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Offroad is my primary class of choice but the season is drawing to a close, so I had to get something to race indoor. Offroad indoor is a not a possibility, so the choice fell on F1, a class that’s simple, inexpensive and fun. A way of keeping my skills sharp, but I didn’t expect any decent results since onroad isn’t a class I’m particular strong in.

Having had the chance to practice with my F110 before the race, I, to my surprise, knew I was in with a good chance of a decent result since the car drove quite well, even with the box stock setup bolted on.

The track was a good mix of fast and slow corners and not too big a straight, perfect for F1. The carpet was odd to drive on; brand new with long fibers which made it feel like the car was ‘floating’ on the carpet – good grip in slow speed corners, but none whatsoever in the high speed sections. This made throttle control difficult and would sort the best from the rest.

Practice was done on a semi-green track and my car as good as it could be, only one other guy could match my pace. Fairly confident, I went back to my pitspace, cleaned the car and left the setup alone.

Qualifying
would consist of 3x 5-min qualifiers and a superpole shootout to decide the
A-main lineup. Qualifying saw me end up 3^rd; a few of my competitors
had found more speed during the day, but I was satisfied with how qualifying
went.

Superpole was a new and interesting twist to the otherwise monotone 3x qual, 3x finals setup and was unanimously agreed by drivers and spectators to be kept for the future. I qualified 3^rd for the single 15 min main, a tenth away from 2^nd.

The final started out reasonably well with no errors for the first 4-5 minutes. Then I griprolled after attacking a corner a little too hard and saw myself back down to 4^th. A little while later I managed to get back past into 3^rd and stayed there for the rest of the race.

Never expecting a podium, onroad not being my strongest class, I was well chuffed with the result. The car drove brilliantly, even with the stock setup, all day and never broke. Proof of quality from Serpent yet again, as we know it.

Next race is round 2 of the championship in Brøndby in about a week’s time on a permanent track with a different carpet where I’m certain the car will drive even better.

Until then, cya!

Jan