Sunday we ran the first trial of the AMSCI Italian Championship where we use EFRA regulations. This was my first experience with the XRAY T2'008 with rubber tires on asphalt, as in Italy we usually use foam tires.
I was pleasantly impressed by the car for its easy tunability and its speed on the track. I started with a set-up which was really fast the first 4 minutes but then it would heat up the tires too much and I started losing about 0.3sec on every turn on the last minute. I made some adjustments and the car became quite fast for the entire 5min run, allowing me to win a qualification and come in 2nd place in two others. In the final run I was 3rd behind Sala who won two qualifications, and Romagnoli with the same points as myself; with the timing he made on the first qualification he was better than I.
XRAY drivers (click to enlarge)
In the first final, Romagnoli overtook Sala and started to run away. After some corners I too also overtook Sala and set off in pursuit of Romagnoli. I managed to get closer but I didn't have time to overtake him. In the second final, Romagnoli again overtook Sala who, not like before, let me pass him because he realized that I was faster than him right from the start. After a few corners he got closer and I returned the courtesy. However, we touched and so I got a 5sec stop-and-go penalty, after which I started again and I was able to come in 4th place. Romagnoli won and Menicucci was 2nd and Taddei came in 3rd place. In the third and last final I got another stop-and-go penalty (this time I felt it was unjustified as it was just normal racing contact) and therefore my chance of finishing 2nd vanished.
(click to enlarge)
I closed to 3rd place behind Romagnoli and Menicucci. The regret was big but the potentiality is there for the next races. In the A final there were 6 XRAY pilots.
1 Romagnoli Michele
2 Menicucci Alessio 3 Martini Francesco XRYAY T2'008
4 De Liguori Giuseppe XRYAY T2'008
5 Gennari Marco XRYAY T2'008
6 Feni Dario XRYAY T2'008
7 Sala Federico
8 Taddei Maurizio 9 Micheli Massimo XRYAY T2'008
10 Parravicini Carlo XRYAY T2'008
