2013 National Championship Round 2 - Part 2

 Sunday was the actual race day and following my adventures of Saturday my expectations were limited to a decent point scoring rather than a fight for victory.

On the other hand the two fastest guys from Saturday, Nick (T4/ORCA) and Michalis (BD7/ORION) were really going at it from the morning’s warm up, posting lap times never officially seen before on this track.

Qualifying was very exciting. Nick nailed a very good first run which held as his best time out of 3 runs. Michalis on the other hand had two troubled runs and all was on the line on his 3^rd and final run. He made it stick with a great drive, beating Nick’s time by just 0.404 of a second. Amazing!
Following the two were local driver and track owner Andreas (T4/ORCA), next up good friend Dimitris (TOP/MM)  and in 5^th place my buddy Nick Floudas running my 7 years old HB Cyclone, powered by Advanced Electronics.

I would end up in 7^th place which wasn’t really representative of my pace as I would experience thermal power loss in all my runs.

In the finals things were much improved for me, as I managed to fight my way through the field on the first Amain and secure a 2^nd place which in the end will help me massively on the tie-breaker and give me the 3^rd place overall.

For the win there was the expected epic battle between Michalis and Nick. In the first run, Nick would get an easy win as Michalis got out of shape and was stuck midfield. In the second run, Michalis would stamp his authority and take a commanding win and thus make the 3^rd run the decider.
The run was a showcase of driving with both drivers avoiding any mistakes and contact. The pole position of Michalis would prove vital on this difficult and unforgiving track as Nick tried hard to make a move but could not find the gap to pass. In the end, with a last gasp dive, they crossed the line by just 0.008 of a second separating the two cars! Incredible!

An excellent race with great driving and mutual respect between the two current top drivers.

Some scenery photos from the wonderful weekend
View from the room


Cafeteria at the track

We are now heading to our 3^rd National Race this weekend and we expect to have another exciting race.