Valander dominated Finnish Winter Jumps

0 March 16, 2016, 10:48 p.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Press release from EuroRC (by Joel Valander):

www.eurorc.com

Finnish Winter Jumps series was held 11-13 of March at new and interesting location. Race was held outside Finland at capital of Estonia, Tallinn. Drivers came from Finland, Estonia, Russia and couple else countries.

Friday was free practice day and we got to the track early to get lot of track time. Together with Team EuroRC / Xray drivers we got cars to good setup for the track

2wd was held on Saturday. I was fastest after controlled practice round's. In qualifying I had couple mistakes but I was able to get solid positions and TQed one round. I was starting second on the grid behind Joona Haatanen.

I was able to win first final as Joona made a mistake, and I won first leg with about 5 seconds gap to second place driver Jorg Tiit. In second final I was third as I made couple mistakes. In last final I capitalized Joona's first turn wide line, and went to inside. After that I was able to get a little gap as drivers behind me were fighting from positions and I finished first and won the race.

Lari Jäppinen also did a good job putting his Xray XB2 to A-final. Also Eeli Vieno did awesome job making his first Winter Jumps A-main!

Xray XB2 was really easy and solid to drive with Hobbywing and Highest electronics.

2wd Top-10 Overall:

Joel Valander - XRAY XB2 2016
Joona Haatanen - Team Associated
Jorg Miikael Tiit - Schumacher
Max Mört - Schumacher
Jarno Siltanen - Schumacher
Lari Jäppinen - XRAY XB2 2016
Markku Honkanen - Team Durango
Pekko Iivonen - Schumacher
Eeli Vieno - XRAY XB2 2016
Samppa Orhanen - Schumacher

After 2wd race, we had 4wd controlled practice. After two rounds of practice's, my best three consecutive lap times were almost second faster than anyone else. Car was awesome, and I was ready to go sleep.

Then it was time for qualifying and it went awesome for me. I TQed all four round's with two seconds or more. Karri Salmela was starting behind me and Ari Heinonen third. Lari Jäppinen, Hendrik Lainemae and Toni Niinivirta also were in the main with their XB4 '16 cars.

In first final Karri pushed hard behind me but then he made a mistake and I cruised to win with about 5 seconds gap. In second final I had a terrible first lap, as I hit the track marker and flipped my car and I was on the back of the field. In last main I decided to push hard right from the start. I did that and I was pulling gap to second place with fast lap times. I won the last final with a comfortable lead and won the meeting.

My XRAY XB4 2016 was clearly fastest car on track. Also other Xray drivers did a good job, as we had four Xray's in the A-final.