20th WORLD CHAMP ES24 SCALE RACING - Malta, Oct. 13-14

VLADIMIR HORKY FOR THE 5TH TIME!

Czechia rules once more - Horky first to win 5 Worlds!

Oct 14 - Czechia's Vladimir Horky is the first racer in the history of slot-racing to have won five world championships. In Malta he was by far the best racer of all since he won not only the ES24 Scale Racing World Championship, he won also the ES32 Scale Racing EuroNats (twice with country mate Tomas Rosenberg as runner-up), and in 132 F1 he came only 6 metres short to beat Paolo Trigilio (I). He could have been the first racer in history having won the three major races at the ISRA World Championships.
Of course, we all know that ISRA organises no real world champion-ships, only a kind of fake worlds. That's due to ISRA's policy refusing to invest in plane tickets of the best racers of the world. The list with top-racers missing at the ISRA Nats is much longer than the entry list, where more than half of the entrants were certainly not at their place. Tell me what Andy Brown-Searle has to search at a so-called world championship, when he's unable to reach simply the top-25 at the BSCRA Nats. Or what has Jason Stone lost at the ISRA worlds. His poor results are just a shame for his country, the United States. Missing in Malta, among others, were Paul Ciccarello (USA), Salvatore Noviello (I), Paul Gawronski (USA), Jaroslaw Recek (CZ), Mikail Radkovic (CZ), Dave Gick (NZ), Greg Gilbert (USA), Gustav Heymann (RSA), Peter Dimmers (AU), Giovanni Montiglio (I), Tracy Chin (USA), Ernie Mosetti (CDN), Philip Helmuth (USA), Jiri Micek jr (CZ), Jiri Micek sr (CZ), Jozef Miskolci (SVK), Olivier Demoget (F), Kurt Rölli (CH), Ulli E. Pietsch (D), Heiko Thinschmidt (D), Jozef Lapcak (SVK), Henrique Dehais (F), Jorge da Cruz (PT), Michael Krause (D), Ulisses Relvas (PT)

Kieran Dale (NZ), Kimmo Rautama (SF), Roberto Rotoni (I), Chris Radisich (NZ), Simas Nemira (LT), Aruna Leonavicius (LT), Kieran Dale (NZ), Geoff Mitchell (GB), Charlie Gooding (GB, the ISRA president by the way!), Paul Harwood (GB), James Cleave (GB), the ISRA #1 Einari Fyhr (SF), Douwe Banning (NL), etc., etc. Eventually the so-called ISRA Worlds are hardly any more than a half-European Champion-ship: half, since more than half of the top-racers are missing. That: all entrants know very well, even if they behave as ignoring it.

ENTRY - In total 63 racers showed for the 20th Scale Racing World Championship (sic). Among them 10 racers from Czechia, 10 racers from Sweden, 9 racers from England, 9 racers from Malta (of them only Mario Azzopardi, Alfred Gatt and Charles Pace have some international reputation), 8 racers from Italy (where only Trigilio, Castricone and Sanarelli where at their place) and 4 racers from Finland - what makes already 50 entrants, spread over as few as 6 nations. The 13 others came from Russia (1), USA (1), Brazil (1), Slovakia (2), Ukraine (2), Denmark (3), Latvia (3). Admit that only a person, ran totally nuts, will admit that this is representative for the whole world of scale racers. I think only Charlie Gooding can be such a person.

QUALIFICATIONS - Fastest qualifier was Lasse Åberg (S), last year runner-up to ISRA world champion Petr Krcil, in 3"399, ahead of Matti Fyhr (SF) in 3"426, Brian Saunders (GB) in 3"433 and Petr Krcil (CZ) in 3"442. Those four were free from the Quarter Finals (in fact Consis). Of Vladimir Horky (CZ) and Josef Korec (CZ) we know that they always try to avoid top-4 qualifying ranks, since it offers them a chance to test their car during the Consis, so that they can still modify it slightly if necessary on entering the Semis. Great performance of good old Andy Brown-Searle who succeeded to let one racer behind: one more of Andy's spectacular successes in international racing.

CONSIS - The Consis were totally free of surprises. Except for Luis "Gugu" Bernardino, George Kimber, Andris Podosinoviks and Miroslav Vadlejch we lost no top-guns. Unlucky was Malta's Mario Azzopardi, being the first to miss the move. Four fastest racers at the Consis were Josef Korec (CZ) with 379 laps, Vladimir Horky (CZ) with 376 laps, Jiri Karlik (CZ) with 374 laps and Tomas Rosenberg (CZ) with 373 laps. Then came Anders Gustafson (S), Piero Castricone (I), Michael Landrud (S), Paul Shepherd (GB), and surprisingly Charles Pace (MT) as ninth. Paolo Trigilio - never convincing at ES24 Worlds - was only twelfth. Malta's Alfred Gatt was twentieth and the last to make the move.

SEMIS - Of Semi C, won by Vlado Okali (SVK) ahead of Alfred Gatt (MT) and Graham Woodward (GB), nobody made the move to the Main Final. Ihor Kuropiy (UKR) caused a stir by finishing fourth, good for a sixteenth place overall. Nikolai Dolzanskij was victim of mechanical woes, taking away all his chances. Of Semi B only winner Antónin Vojtik (CZ) was fast enough to make the move. Anders Gustafson (second), followed by the Italian trio Trigilio-Santarelli-Castricone, were all out, proving once more that after the withdrawal from Salvatore Noviello, Italians are no longer among the best scale racers of the world. The seven first of Semi A made all seven the move to the Main, nl. 1. Vladimir Horky  (CZ), 2. Lasse Åberg (S), 3. Brian Saunders (GB), 4. Matti Fyhr (SF), 5. Josef Korec (CZ), 6. Petr Krcil (CZ), and 7. Tomas Rosenberg (CZ). Only Jiri Karlik missed the move. 

MAIN FINAL - In the main final the Czech quarter Horky-Korec-Krcil-Rosenberg was pulling away from the rest of the field, despite heroic defence of Brian Saunders and Matti Fyhr. After 440 laps Petr Krcil had to retire with a broken car. In front a superb Vladimir Horky (CZ) was digging the gap with his two country mates Tomas Rosenberg (CZ) and Josef Korec (CZ), involved in a gruelling combat for the second place. Behind them young Antónin Vojtik (CZ) could pass Brian Saunders (GB) and Matti Fyhr (SF) to make the Czech train one of four units. Lasse Aberg, last year still second, disappointed, coming not further than to a seventh place. Order was now definitive.
If one compares the finalists of this year's ISRA ES24 Worlds with those of last year's, it stirs that 7 of the 8 finalists were already finalist in 2004. Only Michael Landrud was missing. That proves that there is no innovation at all in ISRA racing, that ISRA's Worlds are just a small club of top-racers, letting the rest of the field far behind. [for JPVR]

11th ISRA 1/32nd F1 European Championship - Malta, Oct. 12

PAOLO TRIGILIO DOES IT AT LEAST

Fabulous last rush of Horky fails: he comes 6 metres short

October 14 - 53 racers showed for the 11th ISRA 1/32nd F1 European Championship. One other racer, Kaspar Duburs, subscribed, but finally did not enter. F1 slot-racing is a typical British form of slot-racing, having originated in the late 1950s. Nevertheless never a Britton could win the ISRA 1/32nd F1 event. In 1997 James Cleave finished as second to Paul Gawronski. Since that date no British racer even reached the podium. A fifth place for Paul Harwood in 2000 was the best the Brittons performed. Apart from England, 1/32nd F1 racing has most adepts in Czechia, Italy, Finland and the Baltic States. Sweden discovered the speciality last year. [ISRA F1 slot-racing dates from 1993, but nobody could help me to find top-8 results, prior to 1997, back.]
Fastest qualifier was "Il Bandido" Piero Castricone (I) in 4"910, followed by Nikolai Dolzanskij (RU) in 4"953, by last year's winner Matti Fyhr (SF) in 4"993 and by Petr Krcil (CZ) in 5"013. Those four racers were free from the Consis. At those Consis we lost Martin Borch (DK) and Janis Rage-Ragis (LV) on mechanical woes. The Brittons lost Steve Sargent, Keith Gibson and Andy Brown-Searle. Of the racers from Malta none could survive the Consis (called here: Quarters). Czechia lost surprisingly Pavel Flaisig and Milos Hojer. America's Jason Stone finished as low as 44th and was out. Despite a fast car Sweden's Janne Ekman failed to move up to the Semis. Fastest man at the Consis was Vladimir Horky (CZ), followed within the same lap by Paolo Trigilio (I) and Brian Saunders (GB). Then followed Andris Podosinoviks (LV) at one lap, Antónin Vojtik (CZ), Tomas Rosenberg (CZ), Anders Gustafson (S) and Lasse Åberg (S), all at five or six laps.

Among the 24 survivors of the Consis we found only four racers from England (Brian Saunders, Graham Woodward, Paul Shepherd and George Kimber). Czechia was present with seven racers (Vladimir Horky, Josef Korec, Petr Krcil, Tomas Rosenberg, Antónin Vojtik, Jiri Karlik and Miroslav Vadlejch). Italy had four racers in the Semis: Piero Castricone, Paolo Trigilio, Guido Santarelli and Claudio Battistini. Sweden had four racers too in: Michael Landrud, Lasse Åberg, Anders Gustafson and surprisingly also Tobbe Wågman. From the Baltic States only Andris Podosinoviks (LV) survived the Consis. Other qualified racers were Matti Fyhr (SF), Nikolai Dolzanskij (RU), Luis "Gug" Bernardino (BR) and Vlado Okali (SVK). 
Semi C saw Jiri Karlik (CZ) winning with 355.96 laps, ahead over Claudio Battistini, Graham Woodward and George Kimber. None of them should make the move. Miroslaw Vadlejch was out after 169 laps with a bent chassis.
Semi B was a disaster for Anders Gustafson (S), loosing it all up from the fifth segment. Here victory went to Tomas Rosenberg (CZ) with 364.38 laps, ahead of Michael Landrud (S) with 361.05 laps, and Luis "Gugu" Bernardino (BR) with 358.80 laps. Those three should make the move, whilst Antónin Vojtik came less than a lap short to do the same. That we lost also the IOC #1, Josef Korec (CZ), was a big surprise for everybody ... except Josef himself. At no moment his car seemed able to follow the pacesetters.
Semi A was won superbly by Matti Fyhr (SF) with 374.80 laps, followed by Vladimir Horky (CZ) with 368.00 laps, Peter Krcil (CZ) with 366.32 laps, Brian Saunders (GB) with 366.04 laps, and Paolo Trigilio (I) with 362.55 laps. Out were Nikolai Dolzanskij (RU), Andris Podosinoviks (LV) and "Il Bandido", Piero Castricone (I).
That means that we went to a Main Final with three racers from Czechia (Horky, Rosenberg, Krcil), with only one Swede (Landrud, since Åberg and Gustafson failed at the Semis), with only one Britton (Saunders), with last year's winner Matti Fyhr from Finland, with only one Italian (Trigilio, after we lost TQ-er Castricone) and with the lonely Brazilian ("Gugu", who nobody expected being able to do thàt well in F1).
At the start of the Main Czechia's Vladimir Horky, having won earlier four times in a raw the European 1/32nd F1 Championship (1998-2001) and Matti Fyhr (very outstanding at the Semis) were undoubted-ly the main favourites. It were, however, Saunders and Landrud setting the pace, followed after the first segment at one lap by Horky and Rosenberg. Then came Trigilio at two laps and Fyhr at three laps. Bernardino, having lost more than twenty laps in the pits, was already out. During the second segment Saunders took the lead, three laps ahead over his runner-up Michael Landrud. Saunders could keep the lead until the one but last segment, where he lost eight full laps on the new leader: Paolo Trigilio. With an advance of three laps over Horky the Italian went to the last segment. Here Horky could unlap himself three times, to finish only 6 metres behind the winner, Paolo Trigilio.  Horky's final rush thus came too late.

14th ISRA PRODUCTION WORLD CUP FOR TEAMS-Malta,Oct. 10

MATTI FYHR & BRIAN SAUNDERS WIN IT

Karlik/Krcil 2nd, Dolzanskij/Sinisaari 3rd

October 14 - In total 66 racers are present in Malta for what is called the 14th ISRA World Championship Scale Racing. Everybody knows that as "world" championship the event is hardly more than a hoax, since 64 of the racers are Europeans. The rest of the world is restricted to Luis "Gugu" Bernardino from Brazil and the unknown Jason Stone from the United States. List of notary absents is probably longer than list of entrants. Among the top-racers missing we note Paul Ciccarello, Paul Gawronski, Greg Gilbert, Philip Helmuth, Herman James, etc. from the USA; Dave Gick, Chris Radisich, Kieran Dale and Paul "Split" Heath from New Zealand; Gustav Heymann from South-Africa; Frantisek Poledna, Jaroslaw Recek, Mikail Radkovic, Jiri Micek sr, Jiri Micek jr, and Lucas Folk from Czechia; Jozef Miskoci, Jozef Lapcak and Marcel Prokop from Slovakia; Salvatore Noviello and Giovanni Montiglio from Italy; James Cleave, Charlie Gooding (!), Paul Harwood and Geoff Mitchell from England; Aivis Ruks and Petris Taurins from Latvia; Arunas Leonavicius and Simas Nemira from Lithuania; Ernie Mosetti from Canada; U.E. Pietsch, Heiko Thinschmidt, Michael Krause and Roland Brehmer from Germany; Kurt Rölli from Switzerland; etc. Moreover there is nobody from Spain, nobody from France, nobody from Germany, nobody from South-Africa, nobody from Australia, nobody from the RSA, nobody from Holland, nobody from Belgium, nobody from Portugal, etc. Compensation had to come from some 10 racers from ... Malta. Even the ISRA #1, Einari Fyhr - two weeks earlier still active at the IMCA EuroNats in Neumünster, didn't show. ISRA delegates rest simply blind for those bare facts. They continue their extreme conservative policy, still refusing 1/24th G12 at their hoax world championship.
As usual the ISRA Nats (a much better name than the very pretentious and total hollow ISRA World Championship) started with the team race. Contrary to other years the duo Vladimir Horky/Josef Korec was at no moment in for outright victory. With Einari Fyhr being absent, his brother Matti had to look after a new team mate. It became Brian Saunders. Together they won the race on a very convincing way, more than twenty laps ahead over Petr Krcil and Jiri Karlik. Nikolai Dolzanskij, earlier this year still victor laudarum at the ISRA warm-up race, and Kari Sinisaari took unexpectedly the third place. Tomas Rosenberg and Pavel Flaisig were fourth. A top team made by Michael Landrud and Lasse Aberg (together good for three world championship titles) disappoiunted by finishing eight. Korec/Horky (8 world championships!) finished only tenth. [for JPVR]

2nd EUROCUP ES24 & G12 - GOTHA, ZLIN, MINDEN, PARDUBICE

PAVEL FLAISIG WINS COMBINED STANDINGS

Jiri Karlik (CZ) wins ES24, Ulli-E Pietsch (D) wins G12

f.l.t.r. Pavel Flaisig, Ulli-E Pietsch and Jiri Karlik

The second EuroCup for scale cars, spread over 4 meetings, is over. In G12 Ulli E. Pietsch (D) and Pavel Flaisig (CZ) finished with exactly the same number of points after Flaisig won the last round at Pardubice. However, since Pietsch won two rounds and Flaisig only one, the German won the G12 Series. The remaining G12 round - at Minden - was won by Antónin Vojtik (CZ), also well-known from the model car races. Last year's winner Jiri Micek jr (CZ) finished as fourth in the G12 series, preceeded by Jiri Karlik (CZ). In total 38 racers were ranked. Among them also racers from Switzerland (Kurt Rölli and Fritz Kopriwa), from Italy (Sergio Bertocchi, but no Paolo Trigilio as last year), from Slovakia (Vlado Okali), from Austria (Oliver Sonnbichler) and from England (Graeme Stephenson and Andy Brown-Searle). Several top racers entered at only one round. Among them world champion Vladimir Horky (CZ), ex-world champion Jaroslav Recek (CZ) and Ralph Klose (D). In ES24 best racer was Jiri Karlik (CZ), having won the last round at Pardubice. Other rounds were won by Jiri Micek jr (CZ), Jaroslav Recek (CZ) and Ulli E. Pietsch (D).
In the combined standings Pavel Flaisig (CZ) won most points (272), four more than Ulli E. Pietsch (D) and five more than Jiri Karlik (CZ). It were the three most competitive racers of the series. The combined ranking as published above were considered for the IOC-ranking. Racers with a red asterisk * behind their name won one or more rounds. [JPVR]

There was also a series for amateur racers with four rounds for Production 124 cars and four rounds for Group 12 cars at scale 1/24th. Simon Tirol (CZ) was winner of the Production series (with three wins on four entries) ahead of Ronny Scheer (D) who won the remaining round. Manfred Seyfarth (D) was third. In G12 Ronny Scheer (two wins) won the series, ahead over Daniela Metze (D) with one win and Simon Tirol (CZ).The remaining round was won by Alfonso Didac (CZ). It was the lonely round he entered.
In the combined amateur standings Ronny Scheer (D) collected most points: 284. Runner-up is Simon Tirol (CZ) with 280 points. Third place in the combined standings went to Daniela Metze (D) with 241 points. In PR24 43 racers were ranked. In 124 G12 39 racers were ranked. [JPVR]

12th BSCRA 124 Nats - Leicester (GB), July 16-17

SAUNDERS & CLEAVE ARE THE WINNERS

Matti Fyhr moral winner of ES24 - Åberg confirms!

August 11 - In the early beginnings the BSCRA 124 Nats were an inter-national race. We even remember Italy's Paolo Trigilio having won one of the races.  But after four years international entries stopped (except for a couple of racers from Malta, among them Mario Azzopardi). Big was the surprise to see that this year the BSCRA 124 Nats were again an international event with at the start such top-racers as the former double G7 world champion Lasse Äberg (S) and the 2003 world champion scale racing Michael Landrud. Present too was Anders Gustafson (S), a former European champion wing car racing and Matti Fyhr (SF), last year still winner of the 132 F1 race at the ISRA Worlds. We noted also a couple of racers from Portugal and from Denmark at the start. Traditionally the BSCRA 124 Nats go over three races, one for 124 Samoon cars, one for 124 Open G12 and one for ES24. Of those races the two last have always been considered as IOC-races, i.e. as races counting for the International All Time Ranking of Racers. The G12 race is good for res. 10, 7.5, 6, 4.5, 3, 1.5, 1 and 0.5 points for top-8 finishers, the ES24 for double of those points.
The organisers never expected so many entries: 66 in Saloon, 63 in G12 and 61 in ES24. They were even enforced to cancel the qualifica-tions for the ES24 race, due to a lack of time. For the Swedish racers, having their plane waiting, that was a rather sad business. They all had to start in the lowest H final at the ES24 race.
The Production Saloon Race saw Lee Parsons take TQ. Paul Shepherd, Mark Harwood, Charlie Gooding and John Wells all missed the A Final, but were the four first of the B final. However, since Adam Redford won the C final with more laps than Charlie he could split the winner's quartet of final B. The 8 A finalists were Lee Parsons, Richard Mack, James Cleave, Brian Saunders, Brian Galpin, Graeme Stephenson (having been present at a couple of IMCA races in 2003 and 2004), Michael Landrud from Sweden and Matti Fyhr from Finland. In the A final James Cleave and Brian Saunders pulled quickly away from the rest of the field. It should be the lonely two A finalists going faster than the top-4 of the B-final. Positions between the two leaders switched regularly, but eventually Saunders was the best, despite a lost front wheel. Brian Galpin finished third, but with less laps than the top-4 of the B-final, less laps too than the winner of the C-final. So he was classified as 8th. Anders Gustafson, who won the E-final, failed to finish among the top-20. Best non-Britton was Lasse Äberg, coming from the B-final and finishing 11th overall.

The Open G12 race was good for 63 entries. Qualifications were late on Saturday evening, and Lee Parsons was again the fastest of the whole field with 4"582 against 4"586 for Brian Saunders. Good old George Kimber - England's #3 racer since more than three decades - was not already there and was one of the late qualifiers on Sunday morning. As one of the best G12 racers of the world he made the fifth best time, good for a A final. The 8 finalists were thus Lee Parsons, Brian Saunders, Mark Harwood, Michael Landrud, George Kimber, Keith Gibson (volontary last at the Saloon qualifications), Graham Wood-ward and Greg Harwood. That means that Charlie Gooding and Paul Shepherd missed again the A final. Both had to start in the B final.

So we had again 8 finals on the splendid national 8-laner, placed in the Enderby Leisure Centre of Leicester. Kevin Doubleday, who had a gear strip during his qualification, and who could do only one clear lap, had to start in the lowest final. Here he was the winner and we had to wait the C final to find someone going faster. That C final was won by young Graeme Stephenson ahead of Will Stemman (one of the best rookies in last year's IOC-list). Of the racers of the B final only good old Charlie Gooding could do better than the winning duo of the C final. Charlie, having beaten Paul Shephers, was just 6 small segments faster than Graeme. Then came the A final, where everybody expected a new gruelling combat now between Brian Saunders and George Kimber (since the beaten hero at the 124 Saloon race, James Cleave, was not there). Georgie did what he could to follow Brian, but eventually he could not follow the pace. At the finish it became obvious that Brian Saunders was the lonely A finalist to have gone faster (2 laps) than the trio Gooding-Stephenson-Shepherd.  George Kimber, who finished second at the A-final became fifth in the overal ranking, just ahead of Will Stemmann. Landrud, Harwood and Parsons, who where third, fourth and fifth at the A final were slower than Stemman so that they occupied ranks 7-8-9 in the overall ranking. Anders Gustafson, coming from the lower finals, was eventually tenth overall.

Main event was of course the ES24 race, an IOC-event with coefficient 2. Without qualifications, due to lack of time with so many entrants, finals were seeded  by the qualifications of the G12 race. The Swedes however started in the lowest final since they had to get their plane. For all-rounder Lasse Äberg, only since last year involved in international scale racing (where he finished as runner-up to Petr Krcil at the ISRAWorlds!!!), it was enough to demonstrate all his talent. Indeed, we had to wait the A final to find exactly ...one ...racer to do better. We had to wait final C to find two racer coming at less than 10 laps from Lasse: John Wells and Denmark's Lars Noerkjaer (excellent, and best rank ever won by a racer from Denmark in an international race for scale cars). Both were 8 laps down to Lasse.
Much was expected from the B final, since James Cleave, Charlie Gooding and Paul Harwood were all in it. Cleave had a fabulous race with a car prepared by Richard Mack: it was the Cleave of the great days, the guy who always forgot to win one day the ISRA Scale Racing Worlds (also for ES24 cars). At the end of the race Cleace improved Äberg's total of laps by six units! Paul Harwood was  second, however not fast enough to pass Lasse, but faster than Wells and Noerkjaer. Gooding was third, with a total six segments less than the racer from Denmark. Now everything should depend of the final A. Here we found at the start Mark Harwood, Greg Harwood, Brian Saunders, Matti Fyhr (SF), Lee Parsons, Graham Woodward, Keith Gibson and George Kimber. In this race Fyhr's car was just a canon ball, flying around all others. There was not the smallest doubt that he was on his way to pulverize the lap total realised by Cleace, when, starting the seventh segment, he blew up his motor. Over and out for poor Matti! The new leader was now Lee Parsons, but just in a pace to beat Äberg, not Cleave. Eventually he won the A final, but came no further than third overall. Saunders finished as second, but only good for a ninth place overall. [JPVR]

2nd ISRA Warm-up Race - Jelgava (LV), May 27-28

NIKOLAI DOLZANSKIJ IS READY FOR IT!

Michael Landrud and Andris Podosiniviks other winners

July 5 - It was an excellent idea of the Latvian racers to organise (as was last year already done by the Finns) an ISRA Worlds Warm-Up Race. Since the race was, just as last year, restricted to the best racers of North-Europe, "The ISRA NEC" (NEC="North-European Champion-ship") is perhaps a better nomination. This year the situation around the ISRA Worlds is rather confusing. Indeed, at last year's ISRA World we were told that the 2005 ISRA Worlds should go to Brazil, and all at once, mid-May, we had to read on the NZSCR web site that the event moved to Malta. Nobody of the new organisers felt any necessity to inform us: we had to smell it. At ISRA they refuse to learn from their mistakes.  Mario Azzopardi and Alfred Gatt - the organisers - need again 8 days to organize the traditional 4 races. Box Stock G12, the most popular class in scale racing, is, as always, not on the program. They offer their racers rooms at €84.00 per night (what makes a modest 9 x €84 = €756.00 hotel costs!). They do not the smallest effort to bring together a representative field. Travelling incentives for racers coming from overseas? Forget it! The umpteenth ISRA Worlds with nearly exclusively European racers with the rest of the world reduced to "Gugu" Bernardino and Herman James.  That's the dejected situation of conservative ISRA racing.
Any rate, in Latvia they have not the same stupid self-agrandisement as in Malta. Those guys know how to organise splendid meetings without enforcing racers to bank robbery in order to pay crazy travelling- and hotel costs. In Latvia "racing for fun" remains the upper device. And their N.E.C. was at least representative with some of the best racers from Russia, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania.

In total some 30 racers showed for the N.E.C., spread over 3 races: 132F1, ES32 and ES24. We noted 26 starters for the F1 race at the Jelgava 8-laner. Leonavicius (LT), Rage-Ragis (LV), Nykanen (SF) and Duburs (LV) missed al four the main where Andris Podosiniviks (LV) was the winner, 7 laps ahead over Nikolai Dolzanskij (RU) and 8 over Raimonds Steinbergs (LV). Michael Landrud (S), the winner of last year's N.E.C. was 7th, Sergey Ladisov (RU) 8th.  In ES32 Michael Landrud (S) was the fastest of 27 starters, finishing 12 laps ahead over Nemira (who didn't start in F1) and 13 over Aivis Ruks (LV). Dolzanskijk (RU) was 5th, Leonavicius (LT) 6th.  Again Rage-Ragis failed to reach the main final, just as 5 Russians and Viking King Einar Viira (EST). Main event was the ES24 race with 29 starters. Here Peteris Taurins was the fastest qualifier in 3"588, ahead over Simas Nemira (3"676) and Kaspar Duburs (3"695). The n-tiple winner of the Baltic Open, good old Janis Rage-Ragis had really not his day, since he had to retire with technical problems after ...only 3 laps. Leonavicius could do ...one more and was out too. The race was a gruelling combat between Nemira and Nikolai Dolzanskij.  The last named was the eventual winner, one lap faster than Nemira and seven than Taurins. On points Dolzanskijk was the winner of the N.E.C. He collected 33 points against 27 for Podosiniviks, 24 for Nemira, 24 for Ruks and 22 for Landrud. Dolzanskij proved to be ready for the ISRA Worlds. It's good to know that racers from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia are invited at the 2006 Euregio European Endurance Championship. Since they have not already experience with model cars, we asked the best model car builders of the world to assemble a car for them. IMCA will also pay their travelling and hotel costs.  The IOC-list has been updated. For top-10 results surf to our 2005 IOC-Results page. [JPVR]