Balestri just edges out Leino to take Q2 in Bangkok

Dario Balestri has taken the second round of qualifying at the 1:10 Nitro World Championship after just edging out Infinity team-mate Teemu Leino in the closing laps of the 7-minute encounter.  After both himself and Leino DNF’d the opening qualifier, both drivers needed to get their first points on the board.  With Toni Gruber, who took everyone by surprise with his TQ in Round 1, having a slower Q2, and second fastest man Jilles Groskamp unable to start after suffering an engine failure in the warm-up for his second quali run, it was Leino who lead out the top heat.  However, hitting traffic at the end of the run as Balestri set his fastest lap on his penultimate lap it was the Italian who took it by 13/100ths of a second from the Finn.  Behind the Europeans Australia’s Jessie Davis bettered his Q1 P6 with the third fastest time with Francesco Tironi again in the mix at the front after his opening P3 effort.  While Gruber would set the 6th fastest time for Q2 the Capricorn driver would have his time deleted as his rear wing was deemed to be too high in post tech inspection.

‘It was a clean a run, I am not sure the fastest run but we got good points’, was how Balestri described his TQ run.  The 2018 World Championship Top Qualifier in Miami added, ‘I was driving safe I would say because everyone is on the limit with the flip and even in the second part of the qualification the clutch was on the limit’.  Removing he worked on removing his car’s engine to check the clutch he said, You need to not only focus on your driving style but also focus on the complete package, the engine, clutch, everything.  It is a real challenge.’

‘I had traffic the last three laps that’s why I lost it’ was Leino reaction after Q2.  He continued, ‘I also had traffic after my refueling but at he end with the white car I lost the most time.  I also had one mistake when I was on two wheels for a long time.’   On his car he said, ‘It is good but really hard, you turn and get on two wheels.  But if you take off the steering it is slower, so it’s really hard.’  After his Q1 DNF he concluded, ‘I need two more finish runs and then it’s OK.’

Asked about his Top 3 run, Davis replied, ‘Yeah it was alright.  The first one was a good one too but I had one flip and without this I was TQ pace so I didn’t change the car, kept going and just tried to get one in the bag.  I didn’t drive particularly good that one but got the points.  The car is feeling pretty good and pretty stable so we’ll just leave it as it is for now and try & get some more points in this evening, we need one more to be safe.  Tomorrow then maybe we will try some set-up changes.’  In these conditions it is really difficult, you will see every round I reckon someone else TQ so there will be 6 different round TQs.  Just who can keep it on the track longest with the fastest pace.’

Reacting to his Q2 performance before finding out about his disqualification, Gruber said, ‘with the temperatures coming up we feel more grip and it was more difficult to drive, it was nearly critical to flip so that’s why I had to drive more easier and you see that in the laps times’.  Running in the second fastest heat after his struggles in seeding he added, ‘I also had problems in traffic so in the end I am still happy with 6th place.’

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Video – Seeding Practice

Check out this raw & loud video footage from the final round of seeding practice at the 2024 IFMAR 1:10 Nitro World Championship in Bangkok, Thailand.  A decade since the indoor Huge RC Circuit last hosted the World Championship for nitro touring car, this is one of the most unique & challenging tracks racers will face with the echoing engine noise on a different level!!

Sahashi opens WC title defence as Top Seed in Thailand

Infinity’s Tadahiko Sahashi is the Top Seed at the IFMAR 1:10 Nitro World Championship in Thailand, the reigning World Champion topping the ranking after today’s four rounds of seeding practice at the Huge RC Circuit in Bangkok.  With drivers counting the best two points from the four rounds, having posted the fastest time in SP1 Sahashi would top seeding from team-mate Teemu Leino, the Finn setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps of the fourth & final practice.  While not topping a round and crashing out of SP4, it is reigning European Champion Dario Balestri who will carry the No.3 on his Infinity in the top qualifying heat tomorrow having posted the second fastest times in SP1 & 3.  With a different driver topping each of the seeding rounds, the fastest time in the penultimate round would see Takaaki Shimo fourth ahead of Australian Jesse Davies with Jilles Groskamp completing the Top 6.  The other driver to top the time sheets today when he went fastest in SP2, local Gamee Mongkolpan concluded seeding in 7th ahead of Swede Viktor Wilck.

While happy to open his title defence as the Top Seed describing the seeding outcome as ‘good’, Sahashi had a troubled second half to the day.  In the third seeding run the 2013 1:8 Onroad World Champion crashed heavily resulting in a broken chassis which had to change for the day’s final run.  After running with the new chassis he afterwards described the car ‘was not so good’ adding his night is going to be spent looking over the car to check if there is other damage he didn’t notice from his SP3 off.

Checking over his times for SP4 after setting the fastest time, asked if the improvement came from changes to his car or just managing to put together a good three laps, Leino replied, ‘It was a bit of both, I got the three laps and the car was a little better.’  He explained, ‘I changed back to my orange body and it was a little bit better.  It was just different but I always like orange better’.   The same body as his colour scheme painted body he ran earlier, asked how he feels he is prepared for qualifying when the emphasis moves away from outright fastest three laps and more to consistency he said, ‘I miss a little bit of steering so it sounds funny but I need to add a little bit more without flipping.  It is tricky to find the balance like I said before, it is a little bit too pushy now.’

Another driver to have an off, Balestri said, ‘Everything should be OK.  When you change something and you make a mistake in what you are changing you flip, like I did because I tried a more forward body and it flipped easy.  I broke not so much but I check now that everything is ok for tomorrow.’  Asked about the 7-minute qualifiers, the 1:8 World Champion said, ‘It will be interesting to see how it is going with the tyres, I know the more you run the more you get grip so it will be important to check the balance of the car, we will see’.  He concluded, ‘three laps is a another thing because on 7-minutes you need the pace where on three laps you can maybe cut the last one,  so tomorrow is another day.’

Asked to sum up his overall performance today in seeding, Shimo said, ‘today was OK, my car was easy to drive in the first three rounds but in the last one I didn’t like how it felt, it felt too heavy’.  Putting the change of car down to the conditions of the evening run, stating he hadn’t change his car set-up for the run, the Japanese stalwart of nitro onroad racing performance said going into tomorrow 7-minute qualifiers, 3 of the 6 on the schedule, he is confident that he has an easy to drive, consistent car joking his only concern might be the driver!

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