HOMESTEAD, U.S.A.
Due to unforeseen events happened couple of months ago the most famous USA “classic” onroad race moved from Full Throttle Raceway in Kissimmee to HMRC location that recently hosted the Sedan 1/10 World Championship. Our official team travelled again overseas to attend the US NITRO CUP with Alberto, Carmine and Dario for 1/8 class with Jilles and Teemu lined up in 1/10 class.
Track conditions were lot different compare to worlds days due to different preparation of the track in typical “George’s Style”: tons of grip in&out the racing line for maximum fun of the drivers! Weather also was really different from late October with first days of practice marked out from a cold breeze and around 70 fahrenheit. From the beginning our drivers was very fast and spent most of time to get used to new conditions changing setup of their cars. Amazing was lap time difference that in 1/10 was almost 1 second faster than World’s.
Six Qualifying rounds see the dominance of Carmine Raiola in 1/8 and Teemu Leino in 1/10… They really impressed the audience with lot of confidence in this tight track showing an incredible pace. Dario in 1/8 wasn’t so far and also Alberto get closer and closer every round; Jilles improved also round by round and at the end we have 1-2-3 in 1/8 Open class and 1-2 in 1/10 Nitro class. The good news arrived from our US customers: in the 1/8 Open Christian Lopez gets directly Amain as CJ Townend do in 1/8 Master with Franco Machado, that travelled from Portorico, 5th in 1/10…
Sunday for Finals was really hot (90 fahrenheit) and humid compare to early days. CJ wasn’t lucky and closed 6th in 1/8 Master Amain that saw the win of our friend Marco Vanni. The 1/10 Amain start with Teemu in front and Jilles behind; both of them waiting to know which of their strategies works better for 45 minutes… Franco Machado had some contacts in the midfield loosing some time in the beginning but he drove a good Final. Back to lead guys and unfortunately during his tire change Teemu suffered of the lost of rear hex hub allowing Jilles to open a gap and cruising to the win. The “furious” recover of the Finnish driver pleased the audience that can see “how fast” a Sedan car could be driven on this track… The most awaited 1/8 Open class final saw a great performance of Carmine: he succeded to maintain the lead in the first minutes of the race when Dario spread maximum effort to pass him… Dario tried also a different tire strategy making 1/2 change after only 8 minutes but a damaged body shell due to a contact vanished his efforts. Picco was very regular and constant in his driving getting the last step of the podium after long fight with Christian that few minutes to the end must retire due to an engine failure.
Complete 1/8 Open podium, 1-2 in 1/10 gave us the perception of a work “well done”; highest point of the week was how our customers enjoyed the advice and sometimes the direct help of our team drivers. Working together is always better! What we can say… See you next year!
