Below is a race report from Swedish Serpent Team driver David Hassel

Euro Contest 2013, June 21 to 23

The race was at Bacro in Italy. David competed in 1:8 brushless and nitro. On Friday it was 4 practice heats and temperature was up to 40 degrees. We overheated the ESC and the motor so we had to buy a new slower engine at the place to be able to finish the qualifying and the finals. Next time we will be more prepared with cooling fans. We are more used to be in 20 degrees than 40 degrees. The track was very nice and all the Italians were really nice.

On Saturday it was 4 qualifying rounds and there was so much to do because that we drove in both brushless and nitro. In brushless qualified David fourth and  in the nitro 18. Unfortunately, David had some allergy problems that made him sneeze and eyes ran. Not so easy to drive. On Sunday it was 3 finals in brushless. He placed 3, 2, 3. In the first heat, David had a battle for second place with Walter Floris, he was just 0.5 seconds behind him and David finished third. In the second final was it a battle for second place with Marco Baruffolo, where David manged to beat the EMB-winner. David finished second. In the third heat, it was a new battle with Baruffolo where David finished third 2s after him. Alex Zanzettin won and Walter Flores second. Baruffolo and David ended up with the same score but Baroffolo´s time was better so David ended up at fourth place.

In 1:8 nitro David started in the quarterfinals B where he finished second. We chose the wrong tires in that final so the main thing was to make it to the semi. In the semi was only 5 drivers who went to main final and David ended up on 6 spot. Those who did not go on to the finals were run LCQ (Last chance qualifier). 14 driver had to make up for the two last places in the final. The TQ Fabrizio Teghesi won the LCQ and went on to the finals. David finished second just 2s after Teghesi and went on to the final too. In the main final did we got engine problems at the start that made us lose several minutes before we could get the engine running again. The temperature caused problems and there were several flameouts. David finished in ninth spot and we are very happy to make a Euro Contest main final in both classes. We are very pleased with the race and the event.

Team Hassel