Procar Open 2001 was held in Eskilstuna, Sweden on November 23rd to 25th. 68 drivers from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland attended the race. Among them there were three very well-knowned drivers; Andreas Myrberg (HPI/LRP), Steen Graversen (Schumacher/Orion) and Mikael Fransson (X-Ray/LRP).
There were a 10 turn motor limit and two types of control tires, HPI Advan carpet tires and Schumacher belted white tires. You were only allowed to use two sets of tires for the race and both sets had to be marked by the technical inspection before qualifying started. The free practise on friday was all about deciding on which tires and inserts to use.
Qualifying
There were five qualifying rounds of which only the fastest run was counted. In the first qualifying round Andreas Myrberg was fastest followed by Gustav Dahlberg, Marcus Berglund and Mikael Fransson. In the remaining four qualifying rounds, the battle for the TQ position was between Andreas Myrberg and Mikael Fransson. The former taking TQ in round five by less than a second. After qualifying the top 10 looked like this:
1. Andreas Myrberg
2. Mikael Fransson
3. Gustav Dahlberg
4. Helge Johannesen (Norway)
5. Marcus Berglund
6. Steen Graversen (Denmark)
7. Jonas Andersson
8. Arvid Stenberg
9. Magnus Vässmar
10. Jonas Nyrén
Finals
The first A-final was a disgrace to the swedish r/c scene. Almost all drivers deserved stop & go penalties for bad driving. Mikael Fransson won this final before Magnus Vässmar and Marcus Berglund.
Before the second A-final the organizers called for a drivers meeting to talk about the bad driving in the first final. That seemed to do it, the second final was very clean with only a few incidents. Andreas Myrberg won this final before Mikael Fransson and Arvid Stenberg. After the first two finals Mikael Fransson with 3 points was in the best position for the win before Andreas Myrberg with 5 points.
The third A-final was also quite clean with Andreas Myrberg taking an easy win before Mikael Fransson and Jonas Andersson. Congratulations to Andreas Myrberg who won Procar Open for the second year in a row.
Final results:
1. Andreas Myrberg (HPI/LRP)
2. Mikael Fransson (X-Ray/LRP)
3. Jonas Andersson (HPI/Peak)
4. Arvid Stenberg (Associated/Advanced)
5. Magnus Vässmar (Schumacher/Advanced)
6. Marcus Berglund (Associated/Advanced)
7. Gustav Dahlberg (HPI/Advanced)
8. Helge Johannesen (Losi/GM)
9. Steen Graversen (Schumacher/Orion)
10. Jonas Nyrén (Associated/Advanced)
Winner of the B-final was Mikael Nilsson (Corally/Corally).
To sum it up, it was a well organized event with very close competition. I had a really good time, and I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did.
/ Arvid Stenberg
