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| Race report by Mike Gosvig |
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The XRAY X Race was held in Italy, on the nice new indoor asphalt track Indoor Racing Chilelli, the facility was awesome! Very cool track with nice flow and some hard chicanes, good friends, racing, and a hard working Francesco Martini, made a very good weekend for everybody.
I arrived on Thursday afternoon with Bruno Coelho, we went to see the track and were pretty impressed. We were ready to hit the track Friday morning for some testing. We tested all Friday with some good results, in the Stock 13,5t there were very good and fast drivers like Mattia Collina, local Marco Puleo, Davide Bertuzzi and many more. |
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Saturday the race started and we have some free practice in heats, after that some controlled Practice. I was able to top both the controlled Practice in front of Mattia Collina, we have almost same speed. After the practice I was not fully satisfied with my car and I kept testing with Bruno, because grip was getting up so we need to find some good setup to non-traction roll. I found a very good setup, with very good corner speed and steering and felt ready for the race!
Sunday was a real race day with 3 qualifications, the best round counted, and 3 finals with the 2 best counted. I was able to TQ all the Qualys with the fastest lap of the race: 11.350 in a 5minutes time of 26 laps in 5.03. Mattia was also very good and got the 2nd spot 5 seconds behind me with young Davide Bertuzzi in the 3rd spot.
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After qualys:
1. Mike Gosvig â“ XRAY T4
2. Mattia Collina - XRAY T4
3. Davide Bertuzzi - XRAY T4
4. Umberto Pernice - XRAY T4
5. Roberto Fabiano - XRAY T4
6. Marco Puleo - XRAY T4
7. Andrea Valerio - XRAY T4
8. Alessio Tolomelli - XRAY T4
9. Nicola Fornasari - XRAY T4
10. Luca Baronchelli - XRAY T4
Finals:
1st final I was able to pull a good gap from the start of the race, but after 4 laps I hit a curb and Mattia was on my rear wing. I could again pull a good gap down to Mattia who now had hard charging Bertuzzi after him ready to battle, Mattia made some mistakes and had a little crash. Now Bertuzzi was in 2nd spot, I won this final with 6 seconds up to Davide Bertuzzi and Mattia Collina only 2 tenths behind Bertuzzi in 3rd. Marco Puleo made a good main from the 6 on the start grid to go to the 4th spot, only 2 seconds behind Collina!
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2nd final again saw me pull away from the rest of the field, this time without any mistakes. Mattia in second and again Bertuzzi right behind Collina. Mattia Collina made a mistake out on the big sweeper to the straight, crashed his car and must retire from this final. Marco Puleo made good driving again to put some pressure on Davide Bertuzzi. I made 27 laps this time, with Bertuzzi 7 seconds behind me, and Marco Puleo only 5 tenths back to take the 3rd spot.
3rd final, I tested some different flex on the car, the feeling was almost the same. The start goes, Mattia was right after me, Mattia knews if he should take the 2nd spot overall he should pass me and win this final. Mattia was trying hard, but unlucky again flipped his car out on the straight and crashed to retire again⦠Bertuzzi just took it easy drove the 2nd spot safe home with Marco Puleo made a very good run from 6 on the grid again, to take the 3rd spot overall in the 13,5 class.
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Overall final standings:
1. Mike Gosvig - XRAY T4
2. Davide Bertuzzi - XRAY T4
3. Marco Puleo - XRAY T4
4. Umberto Pernice - XRAY T4
5. Andrea Valerio - XRAY T4
6. Mattia Collina - XRAY T4
7. Nicola Fornasari - XRAY T4
8. Luca Baronchelli - XRAY T4
9. Alessio Tolomelli - XRAY T4
10. Roberto Fabiano - XRAY T4
Thanks to XRAY, Francesco and Martin Hudy for the invitation to the race, a very nice weekend, I made some new good friends and Im looking forward to go to Italy soon again!
Thanks to TeamXRAY for the support and all my other sponsors. Also big thanks to Fabio from Sprint RC who picked me up at the airport!
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