Balestri takes opening qualifier at Worlds as rain looms in Gubbio

Infinity’s Dario Balestri has taken the opening round of qualifying at IFMAR 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship, the run even more important with the threat of rain looming at the Gubbio track in Italy.  The top seed after yesterday’s timed practice which took place in sunny conditions, the first day of qualifying at Miniautodromo Internazionale Mario Rosati saw racers greeted by overcast conditions with very slight drops of rain even falling as the top two heats completed their the first of their six scheduled run.  Originally set to be a day consisting of 3 rounds, with tomorrow looking like it will be rained out, the organisers have now revised the schedule to run four rounds today with the best 2 of 4 to count.  Behind Balestri, it was reigning World Champion Jilles Groskamp who was second fastest but some bit back on his team-mate who was the only one to run 27-laps over the 7-minutes.  Seeding P5, British driver Alex Thurston completed the Top 3, saying like Groskamp, it was a result of consistency rather than outright speed.  Second fastest in seeding 2008 World Champion Naoto Matsukura had a mistake on his opening run that left him P20 of the 114 drivers to post a time.  Competing the Top 3 on seeding, up & coming Italian talent Filippo Domanin would also have two mistakes on his run one involving another driver leaving the quick Xray driver to register a P8.

‘Perfect’ was how Balestri summed up his Q1, ther 2-time 1:8 Onroad World Champion adding,’It was a perfect run, clean, everything worked in the right way.  It was all on point.’  With drops of rain at the start on that he said, ‘that was why it was even more important to take one round and be safe.  Tomorrow rain is 100% so they will make four rounds today so it is important to not make mistakes and to make everything clean to take at least 2 (TQ runs).’  On his car, the Italian the Top Qualifier here when the track hosted the Worlds a decade ago, he said, ‘all the package works great.  I think it is the best car I ever drive in this category the one I have here.’  A driver who doesn’t race much 1:10 Nitro, focusing his efforts on 1:8 Onroad, he explained, ‘the preparation is not like 1:8 because I make no races this year with 1:10 so I am even more surprised to be so competitive and to have this great feeling with the car.’  He added, ‘This is also thanks to my team-mates and all the factory work in Japan who have brought some new updates for this race.’

Summing up his opening effort, Groskamp explained, ‘Just a consistent run.  I was not fast for the lap times but I knew it was 7-minutes and I just wanted to have a run in cause the rain which is expected to arrive tomorrow so we might have only 4-rounds with 2 to count so I thought I just need to get this one in.’  The new 2025 Euro Nitro Series Champion continued, ‘In practice I was always around P5, P6, P7, so I was thinking just finish the round but when I was in P3 and very close to P2 I pushed more and got the P2 so I am very happy.’  One of the most experience drivers in the category he added, ‘Of course the gap to Dario is very big, he is super fast here.  He found something that works really good for him and he is the man to beat but I think the second place is really good and it will count at the end of the day.’  On his IF15, the Dutch driver said, ‘It is a little bit too easy to drive, I think it is a final car not really a qualification car and I also drove it like a final so I will try to push a little bit more to go faster.’  For Q2, he said, ‘I want to try some small changes cause I am not that slow of course, I don’t want to mix up the set-up but also today is the first day we have shade on the track so the track is a lot cooler so than means more traction.  The first four days we had full sun and it was super hot but at the end of each day we had happy hour and I feel the information for that when the track was cooler is good.  For sure the track has changed a lot and now some people are going faster cause there is more traction now.’

Pleased to open with a Top 3 run, on his event so far, Thurston who is running a Mugen Seiki chassis as an independent said, ‘It has been a bit of a mix of ups & downs.  We started and immediately the car was really up to speed, the first 2 or 3 days was really good but we lost our way a little bit yesterday, not sure why.’  The multiple British National Champion continued, ‘we rebuilt the car this morning and put the diffs in from the practice car, and the shocks, and the car felt a lot better this morning so I had a steady start and got into the groove a bit.  Obviously there were a couple of mishaps for other people, but when it is 7-minutes anything can happen, but dad did a nice clean fuel stop and I was consistent and stayed out of trouble.  I ran at the back on my own out of everyone’s way.’  Not far off Groskamp’s time he said, ‘It was really close in the end just 2/10ths off Jilles but after the day we had yesterday we will absolutely take that one.’  On his car asked if it was back where he want it he replied, ‘the car still doesn’t feel quite as good as it has done in the earlier days but it’s definitely gone back in the right direction.  It still needs a bit more steering but we can certainly work with it, its got more potential.’  On the weather he explained, ‘It looks like tomorrow it is going to rain for most of the day, if that’s the case and we don’t get any running it will be 2 from 4 so at least I have a solid run from the first one and we’ll try get another banker in for the next one and then throw caution to the win at the end of the day.’