02.05.2016

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


2016 Season 1 and round 4, Osaka Oval

After three rounds of Electric Nascartruck series, this serie travelled to Japan and to Osaka Oval track. It was time to solve who would be the fastest in rounded course. One of the hot favorites to get this one, was Jimmy Flack from USA. Many drivers know that Jimmy has got special skills to drive at ovals and it was well known that beating him at here, you had to be in tough shape.

QUALIFYING
All ready at Qualifying we saw Flack`s pace. His average 7.414 was fantastic, allmost enormous when we compared it to man in second spot. Graham Raistrick from Britain was second fastest with 7.56 average. Gap between Flack and Raistrick was enormous 5.8 seconds.
Thomas Klingen from Germany was third fastest, his gap to Raistrick was only 0.7 seconds. Ok, there was also Huhtala at fourth spot, 1.6 seconds from Klingen. But by this qualy, we could expect this one to be Flack´s show, if nobody couldnt find anything to gain they pace.

BUMP UP FINALS
When bumpup ended, it was very nice to see that Flack had got a challenger. Flack was still setting the pace to others, but Swedish talent Andre Fossto was near and doned fantastic run at bumpup and was only 1.3 seconds behind Flack when round ended. This was looking promising for final, and Flack would not get this one in easy way. Ok, Flack and Fossto were they own laps, Raistrick at third grid, was allmost four seconds behind Fossto. Tony Dugan from USA, had also joined this event, and runned perfect bumpup. Tony`s pace was great and he was only 0.3 behind Raistrick.
Behind Dugan, from fifth to ninth position, there was tight group as all drivers were inside 4.2seconds.
By these bumpup result we could predict Flack and Fossto would solve the highest podium and third podium fight would solved between Raistrick and Dugan. OK, there was also chances others to join, but something had to be found if they wanted to join these podium fights.

RACE
It was bit sad when we noticed before final that Swedish driver Andre Fossto wasnt at the grid. So it was expected that this would go easily to Flack. Flack runned perfect 10minutes run, there was some tight cuttings at some corners but he managed to keep his pace and defend his position.


Jimmy Flack didnt give any mercy to others. He was just too strong with his consistent and fast pace.

In top group, Dugan, Huhtala and Raistrick was trying to challenge Flack, but this American was just too strong to others. Dugan and Huhtala had founded allmost tenth faster pace for final and by this they could pass Raistrick at final. What was amazing, Graham Raistrick was once again on fire and it was great to see how consistent this 54 years old Brit was. His pace was very identical with bumpup result, 7.530 average.


Dugan was nearest to challenge Flack. Here`s some tight line example from Tony.

Flack came to checkered flag in first position, three seconds before Dugan in second place. Huhtala got the last podium place, 5.6 seconds behind the winner. Graham fighted consistently as allways, his little mistake at lap 50 allowed Huhtala to get the third place. Without that mistake, Huhtala would have been hard pressed with Graham.


Graham Raistrick(white/blue) was strong as allways, tiny mistake at lap 50 allowed Huhtala to pass and win him.

Fifth place went to Czech Milan Peka, Peka had tough battle against Takeshita from Japan and Roach from Australia. At finishline, these drivers were all inside 0.2 seconds, Peka in fifth, Takeshita sixth and Roach in seventh position. After 10minutes driving when three drivers are this close each other, Peka had to be proud what he doned. Nice run Milan!!
Hong Kong`s laprobot Carson Yeung crossed the line in eight position. He was in good pace early stage of final, but was his rhytm little bit losted or what, his pace drobbed a little at mid final and finally he had to settle to 8th place.
Philippe Gross from Switzerland runned to 9th position. Looking Philippe`s resultboard and laptimes, it seemed that Philippe had came here just to have fun. As we know how fast Philippe is, this result didnt gave true information about his pace and skills.

FINAL RESULTS

A main

1|Jimmy Flack|US|80|10:01.096 2|Tony DUGAN|US|80|10:04.148 3|J-P Huhtala|FI|80|10:06.726 4|Graham Raistrick|GB|79|10:00.930 5|Milan Peka|CZ|78|10:03.580 6|Atsushi Takeshita|JP|78|10:03.656 7|Aron Roach|AU|78|10:03.814 8|Carson Yeung|HK|78|10:05.614 9|Philippe Gross|CH|71|10:07.200 10|André Fossto|SE|DNF
B main
1|Nuno Lourenco|PT|77|10:04.092 2|Alexander Dunkl|AT|76|10:03.056 3|Gary Sundman|US|76|10:03.828 4|Lando Landini|IT|76|10:07.634 5|Joost Wouters|NL|73|10:00.876 6|Nikolay Anshukov|RU|DNS 7|Shaun Schutte|ZA| DNS 8|Eric Brawley|GB|DNS 9|Jean-philippe Csernak|FR|DNS 10|Shinichiro Tagami|JP|DNS
SEASON STANDINGS AFTER 4 ROUNDS
1|Jukka-Pekka Huhtala|306 2|Graham Raistrick|302 3|Philippe Gross|282 4|Milan Peka|260 5|Joost Wouters|224 6|Thomas Klingen|213 7|Hans Guenther Heitsch|202 8|Lando Landini|193 9|Yuriy Meshkov|192 10|Aron Roach|186 11|Nuno Lourenco|183 12|Jean-philippe Csernak|171 13|Johann Jury|161 14|Jimmy Flack|160 15|Tom Ebersole|158 16|Heikki Huhtala|150 17|Mike Bridges|147 18|André Fossto|144 19|Gary Sundman|140 20|Carson Yeung|138

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