Mazzeo wins Super Pole

Alessio Mazzeo has booked his place in the Nitro Touring Car World Championship final alongside fellow countryman & Top Qualifier Dario Balestri.  Running third of the four Super Pole contenders, there was a huge roar from the crowd as the Serpent driver bettered the time of provisional pace setter Dominc Greiner who bettered the opening time of Robert Pietsch.  With Simon Kurzbuch to run last, Mazzeo wasn’t content with his lap and sending the crowd into a frenzy with a blistering 6th & final lap that was almost 1/10th faster.  With the benchmark clearly set, 16.302 the time to beat, Kurzbuch would try but was no match for the popular Italian managing a best time of 16.467 on his last lap, an identical time to that of Greiner.

‘Amazing, that is the only word’, was an overwhelmed Mazzeo’s reaction.  Having described himself ‘the little guy’ of the four Super Pole competitors as he is the only one without World Championship credentials, he summed up the 2 minutes of track time, as ‘one of the best moments of my life’.  Always personable, the 24-year-old continued,  “I thank everyone in the stadium for making this so special’.  Asked about his lap he said, ‘I wanted to do it for everyone that has motivated me in racing, my family , my friends and my team’.  Thanking his father & mechanic Giuseppe he said he owed a big thanks to his engine sponsor Gimar who he said ‘have worked very close’ with him to make it possible to race at the top level.  Complimenting controlled tyre supplier Hot Race on ‘the quality of the tyres’, their consistency making it easier to work on set-up, when asked about a plan for the 1-hour final he gestured his plan was just to enjoy it.

Officially second in the Super Pole, as he had a faster second best lap to Kurzbuch, Greiner’s reaction was to the point, ‘Alessio was the fastest’.  Joking it was ‘super close’ between himself and Kurzbuch, the Serpent driver said while they tried to improve the car after the final qualifier the ‘car feel not so good’.  Planning to change his 748 for tomorrow he concluded, ‘racing for 30-minutes is another story’.  The 2014 Podium finisher will line-up on pole for the Semi B final.

Starting on pole for the Semi A, Kurzbuch said, ‘I don’t know why but the car was not as good as in qualifying’.  Contesting only his second 200mm Worlds, his P2 in qualifying bettering his P8 2014 performance in Bangkok, the reigning 1:8 World Champion said ‘maybe the 2-minute warm-up was not enough time for me (to bed in the tyres) as the car was loose in the rear for the 6-laps’.  Complimenting Mazzeo for ‘two super good laps’, the Swiss driver said having to race in the Semi gives him a good opportunity to test for the final.

Running first as the lowest qualifier of the four, and almost a 30-minute break without any track activity, Pietsch felt going first put him at a disadvantage but added a change to his Mugen MTX6 set-up had left the car ‘not good’ for the shoot out.  Planning to revert to his Q6 set-up for the Semi in which he will start directly behind long time 1:8 rival Kurzbuch, he pointed out ‘tyre wear is quite a lot’.  Asked about tyre stops he replied, ‘nobody can do it on one set’.

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Balestri is World Champs Top Qualifier

Dario Balestri is the Top Qualifier of the seventh running of the Nitro Touring Car World Championships.  The Capricorn driver claimed his first World Championship pole position with a third TQ run in the penultimate round of qualifying at Miniautodromo Internazionale M.Rosati.  After a tough start to Day 2 of qualifying in Gubbio, Balestri took control for the second half of the day as he topped the rescheduled Q2 concluding heat backing that up shortly afterwards with another perfect performance to put the overall TQ beyond the reach of his rivals.  Despite conditions being cooler for Q5, which was run later in the day due to the rescheduling of the timetable following yesterday’s rain, the Italian was able to see off Team Shepherd’s Simon Kurzbuch with Mugen’s Takaaki Shimo completing the Top 3.  For Q3 topping Alessio Mazzeo, a spin at the end of the straight would end his quest for the overall TQ while for surprise Q4 pace setter Syoki Takahata the round would result in a P11.

‘Whoo, that was super stress’, was Balestri’s reaction, the pressure release of successfully completing stage one of his Worlds campaign clearly evident. The former European champion of both 1:10 and 1:8 Nitro but for who a World title has eluded him, he said the TQ was the result of ‘a lot, a lot of hard work.  Maybe too much, ask my girlfriend’.  Having suffered with the rear end of his Tesla powered LAB CO3 bottoming out over the last three laps of the previous qualifier he said he adjusted the rear springs to raise the rear of the car and the change made it ‘perfect’ for Q5 which would be 1/10th faster than previous fastest TQ time.  Winner of the Warm-up Race held in June, Balestri said, ‘I have to thank Massimo (Fantini) and Patrizio (Rossi) for the work they have made to give me the engines and car’.  With the sixth & final round of qualifying set to run in the morning, when asked what his plan is for it he replied, ‘I need to think about what to do’.

‘I gave everything for the last one to try to TQ one round’, said Kurzbuch.  He continued, ‘but I am still super happy with 2nd’.  Holding third place in the overnight ranking, the Swiss ace said, ‘we should be good for Super Pole so we will try something for that in Q6 to be ready for that.  Calling it the ‘the last chance’, Super Pole is new to the World Championships this year and gives the four drivers qualifying from 2nd through to 5th the chance to shoot is out for a second direct qualifying position in the 1-hour title deciding Main rather than having to contest a Semi final. Each of the drivers will individually get six laps of the track with the driver posting the fastest lap getting the Super Pole pass to the final.

Having went out of Q4 when he collected his crashed team-mate Robert Pietsch, breaking the front suspension and then having to run his Q2 heat half way through Q5, Shimo summed his evening up as ‘very busy’.  The Japanese onroad nitro stalwart, would make a number of changes to his OS powered MTX6 but felt the car was still ‘only ok’ adding it ‘needs more steering’.  ‘Consistent not fast’, he will use the final qualifier to test for the final as he is secure in a Semi Final position. Pietsch would take his example to P7 for the penultimate round to sit fifth in the qualification ranking.

Ending his best result in Q5, Bruno Coelho said of the qualifier, ‘I drove on the limit all the time’.  The only driver from the reigning World Champion manufacturer currently in a Semi Final position, the Xray driver said of his Max powered NT1 ‘its a little slow compared to other guys’.  Feeling the car is ‘not perfect like before’, after his crash with Kurzbuch in Q3 he said the car was completely different and it is still ‘not perfect like before’.  Despite this he was happy to be so close especially after having to avoided a crashed car towards the end of the qualifier that lost him 1/10th and a Top 3 for the round.  Unfortunately Alexander Hagberg’s hopes of things turning around in qualifying haven’t quite been realised and the defending World Champion finds himself 33rd with one qualifier to go.

Posting the 5th fastest time, Dominic Greiner said, ‘we tried to make the rear more stable but made it too stable and now we had oversteer’.  Top Qualifier at the last Worlds Championship two years ago, the Serpent driver said, ‘Its super close’ but conceded, ‘Dario was the best today and he deserves to be TQ’.  Currently holding P4 in the qualification ranking, he said his focus for tomorrow morning’s Q6 is to stay in the Super Pole position and the plan is to ‘put the set-up from before the rain’ back on his Novarossi powered 748.

Completing the Top 6 once again as he did in Q4, Jilles Groskamp said this time the result was down to his actually pace rather others crashing out.  The Team Infinity driver said switching to an early practice set-up had reduced his speed deficit saying, ‘we are not so far from Dario now’. Planning to leave his car unchanged for the final qualifier, the former Top Qualifier wanted to try improve on his lowest point he is counting in his three results.  With the race the debut for the new manufacturer’s first prototype of a touring car, Groskamp said ‘our aim for the race was to get a car in the Semi and now we already have three which is really good for the team’.  Having got a P4 in Q4, team-mate Jesse Davis would end the day with a P9 after he ran out of fuel on the last lap.

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Q2 Update – second TQ run for Balestri

With the top heat of drivers finally getting to run their second qualifier it is Dario Balestri who is the first driver to double up at the seventh running of the Nitro Touring Car World Championships.  With rain bringing a halt to the second round of qualifying yesterday, just as the top heat was about to go on track, after first planning to run the qualifier during Q4 it was moved to Q5 in a hope of bringing more equal track conditions.  In the end 9 of the 10 drivers would better the provisional TQ pace set by Kyle Branson in the second fastest heat, today’s track proving faster.   Setting a new fastest time of the four rounds run so far, Balestri would be 7/10ths faster than Serpent’s Alessio Mazzeo and his Capricorn team-mate Luca Redaelli.  Simon Kurzbuch, Dominic Greiner and Tadahiko Sahashi would complete the Top 6.  Commenting on the run having had a shock issue in the Q3 and the victim of a Robert Pietsch error in Q4, Balestri said, ‘finally another clean run again’.

Ending the round 9th, his best run so far, Branson who is a team-mate to Balestri said, ‘for sure the conditions were different (for the top heat) but it is still my best run’.  The British driver whose next best time is a P12 in Q4, added, ‘I am not doing great at the minute, it’s hard today with the wind’.  A Semi Finalist at the 2012 World Champions in Bangkok, he concluded, ‘I could do with two more Top 10s to get into the Semis’.

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