Written by redspotgames at 29. August 2011
Lassi Halminen succeeded very well in the latest Formula BMW Talent Cup racing event in Portimão, Portugal on August 26th to 28th 2011 on the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. The redspotgames sponsored race driver was fastest in free practice session on Friday despite of his flu symptoms. He promised redspotgames to take some days off to recover, to drink hot chocolate milk, stay in bed and play some Rush Rush Rally Racing for Nintendo WiiWare. But first they talked to Lassi about his personal summary of his racing weekend.
In qualifying sessions on Saturday Lassi continued his strong performance. In qualifying 1 from which two fastest laps were considered Lassi finalized third and fourth. Something about the tightness of the competition tells the fact that Lassi lost the second position only by 0.004 seconds, and to the pole position the time difference was only 0.111 seconds.
In qualifying 2 Lassi got some extra heartbeat when the red flag had stopped the qualifying and the cars were getting back on the track: there proved to be a severe problem in the throttle. After couple of minutes of hard work by his mechanics, he eventually was sent back to the track only few minutes before the end of qualifying 2.
„I was told that I will have chance for two laps, and I will have to be fast even on the first lap out to get chance. So I knew I had this only shot“ Lassi commented the qualifying. He achieved two fantastic laps which brought him to position two on both of his laps.
Lassi clarified the situation after qualifying. „I knew I needed two fast laps so I could not push too hard on the first fast lap, but I think it went quite well. When I left to the second fast lap I had only 7 seconds time left, so it was close call“
In heats (a.k.a. stints under race condition) Lassi demonstrated fantastic driving skills again, which further strengthened his position among top drivers in Talent Cup.
„Heat 1, I’ve got pretty poor start, and then I couldn‘t get an optimal line to the corner 1 and few opponents managed to overtake me in there. So I finalized as fifth“ the 16 year old Finn commented. „Then in heat 2 I had pretty cool start, and managed to overtake in the first corner and I reached third position. Then I started to seek for a place to overtake the car in front of me. However, already on lap 2 another car hit hard from back to my right rear tire. I span and in the incident the tire and breaks damaged, so I was forced to withdraw. The opponent who hit my car got a penalty of 5 starting grid positions in the next heat“
The third heat brought a phantastic start „and I managed to get the leading position in corner 1. However after a while the opponent who left from the pole managed to overtake me again“ He was driving as second, as bit later, another incident in corner 2 made him span out unfortunately.
Lassi was pretty close to a victory in the forth heat! „The start was ok, the race was ok, I drove the fastest lap time and I was pretty close to win, resulting as second. At finishing line the difference was only 0.38 second!“ he commented.
„In heat 5 I had to start from position 7 due to some bad luck in two of the previous heats. I had very nice start, I managed to get already to fourth position in the first corner, but then it came a bit too tight and I got hit and dropped to the eight position. It took quite many laps to rush-rush-race back to the fourth position which was my result at the end“
Lassi himself was satisfied in his performance. He knows that his speed is sufficient for winning, but also luck is needed. He was also fond of the Portimão track. „This is very nice and challenging track to drive, blind corners, lots of hills up and down. A great fun for me!“
But now it‘s time to recover – the great final race in Oschersleben as supporting act for the DTM („Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters“) is about to come on September 15th to 18th 2011! redspotgames will keep you informed about Lassi‘s race there.
Lassi Halminen is sponsored by redspotgames and is supporing the development of the upcoming 2D racing game „Rush Rush Rally Racing“ for Nintendo WiiWare.
Category English, Rush Rush Rally Racing, WiiWare
Guess what day it is already. This very 19th April 2012 marks the official release of Rush Rush Rally Racing for WiiWare™ in Europe! You can now download and play the even more loaded and improved version for only 900 Nintendo Points.
