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| Race report by Reno Savoya |
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| One of the most expected 1/8 buggy race in Europe was held this week end in Montpellier! Like usual, around 200 drivers attended this great event perfectly organized by the MBM crew. The weather was perfect for Friday and Saturday but we got some snow flakes on Sunday morning, off-road RC racing at it's apogee! |
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| Everything went great for Martin Bayer and I during the practices as we adjusted some details on the cars to make it fast and easy to drive on this very slippery wet blue groove surface! I went with softer rear springs in order to give more traction to the car and strike the wooden table on the right perfectly. I got the fastest time over 5 minutes in practices in P4, so we we expecting great things in qual! |
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In qualifications, I didn't change anything on the car, just focusing on my driving in order to get clear laps and fast corner speed. I missed TQ in Q1 for 9/100 of a second! In Q2, I was on a TQ pace when I crashed just in front of the loop! Stupid mistake cost me overall TQ as I pushed hard in Q3 and got TQ. Martin did great and was gaining speed thru out the qualifications. Unfortunately for him, he got sick due to the cold weather conditions, very hard to be fast when you don't feel well!
I qualified 2nd and Martin 6th. |
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| Sunday morning, the snow was part of the party! The weather was very cold, and some drivers had to race with really muddy conditions. Fortunately for us, the snow stopped, then rain occurred a little, then stopped. The track then dried out which made it wet blue groove and very slippery! I worked on tires in semi practices in order to get the proper traction, and felt very fast and consistent in semi. I could start on pole! Unfortunately for Martin, he suffered from traffic problems in the semi and couldn't make the bump to the main final. |
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| I started on pole and was fast and easy. I was increasing my gap on the pace during the first part of the race. I knew I would pit once less than the rest of the 11th drivers, which gave me a comfortable advantage and a clear track! After 15 minutes into the race, I was still leading but a couple of mistakes cost me a lot of time. We then played a cat&mouse game with Elliott as he was crashing was I was on a good pace and vis versa. |
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| 10 minutes left and I was closing the gap until the last minute when Elliott flamed out of fuel just in front of the loop! Fortunately for him, he could just cross the line and win! I finished 8 seconds behind after the hour long main! |
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| I had a lot of fun driving all week end long, I felt very comfortable and fast!! Looking forward to my trip to USA next week and racing the Dirt Nitro Challenge in 3 classes, buggy, truggy and ebuggy! |
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| Results: |
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1. Elliot Boots
2. Reno Savoya - XRAY XB9
3. Yannick Aigoin
4. Jerome Sartel
5. Oscar Baldo
6. Davide Tortorici
7. Lee Martin
8. Javi Pombo
9. Dani Vega
10. Bryan Baldo
See you around soon!
Reno
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