Balestri wins Singapore Nitro GP with world class recovery drive

Infinity’s Dario Balestri has claimed back to back wins at the Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix, the Italian putting in a world class recovery drive after an early flame out dropped the Top Qualifier down to 7th in the 45-minute race of attrition.  Leading away the 12 car grid, the 20th edition of the annual race marking the official re-opening of the newly resurfaced RCMC Marine Parade track, Balestri took early control of proceeding with Naoto Matsukura in tow & keeping him honest.  Unfortunately World Champion Shoki Takahata’s challenge on his first visit to Singapore ended as fast as it started, the Mugen Seiki driver suffering a flame out on the first lap – the first of many for the Japanese driver who eventually finished P7.  1:8 & 1:10 Nitro Onroad World Champion Tadahiko Sahashi would be another early exit after he spun and was collected by Jesse Davis, winner of the Last Chance Final, the Japanese driver’s mistake would also lead to the demise of the Australian with just two minutes on the clock.  With the first round of fuel stop coming around, it would see the spectacular demise of Matsukura.  Exiting pit lane after his first stop, spectators trying to capture the 1:8 Onroad action blocked the Nitro Touring Car World Champion’s view and he hit a post, his yellow bodied Infinity resembling a banana after the massive high speed impact.  With things starting to finally settle down, Jilles Groskamp another hitting early problems, it looked like Balestri could switch to cruise control but approaching the send round of fuel stops, the 2 time World Champion ran out of fuel.  The only one of the four direct qualifiers to have not yet hit problems, Carmine Raiola took over the lead.  He would hold that lead until the final 3-minutes.  Setting a new track record as he struck off his rivals 1 by 1 on his way back to the front, Balestri would pass Raiola for the lead on his final fuel stop.  His drive to Singapore Nitro Grand Prix victory a class act by one of 1:8 Onroad’s greatest drivers, his winning margin 5-seconds over Raiola.  Takakki Shimo completed the podium ahead of Teemu Leino.

Clearly surprised by his own recovery drive by his reaction on the drivers stand after crossing the finish line having had a few minutes to reflect on the win, Balestri said, ‘It was an amazing race, maybe my best race ever.’  The 2-time World Champion added, ‘we had the race under control and then I flamed out, we were out of fuel, again!  But this time I said no I need to recover and I just went maximum attack.’  Describing his Max powered IF18-3 as ‘crazy fast’, a fact that was endorsed by his record setting 15.349 lap on lap 41 of 164, he added that apart from that one flameout, all the rest of the race went as planned including his one tyre stop.  Travelling to Singapore as pit man for Infinity designer Robert Pietsch, who bowed out in the Semis, Armin Weihert would step in to refuel Balestri in the final, the highly experience German contributing to the recovery drive by executing some very fast stops.

Asked to sum up his final, having come so close to the win, Raiola said, ‘It was not that bad.’  He continued, ‘we started a little bit rich because we knew the game plan was to arrive at the finish, so the engine worked good there.’  He added, ‘When Dario had his problem and I was leading then so I just pushed a bit more to get a gap.   The problem was after the tyre change, because the second set, which I didn’t break in because I was on the limit (with wear), was like running on aluminium tyres.  I couldn’t drive and they didn’t start to work until 10-12 minutes after the stop.  In the end, the second last fuel stop the body lifted up and I cannot do anything about the lost time, so then I just tried to keep the 2nd place.’

Finishing third, it was to be a long race for Shimo after he developed a clutch problem early in the race.  Caught up in a first lap tangle with Leino, the veteran Japanese Nitro Onroad racer described his podium finish as a ‘super good’ result.  The World Championship podium finisher explained, ‘After 3-minutes the clutch was broken so I had to drive 42-minutes with the engine slow out of the corners.  It was bogging down all the time and I had no speed so I just keep driving around and in the end I made the podium.’

Getting straight to the point about his race, Leino said, ‘I took it easy for the start but then I got taken out at the start and my tyre was f##ked.’  The vastly experienced 49-year-old Finn continued. ‘after that I recovered pretty well but the second set of tyres, I don’t know, something was wrong with them and they drove completely sh#t, they just wanted to spin on one side.  So for 22-minutes it was really hard to drive.’  He added, ‘I was just hanging on to the end and saw cars flying off the track like always, it’s a crazy race, it is always the same here.’

Balestri crashes out of final qualifier but still Top Qualifier in Singapore

Infinity’s Dario Balestri is the Top Qualifier at the Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix despite crashing out of the final qualifier at the RCMC Marine Parade track with Naoto Matsukura going on to set the fastest time in Q4.  After a dominant start to the event that saw last year’s race winner take the opening two qualifiers, an issue for the Italian in Q3 yesterday saw Jesse Davis post the TQ run to put the Australian in with a chance of the overall TQ this morning.  Unfortunately for Davis, who ran out of fuel in the opening 2 qualifiers, engine issues in the final qualifier put an end to his challenge as well as any chance of being a Top 4 direct qualifier into the main.  The nature of the track and high temperatures mean the Semi Finals are an extra high risk as was highlighted in Q4 as many drivers had engines issues or made mistakes.  With Balestri looking comfortable to officially lay claim to pole position with a third TQ, the Italian would make an uncharacteristic mistake hitting the pit lane and launching his car off the track and into retirement with broken suspension.  This allowed Teemu Leino to set the pace but pushing hard to keep ahead of Matsukura he made a mistake handing the round to the Japanese driver who with a P2 from Q1 will start second on the grid.  Getting a second for the round ahead of Leino, Carmine Raiola will start 3rd on the grid with Leino locking in the last of the direct spots into this evening’s 45-minute Grand Prix Main.

Reacting to his mistake with a laugh of disbelief as to what happened, Balestri said, ‘I jumped out of the pit.  Honestly I don’t know what happened, I just push and the car flew out of the track.  I think it was my mistake.’  No overall concerned about his TQ, looking to what all the drivers know will be a tough final, the 2-time World Champion said, ‘you need to find the right carburetion, you need to be really good with this.  It is going to be a maximum tough race.’  He continued, ‘We need to try keep everything alive.  It is a race all about management of the everything especially the engine.’  On tyre wear he said ‘it’s ok but we cannot make on one set so we will do just one change but have still need to manage the wear because of the high speed when the tyres start to become small.’

Summing up his TQ run after problems in Q2 and lacking power in Q3, Matsukura said, ‘It was only because Dario had a mistake and Teemu also a mistake’.  He continued, ‘My car feels very good but I just drove and the run was nothing special.  It is very difficult to get the engine tuning right for this track because of the high traction and the high speed and it a little bit lean the engine is already finished.  I just drove the car around to get to the end.’  A 3-time winner of the Singapore GP, he added, ‘In the practice for the final we will try one more time to get a good tuning but 45-minutes is going to be very difficult because we start with a big tyre which gets smaller and with the high traction and high speed keeping the engine right for this is very difficult.’

‘It was so so’, was how Raiola described his final qualifier.  The Italian explained, ‘I had some radio problems.  I think I lost 2-times the feeling at the chicane and I think we lost around 2-seconds but we still get P2 and P3 overall.’  He added,  ‘The Semi Finals look really difficult here so better that we skipped the Semis.’  On the Grand Prix final he said, ‘You need to drive smooth and manage everything and every lap check the tune of the engine and change your driving style to keep the temperature down.’  On his radio issue, asked if he felt this was heat related, he replied, ‘Normally with Sanwa with humidity I always have a problem and here we have a lot of humidity but I don’t have a second radio so I just hope it doesn’t happen again.’

Summing his final qualifying effort, Leino said, ‘I saw Dario’s mistake and went into the lead, then after the refuelling it was pretty close with Naoto.’  The 49-year-old continued, ‘I don’t think about the gap because I hear nothing and then I just pushed a little bit too much in the chicane and had one mistake.  Out of the pits I also had a little bit of trouble and there was some seconds lost there.’  On the challenge of the final, the Finn, who is a regular of the race which celebrates its 20 anniversary this year, said, ‘I have never finished the final here.  This track is just hard and then with the temperature it is all about managing the car and engine through the race.  If you can finish you will finish high.’  He concluded, ‘My car is running good though so I will keep it the same for the final.’

Davis tops Q3 as Balestri hits problems in the pits

Jesse Davis topped the penultimate round of qualifying at the Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix, the Infinity driver becoming only the second driver to top the times today at the RCMC Marine Parade track as Dario Balestri’s reign on proceeding ending with a freak incident during his fuel stop.  Having topped seeding, Balestri backed up his opening TQ run with another in Q2 and was looking on target to wrap up an early overall TQ in the third & final of Saturday’s qualifiers.  Making his stop half way through the 7-minute run, as his car was released from refuelling his mechanic’s glove would get snagged by the head of the engine, the resulting chaos causing his retirement.  Having opened with a P2 and followed that up with P3 in the second qualifier, it was Teemu Leino who then took over at the top of the timing screens but with Davis chasing him down.  Setting his fastest lap of the qualifier on lap 22, that was when the Australian took over the TQ pace but worse was to come for the Leino.  Pushing to retake the lead, the Finnish driver would come upon Mugen Seiki’s Shoki Takahata, who had spun his car out of the corner and was facing the wrong way making for a perfect launch pad that would send Leino flying into retirement.  Finishing 1.526 seconds behind Davis a much improved Takakki Shimo took second for the round with Carmine Raiola completing the Top 3 with half a second advantage over Jilles Groskamp.  With Takahata surviving the impact from Leino, he would get a 5 for the round having retired with engine issues in Q2 while a struggling for power Naoto Matsukura completing the Top 6.  With the Top 4 going directly into Sunday afternoon’s 45-main final, drivers have one final attempt at qualifying in the morning.

Surpried by his TQ run considering out Q1 & 2 went, Davis said, ‘I didn’t expect to get a TQ so know I have to get another one tomorrow morning and then I can make the Top 4.’  He explained, ‘The first two, I ran out of fuel in both of them.  Ran out of fuel bad in the first one, then we worked a little bit with the tune but still ran out of fuel in the second one and this one we found a little bit more with the tune and crossed the line out of fuel.’  He continued, ‘The car feels good, it’s nice, it’s easy, it’s stable and consistent to drive.  It is just lacking power to the faster guys but if I can drive around consistent you never know what happens with those guys.  At the moment it is a really good finals car, not super fast but if I am there I am there.’  The only one who can now deny Balestri from defending his Grand Prix from the pole, but needing to better the Italian’s Q2 time, the 36 year-old said, ‘I will change my engine for tomorrow because we just found a crack in the block on that one so that’s maybe why we are losing run time and the tune is changing, so we try a new in the morning run and see how we go.’

‘That one was good’, was Shimo’s reaction after Q3.  The veteran Japanese racer explained, ‘the first one I had too much steering and the rear was very loose.  It was very difficult to drive and not fast.’  Describing Q2 as ‘almost the same’, he said his engine also had no power.  Checking that there was nothing broken on the car given how it was handling, he said there was nothing broken and adjusting only the rear toe in slightly made the car very easy to drive in the third round.  Describing his car as ‘now good’ and holding P4 in the qualification ranking just ahead of Davis, asked he could hold on to his position he replied ‘maybe’.

Giving his reaction to his P3, Raiola said, ‘I flipped in the pit and I get P3.  I don’t know how much we lost but I think we could have won’.  Giving a summary of his day, the Italian said, ‘Q1 I broke the engine, Q2 was not bad, and Q3 was also not that bad but we lost a couple of seconds in the pit lane.’  Joking that ‘It is really good when you are P1’, when asked if the speed was there for that he replied, ‘Yeah I think so, we will try to push the last one.’  On changes to his Infinity he said, ‘It depends, if the track gets cooler I don’t touch but if it is still hot like today I need to go up with shock oil or something.’

Balestri takes opening qualifier as Matsukura loses drive

The opening round of qualifying at the Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix saw Dario Balestri carry his morning seeding form into the first 7-minute affair with the Infinity driver topping the times by a convincing margin after main rival Naoto Matsukura went out just after the 3-minute mark with a stripped first gear.  Pushed early on by Matsukura, who seeded second, Balestri in the end was over 5-seconds faster than Teemu Leino, the Finn having a strong morning at the RCMC Marine Parade track.  Up against a stacked field of Infinity drivers, Mugen Seiki’s Shoki Takahata opened his Grand Prix debut with the third fastest time despite his engine struggling with the high humidity and 32 degree heat.  With many drivers making small mistakes on the high speed circuit, it was Tadahiko Sahashi, who is seeded in the second fastest heat, who was fourth fastest ahead of Takakki Shimo and Thailand’s Chavit Saligupta.

‘It’s been a good morning’, was Balestri’s reaction after Q1.  The Italian added, ‘the car was always good since the first day here and we just tried to manage the pace and all the package because everything is really on the limit with the heat, like the engine, also the radio was burning in my hands.’  Looking to Q2 the winner of this event last year said, ‘the biggest challenge is to arrive at the end of the qualification due to the heat.  For the next one we will leave everything the same and just try to manage the car and pace to get to the end.’

Pleased with his morning’s effort, Leino said, ‘I change yesterday back to my practice car.  I finished running about 2 o’clock and then rebuilt my practice car and tried it this morning and it was really good.’  A regular visitor to the Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix, the 49-year-old is a fan of the track saying, ‘now with the new asphalt it is super nice, it is really fun to drive with good traction.  It’s really nice.’  Asked if he planned any changes for his next outing, he replied, ‘No it is all good so I will just keep it the same and try to make another clean run.’

Reacting to his opening qualifier World Champion Takahata said that with all the high speed corners and the hot conditions his engine struggled and was down on power as a result.  The 32-year-old said they need to think how they can prevent the power fade in the next round but as yet he is not sure whether he will change engine or just try a different approach for Q2.

Balestri tops seeding at Singapore Grand Prix

On a very humid morning at RCMC Marine Parade, Infinity’s Dario Balestri has topped seeding for the Singapore International Nitro Grand Prix breaking the lap record on his run to the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the newly resurface track.  Knocking a another tenth of a second of the yesterday’s lap record pace, set in open practice by double World Champion Tadahiko Sahashi, Balestri was quickest over the single round of seeding from 3 times GP winner Naoto Matsukura.  With the Top 2, who between them have won 4 of the last 5 editions of the annual race, having a distinct early advantage in terms of outright pace, it was Finland’s Teemu Leino who completed the Top 3.  Making his first visit to the country’s only permanent track, this the 20th anniversary of the Grand Prix, Mugen Seiki’s reigning World Champion Shoki Takahata set the fourth fastest time ahead of fellow countryman Takakki Shimo.  Today’s scheduled will see drivers run three rounds of qualifying with the fourth & final round taking place Sunday morning ahead of the finals.