Balestri fastest as free practice concludes at 1:8 Worlds
At the conclusion of two days of free practice at the IFMAR 1:8 World Championships in California it is reigning Champion Dario Balestri who was fastest. The Infinity driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the tenth & final free practice run topping the times from a much improved Simon Kurzbuch, the two great rivals separated by just 12/100ths of a second over the best respective 3-consecutive laps. Shoki Takahata added variety to the top of the time sheets at Steel City RC Speedway taking his Mugen to the 3rd fastest time, his best laps also set in the final round of practice. Behind the top three, the margin a little bigger, Jeffrey Rietveld posted the fourth fastest time followed by Silvio Hachler and former champions Lamberto Collari & Robert Pietsch. Tomorrow drivers face four rounds of seeding practice to determine the order of the heats for qualifying which gets underway on Wednesday.
Reacting to topping the times with ‘it’s ok’, asked why it was only OK, Balestri replied, ‘because maybe I can find something more. The car is fast but not perfect’. The Italian added, ‘it’s consistent but I think we can make it faster over the full run. At least that’s what I will try for tomorrow’.
‘Finally’ was how a much more upbeat Kurzbuch described his finish to free practice. The Shepherd driver said, ‘the last two rounds were really good as I finally had feeling in the car. Now it is going in the right way’. Having struggled with the tracks high traction he said, ‘we tested so much that last few days but we started from zero again today and now we are on the right way. It has been a hard four days for the whole team and my dad. Tonight we can go for dinner happy.’ Asked what the improved set-up was, the 2015 World Champion replied, ‘It is tending to flip less and now I can push for good lap times. We are back in the game’.
Takahata said his time was a culmination of putting the best of all the set-ups he tried in the two days of IPD running and yesterday opening free practice day together adding he was ‘satisfied’ with how his car is performing, not just over 3-laps but also over the entire run. Asked what he thought of the track, the 2017 Worlds podium finisher said, ‘It looks easy but it’s difficult. It is totally different to anything we have in Japan and the traction is different everyday so I have to adapt the car for this’. On a track where horsepower is a big part of performance due to the high traction, the factory OS driver said the new engine he has been supplied with from the Japanese manufacturer is ‘working very good’.
‘Not too bad’ joked Rietveld when asked how his day went. The Dutch driver continued, ‘engine is super important on this track and we finally made a selection of the good engines. Now we know what is fast and not fast and it is looking really good’. On car setup the Infinity driver said, ‘we have run the same set-up for 6 or 7 practices. The car is amazing so we could just focus on doing a lot of stuff with engines’. Commenting on the track layout, he said, ‘it’s an awesome track. One of the most fun I have driven. It has everything you want as a driver’.
Giving his thoughts on free practice, Hachler said, ‘yesterday was better than today but we are very competitive all the time. We have a good car and good engines. We are more than ready for qualification’. Asked why he felt yesterday was better, the ARC driver replied, ‘the track changed a lot from yesterday. There was a lot more traction yesterday and for my car it was a lot easier to handle the super high traction’.
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