European Championship - RC Landia

Alexander Hagberg reports on his win at 1/12 European Championship 2014

The 2014 edition of the 1/12 European Championships was held at the permanent facilities of RC Landia, in Scandiano, Italy. Some 100 drivers split in two classes, from many different countries, attended the event, which was held over three days.

During the practice rounds on Friday, both myself and team mate Olly Jefferies showed a strong early pace on the challenging track. Francesco Martini was very fast with his X12 car as well, with an early pace within the top 3 positions in the competitive 10.5T blinky stock class.

As qualifying commenced, it was evident that it would be difficult to finish clean runs and collect important points - one would have to drive on the limit without hitting too many boards. In the end, it worked out very well for myself and Olly as I would take the overall TQ based on a tie break, where I had the quicker 8-minute run. Olly Jefferies would line up 2nd on the grid with 2x TQ runs as well. It seemed like it would be an all XRAY affair for the title on Sunday. However, during the last qualifying round, Olly crashed his car which resulted in a strange tweak issue, which wasn't really sorted out until the race was over. His chances for the title went away as a result, as he could not fight for a top position in the first two A-main finals. Olly came back strong to win A3 in front of Markus Mobers, but it was too late as his points were only enough for 4th overall - which is still a respectable result.

As for my finals, I was able to cruise to a win in A1 as the others got tangled up during the first moments of the race. A2 was more exciting as I was holding a steady 1-2 second lead to Markus Mobers until three laps remained, where I came together with a back marker. Markus made a hard move which put my car out of shape, with only a few corners to go, but gave back the position, showing great sportsmanship. I had won my first European Championship title ever from the TQ spot - a great result for XRAY and the X12! Congrats to Massimo Fantini as well - making the A for XRAY!

In the stock class, Francesco was a bit unlucky with crashes in the finals, but still managed to finish 5th overall which is a very good result, considering his lack of experience in this category!

A big thanks to Team La Gang of Scandiano for a great organization! It feels great to win my first EC title at this place where I have had so many good times in the past. It will stand out as an extraordinary memory for me.

Modified top 10:

1. Alexander Hagberg - XRAY X12

2. Markus Mobers

3. Alexandre Laurent

4. Olly Jefferies - XRAY X12

5. Simo Ahoniemi

6. Daniel Sieber

7. Dominic Vogl

8. Hubert Hönigl

9. Massimo Fantini - XRAY X12

10. Arnaud Lemperiere

Stock top 10:

1. Markus Mobers

2. Hubert Hönigl

3. Alexandre Laurent

4. Chris Kerswell

5. Francesco Martini - XRAY X12

6. Mark Stiles

7. Vesa Yli

8. Helge Johannesen

9. Jörg Mikael Tiit

10. Simon Rubet