Balestri to defend World title as Top Qualifier

Dario Balestri will defend his 1:8 Onroad World Championship title as the Top Qualifier for tomorrow’s final at Steel City RC Speedway in California.  The Infinity driver secured his fourth consecutive World Championship TQ when he topped the sixth & final round of qualifying ahead of Simon Kurzbuch and Dominic Greiner.  With the first five qualifiers seeing 4 different drivers post TQ run, the final qualifying was a four way shoot out. Running in the second fastest heat Greiner did all he could to set the provisional TQ time while the other three contenders, Balestri, Naoto Matsukura and Kurzbuch set off in reverse order in the top heat.  The first to post a second TQ run when he topped the morning’s Q5, Matsukura would unfortunately crash out at two and half minutes, leaving the battle between Balestri and Kurzbuch, their predicted pace up on the time set by Greiner.  In the end Balestri had it under control finishing with 4/10ths on Kurzbuch. Overall Matsukura qualified 2nd followed by Kurzbuch, Greiner and Jesse Davis.

‘The last one was the best one because finally I start behind Naoto. The one in front always has more pressure’, was Balestri’s reaction to the final qualifier.  The Italian added, ‘I didn’t want the battle to end with Naoto mistake but even when he went out I could not take it easy because if Simon would win he would have the TQ so I had to push to the end for sure’.  With his place in the final secured, looking to the 1-hour race he said, ‘We have a perfect car for the race.  It’s super balanced and consistent on the lap times so we just need to see which temperature we will have and we can adjust the balance for that. I am looking forward to the final’.

Explaining his mistake, Matsukura said, ‘the engine was a little rich, I had no power, so I pushed hard and it caused me to traction roll’.  Winner of Super Pole at the last 1:8 World Championships when he made his nitro racing debut, the Japanese ace said, ‘For Super Pole I will go 100% but it is going to be super close.  Dominic and Simon can make good laps and also Jesse.  I will do my best and I like the single lap challenge’.

‘We gave everything I would say’, was how Kurzbuch summed up Q6.  The Shepherd driver continued, ‘Overall 3rd we are third now which is a good result.  Twice we were super close to Dario but he was just a bit quicker so he deserves this pole. Now the next challenge for us is Super Pole’. On contesting Super Pole, the 2015 Champion said, ‘In the last round the car was really good so we will go with it the same for Super Pole.  I cant say I like Super Pole because it means we missed the TQ but the passed two years I have experience of it and I will be pushing for a good outcome for our side’.

On his final qualifying attempt, Greiner said, ‘the engine was better but my driving was not perfect. The car was fast’.  He continued, ‘I am not a super pole driver. I am not so good on single laps but of course I will try my best’.  Almost conceding he will be lining up in the Semi Finals the Serpent driver concluded, ‘for the Semi we have a good car so everything should be fine’.

The final of the four Super Pole contenders, qualifying 5th overall, Davis said, ‘still we have good final’s pace but we just couldn’t find that 1-second we needed for the TQ pace’.  Making Super Pole last time out in France, the Australian said, ‘For Super Pole we will change the engine. Normally over one lap I can do something but here on this track I don’t think it’s going to be easy for me to do something over the 6-laps but I know we have a good Semi car. It’s easy to drive and consistent’.

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Matsukura first to TQ for a second time at 1:8 Worlds

After an opening day of qualifying at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships yesterday that produced four different TQ drivers, this morning Naoto Matuskura became the first driver to go fastest for a second time. Having TQ’d Q1 in cool morning conditions, the Infinity driver repeated the result on what is again a cold morning at Steel City RC Speedway.  Pursuing top seed and team-mate Dario Balestri, a slight mistake from the Italian in the final minute of 4-minute run was enough for Matsukura to move to the top where he would stay to the end.  Finishing 9/10ths ahead of Balestri who held on for another P2, the Q5 result means the honour of Top Qualifier at the 22nd running of Championship is looking like a two horse race between the defending Champion Balestri and the reigning 1:10 Champion Matsukura, although former champions Simon Kurzbuch and Dominic Greiner still have a chance.  For the round, Greiner set the third fastest time followed by JJ Wang, Jesse Davis and Kurzbuch.

Summing up his TQ run, which was just 2/100ths off the quickest TQ time set by Balestri in Q4, Matsukura said, ‘my car was pretty good but we changed engine for today and it was very good.  I almost traction rolled but I wont change anything on the car as it will be more hot so the traction should be lower’.  He continued, ‘Dario had a little bit of a mistake so I can get the TQ.  Without (the mistake) I think I would be 0.5 off so I think we need to work on the bottom end of the engine tuning’.

Commenting on his run, Balestri said, ‘I just made a small mistake and it was finished’.  Securing the overall TQ on the way to his World title in France two years ago, he continued, ‘Naoto always start behind me so there is a lot of pressure but it is OK.  We have one more to go’.

Greiner described his performance in the penultimate qualifier as ‘so so’.  The Serpent driver explained, ‘the engine got lean and more lean in the run so at the end I had no power.  It was the same yesterday so I think we will change the engine for the last one.  The car was pretty good and I think the track will be better so we change nothing just the engine’.

A driver impressing a lot of people with his pace and consistency throughout qualifying, Wang said, ‘I guess it was another solid run.  It was not quite enough to fight with the guys at the front and I had a bobble at the end which cost me a few tenths’.  Looking to the final qualifier, the Mugen driver said, ‘I will do some calculations and see what I need to do in the last one but I’m going for making the Super Pole’.

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World Champion Balestri finally gets TQ run in Q4

Defending 1:8 Onroad World Champion Dario Balestri finally produced a TQ run setting the fastest run in the final qualifier of the day at Steel City RC Speedway.  Having topped seeding, the Infinity driver became the fourth different driver to top qualifying today seeing off Q2 pace setter Simon Kurzbuch by just 5/100ths of a second.  Continuing his improving results, JJ Wang claimed the third quickest time to finish just ahead of a much improved performance from his Mugen team-mate Shoki Takahata.  Also finishing out today’s action with his best run, two more qualifiers to run tomorrow following yesterday’s wind cancellation, Francesco Tironi set the 5th fastest time ahead of Infinity team-mate Jeffrey Rietveld.  After posting a TQ run in Q3, Dominic Greiner’s follow up attempt was full of driver errors leaving the Serpent driver 10th fastest.  Having opened qualifying with a TQ run, Naoto Matsukura had a disappointing finish to the day as a crash in Q4 put him out.

‘Finally a nice run’, said a pleased looking Balestri.  Having had engine issues in the previous three qualifiers but still managing the second fastest time on each occasion, the Italian explained, ‘the conditions of the track change a lot today.  We had worked to get our car and engine ready for the super high traction but after the wind and day off yesterday the grip was down.  The set-up is so critical that this was enough to cause the tyres to slip a little bit more and make the engine work harder and this is what was causing our problems.  For the last one the grip was higher, still nothing like the days before, but everything was better for the conditions and we could get the TQ.  Also the car was super easy to drive and did not want to flip so the higher the grip the better for us’.

Reacting to his battle with Balestri, Kurzbuch said, ‘It was super tight.  I should be happy with the result because we are now really close to them but when you lose out on the fastest run by half a tenth its a disappointment’.  The Swiss driver took the blame for losing out on what is expected to be the all important fastest time of qualifying saying, ‘It was down to errors on my side.  I had one small contact with the barrier in the first part of the Omega and that put me off the line for the second part of the Omega.  I lost 2 or 3 tenths’.  Asked about his car, the Shepherd driver said, ‘the car was really good.  I had a lot of steering and power.  I flipped in the warm-up which warned me about which corner to be careful’.  Looking to the final two rounds of qualifying in the morning, the former Champion said, ‘Super Pole should already be fixed but we will try of course for the TQ’.

Summing up his fourth attempt Wang said, ‘the result was not bad but I had to come in a few times in the warm to tune the engine and this cost me precious time for bedding in the tyres’.  The American added, ‘my car was getting better and better towards the end of the run.  Anyway, overall it was a pretty good day’.  Asked if he planned to try anything in the remaining two qualifiers, he said, ‘I’m going to try and go faster and push for Super Pole’.

Having had a previous best of the 14th fastest time, both in Q1 & 3, Takahata put his improved performance to switching to his preferred set-up from practice.  The factory Mugen driver opted to go with a set-up that gave him an easy & safe car for the longer qualifiers but unable to mix it at the front.  Finding this set-up was causing his car to stop on turning into the corner, he reverted to his best practice set-up which immediately gave him a car that flowed better on track and with three rounds to count the Japanese driver plans to leave the car as is and try to drop his two currently counting P14 results.

Featuring in the Top 8 in each of his qualifiers, Tironi said, ‘All day the car is good and I have a good feeling on the track.  I didn’t change the car just little adjustments to the front spring’.  He explained, ‘Always the first run I take care to finish.  The second was also good.  The third round was faster but I had a mistake on the first lap.  This time I finish with a 5th.  I am easy in the Semi Final so now I will try to make Super Pole.  I know it is not easy but I try’.

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