Another TQ run from Balestri in Florida

Dario Balestri has produced another TQ run at the 1:10 200mm World Championship in Florida.  Having admitted himself to being surprised at taking the opening round of qualifying this morning, the Infinity driver once again topped the second of the 7-minute qualifiers by 2/10ths, this time round ahead of team-mate Andy Moore.  Having been disqualified from Q1 after setting the fourth fastest time, Shoki Takahata would keep his time this time round to complete the Top 3.  P2 in the first round, an early mistake put Naoto Matsukura out of contention while Top Seed Lamberto Collari continued to have engine issues only this time they meant he did not even take the start.  For reigning champion Dominic Greiner it was to be another 4th for the round with improvements from Toni Gruber and Jilles Groskamp seeing them complete the Top 6.

‘Another good surprise’, was how Balestri described his second TQ run.  The 1:8 World Champion continued, ‘honestly, the grip in the heat before was better.  I think this set of tyres is more hard.  In the warm-up I had to get my mechanic to adjust the camber because I had no steering. Anyway at the end it is another TQ run and we won it in the pit because we had a really fast stop’.

Reacting to his P2 Moore said, ‘Yeh it was alright. It was better than expected to be honest’.  Running in the second fastest heat, the former Electric Touring Car World Champion added, ‘Naoto had a mistake at the beginning and a few others had issues but I kept it on the track. I had a big slide at the end that cost 2/10th and that was the difference in the end’. A former 200mm Worlds finalist, finishing 4th in Thailand in 2012, the British driver continued, ‘realistically I am not vying for the TQ but if I can keep running in the Top 6 I’m happy’. On his car he said, ‘It feels good and my engine is good and Trin did a super fast stop which really helped the result’.

Takahata described his run as ‘a safe run’ adding it was ‘important’ because of having already lost a round following his technical disqualification in Q1.  Fixing the minimum gap between the two body openings, the Mugen driver left his car unchanged and plans run it again as is in the Day’s 3rd & final qualifier.  Losing a little time at the end of the run as he got stuck behind Meen Vejrak, Takahata felt he is driving well within himself.  Asked if he planned to push harder in the next one, his mechanic replied for him saying, ‘no he needs one more safe one’.

‘The car was better but I had a mistake at the end of the straight and lost half a second’, was how Greiner described his second qualifying effort.  Impressively but not intentionally drifting the entire first corner in the mistake, the Serpent driver also lost time in a miscommunication from his pitman at the end.  He said, ‘We thought it was my last lap so I launched the car at the line but for me it was not the finish and I lost 3/10ths’.  Also feeling his engine was a little too rich and his gearbox was changing late, the German concluded, ‘at the end I was 8/10ths off Dario and that’s the time my errors lost. We will make it better the next one’.

2017 European Champion Gruber said, ‘so far so good. One more good run and then I can smile’.  The WRC driver said, ‘In the first round I just made a safe run but could see the car was working well so I pushed a little more and was 2-seconds faster.  For the next one I will try to make more consistent my laps to bring down the total time but all can happen and one mistake could mean you are outside the Top 10. I will leave he car the same’.

‘It slowly starts to improve’ was how Groskamp reaction to his first Top 6 run.  The newly crowned Euro Nitro Series Champion added, ‘the car has been very nice all the time but I was just missing those few 1/10ths to be up there.  It is so competitive this race and I still need to find another 1/10th’.  Making changes to his car each time he has gone out on track, the former Electric Touring Car World Champion said, ‘I tried to copy my team-mates set-up but I had to go back to my own settings but slowly I am getting there and there is still a long way to go in the race’.

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Balestri takes opening qualifier at 200mm Worlds

Dario Balestri has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the 1:10 200mm World Championships in Miami, Florida.  Only 10th in seeding, just making it into the top heat, the reigning 1:8 World Champion topped the first of the six qualifier by 4/10ths of a second from Infinity team-mate Naoto Matsukura.  With the 8th running of the nitro touring car Worlds now featuring 7-minute qualifier, an impressive run from Simon Kurzbuch saw him take P3 after he ran the full distance without stopping for fuel. For Dominic Greiner he opened his title defence with a P5 run which later became P4 when Shoki Takahata was disqualified.  The Japanese driver fell foul of the body ruling that no two openings can be closer than 5mm and in his case he had only a 4mm gap between the rear window and roof hole for the glowplug.  Jesse Davis would set the fifth fastest time with Tadahiko Sahashi completing the Top 6.  Having topped seeding on his 200mm Worlds debut, Lamberto Collari could only manage the 12th fastest time in Q1 reporting afterwards that he had a glowplug issue that meant he couldn’t get a good tune on his engine.

‘I started the heat like a lottery because I changed a lot on the car’, was Balestri’s reaction to his TQ.  Top Qualifier at the previous Worlds in Gubbio, he continued, ‘I checked what my team-mates used (in seeding) because they were fast and tried to get a combination that would work for me.  I’m happy but I was not sure it was going to be good. Honestly I’m surprised’.  Asked if the car was now to his liking, the Italian replied, ‘Honestly it is still loose but it is like this for everybody so you just need to drive it the best you can.’

‘Not too bad’, was how Matsukura summed up Q1.  He added, ‘I think before (the heat) the track has less traction but actually when I drove it the traction was quite good.  Like I said yesterday I wanted to do a safety drive and have no mistakes.  On time I went wide and let Pietsch inside and then we touched and my car rolled. Without this it would have been a TQ run but still I’m happy with second.  He concluded, ‘I will leave my car the same for the next one’.

With former World Champion and now Novarossi representative Daniele Ielasi super impressed by his driver’s ability to go the 7-minutes without refuelling, Kurzbuch took it more in his stride saying, ‘this was our strategy from the beginning’.  He said he calculated both with and without fuel stops and going with the latter had paid off.  The former 1:8 World Champion, who made his Worlds Final debut here at the Homestead RC Raceway in 2011, said, ‘I had to drive really smooth to save fuel and it was a pity we were only 1-second off at the end.  I’m sorry for the other guys (in his heat) behind me that I didn’t open but I was leading and our target time was a fastest lap of 18.2.  I had some really slow laps and I will try to take them out in the next one’.  He concluded, ‘we are still in the game’.

Greiner said his opening run ‘was ok’ but continued ‘my car was super hard to drive’.  The Serpent driver added, ‘I had 3-mistakes. A spin one-time. I hit the wall one time and lost time in the pits when I touched another car.  This all cost me about 3-seconds so we are there on pace just the car is super hard to drive. I will try something different Q2’.

Davis was happy to make the Top 6 after a difficult time in practice.  Running in the second fastest heat, the Australian said, ‘the track changed a lot after the rain and we lost our set-up completely so we had to start fresh.  There was no rain last night so the track was same as in IPD and we went back to the set-up we used then and also put in a better engine.  The Infinity driver continued, ‘I think it will be better for Q2 because I had a mistake with a back marker in that one’.  On his car he said, ‘I will try the same and try to do another safe drive before I try another set-up’.

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