Danish Nats 2003 Vandel, Denmark
May 30th to June 1st 2003
Last updated June 18th 2003
First race of the season for us and our first race ever with a throttle-stop.
After racing purely on the rev counter for some seasons we needed some change. We have won races without electronic aids and we have run 9.900 without them. So now we felt it was time to try some electronics. The natural progression would be to use a two step module for startline and top end RPMs. But we decided to skip that stage and go for an under-carb throttle-stop with an electronic controller. We also bought a hand-held weather-station to help us set the timers.
We hadn’t tried the car at all before qualification started so our main task this week-end was to get a base-line setting for the throttle-stop.
First we experimented with the RPM when the thottle-stop was closed. After a complete stop, a 9.32, an 11.90 and a 10.75 we ended up with a setting where the throttle-stop is activated for 1,5 sec. at approx. 4000 RPM. This seemed sensible. The closest we got to a 9.90 was a 9.84, but we ended up with the 10.75 as our best run over 9.90 and got last place in the qualifications.
First race with a throttle-stop and our first time as last qualifier. Maybe this throttle-stop thing isn’t as easy as they say it is?
The good thing about the Danish race is that this is a meeting-point between racers from northern and southern europe. This year we had competitors from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Netherland and Italy in Super Gas.
Our first opponent in the eliminations was the italian driver Oscar Scappocily. Even if he is italian he drives something as common as a Chevy Nova. Morten beat him on the three and lifted off to not break out.
So for the next round we kept the same setting on the throttle-stop. Next opponent was Mrs. Lene Jensen of Denmark in an older Nova. Again Morten won on the three but this time both drivers broke out but she broke out more trying to catch him.
In the Semi-final we met Pelle Norén of Sweden. A Nova again! After a year off he is back for a full season and will for sure compete for the Championship. But Pelle was unusually slow off the three and broke out more than Morten trying to catch him. And we were in the final!
There we met 1st qualifier Håkan Mattsson of Sweden in a similar ex. Pro Stock Firebird to ours. He got to the final even if he broke out in all three rounds. First Bosse Hall got a deep stage, then Håkan had a bye-run and in the semi he beat Mats Lindkvist in a double break-out race.
This time Morten was slow off the three. We were just about to knock on his door and tell him it was green when he left !
But all in all we were very happy to end up as Runner up in our first race of the season. And the throttle-stop for sure makes the racing more interesting.