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Date: 28.10.2012
Race: DRCMU 2
Track: Aalborg RC – Aalborg
Condition: Carpet – technical/mixed – 20 degr. C – low/medium grip
Class: Modified
Result: 4


Up to the race
After the last race in Tinglev I was disappointed. Only a fourth place was not enough for me. I felt, I at least had to climb the podium. However, that was the last race. I made some practice at my home track, and I made the second fastest 5 minutes time ever on the track – only few tenths of a second behind my own track record. My Serpent worked really well without any problems.

Practice at the race

Aalborg is about 300 km away from where I live. Together with my father we decided to travel to the track already on Friday evening to have the whole Saturday for practice. The track in Aalborg is a permanent built track of the Aalborg RC club. I’ve never raced on the track before. It’s a nice track, but with two main issues: the track is built with wooden beams and with plastic curbs at the end of the straight. If you hit the beams, your car will probably break, and if you hit the curbs, you will fly into a wall at the end of the straight and get your car destroyed. It looked dangerous for the cars, and I should later that day feel how much. I started the practice with good lap times, and I was the whole day among the two or three fastest cars on the track. I filed a little on the setup, as the grip was lower than on my home track, and the track layout was a little more technical. You needed good steering into many of the tight corners. In the evening my car felt really good and fast. One of the other Serpent drivers then tried my car as his Serpent wasn’t looking as good as mine. He is a very good superstock A main driver. Unfortunately, he hit the plastic curbs at the end of the straight and my car crashed into the wall with a big bang. Result of the crash: broken top deck and broken chassis. I had spares with me, a new top deck and a used chassis from outdoor racing. At 11:30 in the evening my father started rebuilding my car. One and a half hours later my car was rebuilt and all parameters of the setup were checked. I then ran a single battery for checking the car. My father did a good job as my car felt exactly the same as before the crash.

Qualification
The qualification turned out to be exactly the same as at the race before – DRCMU 1 in Tinglev. We were the same four guys in front: three Awesomatix and me with my Serpent. In the first two practice sessions I was second fastest. In the first qualification round I made a fault and ended up as fourth, but in the two last rounds I ended up as third. I was only a few seconds behind the second fastest driver, but I was about four seconds in front of the driver in fourth position. Exactly the same result as at the previous race in Tinglev. I thought: a déjà-vu? No way – I was much faster than the fourth driver on the grid.

Finale
Sad to say, but it turned out to be a déjà-vu for me. In the first finale I drove safe on the third position. Only in the start I had to fight for my position. Later I got hold back by a back runner, and the driver in fourth position came up to me again, but he had no changes to pass me. In the second finale Steen Graversen made a huge fault and fell back to fifth place. He then drove all or nothing and passed the guys in fourth and third place and came up to me. We had a battle and he could pass me with a hard but fair overtake. I pushed and tried to overtake him again but took him off. I waited for him, and while I did that, the car in fourth position passed us. As Steen in third position came up to him, his car broke while trying to overtake the car in second position. I passed the line as third again. I now knew, I had to make a first or second place in the last finale to get at least a third place. I had 6 points for my two third places, and the driver starting behind me had also 6 point for his fourth and second places. We are racing according to the Efra rules, so his results were better than mine. In the third finale I tried to push in the start, but I took the driver in second place off, when I tried to pass him. I later overtook him when he had some problems overtaking some back runners, and then I again drove in third place. In the end of the race he came up to me again and I let him pass without fight and ended up as fourth. The déjà-vu was perfect. Exactly as in Tinglev: second after the practice – third after the qualifications – and only fourth after the race. No podium. In both races I simply had no luck. All accidents throughout both races all went to the side of the driver in fourth place after the qualifications. He was both time slower than me, but both times he ended up in front of me.

After the race
I’m still disappointed. Not only over my result in Aalborg but also at the first race in Tinglev. The next race in the DRCMU series I can’t race, as I’m on vacation, so the next scheduled race will be in the start of the January, when I will race at the DHI Cup, where I last year won the C main. I will start to practice with the LRP CPX tires, which we have to use at the DHI Cup. I will again go to some different tracks with different layouts and especially different grip conditions to test setups.

Serpent
As I wrote in my last race report, Serpent is growing in Denmark. More and more drivers are starting with a Serpent, and at the race in Aalborg there were about 14-15 Serpent cars out of 55 drivers. Although the Serpent is a very strong car, the wooden beams were hard for the cars. I think more than 25 drivers broke a wishbone or an upright, and several Serpents were among them. I was able to help two drivers with spares, and several other drivers came to me for setup tips.
My own car worked well, and I didn’t break anything on the car. Only the guy who tried my car broke it. I tried different setups throughout the practice, and every time my car reacted on my changes as expected. Super. I understand the car better and better.
I want to thank Serpent for the sponsoring.

See you all at the racing tracks.
Best regards
Rasmus Tobias Callesen