The location for this race was the familiar Laukaa track, which had this year been refreshed with new paint making it look much better, and also more fun to race on. The track is small but work really well also for mod TC, and is fun to race on.

Conditions were really hot, with over 30 deg C air temperatures and no wind. Since this is not normal up here, our control tyres are 32 compound (Volante), but even in these super hot conditions they worked surprisingly well.

As usual, I had not done any TC running at all since the last race. I had hoped to go testing before the race, but no time for such things was found. Luckily I could do a bit of running on the track on the Friday before the race.

Since I know my TRF419XR well at this stage, I always run the same basic setup, and know what small changes to make for this track with both the car and track familiar. For this race I had also updated my 419XR with the damper upgrade and new ball joints.

Right from the start my car was really good, so I tried a few things, but went back to my base setup. Just as has been the case at the tarmac races for the last few years, I have been surprised to be somewhat competitive, as this is not what I’m used to or expect when running modified.

This time however the surprise was even bigger as I managed to qualify third overall, and was really quite competitive on pace. Out of the three finals I managed one good, and two not so good though, basically f@*king up what was an easy third overall in the last final. Not that I care much though. Been doing this for too long to get hung up on these things ?? And I really enjoyed some of the racing, especially in A1 and A2.

Here’s a closer look at my Tamiya TRF419XR right after the race.

Upgraded TRF SSBB dampers.

My Muchmore 8.5T keeps producing good modified results! When limited on talent you have to be careful with power! ??

The ZooRacing DBX body has been really good this summer. Although ugly and no TC but more GT, the way it works on track is really impressive. Beginning to look a bit sorry for itself now though after finals drama!

Also tried the ZooRacing Hellcat at the race, but much prefered the DBX.