August 20, 2009

Pietsch breaks 30 laps in Q5

He was on target for it in Q3 yesterday but misheard the timing computer and pitted before completing the full 10-minutes, but this morning in the penultimate qualifier Robert Pietsch became the first driver to set down a 30 lap run. The German ace was clearly delighted with the impressive run saying his Mugen was perfect for the conditions. Paying compliments to his pitman for two perfect fuel stops, the factory driver feels it will be very difficult to better the time in the last qualifier with the forecast predicted today as the hottest of the championships.

Setting the fastest 29 lap run was defending Champion Lamberto Collari. The eight time World Champion said the run was good but felt conditions were better yesterday in Q3 but unfortunately on that occasion he had an off caused by a faulty battery lead in his Kyosho. The time moves the Italian back ahead of fellow countryman Alberto Picco who failed to better his Q3 time.

He said yesterday that his Serpent 966 was capable of running in the Top 4 and that is exactly what factory driver Mark Green achieved this morning. The British driver has been happy with his Serpent/Novarossi combination throughout qualifying but said his driving was letting him down. Finally completing a run free of driver error he managed the fourth fastest time to put himself in the direct qualification position for the Main Final.

Just outside that highly desirable position is Serpent team leader Michael Salven. Improving from 12th overnight to 5th the German had problems with his engine running very rich for a few laps after each pitstop causing his 966 to shift late and making it difficult to drive. Once the Mega engine cleared out Salven said it was very good. Incidentally using a radar gun the fastest top speed we seen this morning was 111 Kph for European Champion Jernej Vuga but more impressive was the speed recorded by Japanese driver Tadahiko Sahashi’s, his Serpent exiting the pitlane at 94 kph.

Completing the Top 6 and now heading the American challenge is Winternats Champion Paolo Morganti. The factory Serpent driver said his new found speed is down to him becoming more consistent as he gets more accustomed to the banked corners of the Lostallo track. Used to racing on completely flat US tracks he said it takes a bit of time to adjust to the banked corners which pull the car into the apex.

Having not really featured so far here in Lostallo, old tyres transformed the Mugen of factory driver Rick Vrielijnck. Asked if he had found something that caused the huge jump in pace the Dutch Champion replied ‘Oh Yeh’. Having run a new batch of tyres all week and suffered with excessive tyre wear this morning he ran a year old set which allowed him to complete the full 10-minutes without struggling for traction over the second part of the run. Vrielijnck believes the new batch of tyres are too fresh and thats the reason for the high wear rate.

Holding fourth overnight Robin D’Hondt drops to eight. The Belgian, who was tipped as a real danger man this morning, suffered a leaking front bearing on his Novarossi engine which resulted in a lack of brakes on his Motonica P81. For Motonica team-mate Dario Balestri, who had all his qualifying times disallowed yesterday for running an unmarked engine in Q4, the penultimate heat saw him record the 13th fastest time and this should be good enough to see the 2007 Finalist qualify for the Semis.

Elsewhere Josh Cyrul didn’t live up to expectations this morning. The Team Shepherd driver was expected to challenge for a Top 4 time but as he put it himself, ‘Drove like shit’. The American said his car and engine were perfect but the run was the ‘Worst I’ve driven in a very long time’. 2007 World’s Top Qualifier Massimo Fantini was on for a potential Top 4 run until he got hit by Marco Müller in the pits taking a wheel off his Serpent 966. Muller got a stop go for the incident but that was little consolation for Fantini who lies 31st. Former World Champion Adrien Bertin continues to struggle with a very painful right arm. The French ace is finding the 10-minutes very hard going with the movement in his steering arm very difficult. The man behind Team Orion’s engine development, Bertin said the motor he used in Q5 was better and its just a case of soldiering on. Currently he lies 24th on the times sheets.

View our event image gallery here.

August 19, 2009

Balestri gets penalty but still in the event

Factory Motonica driver Dario Balestri, who was found to have an unmarked Novarossi engine fitted in his P81, will continue to take part in the 2009 IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championships but the 2007 World Finalist loses the times from the opening four qualifiers along with receiving an official warning for the incident. Under World Championship rules each driver can nominate up to three engines for the event which are in turn marked by IFMAR but in Q4, in which he only ran for 3 minutes, technical inspection found the unmarked unit causing the Race Director Franky Noens to call for an international Jury meeting.

After the meeting the International Federation of Model Auto Racing issued the following decision –

In Round 4 the car from Dario Balestri (Italy), “driver 6” was found to have a non-marked engine in the car.

The Race Director asked for an international Jury meeting to decide for this unforeseen situation for the penalty is not clearly described in the IFMAR rules.

The international Jury felt that an appropriate penalty was in place and nade the following decision.

– All the results from Round 1 till Round 4 will be lost
– The un-marked engine will be marked as engine number 3 (only 2 engines were marked up till now).
– One official warning

On behalf of IFMAR,

Sander de Graaf
IFMAR IC Section Chairman

Having been struggling here at Lostallo, Balestri appeared to have found his way today setting the seventh fastest time in Q3 but with his heats cancelled the Italian will have to pull out all the stops in tomorrow’s final two qualifiers.

Top 18 Qualification Ranking (after Round 4 of 6)
1. Pietsch Robert (DE) – Mugen/Novarossi – 29/09:59.566
2. Picco Alberto (IT) – Mugen/Picco – 29/10:03.465
3. Collari Lamberto (IT) – Kyosho/Novarossi – 29/10:06.099
4. D’hondt Robin (BE) – Motonica/Novarossi – 29/10:06.209
———————————————
5. Tanaka Masao (JP) – Kyosho/Max – 29/10:07.045
6. Cyrul Josh (US) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:07.222
7. Green Mark (GB) – Serpent/Novarossi – 29/10:08.355
8. Shimo Takaaki (JP) – Kyosho/OS – 29/10:08.588
9. Solaroli Stefano (IT) – Motonica/Sirio – 29/10:08.991
10.Müller Marco (CH) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:09.049
11.Patrick Schäfer (DE) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:09.109
12.Michael Salven (DE) – Serpent/Mega – 29/10:09.374
13.Morganti Paolo (US) – Serpent/Max – 29/10:09.409
14.Cristiani Andrea (IT) – Serpent/Max – 29/10:10.935
15.Swauger Mike (US) – Mugen/Novarossi – 29/10:11.529
16.Mack Oliver (DE) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 29/10:11.551
17.Vrielijnck Rick (HO) – Mugen/Reds Racing – 29/10:11.889
18.Pirani Andrea (IT) – Mugen/Novarossi – 29/10:12.984

August 19, 2009

New in the pits – Part 2

Continuing on from yesterday’s ‘New in the pits’ comes some more new items including this 966 floating rear end from Serpent. Similar to a system used by Mugen’s Robert Pietsch, but implemented differently, it detaches the rear of the radio plate from the radio plate mounting block. No longer using the top 2 screws to mount the two together, it allows the rear of the car to flex along the width of the chassis but thanks to some cleverly mounted track rods under the radio plate, that are connected to the centre block, it cant flex along the length of the chassis. This is said to improve the steering of the car on corner entry, while at the same time making it more stable under acceleration. In addition most of the Serpent drivers are running the front upper wishbone bracket at an angle which further improves the stability out of the corner by giving the car less caster on power. There are no firm plans to release this update, with testing still going on to decide the feasibility and implementation.

We first covered the new line of engines from Reds Racing back in July when we attended the European Championships for 1/10th scale in Gubbio, Italy. At that time there was only a .12 engine available but here in Lostallo, the Mario Rossi brand are debuting their prototype .21 engine. Using a Boss engine for the purpose of testing the internal developments, the final motor will have a silver coated crankcase for the standard version and a black casing for the modified version, with the modified version also featuring ceramic bearings and some other additions. Currently running the prototype engine, Rick V and Walter Salemi are now sitting in 17th and 28th respectively.

View more photos of the new products in our event image gallery here.

August 19, 2009

Collari fastest in Q4, Pietsch still TQ

Lamberto Collari was fastest in the fourth round of qualifying here at the 2009 IFMAR 1:8 Onroad World Championship but the time was only good enough to lift the defending World Champion up to third overall with Robert Pietsch still holding the TQ spot. Collari, whose off in Q3 was found to have been caused by a bad battery lead in his Kyosho, said the run was good but that track conditions were not as good as this morning. Second fastest for the round was Alberto Picco followed by Motonica’s Stefano Solaroli but both failed to improve on their Q3 times. Other than Collari the only other top driver to improve was Serpent team driver Andrea Cristiani but 15th is not a true indication of the Italian’s talents. Retiring from this morning’s qualifier with a faulty receiver, the Vice World Champion said his 966, which has been fitted with a new Max engine, is working much better today but feels he lost time trying to pass current European Champion Jernej Vuga during the second run.

Due to the higher track conditions current TQ holder Robert Pietsch decided to use the round to test his second factory Novarossi engine. The German said the engine, which has less running on it was a little rich but ran for over four minutes. Pulling up just after half way through the run the Mugen driver said he will revert back to his first engine for the penultimate qualifier which is scheduled for 10:30 in the morning and has the potential to see some very fast times set.

‘Its nice to be competitive again’ was how Team Shepherd driver Josh Cyrul summed up his second round despite stripping a gear six minutes in. Having switched to harder springs all round on his Velox he said the car had great pace despite the hotter conditions which don’t appear to be effecting him much as his rivals. Setting the fastest lap of Q4 with a 20.037, the American drops one place to sixth due to Collari’s improvement but plans no set-up changes for the morning when he is confident of moving back up the
order.

Having had a great Q3 Team Motonica may be without one of their star drivers for the rest of the event. Dario Balestri was found to have run an unmarked engine in Q4 and faces exclusion from the entire event. Race officials are deliberating over the matter with an announcement expected later this evening.

Elsewhere things appear to be getting worse for current 1:10 World Champion Daniele Ielasi.  The Italian is struggling to find a set-up that works on his Shepherd with his best run set in the last qualifier only good enough for 37th spot, one place ahead of European Champion Jernej Vuga.  Mugen driver Vuga said he can’t a good set-up for the current conditions and even tried that of Andrea Pirani but didn’t like the feeling it gave.  The big problem for the Slovenian driver is a lack of steering.

View our event image gallery here.

August 19, 2009

Incomplete run nets Pietsch new TQ!

Despite failing to complete the full 10-minutes in the third round of qualifying Robert Pietsch has bettered his overnight TQ time. This morning’s cooler track conditions lived up to expectations with the majority of the front runners setting down quicker times. Starting the heat in last position Pietsch’s Mugen was on for a 30 lap run but on his last lap he thought the computer announced the race over and the German came into the pits but that was not the case for the No.3 car. Afterwards he said the computer announcements are not very clear in the rostrum but wasn’t too upset about missing out on the 30 lapper saying his 29/9:59.566 was just as good. Alberto Picco recorded the second fastest time but had a scare when he was told he was disqualified for his pitman leaving the pitlane without handing in his controlled Orion fuel. It soon turned out that officials had mistaken Picco’s pitman for that of Andrea Pirani who during his first pitstop took a front wheel off his Mugen having hit the pitwall.

Heading an overnight transformation at Team Motonica, 20-year-old Belgian star Robin D’hondt put in a stunning run to jump into third position. The current German National Champion, who found his P81 was tweaked at the end of yesterday’s qualifying,  was surprised himself at how much dialling this out had transformed the Novarossi powered car and was delighted with his performance. D’hondt plans to adjust the rear downstops to try get a little more steering but feels it will be hard to better his time.

Setting the 4th fastest time, Japanese driver Masao Tanaka said he is finding the Lostallo track very difficult but was happier with the grip levels this morning. Still not 100% happy with the set-up on his Max powered Kyosho he will make further changes for Q4.

Team Shepherd driver Josh Cyrul found new speed this morning jumping into the Top 5 for the first time. The American said his car set-up has been good all week but getting a good tuning balance on his Novarossi between the bottom & high end was difficult with it running super rich low down. Fitting an exhaust gas cooler this morning he said this had cured the problem and made the Velox V8 much nicer to drive due to the smoother power band.

Lamberto Collari, who held second overnight, failed to capitalised on the faster track conditions with a mistake costing him any chance of improving on his time from yesterday.  As a result the the Kyosho drops to sixth.

Working on his Motonica late into the night seems to have paid dividends for Dario Balestri.  The 2007 Worlds Finalist posted the seventh fastest time as Motonica start to come into contention here in Lostallo but says his P81 is still not at its full potential. The Italian is looking for a better balance between steering and rear end grip.

Serpents Mark Green improved his time but the Serpent 966 drivers drops three places to eight.  Having had a difficult day yesterday Japan’s Takaaki Shimo was pleased to go the full 10 minutes posting the 9th fastest time but the OS team driver said he is capable of more.  Motonica designer Stefano Solaroli completed the Top 10.

View our event image gallery here.