2019 EFRA 1/8 Track European Championship Finals Round Up

After a morning of exciting and at times controversial finals we reached the Main event with the belief that the champion ship would be decided between Poleman Dario Balestre and Super Pole winner Simon Kurzbuch. In a way we were right but no one could have predicted the titanic battle between the two or the extraordinary performances by a supporting cast of talented European racers.

From the off Dario took the lead from Simon and started to slowly go away till a mistake put him back to second, then at his 2nd pitstop the Italian decided to change left side tyres which that lost him further time and he emerged in 5th place. It was then that we realised, contrary to popular opinion, that other drivers were running very different fuel strategies! This saw Alessio Mazzeo, Jilles Groskamp and Dominic Greiner have moments in the lead. However as the race wore on Simon and Dario gradually rose to the top and engaged in a fascinating constantly alternating battle, with the lead swapping several times a slightly offset fuelling strategies played out we were treated to the finest display of driving on an exceptionally demanding track as the reigning World and European champions were never more than a couple of seconds apart

After the titanic struggle Dario eventually emerged victorious with Simon just a second or so behind, with Jilles Groskamp taking the final place on the rostrum a result that hardly seemed possible at the beginning of the week.

The Full A final result is-

Rank Pilot Laps Endtime Country
1 Dario BALESTRI 163 45:15.1 ITA
2 Simon KURZBUCH 162 45:00.2 CHE
3 Jilles GROSKAMP 161 45:09.3 NLD
4 Carmine RAIOLA 161 45:12.8 ITA
5 Robin D`HONDT 160 45:03.0 BEL
6 Toni GRUBER 160 45:11.9 DEU
7 Robert PIETSCH 158 45:07.0 DEU
8 Alessio MAZZEO 157 44:02.4 ITA
9 Dominic GREINER 156 45:14.0 DEU
10 Francesco TIRONI 128 37:14.2 ITA

Scorching weather was matched by scorching racing here at the RACG club in Montbonnot.

5 rounds of qualifying held over 2 days decided both grid for the 1/8th IC Track Championships with the first on Thursday and then 4 more on Friday – followed by the SuperPole competition.

With both the Euro “B” and “A” championships being contested every race of every round would have a major effect on the ranking lists.

In the Euro B championship Arnaud Battisitini took pole despite not scoring in 2 of the 5 rounds but 2 wins and a second were enough to secure a direct route to the main final, In the SuperPole competition it was Eric Marangon who claimed the fastest single lap to also directly progress to the main Final.

The Euro A championship saw a battle royal with reigning European champion Simon Kurzbuch taking rounds One and 3 with Italy’s Camine Raiola taking round 2. But as the temperature increased World Champion Dario Balestre came to the fore with two superb runs to win rounds 4 and 5 and pip Simon to TQ.

Superpole saw Kurzbuch and Raiola joined by Alessio Mazzeo and Silvio Hachler competing to put in the fastest single lap in their 6 Lap run. After good runs by Silvio and Alessio, Carmen Raiola, Simon Kurzbuch took to the stage and took just one lap to obliterate the previous best time to book his passage into the main Final.

Amongst all this success not everyone was having a great day chief amongst these was reigning 1/10th IC track Champion Teemo Leino who saw his best run scrubbed out for a technical infringement and also suffered a couple of mechanical problems. His journey the Main final will start in 1/8th finals at 9am!

published: 2019-07-04 22:21:56 (1928) Author: