BALTIC OFFROAD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011
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| Date of the race: |
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9-10/7/2011 |
| Place: |
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TURAIDA |
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Baltic Offroad Championships 2011 (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) where held this year in Latvia, at Turaida track. Everybody arrived at friday midday, training runs where planned at 15:00. And one timed run at 19:00. Weather promised to be fine, 28C and sunny. First glance at track surface - very fine sand/dust and lots of it on track. And especialy after jumps, landings where really soft. Layout pretty simple, more of european style - no big jumps. In the middle of the track smallish rhytm section - only challenging place. Training started at planned time, everything seemed to be fine. But then after 10 minutes of running, engines went to rich side. Some adjustments, and off to track again. And then at 18 minutes mark, total bog-down - no more power. And the same happened to everybody. What is going on? And sadly we discovered, that sand/dust had clogged up the air filters and gotten already into engines. Bearings dead, piston/sleeve almost worn out.... |
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On saturday we had 1 training + 5 quali runs. And it was decided, that track will be watered after every 2 runs. Local fire station organized long hoses and pump for getting water at nearest pond. So qualis went ok at least dust-vise, it was down to almost bearable levels. But it was clear immediately, that engines would be problem. No matter what, they tend to die at refueling. After qualis, team Estonia had 8 drivers in top 16, including TQ Ron Mamers on Xray/RB. And once more I dismantled all the engines and cleaned/changed bearings. |
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From 1/4 finals 3 more Estonians bumped up to semis. And after semis, it was 7 estonians, 3 latvians and 2 lithuanians who would form final starting grid.
Buggy final was 45 minute race in dust. Since it was really hot and sunny, watering helped only little - it dried up almost immediately. Starting grid for finals
1. Šteinmans Jurijs LV
2. Ilus Kuldar EE
3. Tiit Jörg Miikael EE
4. Laidna Lauri RB EE
5. Virkus Romet EE
6. Mamers Ron RB EE
7. Sinkevicius Taurius LT
8. Treijs Roberts LV
9. Vilčinskas Igoris LT
10. Ankravs Jānis LV
11. Käver Andres RB EE
12. Ilus Robin EE
Start was real mess, several cars flamed out, including Ron and me. So at least 4-5 cars started from pitlane. Steinmans had good rhytm and he got away from start cleanly. Chased hard by Estonian Xray/RB team - Lauri, Ron and me. We where slowly-slowly reeling him in, then flameout for me. And one more flameout after refueling. Yelled to the pits, that raise idle speed on Ron and Lauri's engine, just to keep them runnig. Then ofcourse we lost our brakes somewhat, since idle was so high. At the 40 minute mark, it was down to Steinmans, Ron and Lauri. Jörg had fight for 4 place with Roberts. And I was down somewhere at 7'th place. And after 42 minutes Steinmans hit problems, broken wheel axle after bad landing. So Ron cruised to victory, Lauri had 2. Jörg had fight with Roberts down to the finish line, unfortunately I caught up with them few corners before the end. Passed them cleanly, then Roberts tried to pass Jörg, but overshoot the corner and hit me. We tangled up somewhat and Jörg got safely to third. |
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| Pos. |
Driver |
Car/Engine |
| 1 |
Ron Mamers |
Xray / RB B11
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| 2 |
Lauri Laidna |
Xray / RB B11
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| 3 |
Jörg Miikael Tiit |
AE / Alpha
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EVENTS
REPORTS PER YEAR
