Champion to start 2009 EC on pole

Dario Balestri will start tomorrow’s European Championship final on pole after the fourth qualifier failed to see his Round 3 time bettered.  The defending champion will be joined in the final by Jerome Renaux, Francesco Tironi and wonder kid Biagio Spataro.  The other six drivers who will join them on the grid for the 45 minute encounter will have to battle their way through from the Semi Finals first.

Full report to follow.

Balestri ups pace in Gubbio

He said yesterday evening before leaving the track he would go faster and that exactly what the defending champion Dario Balestri has done here this morning bettering his overnight TQ time by 3 seconds. The factory Team Magic/Novarossi driver said his car was good in the cooler conditions but traffic in the pitlane during his fuel stop cost him some time. Aiming to claim a hat trick of European titles on home soil, the Italian thinks it will be very difficult to improve in the final qualifier as the temperature starts to rise here in Gubbio.

Coming closest to Balestri’s provisional pole position time was Jerome Renaux who was just 1.7 seconds off. The Belgian driver is finding his Xray really easy to drive and very consistent over 7-minutes. One of the few front runners using the Stratus bodyshell, the Euro B finalist says he hopes the track is slower for the fourth qualifier and that he wouldn’t even mind some rain! Planning no changes to his NT1/Novarossi/Kronos combination he said he will try to again to maintain his form in the final round of heats.

‘Always third’ was Francesco Tironi’s reaction to setting the third fastest time for the round.  An improvement on the time that he set yesterday it keeps him third overall.  The factory Sirio driver said some sloppy driving over the opening three laps cost him a few tenths but overall his Mugen was working well.  Asked if he could take the challenge to Balestri the Italian replied ‘I think Dario will start the final on pole’.

One of the finds of the 2009 EFRA European Championship is most certainly Biagio Spataro.  The 15-year-old, who is running in one of the lower heats, has been quick all week and just produced a 26 lap run in 07:11.502 to put himself into the all important Top 4 who directly qualify for the Main Final.  Spataro lost around a second during his pitstop after spinning his JP powered Xray on fuel spilt in the pitlane but said fourth overall will do just fine.

After a terrible day yesterday Michael Salven finally produced a full run. Stripping gears in opening two qualifiers it was discovered last night that the crankshaft on his Mega ZX was bent. Fitting a new crankshaft, clutch and gearbox to his Serpent 733 the German was able to post the fifth fastest time despite the car shifting into second too early. Finding out he was in the unwanted fifth position, meaning a place in the Semi Final, the former two time European Champion said ‘We have to go faster’.

Dirk Wischnewski who held fourth overnight dropped to sixth despite improving his time by almost 2 seconds. The German was annoyed with himself saying his Xray was very good but he had messed up running off the track and losing around a second and a half. His Xray teammate Martin Hudy was also annoyed, but with Guiseppe D’angelo who ran in to him chunking his tyres forcing the Slovak driver to retire. D’angelo who drops from being second overnight to seventh also retired with his Reds Racing powered Mugen suffering traction roll.

Having been relieved to finally set a decent time, good enough to put him sixth, Madrid podium finisher Alessio Mazzeo’s Serpent was disqualified for the tank being too big.  The young Italian said he was very nervous during his run as he knew he needed to produce a good time but unfortunately it was all in vain and he will now have to do it all again in the last round of heats.

Drivers have one last chance to record a decent time but as proved by Balestri, qualifying 25th in 2005 and 26th in 2006, victory is still possible even if qualifying hasn’t gone your way.

Top 10 after round 3 of qualifying
1. Dario Balestri – Team Magic/NR – 26 laps in 07:09.413 (Q3)
2. Jerome Renaux – Xray/Novarossi – 26 laps in 07:11.161 (Q3)
3. Francesco Tironi – Mugen/Sirio – 26 laps in 07:11.328 (Q3)
4. Biagio Spataro – Xray/JP – 26 laps in 07:11.502 (Q3)
5. Michael Salven – Serpent/Mega – 26 laps in 07:11.594 (Q3)
6. Dirk Wischnewski – Xray/Novarossi – 26 laps in 07:12.733 (Q3)
7. Giuseppe D’angelo – Mugen/Reds – 26 laps in 07:12.978 (Q2)
8. Giorgio De Felici – Xray/Max – 26 laps in 07:13.326 (Q3)
9. Teemu Leino – Xray/Team Orion – 26 laps in 07:13.728 (Q3)
10.Kyle Branson – Serpent/Sirio – 26 laps in 07:14.866 (Q3)

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Champion ends 1st day of qualifying on provisional pole

Dario Balestri is the overnight TQ holder here in Gubbio, Italy, thanks to his time from the first of today’s two qualifiers. The reigning champion said that cooler conditions made for higher traction in the second heat and during his warm up laps he had to adjust the front camber on his Team Magic to avoid traction rolling. The change reduced the amount of steering and as a result he was unable to better his earlier time although he did come close with a time less than 4/10ths off. Very happy to be returning to his hotel this evening as the provisional pole sitter, the factory Novarossi driver paid tribute to his mechanic Danilo Pucci who’s very fast refuelling helped him to achieve the time in what is very close competition. With one second separating the current Top 3, Balestri is confident he can better his time tomorrow.

Fastest in the second round was Giuseppe D’angelo.  The Mugen driver was within 5/100th of Balestri’s TQ time but reported that his car developed oversteer 4 minutes into the run and he had to drive safe.  His Reds Racing engine was much better now but the Italian feels they can still go a little leaner. Asked if he would challenge for the TQ honours he replied he would be happy to stay second as his main focus was to be strong for the 45 minute final.

Another driver to go faster in Q2 was Sirio’s Francesco Tironi but overall he drops to third. A direct A Main qualifier at the Worlds, he said ‘it is really, really, really close, we are separated by just the smallest of mistakes’. Happy with his Mugen the jolly Italian said he really wants to take TQ here at Gubbio and will be pushing hard in the morning to do so.

The fastest non Italian overnight is Dirk Wischnewski. The German Champion said he made a safe run having had engine trouble in the opening heat. With his time almost certain to assure him a place in the Semi Final, the Xray driver will now push harder to see if he can mix it with the Italians.

‘Finally finished a run’ summed up Teemu Leino’s relief at going the full 7-minutes. The  Finn who was Top Qualifier at the last Euros said the power from his Team Orion engine was now really good and despite his NT1 ‘double steering’ in the corners he was pleased to post the fifth fastest time. The factory Xray driver will try a harder front shock for tomorrow’s most important heat, Q3, which is expected to the rocket round due to the lower morning temperature.

Completing the provisional Top 6 is Niki Duina. The Italian, who was third after the first round, was not able to capitalise on the cooler conditions with radio problems forcing him to pull in early and he drops to sixth. Taking fifth fastest for the round bettering his Q1 run to move in the 26 lap bracket was Belgian Jerome Renaux who remains seventh overall.

Running in the top heat Martin Hudy was on target for a TQ run but his Max engine went off tune after refuelling. The Slovak driver was clearly disappointed with his final time, the eight fastest so far, as he feels his Xray is good enough to challenge Balestri’s time if the engine remains consistent.  Both failing to improve their Round 1 times, young guns Biagio Spataro and Kyle Branson round out the current Top 10.

Having been second fastest in the first qualification only to lose his time for his shell being too low Jilles Groskamp’s day didn’t improve. The Serpent 733 driver who recorded the fastest lap of the top heat suffered engine problems. The Dutch ace said he is very comfortable with the new car but something in the engine/pipe/tank combination is causing the engine to go lean when the fuel level is low.  Serpent teammate Mark Green was also running a strong pace when he made heavy contact with a curb with resulted in a broken rim. The Englishman said his Novarossi engines are working well now, as is the car, and he just needs to get it together in the morning.

For World Champion Daniele Ielasi its back to the drawing board after going in the completely wrong direction with set-up. The Shepherd driver said he is going back to his hotel now where his Velox V10 will undergo a full rebuild with the same set-up as yesterday when the car was working pretty well.

So Day 1 of qualifying is over here at Gubbio and its pretty much as was predicted –  Italians ruling the time sheets. Two more qualifiers make up tomorrow’s timetable but it would be a brave person to bet against an Italian being on pole for Sunday’s final.  Our coverage, which is brought to you in association with Team Orion, Serpent and Mugen, continues in the morning.

Top 10 after round 2 of qualifying
1. Dario Balestri – Team Magic/NR – 26 laps in 07:12.928 (Q1)
2. Giuseppe D’angelo – Mugen/Reds – 26 laps in 07:12.978 (Q2)
3. Francesco Tironi – Mugen/Sirio – 26 laps in 07:13.603 (Q2)
4. Dirk Wischnewski – Xray/Novarossi – 26 laps in 07:14.577 (Q2)
5. Teemu Leino – Xray/Team Orion – 26 laps in 07:14.582 (Q2)
6. Niki Duina – Xray/Max – 26 laps in 07:15.490 (Q1)
7. Jerome Renaux – Xray/Novarossi – 26 laps in 07:15.619 (Q2)
8. Martin Hudy – Xray/Max – 26 laps in 07:16.255 (Q2)
9. Biagio Spataro – Xray/JP – 25 laps in 07:00.433 (Q1)
10.Kyle Branson – Serpent/Sirio – 25 laps in 07:01.058 (Q1)

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Balestri off to a good start in qualifying

Dario Balestri has got his quest for a hat trick of European titles off to a good start by TQ’ing the opening round of qualifying for the 2009 EFRA 1:10 200mm Euros.  The defending Champion recorded a run of 26 laps in 07:12.928 to beat the Serpent 733 of Jilles Groskamp by 7/10th of a second but the Dutch ace, along with Robert Pietsch and Adrien Bertin, was later disqualified for his bodyshell being under the minimum permitted height. Balestri said his Team Magic felt good but in the later part of his run the clutch loosened causing his G4RS 09 to be very slow out of the corners.  With Groskamp’s time disallowed Mugen’s Francesco Tironi ended the round with the second fastest time.  The Italian said he was too conservative with the settings on his Sirio engine running it very rich due to the super high temperatures which have reached 40 degrees in the shade with the track hitting 63 degrees. Having found the car to push a little Tironi plans to run slightly larger diameter tyres for the second of the four rounds of heats which many feel could be when the track is at it fastest.

Making it three different manufacturers in the Top 3, Niki Duina took his Max powered Xray to the only other 26 lap run and the Italian declared himself pleased with the performance. Fourth fastest was pre race favourite Giuseppe D’angelo with his Reds Racing powered Mugen despite failing to complete the run. The Warm Up race winner struggled a little with the rear of his modified MTX-4R stepping out and also set his engine a little too rich. To improve the car the Italian plans to run harder front shocks for Q2, the last run for today.

A definite name to watch for the future, Biagio Spataro was classified fifth but the 15-year-old was not happy with his JP engine which was too rich making his Xray difficult to drive.  Setting the fastest lap time for the first qualifying round, with a 16.111, one wonders what Spataro can do when he gets the car to his liking. Completing the Top 6 was another young driver with former European Junior Champion Kyle Branson sorting the engine problem, that prevented him from starting the timed practice this morning, to be the top Serpent 733.

Groskamp, who is baffled by his disqualification after the car safely passed through pre race scrutiny, said the heat was a bit of a learning curve for him. Feeling his Max was too rich in the warm up he had it adjusted but due to the high temperatures it was too lean by the end of the 7 minute run. Famous for his super clean racing lines Groskamp admitted that the run was not very tidy and this cost him some time. One of the other drivers to have his time disallowed, Pietsch felt the penalty was harsh. Having passed pre race scrutiny three times his bodyshell failed for being 0.2 of a millimetre under, a piece of paper being used to gauge the tiny discrepancy. The experienced international racer feels a warning would have been more appropriate.

A lot of top names hit trouble during the opening qualifier. 2004 & 2005 Champion Michael Salven stripped a gear on his 733 while teammate Mark Green suffered an engine cut. Others to suffer engine cuts were Madrid Top Qualifier Teemu Leino and Capricorn’s Martin Christensen. Daniele Ielasi made a mess of his run with a costly crash in the pitlane.

Top 10 after round 1 of qualifying
1. Dario Balestri – Team Magic/Novarossi – 26 Laps in 07:12.928
2. Francesco Tironi – Mugen/Sirio – 26 Laps in 07:14.052
3. Niki Duina – Xray/Max – 26 Laps in 07:15.490
4. Giuseppe D’angelo – Mugen/Reds – 25 Laps in 06:58.823
5. Biagio Spataro – Xray/JP – 25 Laps in 07:00.433
6. Kyle Branson – Serpent/Sirio – 25 Laps in 07:01.058
7. Jerome Renaux – Xray/Novarossi – 25 Laps in 07:01.095
8. Giorgio De Felici – Xray/Max – 25 Laps in 07:02.033
9. Alexander Hagberg – Xray/Max – 25 Laps in 07:02.102
10. Dirk Wischnewski – Xray/Novarossi – 25 Laps in 07:03.112

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