Category: News

Posted on by

2025 DiSCA 24 hours of Paul Ricard

This was the second time I attended the DiSCA 24 hours of Paul Ricard, hosted by DSCA in Mechelen, Belgium.

Last year we raced in the LM GT3 class, using a car with mostly production parts, aside from a prototype 201 Slotcars motor pod. We finished a solid 6th overall and secon in class, losing out by 17 laps to one of the the home teams.

This year we made the jump up to the premier Hypercar class, and would be using a 201 Slotcars chassis and pod, under a modified Scaleauto Cadillac bodyshell. The team for this year would consist of myself, Wayne Lander, Giovanni Rusello and the recent addition of star driver Oskar Ellerstrand. Should we get the car right, we would have a decnet chance of fighting for an overall podium.

Our testing time was cut short. The Body was built Gio in New Zealand, while the chassis we were intending to race were assembled by Wayne in Wales, less than a week before the event. Come Friday race weekend, the car was assembled for the first time, and we discovered some issues with the body fit. It took up much of our practice sessions to get everything fitting right, and we had little time for any tuning other than dialing in ground clearance and front axle height.

We went in to qualifying with most of us having very little track time, but fortunately the car was working very well. Oskar, who had never seen the track before, got up to speed very quickly and after Q3 on Saturday, had set a best laptime 1/100th off pole position, set by home team DSCA.

Oskar would also take the start of the race, and it only took him a few minutes until we were in the lead of the race. Shortly after the first driver change, the car stopped on track, due to a dry solder joint. This put us back to 6th place, and from here on the race would become a chase to catch up to the cars in front. We suffered a few more minor setbacks during the evening that hampered our progress, but as the darkness fell the car came to life, and we were able to claw ourselves back to P2 come the morning. For a long time we were catching DCSA in P1, but by noon Sunday our pace had dropped compared to the night, and time was running out. With a comfortable gap behind, we decided to take it easy and bring the car home in one piece for a solid P2 finish.

Aside form a few reliability issues, I can´t imagine a much better outcome from this event. The car worked as intended and was often times the best package on track. There are already a lot of ideas floating for what to do for next year, as we hope to bring an even stronger fight to the reigning two-time champions.

/Jona Nolåkers – 201 Slotcars

Left to right – Jona Nolåkers, Giovanni Rusello, Wayne Lander, Oskar Ellerstrand, Race Director Gary Skipp
Posted on by

2025 Suzuka Double Digital

What a difference a year makes!

This was my second time at the DiSCA Low Lands Suzuka Double Digital hosted by SRC Eindhoven. This year racing the fully reworked 201 Slotcars 99R3 EVO in the GT3 sprint races.

Our star driver managed to qualify third, and as the first race got underway we found ourselves to be one of the fastest teams on track. We would have been fighting for the win, had it not been for a small mechanical issue that had us settle for P4.

We led the early stages of the second race with a car now the class of the field, and would have been a contender for the race win. Unfortunately a light failure forced us to retire.

Overall, it was a great event, proving that there is great potential in the platform. I will have to work on the reliability of my cars for next year though.

/Jona Nolåkers

Posted on by

2024 Suzuka Double Digital

In January 2024, 201 Slotcars paricipated in their first ever international slotracing event.

Over the course of three days, three races would be carried out.

On the saturday, two 90 minute sprint races would be run using a 201 Slotcars 99R3 prototype against the the most successful cars from the likes of NSR, Racer Sideways and Scaleauto.
We would initially struggle with setup, mainly getting the weight distribution right, leaving minimal pracitce time for myself to get to grips with the new surface and digital system. This resulted in a dissappointing P13 finish out of 15 total.
For the second race, the desicion was made for me to sit out the race, to see what the car was capable of in the hands of more experienced drivers. In the end, we ended up with a fine P9, only 12 laps behind P4.

On the sunday, a 6 hour endurace race would take part. We were one of 5 teams to use the new Scaleauto 963 competing in the LMP1 class. We would win Best of Show thanks to a beutiful paintjob and light installation by Giovanni Russello.
Our car ended up segnificantly overweight and overgeared, which put us only P14 in qualifying. It would however be a very stable and forgiving car and would slowly climb up the ranks in the race after a poor race start by myself.
As darkness fell in the last 90 minutes of the race, a capacitor faliure on the light kit became apparent, and we had to pit in an attempt to repair it. In faliure to do so, we were handed a 100 lap penalty after the race, ending what had been a stable and consistant drive in a dissapointing P14.

/Jona Nolåkers – Team 201