Race reports & news 2010

 12/2010

X Blue Carpet Race - 2010 - Race report 

A-final

1. 1 Vesa Yli OSPA 2 1 1 2  V-Dezign CR 4.0

2. 2  Panu Vehniäinen TamUA 3 2 2 1 V-Dezign CR4.0

3. 5 Miika Rinne EPUA 6 3 3 3

4. 3 Pasi Lento OSPA 8 6 4 4 

5. 6 Ari-Pekka Kyykkä EPUA 10 4 6 6

6. 4 Pauli Helin TamUA 10 5 5 5 V-Dezign CR4.07.

7 Marko Vähäkuopus OSPA 14 8 7 7

8  8 Mika Anttonen OSPA 15 7 8 8 V-Dezign CR4.0

B-final

1. 4 Taneli Erkkilä FED 2 1 1 1

2. 1 Janne Valtanen OSPA 3 5 2 1 STOCK  V-Dezign CR4.0

3. 3 Jani Seppälä OSPA 5 2 3 3 STOCK  V-Dezign CR4.0

4. 4 Ville Sipola OSPA 8 7 4 4 STOCK  V-Dezign CR4.0

5. 2 Lassi Salo HyUA 9 3 7 6

6. 7 Jukka Laine VUA 9 4 6 5 STOCK

7. 6 Sami Huovinen OSPA 11 6 5 7 STOCK  V-Dezign CR4.0

8. 8 Antti Kanniainen OSPA 16 8 8 8  V-Dezign CR4.0

11/2010

Vesa & V-Dezign wins the Nordic Championships 2010

Nordic Championship 2010 race for modified 1/12th scale and touring cars was held in Norway in the town of Spydeberg over the weekend. Over 30 drivers were on the starting list in 1/12 and about 40 in touring car class - all anxious to battle for the Nordics title.

The track was huge - 3-4m wide also in infield section which made it more suitable for touring cars and felt a bit boring for 1/12 scale. No dots were used, all barriers were made of 2x4" wood with some plastic on turns.

The venue was a big sport hall with plenty of room for spectators and drivers to pit at. Carpet was pretty thin which made the traction feel quite high even it wasn´t.

Driving at the track was super easy at there wasn´t any techical corners for 1/12 cars as the track was so wide. And dumping was a huge issue at this track due to running flat out all 8min.

Friday - practice rounds

On friday there was 2 practice rounds for everybody. The first impression of the track was a disaster, there was really bad bumps so people were destroying their cars due to sudden take offs in that high speed circuit. Luckily organizers reacted and made the carpet sit more flat on the floor which was good.

After first practice it was Vesa Yli on the top of the pack. In the second round Vesa wasn´t able to make the run as he got huge take off in the front straight from the bump.

Saturday - qualifying

First round of qualifying went to Vesa by a huge margin followed by Adrian Berntsen, Helge Johannesen and Mikael Fransson -the top Swede and Norwegians.

In the second round it was Vesa again on the top with his Carpet Ripper 4.0 car by setting the new TQ again leading from start to finish, followed by Adrian improved as he got a decent run and moved to second place.

In third round of qualifying was no surprise - Vesa set the new track record and improved the TQ again by leading from start to finish line followed by Helge Johannesen and Adrian Berntsen with Mikael Fransson getting his car faster and following in 4th.

In fourth round Vesa was having a slight understeer during the heat so it was Helge who set the new TQ with Vesa only 0.7sec behind. So it was going to be the last round that would decide who takes the most wanted TQ spot at this years Nordics.

In fifth and last qualifying round Vesa took the control right from the beginning and set the new track record lap after lap and took the pole position for Sunday finals. After Vesa it was Helge in 2nd place followed by TC ace Adrian Berntsen half a lap behind at his home track followed by multiple Euro´s A finalist and former Nordic champion Mikael Fransson with another Swede Maxx Rosen in 5th.

Sunday - finals

Sunday was started with practice finals. Vesa took and easy win and the look was already on the real finals to get the job done.

In second final it was Vesa again who took and kept the lead right from the beginning but due to backmarkers Helge started to catch up a bit. And suddenly there was a crash on the infield which wasn´t announced so slower car hit Vesa out and he broke his rear tire completely which made the car spin in every corner for couple of laps. So Helge got the advantage on Vesa´s accident and took the leadbut Vesa catch him up after few laps and took the lead as there was again slower cars having crash and they hit both Vesa and Helge. This happened one more time after 6 and half minutes and Helge got a 1 second lead over Vesa and it looked almost impossible to catch up at a track where you lost lots of time in a crash or a mistake as drivers were running 90% of the time with full throttle so you can easily get away and disappear.

 But everything was still open and there was just a bit over 1 minute to go when Vesa started to push as hard as he could and he catched Helge when there was 1,5 laps to got and kept his head cool and took the lead by overtaking Helge in the end of the straight on the outside line! The crowd showed some nice applause due to cool move which made the drivers also feel more adrenalized at the rostrum! So after 8minutes it was Vesa who crossed the line as a winner and took the 2010 Nordic Championship in 1/12th scale followed closely by Helge and Mikael Fransson.

 Vesa didn´t run the last final as the title was already secured so Helge took an easy win followed by Mikael Fransson.

A final top 3

1. Vesa Yli V-Dezign Carpet Ripper 4.0 / Nosram /Nosram

2. Helge Johannesen CRC/Nosram/Nosram

3. Mikael Fransson AE/Advanced

total 30 drivers

By winning the Nordics title Team V-Dezign makes it 4th championship title in 2010 in addition to 2x UK titles and the European Championship title! 

Thanks to the organizing club that made the event happen and run it well on schedule all weekend thru despite problems with the carpet in early rounds. And thanks to my sponsors -especially Nosram for the ultimate power and efficiency,  Markus Mobers for MobGum tires support and all the guys who helped thru the weekend with accommodation and rides from Oslo to the track and back - special thanks John&Marianne and Alf!

11/2010

British nationals rd 2 at Ardent

Last weekend saw round 2 of the 2010/11 BRCA 1/12th scale nationals take place at Ardent Raceway.

On Saturday, Elliott Harper ran away with the stock class driving is Speed Passion powered CRC Gen-XL. He comfortably TQ'd ahead of current European champion Chris Kerswell, who is still getting to grips with his new Serpent car. The V-Dezign trio of Andy Griffiths, Matt Varah and Mark Stiles completed the top 5.

Elliott cruised to a comfortable win in the A final. Chris Kerswell pushed hard to try and keep up, but took too many chances and a mistake left him out of contention. Matt Varah also made an error and would miss out on a podium placing. With Elliott in a clear lead, the focus of everyone's attention was on the battle for 2nd; Mark pushed Andy all the way but just couldn't find a way past in the dying laps, so had to settle for the 3rd step of the podium behind Andy.

Sunday saw the field split into two separate classes; sports modified and open modified. CRC/Tekin driver Mick Farrell picked up from where he left off at round 1 by taking a comfortable TQ ahead of a driver who hasn't raced in the class for over 2 years; Adam Catchpole. The A final looked like being a formality, but it was anything but that! Mistakes from Mick early in the run would see the lead swap between him and Adam for the first part of the race. Once both drivers had settled into a groove Adam was in the lead and despite doing everything he could, Mick just couldn't close the gap and had to settle for 2nd place.

In open modified, Elliott showed once again why he's one of the world's best drivers by taking TQ in every single round of qualifying. As on Saturday, Chris Kerswell showed flashes of brilliance, but just wasn't able to put a consistent enough run together. In fact he was so focused on trying to beat Elliott that he didn't account for Andy Griffiths, who put in a storming last run to take 2nd on the grid. Chris would line up 3rd ahead of Saturday's podium finisher Mark Stiles. The final was even more of a rampage than Saturday for Elliott; he eventually lapped the entire field on his way to an easy win. Once again Chris crashed out of contention, and this allowed the V-Dezign trio of Andy, Mark and Matt Varah to fight over the remaining podium places. Matt came out on top and would cross the line 2nd; his best ever result at a national. Mark got his own back after Saturday by fending off Andy Griffiths in the closing stages; these two finished 3rd and 4th respectively.

The results leave Elliott as the clear leader in the stock class with a maximum score after the first 2 rounds. In open modified it's a bit closer, with round 1 winner Andy Griffiths leading Mark Stiles by 2 points. Mick Farrell leads sports modified with a win and a 2nd. It's still early days though and with 4 rounds remaining anything can happen! Round 3 will take place at Tamworth in 3 weeks time.

Results Stock

1 Elliott Harper - CRC/Speed Passion

2 Andy Griffiths - V-Dezign/Nosram

3 Mark Stiles - V-Dezign/Castle

4 Andy Sawyer - Corally/LRP

5 Mick Farrell - CRC/Tekin

6 Matt Varah - V-Dezign

7 Matt Lax - CRC

8 Damien Holmes - V-Dezign

9 Chris Kerswell - Serpent/GM

10 Jim Spencer - Associated

1 Adam Walker Catchpole - V-Dezign

2 Mick Farrell - CRC/Tekin

3 Mark Jewitt - V-Dezign

4 Matt Lax - CRC

5 Nigel Hale - Associated

6 Damien Holmes - V-Dezign

7 James Stewart - Associated

8 Jason Butterfield - Associated

9 Jim Spencer - Associated

10 David Gale - Xray

Open Modified

1 Elliott Harper - CRC/Speed Passion

2 Matt Varah - V-Dezign

3 Mark Stiles - V-Dezign/Castle

4 Andy Griffiths - V-Dezign/Nosram

5 Chris Kerswell - Serpent/GM

6 Andy Sawyer - Corally/LRP

7 Keith Robertson - Associated/Novak

8 Luke Burley - Associated

9 Mark Jordan - Associated

10 Kevin Creaser - CRC

03/2010

Chris Kerswell & V-Dezign takes the double at British championship!

The final round of this seasons BRCA 12th scale nationals took place last weekend at the home of British 12th scale racing; Chesterfield. Going into the meeting there were 6 drivers still in contention for the stock championship, while any one of 3 could still win modified.

Chris Kerswell came to the meeting on a crest of form after winning the EFRA stock Euro's 2 weeks previously and looked to be one of the favourites to take the BRCA stock championship with his GM powered V-Dezign car.

Qualifying was all about 2 drivers. Andy Moore and Chris Kerswell were the class of the field with Chris's pole time being over a lap clear of 3rd place! With Mark Stiles in 5th, Andy Griffith 6th and Matt White 9th, once again V-Dezign proved to be the most popular chassis in the A final!

As was expected, the final was all about Chris and Andy. The pair drove away from the field and eventually lapped everyone else in the race! Chris led from the start until just after the 7 minute mark when a small mistake let Andy through into the lead. Chris then piled on the pressure and managed to slip back past the Hot Bodies driver with a stunning move on the last lap as the 8 minute buzzer sounded. However, on the very next corner Andy fought back and re-took the lead, which he would hold until the finish. Andy's move was seen as very robust by many of the watching crowd, but the result stood and Andy took the win. Mark Stiles had a good run to cross the line 3rd, but received a 5 second penalty for a jump start, and this dropped him to 6th and gifted Elliott Harper third place. The result meant that Chris took the championship to add to his European crown.

The video of the final can be seen on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/carsrcracing#p/a/u/0/lE9ebZam0rw

Sunday was modified day and once again the championship would boil down to the final race of the season. Olly Jefferies, Chris Kerswell and Andy Griffiths were the drivers involved and these three all looked fast during qualifying. Chris ended up taking TQ by less than a second in the final round of qualifying ahead of Andy Griffiths, resulting in a V-Dezign CR 4.0 lockout at the front!

The A final was the closest of the year with 5 drivers all running in a train at the front for the entire 8 minutes. Chris led from the front knowing that a win for him with Olly 3rd or lower would give him the championship. Elliott Harper and Andy Moore were also in the lead group and were looking to get good results to improve their championship positions.

Like on Saturday Chris led for the majority of the race, but a mistake at about 2/3 distance let Andy Griffiths through into the lead. At this stage Andy looked on course for the title, but an agonising half spin saw him drop to 4th with just over a minute remaining. This put Chris back in the driving seat and he didn't need any further invitation. He held the lead until the end to take his second BRCA title in as many days. Elliott Harper finished 2nd to deny Olly Jefferies the title, with Olly right behind Elliott in 3rd. Andy Griffiths was disappointed to finish 4th, a mere 1.2 seconds behind the winner!

So in a BRCA national series that turned out to be the closest for years, Chris Kerswell is the champion in both the stock and modified classes. He adds these titles to the stock Euros one he already had under his belt to round off what can only be described as an amazing season for him! Well done Chris! Chris used V-Dezign cars, GM electrics and Parma Blackhawk tyres to power him to victory.

Vesa Yli wins FinTrack Tour nationals rnd 3 - Finnish V-Dez team in flames!

FinTrack Tour nationals round 3 was held in Kiiminki, nearby the city of Oulu in Northern Finland. Most of the 1/12 tops were attending with names like Simo Ahoniemi, Teemu Saarinen, Tony Raikas, Tom Kalves, Viljami Kutvonen, Panu Vehniainen and of course championship leader Vesa Yli from the organizing club, OSPA. The venue was a big school sports hall with plenty of room for pitting and spectators.

The track was a bit different from other tracks used in FinTrack series as track was 90% surrounded by the tubes which is not so usual in Finland. So for 1/12 the track was ideal by being pretty technical but for touring it was a bit narrow with its 2m width.

Practice and qualifying

Right from the first pack it was Vesa and Simo who were leading the pack followed by Teemu Saarinen, local young V-Dez driver Miika Laurila and Viljami Kutvonen with his Carpet Ripper 3.0 who made A main also at recently held indoor TC Euros in Finland.

Vesa struggled with some rear axle problem during the qualifying as well as had some problems with the shock of the car so couldnt get the car going like wanted, so Simo took the TQ by by 3secs ahead of Vesa, the rest were at least lap behind with Teemu followed in 3rd spot with Miika driving superb run and taking the 4th place just ahead of Viljami Kutvonen and Panu Vehniäinen with their Rippers.

Finals

In first lef of A main Simo took the win ahead of Vesa who was still struggling with his car. Now rear axle was working and didnt slip but there was something still wrong so Simo took the win by couple of seconds ahead of Vesa, Viljami followed in 3rd place, Miika 4th and Panu 5th so 4 Rippers in top 5 in first final!

In second A main Simo took the lead but Vesa followed closely. Vesa got his car going better now after finding the problem. Simo made small error which allowed Vesa to take the lead immediately. So Vesa took the leg 2 win, followed by Simo, Teemu, Panu and Viljami.

So in last final it was either Simo or Vesa who would the the win. Simo took a good start but Vesa got also a great start as the car was now "normallized" and was on Simo's tail and pressured Simo to make a mistake which allowed Vesa to take the lead. Simo fought back and both cars were going side by side for few corners but then Vesa made small error and hit the curb which allowed Simo to take the lead again. Vesa was already closing the small gap when Simo hit the tube and damaged his car which meant he was out of the race. Vesa drove to comfortable win followed by Viljami, Miika and Teemu.

So after all finals were run results in A-final were:

A- final

1 Vesa Yli 2 2 1 1 V-Dezign Carpet Ripper 4.0
2 Simo Ahoniemi 3 1 2 9
3 Viljami Kutvonen 5 3 5 2 V-Dezign Carpet Ripper 3.0
4 Teemu Saarinen 7 8 3 4
5 Miika Laurila 7 4 10 3 V-Dezign Carpet Ripper 3.0
6 Panu Vehniäinen 9 5 4 5 V-Dezign Carpet Ripper 4.0
7 Tony Raikas 12 6 7 6
8 Tom Kalves 13 9 6 7
9 Jarno Siltanen 15 7 8 8
10 Sami Munck 19 10 9 10

So again 4 Rippers in A-final - now 4 cars in top 6 - great job guys!

Total 8 Carpet Rippers at the race which meant CR was the most used car in this round of nationals also!

Vesa and his V-Dezign Carpet Ripper 4.0 were boosted to win by:

Nosram Pearl speedo for smoothest drive
Nosram 4.0t motor for maximum power
Nosram Gemini FM27 receiver for clearest signals
Nosram Stealth chargers for maximum capacity
Black Art Bomb'R body for the best performance and coolest look
MobGums foam tyres for maximum traction
CRC for most proper front-end performance
Precision Racing spur gears and pinions for the most efficient gearing
TQ Racing sensor wires for the most flexible wiring

And also supported by Action Model Centre, Racer Magazine and M-Auto magazine.
Thanks to sponsors!

03/2010

Chris Kerswell & V-Dezign are European Champions!

The venue was a huge leisure centre with swimming pools and gyms all around. The track was laid on a huge sports hall and measured 30x16m. Square white tube was used for track markers with nice yellow plexi curbs on corners for easier visibility. The carpet was Primafelt GT as it is the most used carpet type in UK. The layout itself was ideal for 1/12th scale with tight turns and a fairly narrow track width, but also having fast corners and technical parts.

Teams

Associated/Yokomo had strong team line up with former TC Euro Champ and WC runner-up Juho Levanen, Ronald Volker and Olly Jeffries all driving the R5.1. Ronald had a Yokomo mechanic to help him out during the race - all the way from Japan!

V-Dezign had one of the strongest teams which saw Andy Griffiths, Vesa Yli, Chris Kerswell, Mark Stiles, Russ Williams, Matt White, Sam Clifton and Paul Lomas representing the V-Dezign cars in both the stock and modified classes.

Corally had last years Euro Champ from Stock Spec; Marc Fischer and former European Champion Simo Ahoniemi together with Oliver Bultync at the race to do their best for the Dutch team.

Serpent was represented by the Mobster himself, Markus Mobers; the man behind MobGums (tyres) together with the Altmann brothers and some local Brits.

CRC had their usual line of top drivers who included new signing Elliot Harper, Mick 'the Viking' Farrell and fast German Daniel Sieber among others.

Hot Bodies have now discontinued their C12X car, but Andy Moore was still using the car for them.

Alex Hagberg was the sole top Xray driver with their new XII link car.

Practice

In Stock Spec there seem to be 4 drivers who were a bit faster than the rest, Chris K, Marc Fischer, Andy Moore and Markus Mobers. The rest of the top 10 were Vesa Yli, Ollie Bultync, Simon Rubet, Keith Robertson, Mick Farrel and Mark Stiles.

In modified Juho Levanen was leading the pack followed by Olly Jeffries, Marc Fischer, Simo Ahoniemi, Ronald Volker, Andy Griffiths and Vesa Yli. The associated cars looked to be quickest, with Juho also finding impressive consistency early on.

Qualifying

In stock V-Dezign driver Chris Kerswell dominated the field by taking the coverted TQ spot with his Carpet Ripper 2.0 t-bar car! Chris did well during the whole week and was confident for the race so pole position was well deserved. Until now Chris had never made a Euros A final, making his achievement even more special. Mark Stiles also made his first-ever Euro's A main and would start 7th on the grid followed by Vesa Yli in 9th. All three drivers were racing in both classes so they were super busy all week!

In modified Andy Griffiths took a solid 6th place with Vesa Yli making a double A-main by taking 8th place. These two were followed by the Stock TQ man Chris Kerswell in 10th position; the only driver in the A final running a t-bar car with cells! Vesa and Andy both ran the new prototype Carpet Ripper 4.0 which will be out soon.

Mark Stiles was also running the new Carpet Ripper 4.0, but could only manage 17th overall after experiencing problems during qualifying. He would be joined in the B by Matt White, who like Chris was running a t-bar car and 4-cell packs. Russ Williams poled the C final and was very unlucky not to make the B.

With 3 Carpet Rippers in both A mains the V-Dezign team did a superb job by being the most popular car in the A finals!

Finals - Stock Spec

In first A-final Chris took a comfortable win for V-Dezign and was looking strong for the next 2 legs. Chris's car was fast on the straights and held its own against the rest on the infield. Vesa got hit at the start and dropped to last but took 8th in the first leg of A main. Mark came 5th after recovering well from an early crash that left him 9th..

In the second leg of the A-final Chris crashed at turn 1! He set about making a charge through the field and managed to salvage 3rd, Mark was 5th again and Vesa suffered a broken car and did not finish as a result. Markus Mobers won the race ahead of Keith Robertson.

In the last Stock Spec A-final it was between Chris and Markus for the title, with Keith having an outside chance. Andy Moore took the last A-final leg and Chris finished 2nd ahead of Marc Fischer with Markus 4th. This meant that Chris took the European Championship with his V-Dezign Carpet Ripper 2.0! GOOD JOB, CHRIS!!

V-Dezign team owner Vesa Yli was delighted to see his car take it's first ever EC title ahead of all the big manufacturers; a fantastic achievement for the small team.

Finals - Modified

In the first modified A-final V-Dezign driver Andy Griffiths took 6th place after some close racing. Vesa was unlucky as his motor bearing seized after 6min 40s whilst he was having good run in 7th ahead of Alex Hagberg. Chris Kerswell came 9th in the end, but seemed to struggle to keep up in the corners with the extra weight in his car.

In the second final Andy Griffiths had a much better run and finished 4th followed by Vesa in 6th and Chris in 8th . So a good run for the V-Dezign guys! In the last leg of A-final Andy took 4th place again with Vesa in 8th place after close battle with Alex again. Chris finished 9th.

After all of the finals in both classes, the results were impressive for the V-Dezign team:

• Chris Kerswell took TQ and the European Championship in Stock Spec class with CR2.0!

• 3 Carpet Rippers in the A-final in Stock Spec!

• 3 Carpet Rippers in the A-final in the highly competitive Modified class!

• Carpet Rippers were the most popular car in the A-finals!

Congratulations again, Chris - superb job!! And thanks guys and ladies for a really nice and good week in UK!

Looking forward for the future races at the UK and Finnish nationals followed by the World's in July!

Modified A main

1. Juho Levanen - Finland

2. Ronald Volker - Germany

3. Marc Fischer - Germany

4. Simo Ahoniemi - Finland

5. Olly Jefferies - Great Britain

6. Andy Griffiths - Great Britain - V-Dezign 4.0

7. Andy Griffiths - Great Britain - V-Dezign 4.0

8. Vesa Yli - Finland - V-Dezign 4.0

9. Elliot Harper - Great Britain

10. Chris Kerswell - Great Britain - V-Dezign 2.0

B main

3. Mark Stiles - Great Britain - V-Dezign 4.0

8. Matt White - Great Britain - V-Dezign 2.0

1. Russ Williams - Great Britain - V-dezign 4.0

Stock Spec A main

1. Chris Kerswell - Great Britain - V-Dezign 2.0

2. Markus Mobers - Germany

3. Keith Robertson - Great Britain

4. Marc Fischer - Germany

5. Andy Moore - Great Britain

6. Mick Farrell - Great Britain

7. Mark Stiles - Great Britain - V-Dezign 2.0

8. Simon Rubet - France

9. Olivier Bultynck - Belgium

10. Vesa Yli - Finland - V-Dezign 4.0

B Main

02/2010

V-Dezign dominate CARS Carpet Challenge

With less than a week to go before the EFRA Euros, the V-Dezign team had a final shakedown of their cars at the CARS Carpet Challenge in Chesterfield at the weekend. The meeting was dubbed as 'The Euros Warmup' as the same carpet was used as will be utilised at the Euros, all be it at a different venue on a different layout. The V-Dezign team dominated proceedings in the open modified category by securing the top 5 places in both qualifying and the A final! Team boss Vesa Yli also won the stock A final after starting 2nd on the grid. The team now head to the Euro's full of confidence and will be looking to achieve some good results.

Open Modified Qualifying Results Top 10

1. Vesa Yli 42/ 484.183 5 11.528 11.226 - V-Dezign

2. Mark Stiles 41/ 481.543 4 11.744 11.377 - V-Dezign

3. Andy Griffiths 41/ 483.150 5 11.784 11.445 - V-Dezign

4. Chris Kerswell 41/ 485.500 3 11.841 11.430 - V-Dezign

5. Ben Cosgrove 41/ 488.634 5 11.917 11.381

6. Russell Williams 41/ 489.143 5 11.930 11.294 - V-Dezign

7. Matt White 41/ 492.276 3 12.006 11.456 - V-Dezign

8. Jonathan Aird 40/ 488.497 4 12.212 11.857

9. Phil Chambers 39/ 480.470 5 12.319 11.406

10. Andrew Sawyer 39/ 486.506 5 12.474 11.781

total 18 drivers in modified

Open Modified A Final Results

1. Vesa Yli - V-Dezign

2. Chris Kerswell - V-Dezign

3. Mark Stiles - V-Dezign

4. Russ Williams - V-Dezign

5. Andy Griffiths - V-Dezign

6. Ben Cosgrove

7. Andy Sawyer

8. Phil Chambers

9. Jonny Aird

10. Matt White - V-Dezign

1. Vesa Yli - V-Dezign

2. Vesa Yli - V-Dezign

3. Nigel Hale

4. Mick Farrell

5. Charlie Ware

6. Matthew Lax

7. Dean Riley

8. Jason Butterfield

9. Stan French

10. Dave Allen

11. Vince Formosa - V-Dezign

total 23 drivers in stock

Photos by Trevor Coult - thanks!!

02/2010

Vesa dominates FinTrack nationals rnd 2 at Tampere!

Finnish indoor season onroad nationals aka FinTrack Tour continued at Southern Finland at city of Tampere last weekend. The venue was a huge sport hall with several separated game fields for indoor games. Due to recent cold weather conditions, the hall was pretty cold inside, only about 12-14C degrees during the day as it was -25C outside with blowing wind making it feel like -50C!

The track was pretty bumpy due to plastic carpet on hall floor which had stretched during the years. Layout was good for 1/12 with lots of technical corners and not so high speed as TC tracks usually are.

The race day started with 2 rounds of timed practice, followed by 4 rounds of qualies and triple A mains and double the other mains at the same day.

Most of the tops were attending the race with former Euro Champ Simo Ahoniemi leading the well-known driver list including multiple national champion and Euro's A finalist Teemu Saarinen, multiple national champion from nitro TC Tony Raikas, national champion and top driver Pekka Koivula with most of the tops from modified TC like Viljami Kutvonen, Nordic champion Matias Kuusinen and many more just to name few.

At free practice it was Simo who set the pace with laptime as track was getting faster in every run. Vesa and Teemu followed closely in laptimes.

In qualifying Vesa started fastest and TQd the first round with few seconds. The rest 3 rounds were also dominated by Vesa who took TQ after 4 rounds by winning every qualifying rounds. Simo was in 2nd place, followed by Pekka Koivula and Teemu Saarinen with Viljami Kutvonen taking 5th with his CR3.0 followed by Panu Vehniäinen in 6th with his Carpet Ripper. Joni Minkkinen joined the A main also with his Carpet Ripper which made it total 4 out of 10 cars in A final! Tony Raikas, Tom Kalves and Matias Kuusinen were the names to fill the rest of the places in A main grid, although not in that order.

In first final Vesa took the lead from pole and lead from start to finish followed by Pekka with Viljami taking 3rd and Panu in 4th. That made 3 CR cars in top 4 which is best.ever.final for CR at Finnish nationals!

In second final Vesa took the comfortable lead after start followed by Simo who tried to catch but couldn't get close enough to try overtaking so Vesa took the win at the race! Panu and Viljami were bit unlucky in second final but made about 5-6th place pretty easy after having crashes.

As Vesa had already won the race, he didn't race the last final. Pekka Koivula took the last final win which gave him 2nd place followed by Simo in 3rd at the podium.

Now after 2 rounds of nationals it is Vesa who is leading in championship points before Simo Ahoniemi. Next round of nationals will be run in week 11 in Norhern Finland in city of Oulu.

****

"Thanks to my sponsors again for the superb stuff - Nosram, BlackArt, MobGums, CRC, TQ Racing, Precision Racing, Racer, M-Auto." -Vesa-

****

Final results

C-12

A-final

B-Final

C-final

TOP 10 Finnish Championship points in 1/12th scale Modified

01/2010

Success for CR3.0 at the Finnish nationals rnd1!

First round of Finnish nationals were held in southern Finland, in Kuusankoski. Facilities for the race were top class as usual at Kuusankoski, with 30x18m sized track for both 1/12 and TC classes to open the 4 rounds serie of indoor season nationals. Track was slippery from the beginning and the traction never got higher than max to medium. All the tops were attending, with former EC's Simo and Sakke Ahoniemi with new CRC team guys Teemu Saarinen and Tony Raikas, and the top TC drivers like Matias Kuusinen (Nordic TC champ 08), Viljami Kutvonen who just recently 1 week ago switched to V-Dezign and many more.

FinTrack Right from the first practice it was clear the race was going to be between Vesa Yli and Simo Ahoniemi. Vesa topped the practice rounds with fastest laptime and most consistent run in 8min.

Simo TQd first 2 qualifying rounds, Vesa improved the TQ with 3s in 3rd qualifying round but Simo managed to improve with 2s in last qualifyind round and took the TQ followed by Vesa. Panu Vehniainen did superb and took 4th place with his CR3.0 after Teemu Saarinen in 3rd. Young V-Dez driver Miika Laurila made good run and took A main grid spot at the season opener as well as regular TC Mod top driver Viljami Kutvonen who run the first packs with his CR3.0 just day before the nationals!

2 other CR3.0 cars were in B final making it total 6 out of 19 cars by being most used car at the FTT nationals 1st race!

Finals

Simo took the 1st main, Vesa won the 2nd final! In last final Simo and Vesa were running the whole 8min with less than 0.6s margin and at the flag Simo won with 0.4s gap to Vesa and took the win, Vesa in 2nd. Vesa and Simo were clearly setting the pace ahead of the rest by lapping the driver in 3rd in every run at 13+ secs huge track. Panu, Viljami and Miika were unlucky at the finals with several crashes and DNF.

Thanks to all V-Dez drivers for the race - see you at the next round in Tampere in 3 weeks!

Thanks also to my sponsors for the fast stuff; Nosram, Black Art, Precision Racing, TQ Racing, SpeedtechRC and all others!

Results

A-FINAL

B-FINAL

1/12 modified A-finalists. Photo by Janne Aspinen

01/2010

Chris Kerswell and V-Dezign dominates at the British nationals

Last weekend saw the fourth round of the BRCA 1/12th scale nationals visit Plymouth. The Plymouth club did a fine job of laying a challenging and flowing track that was a real pleasure to drive.

Saturday was the stock class and in the first round the V-Dezign team dominated, making up half of the top 10, including all of the top three places! Matt struggled for the rest of the day with a broken transmitter leaving the rest of the team in the A final with Andy qualifying 2nd and Chris 3rd. The team looked set for a good showing in the final and so it was, with Chris finishing a strong second having fended off some very close attention from a number of drivers all race, and Mark coming from 8th on the grid to claim 3rd overall.

The V-Dezign team split into two with Russ & Andy continuing the development of the new Carpet Ripper 3.0 link car and Chris, Mark & Matt continuing to opt to run the Carpet Ripper 2.0 t-bar car. After it became clear that Andy's LiPos were not up to the job he also joined the t-bar crew, but not before proving that the chassis was plenty capable of turning very fast lap times - even if his batteries would not let him do so for the full 8 minutes! As qualifying progressed, it became apparent that the track was getting slower and going into the final round of qualifying no-one had beaten the original FTD set in round 1. Chris drove a very clean run in the final round to snatch FTD with the rest of the team also qualifying in the A final - meaning that half the A final consisted of V-Dezigns! Chris was never really troubled during the final, commenting that his car "carried immense corner speed and was amazingly easy to drive fast"! Mark had another productive final finishing 4th overall having started 10th on the grid!

Chris' setup from Sunday was as follows: