August 12, 2016

Kurzbuch takes final qualifier in Gubbio

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Simon Kurzbuch has taken the final round of qualifying at the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championships in Gubbio.  With the overall TQ decided yesterday when Dario Balestri posted his third TQ run in the penultimate round, the Shepherd driver topped the times from Mugen’s Takaaki Shimo with 2012 World Champion Meen Vejrak completing the Top 3.  With Balestri using the sixth qualifier to run in a new rod and diffs in the Capricorn, it was Kurzbuch who laid the TQ pace eventually taking it by just over 2/10ths from Shimo.  The big focus of the final qualifier would be on who would make the new for 2016 Super Pole that will be fought out by the drivers qualifying from 2 through to 5.   In the end other than Kurzbuch the round would only see Q6 count as an improved points haul for former Worlds Top Qualifier Robert Pietsch who got a P6 to secure the final Super Pole placing behind Serpent pairing of Dominic Greiner and Alessio Mazzeo.

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‘A perfect run I would say’, was how Kurzbuch summed up his TQ run.  The 1:8 World Champion, added ‘I had a really good feeling and I think we have a good car for Super Pole.  With the driver who sets the fastest lap over an individual 6-lap run getting a direct spot in the 1-hour title deciding Main alongside Balestri, the Swiss ace has the benefit of experiencing Super Pole previously, it having been introduced 2-years ago at the European Championships.  Although he didn’t win the super pole at the 1:10 Euros in Turkey last year he said having experienced the procedure before is sure to be an advantage and he added ‘the lap times are there but maybe 0.001 will decide it’.

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Struggling in the final qualifier after making a diff change on his 748, Mazzeo would finish the round with a P51.  Declaring his car ‘was bad’, the Super Pole first timer said once they change the diff back to what they ran yesterday when he took Q3, he said they should have a car to fight for the fastest lap.  Describing himself as ‘the little guy’ in the Super Pole he highlighted, ‘Simon is World Champion, Robert is a World Champion and Dominic has a Worlds TQ so its going to be difficult but I will give it my best shot’.

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Top Qualifier in 2014, when only he made it directly to the Main, the rest having to work their way up from the Semis, this is also Greiner’s first time to do Super Pole as he TQ’d at the European Championships.  The German would be P11 in the final qualifier after two mistakes, a change to his Novarossi powered 748 leaving the ‘rear too loose’.  Happy that his fastest lap of the final qualifier was close to his rivals despite his car not being perfect, he said the plan for Super Pole is ‘maximum push for one lap’.  In terms of his car he will move the weight in the car to make it more stable in the rear.

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Finishing off qualifying with a P6 that kept him in the Super Pole, Pietsch said his Mugen was ‘OK’ but ‘not the same as two days again’.  Since the rain, the German said they have lost some ground but they hope to improve it further for Super Pole.  A driver who has twice experienced the procedure in the 1:8 European Championships he won in in 2015 while also taking part in it this year in Sweden.

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Having been on a potential TQ yesterday only to roll his Capricorn late and suffer an engine cut, Vejrak summed up his P3 with ‘finally’. A significant result for the Thai driver as it puts him into the Semi Finals, he said after losing their way with car set over the first two days of arriving in Italy the are getting the car and engines back slowly to where he expected them to be at.  The Maxima team driver said the final qualifier was tough as, ‘the car was a little different and I was a little nervous’.  Looking to his 30-minute Semi Final, which will run tomorrow, he said they will change the set-up to get a more stable car for the longer race.

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August 11, 2016

Balestri is World Champs Top Qualifier

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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.

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‘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’.

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‘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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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August 11, 2016

Q2 Update – second TQ run for Balestri

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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’.

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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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August 11, 2016

Chassis Focus – Syoki Takahata

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Chassis – KM Racing HK1
Engine – OS Speed 1202
Fuel – MLC
Tires (handout) – Hotrace
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Body – SRC Spark

Remarks – Japanese driver Syoki Takahata put a great run to take a surprise TQ in round 4 driving a pretty standard version of the KM HK1. Powered by the new 1202 OS Speed engine, his car is equipped with a carbon upper bumper and a front brass chassis weight.

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August 11, 2016

Surprise TQ run for Takahata in Q4

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Syoki Takahata took a surprise TQ in the fourth round of qualifying at Worlds in Italy.  Running in the fourth fastest heat, the KM Racing driver would set the fastest time ahead of Dominic Greiner who looked set to take the round as his rivals self destructed in the top heat.  Coming to the line on the TQ pace, Greiner would launch his car across the loop believing it would be his finishing time but he got there 0.002 too early.  Spinning in his attempt to get the best possible finish time, once he discovered he was still on the clock and recovered he ended the qualifier with 24-second lap time around the 16-second Miniautodromo Internazionale M.Rosati track.  With Greiner 8-seconds off Takahata, the pair the only drivers to run 19-laps, best of the rest on 18 would be Greiner’s Serpent team-mate Tadahiko Sahashi who completed the Top 3.  Unfortunately a partly stripped rear belt which occurred in the warm-up would leave Q3 Top Qualifier Alessio Mazzeo to struggle around for a P4 for the round.

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After a torrid opening day of qualifying in which he suffered two engine failures in his opening two heats, after starting out the day with his first complete 5-minute run, claiming P13 in Q3, Takahata was understandably pleased with his TQ run.  Having to start the day out with ‘a safe run’, claiming a P13 for his efforts, the reigning Japanese National Champion said, he could ‘push harder’ in Q4. Making an ackermann change on his OS powered HK1, the 21-year-old said this gave him a ‘better feeling’ with the car, him highlighting his reduced track time due to yesterday’s issues.  For Q5 he will leave the car unchanged saying ‘I still need one more time’.

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‘Super close, just bad luck’, was Greiner’s reaction after the qualifier.  Happy with his Novarossi powered 748 after struggling with a lack of feeling in Q3, the 2014 Top Qualifier was  less impressed by the driving of Luca Redaelli.  The Capricorn driver would get a P8 for the round but towards the end of the qualifier the German got stuck behind the Italian.  The German said, ‘Luca blocked me for two laps.  Four or five times the referee called him to open’.  On his set-up changes he continued, ‘I’m happy the car is fast again, it’s nearly back to where I want it to be’.

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Q4 would prove a good round for newcomers Team Infinity as they got 4 of the prototype cars into the Top 10.  Heading that challenge would be Jesse Davis who posted the fourth fastest time.  The Australian National Champion said the time was ‘all driving’.  Having had a good car for Q3, after crashing in the warm-up he would again crash early on in the actual qualifier badly damaging a tyre.  For Q4 he said, ‘I knew I had a good car so I left it and just drove’. Looking for ‘another good result to make the Semis’, he will leave the car ‘exactly the same’.  Asked about track conditions he said, ‘You can do two good laps and then the next lap you get hit by the wind.  You can see through the field, a driver does a fast lap and then the next one is shit. It’s only when you are going left but its making it difficult’.

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Posting the fifth fastest time, Team Shepherd’s Simon Kurzbuch said, ‘the car is fast for one lap and after the first minute or 2 gets hard to drive’.  He continued, ‘I think it’s just the wind that is making the car do somethings strange’.  For the next qualifier, which is set to be the running of Q2 for the top heat, he will change his Velox V10 to get ‘more rear traction for the fast corners’.

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Completing the Top 6 ahead of Infinity team-mate and 2012 Top Qualifier Teemu Leino, Jilles Groskamp said, ‘I was lucky with all the carnage in the round’.  With an error by Robert Pietsch ending his own and Mugen team-mate Takaaki Shimo’s race instantly as well as ruining Q1 winner Dario Balestri’s run, the Italian pulling off, and Bruno Coelho making a mistake of his own, the reigning Euro Nitro Series Champion said, ‘we closed the gap a little but I still feel I am missing steering’.  On actual pace he felt he should have been 12th or 13th.  ‘Lacking .1 or .2 (seconds) a lap’ he also feels he could do with a little more power, his engine set too rich.   The 2012 Electric Touring Car World Champion said ‘it’s critical to tune (the engine) for the conditions of the run’.  Describing conditions as ‘very tough today (as) the wind is super strong’ he said he will revert to the set-up he ran in the earlier days of practice which he hopes will make the car more stable which he added should suit the conditions.

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