Grid set for 7th Nitro Touring WC decider

The 10 drivers that will battle it out for the honours of becoming the Nitro Touring Car World Champion is decided with the line-up including one former champion in Meen Vejrak, the 2012 Champion coming through the second of the two 30-minute Semi finals.  The seventh running of the World Championship, where for the first time two drivers directly qualified for the final, joining Top Qualifier Dario Balestri and Super Pole winner Alessio Mazzeo are only two 2014 Finalists in Vejrak and Dominic Greiner.  The 2014 Top Qualifier, Greiner would book his place in the 1-hour final with a win over Bruno Coelho and Carmine Riola in the first encounter.  In the second, Simon Kurzbuch controlled the race throughout to book the 1:8 World Champions first 1:10 Final start.  The Shepherd driver would take a comfortable win over 2010 Top Qualifier Robert Pietsch with Vejrak seeing off a last lap charge from Takaaki Shimo to complete the Top 3. Shimo would still make the final, together with Semi B fourth place finisher Kyle Branson, the British driver surviving a last lap spin to claim the last spot with the second fastest time of the non Top 3 finishers.  Dramas for those that didn’t progress include a flame-out during his tyre stop for Team Infinity’s Jilles Groskamp. The 2012 Electric Touring Car World Champion said afterwards, ‘unbelievable, the bad luck continues.  I felt I was driving a controlled race’.  Team-mate and 2012 Top Qualifier Teemu Leino would crash out of his Semi while battling for second spot.

Summing up booking a place in the Main, having been the only direct qualifier in 2014, Geiner said, ‘everything was perfect’.  The German continued ‘I made a good start and could pull a gap and then after the first stop I could drive to save the tyres’.  Pitting one lap later than his rivals giving him a clear pitlane, he said this was intentional for that reason.  The only one of the Top 3 to change all four tyres, the stop came just after the half way mark with former World Champion Daniele Ielasi on hand to assist his regular pitman Thomas Günsel for ‘a perfect stop’.  Looking to the final, the Bangkok podium finisher said in terms of the car he would change nothing but planned to check over his Novarossi engine describing it as feeling a ‘bit strange’ during the Semi.

‘Finally no bad luck for Xray’, a reference to team-mate & reigning champion Alexander Hagberg being crashed into while leading his 1/8 final which ended his campaign, was Coelho’s first reaction to the race.  The Portuguese driver, who changed only his outside tyres during his second fuel stop said, ‘my car was a little difficult after 10-minutes’.  Asked if only changing 2 tyres was the right decision, he said ‘it got the job done’.  Taking the lead of the race after Greiner came for his longer 4-tyre stop, the reigning European Champion said, ‘at 5-minutes to go I opened for Greiner.  It made no sense to block, we were both bumping up and its a long race so the starting position is not important’. Asked about tyres for the final, he replied ‘I can’t say’.

Set to start 5th on the grid, Kurzbuch said, ‘we reached our first goal, and now that we are in the final we will go all in’.  Commenting on his Semi, which he started from pole having qualified second overall,  he said, ‘my pit crew did a fantastic job and that meant I just drove my own race’.  Stopping for just a fresh set of outside tyres on his Velox V10, he said ‘the car was maybe a bit too loose so we will change it for the final so I can push harder’.

Having missed out on the Worlds final the last two times, 2010 Top Qualifier Pietsch said, ‘the car was super good but I made mistakes which dropped me back from Simon’.  Going for the same strategy as his 1:8 rival in changing just his outside tyres, the Mugen designer felt he had a quicker car than Kurzbuch saying ‘I’m happy I was able to close again to him’ after the earlier mistakes.   Describing his Picco powered MTX6 as ‘super comfortable’, for the final he said ‘it is now up to me to drive it’.

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Mazzeo wins Super Pole

Alessio Mazzeo has booked his place in the Nitro Touring Car World Championship final alongside fellow countryman & Top Qualifier Dario Balestri.  Running third of the four Super Pole contenders, there was a huge roar from the crowd as the Serpent driver bettered the time of provisional pace setter Dominc Greiner who bettered the opening time of Robert Pietsch.  With Simon Kurzbuch to run last, Mazzeo wasn’t content with his lap and sending the crowd into a frenzy with a blistering 6th & final lap that was almost 1/10th faster.  With the benchmark clearly set, 16.302 the time to beat, Kurzbuch would try but was no match for the popular Italian managing a best time of 16.467 on his last lap, an identical time to that of Greiner.

‘Amazing, that is the only word’, was an overwhelmed Mazzeo’s reaction.  Having described himself ‘the little guy’ of the four Super Pole competitors as he is the only one without World Championship credentials, he summed up the 2 minutes of track time, as ‘one of the best moments of my life’.  Always personable, the 24-year-old continued,  “I thank everyone in the stadium for making this so special’.  Asked about his lap he said, ‘I wanted to do it for everyone that has motivated me in racing, my family , my friends and my team’.  Thanking his father & mechanic Giuseppe he said he owed a big thanks to his engine sponsor Gimar who he said ‘have worked very close’ with him to make it possible to race at the top level.  Complimenting controlled tyre supplier Hot Race on ‘the quality of the tyres’, their consistency making it easier to work on set-up, when asked about a plan for the 1-hour final he gestured his plan was just to enjoy it.

Officially second in the Super Pole, as he had a faster second best lap to Kurzbuch, Greiner’s reaction was to the point, ‘Alessio was the fastest’.  Joking it was ‘super close’ between himself and Kurzbuch, the Serpent driver said while they tried to improve the car after the final qualifier the ‘car feel not so good’.  Planning to change his 748 for tomorrow he concluded, ‘racing for 30-minutes is another story’.  The 2014 Podium finisher will line-up on pole for the Semi B final.

Starting on pole for the Semi A, Kurzbuch said, ‘I don’t know why but the car was not as good as in qualifying’.  Contesting only his second 200mm Worlds, his P2 in qualifying bettering his P8 2014 performance in Bangkok, the reigning 1:8 World Champion said ‘maybe the 2-minute warm-up was not enough time for me (to bed in the tyres) as the car was loose in the rear for the 6-laps’.  Complimenting Mazzeo for ‘two super good laps’, the Swiss driver said having to race in the Semi gives him a good opportunity to test for the final.

Running first as the lowest qualifier of the four, and almost a 30-minute break without any track activity, Pietsch felt going first put him at a disadvantage but added a change to his Mugen MTX6 set-up had left the car ‘not good’ for the shoot out.  Planning to revert to his Q6 set-up for the Semi in which he will start directly behind long time 1:8 rival Kurzbuch, he pointed out ‘tyre wear is quite a lot’.  Asked about tyre stops he replied, ‘nobody can do it on one set’.

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Balestri is World Champs Top Qualifier

Dario Balestri is the Top Qualifier of the seventh running of the Nitro Touring Car World Championships.  The Capricorn driver claimed his first World Championship pole position with a third TQ run in the penultimate round of qualifying at Miniautodromo Internazionale M.Rosati.  After a tough start to Day 2 of qualifying in Gubbio, Balestri took control for the second half of the day as he topped the rescheduled Q2 concluding heat backing that up shortly afterwards with another perfect performance to put the overall TQ beyond the reach of his rivals.  Despite conditions being cooler for Q5, which was run later in the day due to the rescheduling of the timetable following yesterday’s rain, the Italian was able to see off Team Shepherd’s Simon Kurzbuch with Mugen’s Takaaki Shimo completing the Top 3.  For Q3 topping Alessio Mazzeo, a spin at the end of the straight would end his quest for the overall TQ while for surprise Q4 pace setter Syoki Takahata the round would result in a P11.

‘Whoo, that was super stress’, was Balestri’s reaction, the pressure release of successfully completing stage one of his Worlds campaign clearly evident. The former European champion of both 1:10 and 1:8 Nitro but for who a World title has eluded him, he said the TQ was the result of ‘a lot, a lot of hard work.  Maybe too much, ask my girlfriend’.  Having suffered with the rear end of his Tesla powered LAB CO3 bottoming out over the last three laps of the previous qualifier he said he adjusted the rear springs to raise the rear of the car and the change made it ‘perfect’ for Q5 which would be 1/10th faster than previous fastest TQ time.  Winner of the Warm-up Race held in June, Balestri said, ‘I have to thank Massimo (Fantini) and Patrizio (Rossi) for the work they have made to give me the engines and car’.  With the sixth & final round of qualifying set to run in the morning, when asked what his plan is for it he replied, ‘I need to think about what to do’.

‘I gave everything for the last one to try to TQ one round’, said Kurzbuch.  He continued, ‘but I am still super happy with 2nd’.  Holding third place in the overnight ranking, the Swiss ace said, ‘we should be good for Super Pole so we will try something for that in Q6 to be ready for that.  Calling it the ‘the last chance’, Super Pole is new to the World Championships this year and gives the four drivers qualifying from 2nd through to 5th the chance to shoot is out for a second direct qualifying position in the 1-hour title deciding Main rather than having to contest a Semi final. Each of the drivers will individually get six laps of the track with the driver posting the fastest lap getting the Super Pole pass to the final.

Having went out of Q4 when he collected his crashed team-mate Robert Pietsch, breaking the front suspension and then having to run his Q2 heat half way through Q5, Shimo summed his evening up as ‘very busy’.  The Japanese onroad nitro stalwart, would make a number of changes to his OS powered MTX6 but felt the car was still ‘only ok’ adding it ‘needs more steering’.  ‘Consistent not fast’, he will use the final qualifier to test for the final as he is secure in a Semi Final position. Pietsch would take his example to P7 for the penultimate round to sit fifth in the qualification ranking.

Ending his best result in Q5, Bruno Coelho said of the qualifier, ‘I drove on the limit all the time’.  The only driver from the reigning World Champion manufacturer currently in a Semi Final position, the Xray driver said of his Max powered NT1 ‘its a little slow compared to other guys’.  Feeling the car is ‘not perfect like before’, after his crash with Kurzbuch in Q3 he said the car was completely different and it is still ‘not perfect like before’.  Despite this he was happy to be so close especially after having to avoided a crashed car towards the end of the qualifier that lost him 1/10th and a Top 3 for the round.  Unfortunately Alexander Hagberg’s hopes of things turning around in qualifying haven’t quite been realised and the defending World Champion finds himself 33rd with one qualifier to go.

Posting the 5th fastest time, Dominic Greiner said, ‘we tried to make the rear more stable but made it too stable and now we had oversteer’.  Top Qualifier at the last Worlds Championship two years ago, the Serpent driver said, ‘Its super close’ but conceded, ‘Dario was the best today and he deserves to be TQ’.  Currently holding P4 in the qualification ranking, he said his focus for tomorrow morning’s Q6 is to stay in the Super Pole position and the plan is to ‘put the set-up from before the rain’ back on his Novarossi powered 748.

Completing the Top 6 once again as he did in Q4, Jilles Groskamp said this time the result was down to his actually pace rather others crashing out.  The Team Infinity driver said switching to an early practice set-up had reduced his speed deficit saying, ‘we are not so far from Dario now’. Planning to leave his car unchanged for the final qualifier, the former Top Qualifier wanted to try improve on his lowest point he is counting in his three results.  With the race the debut for the new manufacturer’s first prototype of a touring car, Groskamp said ‘our aim for the race was to get a car in the Semi and now we already have three which is really good for the team’.  Having got a P4 in Q4, team-mate Jesse Davis would end the day with a P9 after he ran out of fuel on the last lap.

View complete event results here.

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Q2 Update – second TQ run for Balestri

With the top heat of drivers finally getting to run their second qualifier it is Dario Balestri who is the first driver to double up at the seventh running of the Nitro Touring Car World Championships.  With rain bringing a halt to the second round of qualifying yesterday, just as the top heat was about to go on track, after first planning to run the qualifier during Q4 it was moved to Q5 in a hope of bringing more equal track conditions.  In the end 9 of the 10 drivers would better the provisional TQ pace set by Kyle Branson in the second fastest heat, today’s track proving faster.   Setting a new fastest time of the four rounds run so far, Balestri would be 7/10ths faster than Serpent’s Alessio Mazzeo and his Capricorn team-mate Luca Redaelli.  Simon Kurzbuch, Dominic Greiner and Tadahiko Sahashi would complete the Top 6.  Commenting on the run having had a shock issue in the Q3 and the victim of a Robert Pietsch error in Q4, Balestri said, ‘finally another clean run again’.

Ending the round 9th, his best run so far, Branson who is a team-mate to Balestri said, ‘for sure the conditions were different (for the top heat) but it is still my best run’.  The British driver whose next best time is a P12 in Q4, added, ‘I am not doing great at the minute, it’s hard today with the wind’.  A Semi Finalist at the 2012 World Champions in Bangkok, he concluded, ‘I could do with two more Top 10s to get into the Semis’.

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Mazzeo TQs third qualifier at WC

Alessio Mazzeo has TQ’d the third round of qualifying at the Nitro Touring Car World Championship.  After a delayed start to the second day of qualifying as the rain that halted Q2 continued overnight in Italy, the Serpent driver was fastest in the slower track conditions ahead of Robert Pietsch and team-mate Tadahiko Sahashi.  Having taken the opening round of qualifying yesterday, Dario Balestri would manage only the 7th fastest time, as he was hampered by a shock issue on his Capricorn.  Again Bruno Coelho would show strong running on a TQ pace like in Q1 but this time rather than a mistake of his own the Xray driver would crash into the Shepherd of Simon Kurzbuch which spun in front of him in the windy conditions.

I’m really happy because the conditions are very had hard.  There is a lot of wind and this is not good for the car especially under braking’, was Mazzeo’s reaction to his first ever TQ run at a World Championships.  With the moment made more special for the 24-year-old by the fact his mother & brother were here to watch the run, he said the pressure of the occasion lead to his final laps not being perfect.  Still fastest by almost 7/10th of a second, the former European Champion said, ‘For the first 5-laps I took it easy but once I saw the car was OK and had a good feeling for the condition I started to push’. With his next run to be the running of Q2, the round halted by rain yesterday just as the top heat started their engines, he said the track conditions will be the same as Q3 which means they will be a lot slower that the current TQ time for the round which is current held by Kyle Branson.  Commenting on the International Jury decision, he said ‘it is impossible to make the best choice for al drivers so I respect their decision’.  He added, ‘120 drivers raced so it is not good to change that they loose that run either, I will try to push for a good time but for sure it will be slower’.

Pietsch had the opposite view to Mazzeo on the running of their Q2 heat saying, ‘It’s totally unfair, the track is 3-seconds slower’.  The German added, ‘You can’t compare the conditions, it’s the wrong decision’.  On his MTX6 in Q3, the Mugen designer said, ‘the car had a little oversteer and I had to drive careful not to crash it’.  To cure this he will ‘change (his) rear diff for the next one’.

Behind the Picco powered Serpent of Sahashi, Francesco Tironi would prove the surprise of Q3.  Having not been on the radar in practice and 15th in Q1, the Infinity driver described Day 2 of qualifying as ‘much better today’.  The Italian said his prototype touring car from the manufacturer newcomer was quite good yesterday but suffered too much push’.  Making the front of the car 2mm narrow for today, the former World Championship podium finisher said they are now working on caster adjustments saying ‘the car is very sensitive to caster change’.  Having got to complete his Q2 as he is running in the fourth fastest heat, for Q4 he said they will adjust more the caster ‘to find the limit’.

Posting the 5th fastest time Dominic Greiner wasn’t pleased with his car.  The Serpent driver said, ‘the track changed a lot. I had no feeling for the car and it was very difficult to drive’.  Planning to change the car for the next one, he said a softer set-up should work better for today’s low traction conditions.  On the running of Q2, the German said it is ‘super stupid, the track is never the same as yesterday’ adding the qualifier will be ‘a run to test the car’.

Completing the Top 6 Luca Redaelli said he made a front shock change to his Capricorn in anticipation of the conditions but he still struggled suffering with oversteer.  Planning to go back to his original shock set-up, he said now that he is getting over the nerves of contesting his first Worlds he also plans to ‘push more’.  Team-mate Balestri, who was 5/100ths slower over the 5-minutes said he ‘knew immediately something was wrong (with the car), with his mechanic suspecting it was to do with a bad shock which he added ‘we must check’.

Commenting on his incident with Kurzbuch, Coelho said, ‘it was a little difficult because of the wind but the car was perfect.  I was running behind Simon and then he spun in front of me and we crashed. That was the end of the qualifier for me’.  Continuing the rest of the run he would get P18.  Kurzbuch said, ‘I am really sorry for Bruno.  I lost the rear and touched him’.  the 1:8 World Champion continued, ‘I think it was the wind because the car was ok through there all the other laps’.

View complete event results here.

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UPDATE
In an attempt to obtain more equal track conditions the International Jury has decided to move the running of Heat 13 Q3 to late in the day during the fifth round of qualifying.

Rain brings halt to opening day of quali at WC

Rain has brought a halt to the opening day of qualifying at the Nitro Touring Car World Championships, a decision finally made that no more acton will take place today in Gubbio.  Just as the top heat started their engines for Q2 forecast rain arrived just 10-minute too early with the Top 10 seeded drivers not even making it out on to the track.  An initial heavy shower was followed by more and heavy rain with thunder & lightning thrown into the mix.  The plan now to resume with the third round of qualifying tomorrow and then review track conditions with a view to running Heat 13 of Q2 with Round 4 so as the entire round doesn’t need to scrapped.  In Q2, as it stands it was Kyle Branson that holds the fastest time.  Running in the second fastest group, the Capricorn driver was quickest from fellow British driver Andy Moore, the pair separated by just 1/1000th of a second. As it stands the overnight TQ is held by Capricorn Dario Balestri who TQ’d the opening qualifier from Simon Kurzbuch and Robert Pietsch.