Ielasi wins on debut for Shepherd

We got word from Shepherd Racing that newly signed team driver Daniele Ielasi won last weekend in Lucca, Italy in his first race with the Velox. With the Shepherd team, consisting of Robert Pietsch, Patrick Schäfer and Armin Weihert, in attendance to give support, Daniele quickly became comfortable with the car and could improve his lap times constantly. The race saw 50 drivers in attendance including 2 time European Champion Dario Balestri as well as Marco Vanni and Stefano Puccinelli and after Saturday’s practice session it was clear that the battle for the win would be between Dario and Daniele. After 3 qualifying rounds on Sunday morning, and with drivers battling with fuel consumption, it was Balestri that took the pole position just in front of Ielasi in 2nd. With changes to his muffler prior to the final Daniele immediately jumped into the lead in front of Balestri, Vanni and Puccinelli and up to the first pit stop the Velox racer could increase his lead at the front of the pack. By the middle of the final there was a gap of 8 seconds between the first 2 racers but 6 minutes before the end Dario had to stop with glowplug failure while Marco Vanni also had to retire because of gearbox problems. This left Daniele to cruise home in first, taking his first victory in his first outing with his new team.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]