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| Race report by Reno Savoya |
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| Preparing for the world championship is really tough. Many things to test, improve, adjust, re-test, re-improve! But the best way to get ready is to prepare as much as possible and even with all the new IFMAR requirements, racing the worldâ s warmup was a great opportunity to get data about the track, the surface, the area...and most of all the surroundings and local maners! In fact we didn't get disappointed as we had to pay 0 in order to clear customs and wait for one full day at the airport in order to get our luggage! |
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So we missed one day of practice, just like many other international RC stars who had exactly the same problem! I hope this will not happen for the worlds. Booking the air tickets for the worlds with one day in advance would be a smart move!
Back to the race! Like usually when I got to a new track, I started with the basic set-up I'm used to. I was really pleased with this basis for the practices and worked on small details like sway bars and shock piston testing 10 holes version from the kit to get the best out of my XB9. I was fast since the early practices, being in the top 5 after 3 consecutive laps, which I'm not used to as people were taking many risks on the track clearing the big tripple to get fastest laps but not consistent over the 10minutes. |
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| Jerome and Martin were also dialed as they were fast and consistent. Working together in perfect harmony, with chief engineer Juraj Hudy, we managed to get in the top 5 at nearly every run either Martin or I! Jerome was very close to get into the semis, stitting 16th after the 2 first rounds of qualifications. Adrian Castro from Argentina was super fast on the track but unfortunately had some issues with engine flaming out in qualifications making him start from early subfinals. |
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As the race went on, the track got more and more destroyed! Coming to the mains, it was a real disaster as the track was totally blown out, with high grip, high speed and rocks! Terrible conditions for cars, tires, but also for drivers who had really no resting time during a lap! All the top drivers were running with the same pace, just mistakes were making the difference.
Unfortunately for Martin, he landed on the roof after the double-single jump as he was easy 3rd in the semis and somebody crashed him which forced him to retire early.
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Everything went pretty good for me as I cruised during the semi and finished 6th. As my semi was faster than the other one, I would start with number 9 on the grid, my lucky number!
We made few adjustments on the car to make it even more easy to drive and more consistent for the final, going with a harder compound for tires, but also replacing the active front diff to a standard one with 7 000 which would give me more stability in rough sections of the track (understand there everywhere ;-) ).
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The final started really good as I got into the front pack early in the race thanks to the usuall stupid start crashes from other drivers getting stuck wheel-wing. No-one got me this time! I was leading for 5minutes when I started to make a few mistakes which pull me down to 5th untill the last minute of the race when Ronnefalk didn't finish!
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We stayed 2 more days at the track after the race to practice more. We came up with a really good package, working on diffs, shocks, sway bars, arm positions, shock positions etc!
It's a great result for the team and for me! We worked a lot on the car to make it more stable prior and during the race so I could compete with the best drivers in the world which is awesome! i'm really looking forward to the world championship!
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