TÜRKHEIM (DE)
In the middle of August the MiniClub of Türkheim in Bavaria region of Germany hosted the Euros for the 1/10 Nitro category. The Efra GP Series final round held in June, where most of top drivers were present, was a nice comparison to see the progress of every driver. The track can be considered quite small, compared to many European tracks but the layout was very challenging and fitted 1/10 scale properly.
Our official team attended full forces with Dario, Teemu, Carmine, Francesco and Jilles with the great addition of Milan Holthuis, Jurmin Etnel from Holland and Nikos Karabelas from Greece all driving our IF15 platform.
Unfortunately as oftenly happened in this 2019 the weather conditions affected the race from the first day of practice welcoming the drivers with a full wet track. The second day was slightly better with warm temperature and some sun to highlight the practice rounds.
On Wednesday the official race started and we complete the program with all free practice rounds and the opening ceremony. Thursday rain comes again and all the drivers patiently waited for a dry track to complete the control practice to allow organizers for a correct reseeding; fortunately we can clear this 2 rounds just in time before another big shower wet the track again. The former World Champion Greiner topped the ranking as expected with our drivers quite confident on the track reaching the 2 fastest heats.
Due to delayed timetable Friday time schedule was a bit hectic with all the 5 rounds in a row. The number of entries allowed to have a good timing and everything went smooth; again the home driver Dominic took the overall TQ with Dario second ready for superpole challenge. Francesco 6th Jilles 7th, Carmine 9th the others not too far with Teemu super fast but unlucky in the last round… with only 2 good rounds he has to start his race from quarters final as Milan. In superpole Dario suffered a sudden failure after only one lap so also for him the race start from Semis.
Saturday morning Jurmin cannot bump up followed from Nikos & Milan that stuck in 1/4 finals. Teemu showed great pace dominating his quarter bumping on Semis. The SemiB was linear with a very smooth driving by Francesco that won the phase controlling first his tire consumption and recovering the lead in the final 4 minutes. The SemiA start with a technical problem for Dario that was forced to call the delay… with consequently last spot on the grid. At the horn Teemu imposed his pace again to the field recovering quickly from 8th to the lead; Jilles managed a good race with his faultless driving closing easy second and the heartache race was conducted by Dario that lap by lap tried hard to reach a bump up spot succeeding to get 3rd place with 20 seconds to go… Carmine unfortunately broke a tire that penalized his speed in the second half of the race when he was steady 3rd.
Final start in time and as expected Greiner pull off and never looked back; a final and a title that he really deserved from first day of race. Our drivers put maximum efforts to close the gap: Teemu and Dario forced the rhythm from the beginning trying to be closest possible to the German driver in case something happened; Jilles choose a 5.30 minute refueling strategy followed by Francesco at 5 minute with consistent pace. Teemu suffered a broken flywheel after 19 laps so he had to retire, Dario controlled the rest of the field from his 2nd position… Jilles broke a plug after 37 minutes and lost some laps in the pits while Francesco come back strong and fast from fifth to third in the last part of the race. A good 2 steps of the podium for our Italian drivers! Now it’s time to switch at 1/8 mode to prepare World Championship in California! See you soon at the track!
