Shimo fastest in CP2 in Gubbio

Factory Mugen driver Takaaki Shimo was fastest in the second round of control practice at the Nitro Touring Car World Championships in Italy. As expected the round would produce slower times than the morning’s opening round with the Japanese driver fastest from Luca Redaelli.  With CP1 pace setter Dominic Greiner doing an engine change and struggling to get a good tune on it leaving him with a P8 in the hotter conditions, Alessio Mazzeo would be the quickest Serpent completing the Top 3 ahead of Dario Balestri.

With the track around 3/10th of a second slower over 3-consecutive laps, Takaaki was happy to the top the round only 1/10 off his opening morning time.  Describing his MTX6 as feeling the same as it did in the morning despite the temperature rise, the multiple Japanese national champion was pleased with this fact.  Only making a rear toe in adjustment to the car to try and find speed through the last hairpin of the track he said the effect of the change was only ‘so so’.  Looking to the penultimate round of controlled practice, the factory OS driver will use the hottest period of the day to swap out his qualifying engine and ‘test (his) finals engine’.

While happy with his 3-lap pace, Redaelli was a little concerned over his drop off in pace over the final minute as his tyre diameter reduced.  With a new clutch solving the issues he suffered at the end of the first round, for the third round he will try a different shock set-up to see if this improves the consistency of the car over the 8 minutes of track time.  The Capricorn driver added, ‘I don’t want to change too much as the car is very good’.  4/100th off his team-mate Redaelli, Balestri had little to report after the round saying ‘all ok’ and for the next one he will test a different diff in the LAB CO3.

Making a complete change of set-up to his MTX6, Mugen’s Robert Pietsch would post the 5th fastest time.  The former World Championship Top Qualifier said the changes ‘seem to be really good’. Asked if the changing track conditions contributed to the improvement, the German replied that the new set-up was better overall.   ‘Not rolling as much as before’ and ‘no strange movements’ from the car which meant he ‘had to be careful’ now he can ‘push much more’.  While much happier with the car he was responsible for designing, he said there is ‘one small thing’ he wants to try for the next round as a fine tune to the new set-up.

‘Pretty good’ was how Mark Green summed up his run to the 6th fastest time.  The British driver said, ‘my car seems more competitive to the other guys in the heat’, adding ‘I don’t know if that’s good or bad but with most qualifiers in the heat it should be good’.  Running XRD engines in the back of his Serpent, the multiple British National Champion said he was ‘able to squeeze 5-minutes out of it’ so ‘overall things are looking good for qualifying’.  Behind Green would be Serpent team-mate Tadahiko Sahashi, followed by Greiner.  For defending champions Xray it is still Bruno Coelho who leads their challenge with P9 for the round followed by the Shepherd of reigning 1:8 World Champion Simon Kurzbuch, the Top 10 times cover by less the 4/10th of a second.

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Greiner tops 1st controlled practice

Dominic Greiner picked up where he left off yesterday to top the first round of controlled practice at the Nitro Touring Car World Championships in Gubbio, Italy, this morning.  The Serpent driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps with an almost identical time to that which saw him top free practice last night.  Just 0.009 slower this morning, he was fastest from Dario Balestri with Takaaki Shimo completing the Top 3.

‘The car awesome’ was Geiner’s reaction to topping what is widely predicted will be the fastest track conditions of the four controlled practices that make up today’s scheduled.  The German said with his 748 working so well he ‘(doesn’t) know what to change’ continuing, ‘so I will leave the same for the next one’.  Having fitted a new conrod to his Novarossi engine after his issues yesterday he said the engine ran without any issues even though they ran it ‘a bit too lean’.  Pleased with both his car and engine, adding ‘run time is no problem’, the 2014 Worlds Top Qualifier’s only complaint was with himself saying, ‘my driving was not as good as yesterday so I will try to improve that’.

Just over a 1/10th off Greiner’s pace, Balestri said he tried a different pipe on his Tesla engine ‘just to test’ and it was ‘not so good for the engine’.  Set to revert back to his previous pipe, the Warm-up Race winner said ‘the car was good so all is ok’.

Removing the aero disks from his Mugen, Shimo was happier with his car this morning.  Without the carbon disks, the Japanese driver said his MTX6 had better initial steering.  While the overall performance of the car is improved he said the hairpin before the sweeper onto the main straight is now a problem area as he is ‘very slow’ in that one corner and he ‘need(s) to improve’ the car for CP2.

Impressing yesterday when the track was at its hottest, Luca Redaelli would post the fourth fastest time.  The Capricorn drivers said, ‘I did what I hoped to do, it was better than my Top 10 target so I am super happy’.  Only changing back to his ‘good’ Tesla engine for the first controlled practice he would not complete the full 8-minutes due to a clutch issue.  Towards the end of the round the Italian said the clutch was sticking, causing the car to run on in corner.  Planning to fit a new clutch for CP2 he said they will leave everything else unchanged.

Posting the fifth fastest time, 2013 1:8 World Champion Tadahiko Sahashi put his improved pace down to a better damper setting.  Going for a harder shock package on his Picco powered Serpent, he said this gave the 748 more rear traction.  Looking to get further rear traction from the car he will go even harder with the shocks for CP2.  The Japanese driver will also change to a different engine ‘just to test’.

Completing the Top 6, Alessio Mazzeo made ‘little changes’ to his Serpent but ‘didn’t like it’.  With his Gimar powered 748 ‘less stable on power than yesterday’, the Warm-up Race podium finisher will go in a different direction with his set-up for CP2.  It was a good start to controlled practice for Serpent with Toni Gruber and Mark Green making it five 748s in the Top 10.

With Jilles Groskamp having engine issues, it was Jesse Davis who was fastest of class newcomer Team Infinity.  The Australian took his prototype to the 7th fastest time improving his pace considerably from free practice in which he was only 26th fastest.  The reigning Aussie National Champion, he said his car was ‘much better today’ after he reverted back to the set-up he was running 2 days ago.  After ‘trying stupid shit’ on the new car while ‘trying to figure out what to do’ he said he has ended up back where he started which is a ‘pretty good base set-up’.  Planning now to ‘just fine tune’ that set-up he said the problem is that ‘the track is going to change a lot’ due to the temperature going up.

Posting the 8th fastest time ahead of fellow German Toni Gruber, Robert Pietsch ‘tried something’ that ‘wasn’t good’.  Finding the rear of his car loose in the colder conditions yesterday, the Mugen designer made the change to cure this but with ‘the track different today’ he ended up with understeer.  Describing the run as ‘solid’,  he will ‘try a completely different set-up’ for CP2 saying it might be ‘a lucky punch’ and lead to them finding something new in terms of set-up ideas.

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Greiner tops WC free practice with impressive final run

After 2 days and 12 rounds of free practice at the 1:10 Nitro Touring Car World Championship in Gubbio Italy an impressive final run by Dominic Greiner put the Serpent driver top of the times sheets. With the day’s opening practice providing the best conditions for setting a fast time, Greiner would complete just one lap as he suffered an engine failure.  With the times dropping off as track temperatures went up over the day, after a second engine failure in the penultimate round Greiner would put together 3-consecutive laps in the final practice to top Simon Kurzbuch FP7 topping time by 0.08 of a second despite conditions not being as good as the morning, Kurzbuch’s FP12 time over 3/10ths off his best.  The only driver in the Top 24 to better his time in the final practice, Greiner would be fastest in the round from Dario Balestri and Alessio Mazzeo by 3/10ths of a second, the biggest margin seen over the day’s six runs.

Top Qualifier at the last World Championships, Greiner started out the day not overall pleased with his car sitting only P8 afte the first two runs.  Describing his car as ‘very good the run before until the engine broke’, the German said they ‘changed nothing just changed the engine and the car was awesome’.  While the setting sun made driving ‘difficult’ due to the shadows created by the low light he said apart from that the run was ‘very very good’.  Initially feeling conditions for the final practice where similar to the morning’s rocket round but having only completed one lap, he was happy to be corrected by team-mate Mark Green who said ‘the track was definitely not as good as this morning’.  Describing ending the day at the top of the times as ‘a good boost for tomorrow’ when the event officially gets underway with four rounds of controlled practice he said he is ‘super happy with the car’.  On the engine front his mechanic said the focus for those four controlled runs has to be on engines.  Having run in 9 conrods for the event and already had two failures they hope they are not dealing with a bad batch and that these were just two isolated failures.  Novarossi will rebuild both his engines in time for racing and will send a new batch of conrods and Greiner is now confident they have found the problem and ‘all is safe for tomorrow’.

Capping off the day with a P5 time in the final practice, Kurzbuch said it was ‘again a good round’ but like Geiner said the shadows at the end of the straight ‘made it dificult’.  Ending free practice second fastest overall, the reigning 1:8 World Champion said his Velox V10 ‘setup is good but the driver can improve more’.  Describing his pace as ‘very consistent’ the Swiss driver is ‘ready for qualifying’ adding he will use the four controlled practices tomorrow to ‘try more engines just to make sure everything is perfect for racing’.

After in depth looking discussions with Capricorn boss Patrizio Rossi after the conclusion of free practice, Balestri summed up his day by saying ‘our car is not perfect for cooler conditions’. Coming across less confident than earlier in the day despite being second fastest to Greiner in FP12, the Warm-up Race winner admitted ‘it was a good time from Dominic’ but added, ‘we have more practice tomorrow so all is ok, the race still hasn’t started’.

Third fastest in the final free practice, getting to within 6/100ths of his best time from FP7 that leaves him sixth overall, Alessio Mazzeo declared ‘I’m really happy for the set-up we have reached’. The Warm-up Race podium finisher said they found a ‘good compromise’ that left his Serpent ‘good from the start to the finish of the run’. The 2013 European Champion said he was also ‘happy for the team that Dominic was fastest’ continuing ‘tomorrow we start the race and I’m really happy with our pace’.  He added, ‘we always need more steering but we made it better for the last one’.   However the Italian concluded he ‘prefer(s) (running in) hot conditions’ as this is when his 748 is at its best highlighted by him topping the times of the hotter penultimate round of practice from Balestri and Greiner.

Backing up his fastest time for FP9 & 10 when the track was at it’s hottest, Luca Redaelli ended the day with a P4 for the final practice.  His first World Championships, the 25-year-old Capricorn driver said the event is ‘already good for me’ adding he was very pleased with FP12 time as he had switched to a spare engine believing that with his ‘good engine’ there was another 3/10ths or more in the car. ‘Happy with where (he) is at’ in terms of his pace and car set-up he said his only complaint was ending the day 11th overall causing him to just miss the top heat when the heat size will be reduced from 13 to 10 cars for controlled practice.

Classified 5th overall just behind Mugen’s Robert Pietsch, Bruno Coelho would conclude practice with a P6 for the final run just ahead of Pietsch.  Leading the way for defending champions Xray, as reigning champion Alexander Hagberg still finds himself somewhat off the pace, Coelho would ‘try a crazy set-up’ for the last practice which while making his Max powered NT1 ‘super difficult’ to drive may have given them a set-up route to follow for controlled practice.  With the car ‘fast’ he said he hopes they can make it easy to drive tomorrow.

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