| Race report by Inaki Pahissa & Edu Escadon |
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| The first round of the Spanish National Championship 2010 took place at the PICAL track in Valladolid. With an unforgiving weather forecast, most drivers couldn´t test their cars on Friday until late in the afternoon⦠though all were present at the track and hoping that the asphalt would dry up. Fortunately this did happen and with only a short time remaining to test no-one could have a very clear image of what would happen the next day in the qualifying heats. Nevertheless, the top drivers where all satisfied with their practice, although all were aiming to improve their cars on Saturday before the qualifiers started. |
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| The first thing to do on Saturday was to give last yearâ™s champion his trophy. Rodrigo Pahissa received his award, being the first XRAY driver to win a national championship in Spain. |
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| Unfortunately, Saturday started with a completely wet surface after a heavy overnight rain, so all drivers started to work on their set-ups for wet conditions considering that the track wouldnâ™t dry thoroughly during the day. As such, controlled practice on Saturday evening was very active, despite once again nothing being clear and where no-one outshined the rest. |
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| The first qualifier was done under wet conditions. The fastest time was captured by Jony Pastor (XRAY), followed by Rodrigo Pahissa - former Spanish Champion, Eduardo Escandon and I?aki Pahissa all driving XRAY. With no rain having fallen through the entire morning, the second qualifier was on a dry track. Due to circumstances and the weather forecast, all drivers knew that if they missed this chance they wouldn´t have another. Once again the four fastest were I?aki Pahissa, Jony Pastor, Eduardo Escandon and Rodrigo Pahissa. XRAY continued to rule in the first round of the nationals. The third round was incredible and run on a dry track. No-one could beat the time set by I?aki Pahissa and Rodrigo was pulled down to 6th after having had some trouble with a slower car in his heat. Results would stay as they were after round three, as rain came down for the last qualifier meaning that no-one would improve their times. After qualifying heats it was I?aki Pahissa who claimed TQ, followed by Jony Pastor, Victor Pelaez and Eduardo Escandon⦠making it 3 out of 4 XRAYs in the final. |
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| Sunday was going to be the best day of them all according to the forecast, but that didnâ™t mean the track would be completely dry. In fact it wasn´t until semi-final A when the track surface finally dried out completely. This meant that semi-final B â“ where Rodrigo Pahissa was driving â“ was held under very difficult conditions with wet and dry sections which made tire choice the key factor in deciding who would make it to the final. This was the main problem faced by Rodrigo; with dry tires the car was fast in the dry section, but he struggled a lot in the wet section of the track. This inevitably made him drop positions and he wasn´t able to qualify for the final. |
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| From semi-final A, Fabio Barbosa (XRAY) managed to pass into the main final where the main issue was going to be tire wear. With no time to test, no-one knew what the actual tire wear would be. |
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| With this on their minds, many drivers started the final with extremely tall, hard shore tires to try to make it through the entire final without a tire change. This was the main strategy for all except I?aki who was determined to change tires, thinking that he would be able to push harder through the entire final. So right from the beginning I?aki pulled away with Jony and Eduardo being the only drivers to follow him for the first minutes until I?aki managed to build up a good gap. |
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| Things looked pretty nice as the strategy was working perfectly, until I?aki suffered an engine flameout at 9min into the race. This immediately shut down all his chances of a win, leaving the battle between Jony, Victor Pelaez and Eduardo. Victor started with a slow pace to preserve tires, started to push in the middle of the final, and took the lead and never looked back to take the win. Eduardo Escandon took 2nd place, Cayetano Martinez 3rd, Jony 4th (after having problems towards the second half of the final) and I?aki Pahissa who after a terrible drive managed to climb positions and end just one lap behind Victor. |
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| Unfortunately, Victorâ™s car was disqualified on technical inspection, which made Eduardo Escandon the winner, with Jony in 3rd and I?aki in 4th. A great result for XRAY, which is along the same path taken by Rodrigo Pahissa last year to win the championship. Things couldnâ™t have started better for Team XRAY in this 2010 season. |
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| Final results: |
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1. Eduardo Escandon XRAY NT1
2. Cayetano Martinez
3. Johny Pastor XRAY NT1
4. Inaki Pahissa XRAY NT1
5. Sergi Franch
6. Mikel Angulo
7. Martin Sevilla
8. Jose Aldudo
9. Fabio Barbosa XRAY NT1
10. Victor Pelaez
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