Balestri gets penalty but still in the event

Factory Motonica driver Dario Balestri, who was found to have an unmarked Novarossi engine fitted in his P81, will continue to take part in the 2009 IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championships but the 2007 World Finalist loses the times from the opening four qualifiers along with receiving an official warning for the incident. Under World Championship rules each driver can nominate up to three engines for the event which are in turn marked by IFMAR but in Q4, in which he only ran for 3 minutes, technical inspection found the unmarked unit causing the Race Director Franky Noens to call for an international Jury meeting.

After the meeting the International Federation of Model Auto Racing issued the following decision –

In Round 4 the car from Dario Balestri (Italy), “driver 6” was found to have a non-marked engine in the car.

The Race Director asked for an international Jury meeting to decide for this unforeseen situation for the penalty is not clearly described in the IFMAR rules.

The international Jury felt that an appropriate penalty was in place and nade the following decision.

– All the results from Round 1 till Round 4 will be lost
– The un-marked engine will be marked as engine number 3 (only 2 engines were marked up till now).
– One official warning

On behalf of IFMAR,

Sander de Graaf
IFMAR IC Section Chairman

Having been struggling here at Lostallo, Balestri appeared to have found his way today setting the seventh fastest time in Q3 but with his heats cancelled the Italian will have to pull out all the stops in tomorrow’s final two qualifiers.

Top 18 Qualification Ranking (after Round 4 of 6)
1. Pietsch Robert (DE) – Mugen/Novarossi – 29/09:59.566
2. Picco Alberto (IT) – Mugen/Picco – 29/10:03.465
3. Collari Lamberto (IT) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 29/10:06.099
4. D’hondt Robin (BE) – Motonica/Novarossi – 29/10:06.209
———————————————
5. Tanaka Masao (JP) – Kyosho/Max – 29/10:07.045
6. Cyrul Josh (US) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:07.222
7. Green Mark (GB) – Serpent/Novarossi – 29/10:08.355
8. Shimo Takaaki (JP) – Kyosho/OS – 29/10:08.588
9. Solaroli Stefano (IT) – Motonica/Sirio – 29/10:08.991
10.Müller Marco (CH) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:09.049
11.Patrick Schäfer (DE) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:09.109
12.Michael Salven (DE) – Serpent/Mega – 29/10:09.374
13.Morganti Paolo (US) – Serpent/Max – 29/10:09.409
14.Cristiani Andrea (IT) – Serpent/Max – 29/10:10.935
15.Swauger Mike (US) – Mugen/Novarossi – 29/10:11.529
16.Mack Oliver (DE) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:11.551
17.Vrielijnck Rick (HO) – Mugen/Reds Racing – 29/10:11.889
18.Pirani Andrea (IT) – Mugen/Novarossi – 29/10:12.984