Track Focus – Ongaroring

Track Name – Ongaroring
Organiser – Mauro Ongaro
Country – Italy
Location – Sacile (80km north of Venice)
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Dirt/bricks
Previous events hosted – 2013 Euro B Championships, Italian Nationals

The Ongaroring plays host to the 35th running of the 1:8 Offroad European Championship.  Built in 2008, the track is the work of Mauro Ongaro, the father of young up & coming Italian talent Davide.  Taking up the hobby himself in 1989, the track is built on land once used to grow corn by his parents who still live next to the track.  With the facility covering 9,000 sq metres, the track itself is built in an area 60 metres wide by 40 metres deep.  With the lap covering 400 metres the raised track is mainly dirt with four brick sections all of which are 180 corners.  A good early lap time for the track is around 38-seconds.

Describing the fast track layout as typically ‘European style’, back to back defending champion David Ronnefalk said its ‘fun’ to drive adding he ‘like(s) it’. The HB/HPI Racing driver said the back section of the track is quite hard to see and a good lap time requires being ‘precise’ and ‘staying on the line’.  With the brick sections leaving cars with ‘no steering’, the Swede said its not a huge issue as they are all slow corners and once the car is set-up well for the other 95% of the track’s dirt surface its just something you deal with.  Having attended the Warm-up Race back in May which was won by former Kyosho team-mate Elliott Boots, the Swede said the track, while unchanged in layout, is ‘a lot different’ due to the watering the track has been getting in the build up the the actually Euros.  A ‘high bite’ track at the Warm-up, Ronnefalk said the track is now loose and dust is a problem that will continue if they keep on watering.  Hoping they stop watering it, the track having a plumbed in sprinkler system, he said that would help bring in traction but it would also mean the track would break-up something he would prefer to deal with than the high dust conditions.

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