Tortorici takes Q3

Davide Tortorici has TQ’d the penultimate round of qualifying here at the Arena Offroad Meeting with a 7 lap run in 5:21.145. Having sent out a warning shot in Q2 when he took his Crono RS7 to the third fastest, the Italian improved on that time by almost three seconds to top Q3 from Austrian Kyosho driver Martin Karner and the Mugen of former World Championship finalist Matteo Dapporto. Tortorici was helped somewhat by a poor round for the all conquering Losi team with Yannick Aigoin managing only 7th, after a bad choice of set-up & tyres with Martin Bayer one place behind him. Bayer, who again set the fastest lap for the round with a 43.361, said his run was simply down to bad driving on his behalf.

Enjoying his best run of the day Borja Hernandez broke into the Top 10 for the first time taking his GS Racing CLX to the fourth fastest time with fellow countryman Richi Gomez next up. Gomez is struggling with his car weight which is way over the minimum and this is making it very difficult over jumps, a big hurdle on the US style track that the MRC Crew have prepared for the event.

Elliot Boots said his car was the best its been following a switch to the new Barcodes tyres from his new sponsor JConcepts and ended the round with the sixth fastest time. Having also lowered the angle of the shocks on his Mugen he believes standing them back up will further improve the feeling of the MBX-6. Behind Aigoin and Bayer it was Riccardo Rabitti and Fabio Boero that completed the Top 10.

In the third of the Truggy qualifiers Bayer broke his team-mate Aigoin’s run of TQs taking the round by just over a second from the Frenchman. The result means we will have to wait till the final qualifier in the morning to find out who will be this year’s Arena Offroad Meeting Top Qualifier in both the Truggies and Buggies. Kyosho UK team driver Simon Willetts was third fastest for the round.

In the Brushless class pre-event favourite Riccardo Rabitti will line up on pole position with his LRP powered Losi for the A final which will be run here at the ‘Arena of Cowboys’ tonight over three 10 minute legs.

Buggy Top 16 after 3 of 4 rounds
1. Yannick Aigoin (FR) – Losi/Novarossi – 398 pts
2. Martin Bayer (CZ) – Losi/Novarossi – 398
3. Davide Tortorici (IT) – Crono/OS – 397
4. Martin Karner (A) – Kyosho/Team Orion – 394
5. Riccardo Rabitti (IT) – Losi/Sirio – 392
6. Richi Gomez (ES) – Hong Nor/Reds – 391
7. Elliot Boots (UK) – Mugen/RB – 389
8. Borja Hernandez (ES) – GS Racing/RB – 388
9. Matteo Dapporto (IT) – Mugen/Reds – 387
10.Simon Willetts (UK) – Kyosho/Team Orion – 380
11.Alex Bayer (CZ) – Losi/Novarossi – 379
12.Alessandro Magi (IT) – Mugen/SM – 379
13.Fabio Boero (IT) – Mugen/SM – 379
14.Riccardo Perin (IT) – Xray/Novarossi – 374
15.Iuri Grassi (IT) – Mugen/SM – 371
16.Eghlis Gallo – Crono/OS – 371

Truggy Top 16 after 3 of 4 rounds
1. Yannick Aigoin (FR) – Losi/Novarossi – 400 pts
2. Martin Bayer (CZ) – Losi/Novarossi – 398
3. Alessandro Magi (IT) – Mugen/SM – 395
4. Simon Willets (UK) – Kyosho/Team Orion – 394
5. Fabio Boero (IT) – Mugen/SM – 391
6. Sebastien Mutel (FR) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 390
7. Frank Lemke (D) – Kyosho/Team Orion – 388
8. Francesco Liggieri (IT) – Xray/OS – 384
9. Remi Riel (FR) – Mugen/GRP – 383
10.Marco Di Sacco (IT) – Mugen/Picco – 381
11.Michel Pedri (IT) – Losi/OS – 380
12.Federico De Marco (IT) – Mugen/Sirio – 378
13.Gerd Pfeifer (A) – Associated/Reedy – 378
14.Rudi Traxler (A) – Associated/Novarossi – 374
15.Salvatore Caserta (IT) – Mugen/OS – 374
16.Richy Ferraro (IT) – Mugen/AXE – 373

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