Arnaldi takes GT victory at Asian Nitro Party

With the 1:8 GT Final bringing a successful inaugural Asian Nitro Party race to a close under the lights at the Hongyu GDC track, it was Genius’ Bernard-Alain Arnaldi who took the win in China.  It was to be a drama packed start to the 45-minute final with World Champion Alessio Mazzeo calling a time out during the warm-up due to an engine issue.  With that time out expiring, as the rest of the field headed to the grid after complete a restarted warm-up, Mazzeo’s car only making its back onto the starter having been fitted with a new engine that still needed to be tuned.  With this hastily done by Gimar’s Giovanni Crea to try not miss the start, the Italian would have to begin from the pit lane.  With that immediately putting him half lap down, Italy’s quest for victory was struck a blow for a second time as Top Qualifier Natanaele Senesi would flame just 2 corners after the start.  He would rejoin two laps down as Spain’s Raul Anton led the way in front of team-mate Arnaldi, who had had a mistake at the first corner.  Anton would soon allow the Frenchman to go to the front, giving Arnaldi plenty of room to execute a pass at the end of lap 6.  Once there that was where he would stay til the finish.  With Mazzeo’s Raptor the fastest car on track, it did look like we might be in for a showdown in the closing stages of the race.  Getting the gap down to 3-seconds, unfortunately damage to his body would in turn lead to it cutting into his tyre and causing his pace to drop right off and allowing Arnaldi to build back up his advantage to win by 16-seconds.  All the time, as the Mazzeo tried to chase down the leader, Senesi was working his way back up through the field to salvage a podium finish.

Reacting to his win, Arnaldi said, ‘It was a very good race for me except for one mistake at the first corner.  After that I raced with a lot of strategy for our refuelling and tyres.  This was very hard because Alessio is very fast, but it work out very well.’  The 2-time European Champion continued, ‘My car was very consistent, my engine consumption was very good.  I made two less refuelling than Alessio.’  On the battle that was looming in the closing stages of the race he said, ‘I don’t push 100% in the race so at the end I had still enough tyre to respond to Alessio.’  Summing up the event he said, ‘’The weekend started slow & bad and every day it got better & better.  I was maybe not happy with our speed in the end but the end race result is perfect.’  Asked about coming back to defend his win next year, the Asia Nitro Party set to establish itself as a season opener on the international nitro onroad calendar, Arnaldi replied, ‘For sure’.  Today’s win is perfect preparation for his French National GT Championship which kicks off in a months time but before that he reverts to a race organiser of his own Large Scale & GT8 race, this year being its 5th edition.

Putting his engine trouble ahead of the race down to some sort of dirt getting into the engine, Mazzeo said they had no choice but to change it ahead of the final.  He explain, ‘we take an engine from Natanaele, so thank you Natanaele and Michelle for the engine, but when we started the engine was not set for carburation so we set it during the race.  We had to come in many times to adjust it.  The engine was sometime too rich so we loose time on the track with that also.’  The 33-year-old continued, ‘We start from the pit lane, not P11, and I tried to catch BA (Arnaldi) but we lost a bit of time in the pit lane with the body touching but still in the end I think I could do it because the gap was only 4-seconds, but on my last pit stop I touched the wall and the body went in and cut the tyre so that was like ‘you have no win today’.  The race was like a big quali, I pushed every lap and our pace was super fast’.  Always a driver with great respect for his rivals, he said, ‘Congrats to BA and I am happy for Genius because it is an Italian brand so I am happy they won in Asia.’  He was also full of praise for the race and his first trip to China, ‘It has been an amazing race so I will be back next year for sure.  Gavin (Kwok) did an amazing job.  It’s an experience that is impossible to describe, you have to come live it.’  While his next race will see him at the controls of an 1:8 Buggy at his engine sponsor’s Gimar Trophy Race, in March he will be back to GT for the opening round of the Italian National at his home track of Naxos in Scilly.

Trying to explain the flame out that robbed him of the chance of a perfect debut using the Raptor chassis, Senesi said, ‘I started, the engine was good and I arrived at the second corner but since I release the throttle and went slowly on it again I fouled up the engine and it stopped.  I lost 2-laps and then it was an impossible race to come back’.   Recapping the weekend’s performance, he sad, ‘I think at the beginning of the race we where the fastest, then Alessio came in pretty good, and without the flame out I think it would have been another race but overall I am super happy because it is the first race with new car and I TQ’d and make P3 with a flameout.’  With it hard not to be impressed by Hongyu GDC,  Senesi said, ‘I think Gavin made a great job with the facility and all around it.  For sure there are always ways improve how the race is run so as to make it even better but for sure he organised a very nice race and it is for sure the race to come to in Asia.  I will be back next year absolutely.’

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