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’.

View the complete event results here.

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Davis set early pace at Worlds as drivers battle high traction

Australia’s Jesse Davis is the early pace setter at the IFMAR 1:8 World Championships in California, the Infinity driver fastest in the opening day of official practice and again after 2 of the 5 scheduled rounds of today’s action.  Behind, Dominic Greiner is second fastest today after topping the Round 7 of practice from reigning World Champion Dario Balestri and reigning 1:10 World Champion Naoto Matsukura.  Next up it is ARC’s Silvio Hachler with the Mugen of 2018 World podium finisher Shoki Takahata completing the Top 6 times for this morning’s opening two runs.  Super high winds overnight and this morning meant a delayed start to today’s schedule with the traction sprayed Steel City RC Speedway surface acting like a magnet to the dust blown in by the winds, winds that are forecast to return again on Wednesday when qualifying is to begin.  As a result of the delay, drivers now have shorter run but already the traction is back up to the ‘super high’ levels drivers are finding difficult.

Commenting on his pace, Davis said, ‘the car is good.  We came out here before the testing cut off for 4-days and got a good feeling with everything.  We’re trying to keep that going now and work through engine by engine to make sure they are all good’.  He continued, ‘we are doing a little with the set-up and fine tuning it as we go and trying to keep calm’.  Asked about the traction, he replied, ‘it’s quite high and we have got to run new tyres every run so it’s important to take caution at the start but the traction has levelled out now.  It’s not what we are used to or expect at a 1:8 Worlds but its good fun’.

‘Difficult’ was Greiner’s description of practice so far.  The Serpent driver added, ‘I was having problems with traction roll.  Every corner I am on 2-wheels and then when I try to throttle out of the corner it is doing strange things’.  The German continued, ‘we will try a different shock set-up now and see’.  Asked if the track was changing much between runs he said, ‘we are changing so much things (on the car) every run it is hard to say if the track is changing much, but for the evening we know the traction is even higher so it is even more difficult’.

With 3 more practice runs today and then a day of seeding practice tomorrow, Balestri said, ‘It’s going ok.  We are just testing.  We have a lot of time for this’.  The Infinity driver added, ‘we know the basic set-up from yesterday and the traction is back to the same as yesterday now’.  For his next run the Italian will test harder plastics on his car concluding he was just going through his planned programme.

Making a huge impact on the world of nitro onroad when he made his nitro racing debut at the previous 1:8 World Championship in France, where he lead the final, Matsukura was happier with his car in Round 7 of practice after struggling with the high traction yesterday.  He explained, ‘we came 2-weeks ago and the track was different so yesterday I can’t drive without flipping but now its getting better so now we can get back to our normal programme’.  Asked how he liked the track, the Japanese ace said, ‘I really like it.  The layout is like Japanese style and it also has the high traction’.

View the complete event results here.

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Track Focus – Steel City RC Speedway

Track Name – Steel City RC Speedway
Owners – Phil & Kyle Goodwine
Country – USA
Location – Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Asphalt

Steel City RC Speedway plays host to the 22nd running of the IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship and the track has immediately made an impression on the drivers with reigning World Champion Dario Balestri going as far as describing it as ‘maybe one of the most beautiful’ he has driven on.  Its high grip levels however are set to be the greatest challenge to drivers over the coming week.  Only opened last year, the track is located at the full size Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and it has quickly established itself as one of America most high profile outdoor tracks.  Earlier this year it hosted the famed Reedy Race of Champions for electric touring cars after it lost its home following the closure of the Tamiya Raceway and now it has gathered together the best nitro drivers in the World to decide who is the No.1 come Saturday.

The story behind the track name and how it came into existence is an interesting one.  Originally the land the track sits on was part of the Kaiser Steel factory, the 2nd largest steel producer in the world during World War 2.  The company however went bankrupt and was bought by Penske, one of US Motorsport’s most successful teams, who built the full size motor speedway.  Running an electric touring car race in one of the parking lots during the Indycar weekend at the track, that was the start of the relationship between the real track and the Goodwines.  Father and son team Phil & Kyle Goodwine would negotiate a lease to build the impressive looking track that is now Steel City RC Speedway and their choice of red colour for the infield have made it one of the most distinctive and easily identifiable tracks out there.

Giving his reaction to the track, Balestri said, ‘it is super beautiful.  The layout is great and the surface is like a billiard table.  It is an absolutely great layout for 1:8’.  Asked about the high traction levels, the track being sprayed for traction, he replied, ‘the grip is amazing so even if you find a good balance you still need to manage your driving not to flip.  You are always on the limit’.

Former World Champion Simon Kurzbuch said, ‘the layout is really good.  It has a bit of everything, a fast chicane, a nice left section, it is really nice’.  While a fan of the layout, the Swiss driver added, ‘the grip is on a level that is not drivable yet, for me anyway so I am going to have to adapt my driving.  I have never experienced such high grip before.  In the morning and in the evening almost everyone flipped’.

‘It’s nice.  The layout is challenging and fast but the grip conditions make it very special, was Dominic Greiner’s thoughts on the track.  The former 1:10 World Champion continued, ‘we tested here before but now things are very different with way more traction so we can’t use any of the set-up from testing.  We need try to make it that the car doesn’t flip’.  The German added, ‘the surface is super flat, no bumps, and there is going to be less tyre wear with the high traction but with big tyres for quali it is going to be super hard to find a set-up’.

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