|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
| The Italian Indoor Carpet Nationals were planned for the very beginning of the race season, so on Saturday, February 25, all the best Italian drivers met in Vedano al Lambro (near the famous Monza track), to race head-to-head and try to win the first National Championship of 2006. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
| The XRAY team was larger than ever this year with 5 well-known Italian and international racers. Team Corally was also present in force after a very successful 2005 season, and smaller but still very strong teams represented Associated, Yokomo and Schumacher cars. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
| It was clear from the beginning of the qualification rounds that the T2 was very fast on the carpet track laid down under a tennis court balloon. Nicky Duina, Marco Gennari, and Guido Barbera were battling for the first place on the grid, strongly challenged by Italian Associated/Orion star Riccardo Rabitti. As qualification progressed, Corally drivers very consistent challenged for an A-final place. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
At the end of the 5 qualification rounds, Riccardo Rabitti took the TQ spot, followed by Duina in 2nd. The entire XRAY team was in the A final with 5 cars in the first 7 positions.
In one word⦠impressive! |
|
(click to enlarge) |
| All the team drivers started from the basic Rubber set up and then refined the feeling of their cars, working on shock damping, suspension droop, and using the unique Multi-Flex Technology™ chassis/top plate. Fabio Domanin, 1/8 nitro star, was on hand with his multi world championship finalist experience to help everybody in the team to work in the right direction. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
| Battery- and motor-wise, the team drivers used some different combinations. Duina was using a Novak Brushless 4.5 system along with Guido Barbera, Romagnoli and I chose the Nosram 4 Star brushless system, and Marco Gennari used brushed v2 motors. For batteries, Duina, Romagnoli, and I were using the all new Mustang Matched Intellect 4200 packs. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
| Sunday afternoon we were all waiting for the starting buzzer to battle for the win. In the first final it was Riccardo Rabitti who took the win ahead of Niki Duina. In the 2nd and 3rd finals, Niki gave quite a show with a perfect and mistake-free driving and achieved the overall victory. Marco Gennari was always very close to the first two cars, and only some traffic retained him from the top 2 challenge. All other XRAY drivers were battling for the remaining positions. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
At the end of the three A-finals this was the verdict:
1 Niki Duina XRAY T2
2 Riccardo Rabitti Associated
3 Marco Gennari XRAY T2
4 Guido Barbera XRAY T2
5 Michele Romagnoli XRAY T2
6 Christian Costanzo Yokomo
7 Francesco Martini Corally
8 Andrea Simari Corally
9 Federico Sala Corally
10 Giuseppe de Liguori XRAY T2
|
|
