Shimo fastest in CP2 in Gubbio

Factory Mugen driver Takaaki Shimo was fastest in the second round of control practice at the Nitro Touring Car World Championships in Italy. As expected the round would produce slower times than the morning’s opening round with the Japanese driver fastest from Luca Redaelli.  With CP1 pace setter Dominic Greiner doing an engine change and struggling to get a good tune on it leaving him with a P8 in the hotter conditions, Alessio Mazzeo would be the quickest Serpent completing the Top 3 ahead of Dario Balestri.

With the track around 3/10th of a second slower over 3-consecutive laps, Takaaki was happy to the top the round only 1/10 off his opening morning time.  Describing his MTX6 as feeling the same as it did in the morning despite the temperature rise, the multiple Japanese national champion was pleased with this fact.  Only making a rear toe in adjustment to the car to try and find speed through the last hairpin of the track he said the effect of the change was only ‘so so’.  Looking to the penultimate round of controlled practice, the factory OS driver will use the hottest period of the day to swap out his qualifying engine and ‘test (his) finals engine’.

While happy with his 3-lap pace, Redaelli was a little concerned over his drop off in pace over the final minute as his tyre diameter reduced.  With a new clutch solving the issues he suffered at the end of the first round, for the third round he will try a different shock set-up to see if this improves the consistency of the car over the 8 minutes of track time.  The Capricorn driver added, ‘I don’t want to change too much as the car is very good’.  4/100th off his team-mate Redaelli, Balestri had little to report after the round saying ‘all ok’ and for the next one he will test a different diff in the LAB CO3.

Making a complete change of set-up to his MTX6, Mugen’s Robert Pietsch would post the 5th fastest time.  The former World Championship Top Qualifier said the changes ‘seem to be really good’. Asked if the changing track conditions contributed to the improvement, the German replied that the new set-up was better overall.   ‘Not rolling as much as before’ and ‘no strange movements’ from the car which meant he ‘had to be careful’ now he can ‘push much more’.  While much happier with the car he was responsible for designing, he said there is ‘one small thing’ he wants to try for the next round as a fine tune to the new set-up.

‘Pretty good’ was how Mark Green summed up his run to the 6th fastest time.  The British driver said, ‘my car seems more competitive to the other guys in the heat’, adding ‘I don’t know if that’s good or bad but with most qualifiers in the heat it should be good’.  Running XRD engines in the back of his Serpent, the multiple British National Champion said he was ‘able to squeeze 5-minutes out of it’ so ‘overall things are looking good for qualifying’.  Behind Green would be Serpent team-mate Tadahiko Sahashi, followed by Greiner.  For defending champions Xray it is still Bruno Coelho who leads their challenge with P9 for the round followed by the Shepherd of reigning 1:8 World Champion Simon Kurzbuch, the Top 10 times cover by less the 4/10th of a second.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.