Balestri off to a good start in qualifying

Dario Balestri has got his quest for a hat trick of European titles off to a good start by TQ’ing the opening round of qualifying for the 2009 EFRA 1:10 200mm Euros.  The defending Champion recorded a run of 26 laps in 07:12.928 to beat the Serpent 733 of Jilles Groskamp by 7/10th of a second but the Dutch ace, along with Robert Pietsch and Adrien Bertin, was later disqualified for his bodyshell being under the minimum permitted height. Balestri said his Team Magic felt good but in the later part of his run the clutch loosened causing his G4RS 09 to be very slow out of the corners.  With Groskamp’s time disallowed Mugen’s Francesco Tironi ended the round with the second fastest time.  The Italian said he was too conservative with the settings on his Sirio engine running it very rich due to the super high temperatures which have reached 40 degrees in the shade with the track hitting 63 degrees. Having found the car to push a little Tironi plans to run slightly larger diameter tyres for the second of the four rounds of heats which many feel could be when the track is at it fastest.

Making it three different manufacturers in the Top 3, Niki Duina took his Max powered Xray to the only other 26 lap run and the Italian declared himself pleased with the performance. Fourth fastest was pre race favourite Giuseppe D’angelo with his Reds Racing powered Mugen despite failing to complete the run. The Warm Up race winner struggled a little with the rear of his modified MTX-4R stepping out and also set his engine a little too rich. To improve the car the Italian plans to run harder front shocks for Q2, the last run for today.

A definite name to watch for the future, Biagio Spataro was classified fifth but the 15-year-old was not happy with his JP engine which was too rich making his Xray difficult to drive.  Setting the fastest lap time for the first qualifying round, with a 16.111, one wonders what Spataro can do when he gets the car to his liking. Completing the Top 6 was another young driver with former European Junior Champion Kyle Branson sorting the engine problem, that prevented him from starting the timed practice this morning, to be the top Serpent 733.

Groskamp, who is baffled by his disqualification after the car safely passed through pre race scrutiny, said the heat was a bit of a learning curve for him. Feeling his Max was too rich in the warm up he had it adjusted but due to the high temperatures it was too lean by the end of the 7 minute run. Famous for his super clean racing lines Groskamp admitted that the run was not very tidy and this cost him some time. One of the other drivers to have his time disallowed, Pietsch felt the penalty was harsh. Having passed pre race scrutiny three times his bodyshell failed for being 0.2 of a millimetre under, a piece of paper being used to gauge the tiny discrepancy. The experienced international racer feels a warning would have been more appropriate.

A lot of top names hit trouble during the opening qualifier. 2004 & 2005 Champion Michael Salven stripped a gear on his 733 while teammate Mark Green suffered an engine cut. Others to suffer engine cuts were Madrid Top Qualifier Teemu Leino and Capricorn’s Martin Christensen. Daniele Ielasi made a mess of his run with a costly crash in the pitlane.

Top 10 after round 1 of qualifying
1. Dario Balestri – Team Magic/Novarossi – 26 Laps in 07:12.928
2. Francesco Tironi – Mugen/Sirio – 26 Laps in 07:14.052
3. Niki Duina – Xray/Max – 26 Laps in 07:15.490
4. Giuseppe D’angelo – Mugen/Reds – 25 Laps in 06:58.823
5. Biagio Spataro – Xray/JP – 25 Laps in 07:00.433
6. Kyle Branson – Serpent/Sirio – 25 Laps in 07:01.058
7. Jerome Renaux – Xray/Novarossi – 25 Laps in 07:01.095
8. Giorgio De Felici – Xray/Max – 25 Laps in 07:02.033
9. Alexander Hagberg – Xray/Max – 25 Laps in 07:02.102
10. Dirk Wischnewski – Xray/Novarossi – 25 Laps in 07:03.112

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