where Alexander was pressuring Elias for the first three minutes, running really close. Sadly, Alexander made a mistake going into the corner table, and let Elias go. Alexander finished 2nd behind Elias with Wilhelm third. This meant that Only Alexander and Elias could win it going into the third leg. A3 was a bit messy in the beginning, so Alexander dropped to 3rd while Wille picked up the lead and Elias ran in 2nd. This is also the order they finished, so it was a count-back on time between Elias and Alexander where Elias won based on quicker winning leg.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
