1/8th On-road European Championship B – Report
This past weekend the 1/8th Nitro On-road European Championships B were held at the RME Lamberto Collari track in Cassino, Italy which is known for its somewhat old school layout and famous for its hospitality and restaurant. On this track also live steaming was first introduced to RC some years ago by a gentleman called Gianluca Decina and long before EFRA started their own service. Working in ICT and very handy with video Gianluca was the first to offer streaming around the year 2006 to 2008 during one of the EFRA events. Unfortunately this year’s event did not attract a lot of entries. It seems that drivers are making choices nowadays and in this case the majority made the choice to visit the EC-A later in the year instead of the B championship.
New rules for qualifying were in order for this event. After more than 35 years running events with the single best result to sort the finals now a point system was in place that, similar to the electric class system, uses the three best of the five qualifiers to seed the finals. Thursday started with two rounds of timed practice followed by two rounds of qualifying and it was Luca Piromalli who showed great pace by winning both rounds. Friday morning and come round 3 it was again Luca who dominated the field, handing him the TQ position early. The race was then on for the remaining top 5 spots as these allow to compete in the Superpole format to try and gain another direct qualifying spot for the main final.
Qualifying top 10:
1. Luca Piromalli – 0p
2. Tom Kragefsky – 9p
3. Mattia Collavo – 9p
4. Tim Wood – 9p
5. Paolo Massari – 13p
6. Davide Stafanizzi – 13p
7. Valeria Moccia – 13p
8. Cristiano Sartor – 14p
9. Antonio Calce – 14p
10.Fabio Vecchiatti – 14p
In the Superpole the 2nd to 5th qualifier got the opportunity to grab a direct spot for the main final by pulling 6 hot laps on the track, one by one, each driver on his own. The fastest lap will award the runner-up spot for the main final, the remaining three drivers will be seeded into the semifinals to try and get a bump-up spot. Ultimately the Superpole was won by Germany’s Tom Kragefsky with a time of 14.385, Matteo Collavo came in 2nd with a 14.445 while Tim Wood and Massari scored a 14.872 and 14.875 respectively. Further down the field Simone Pausini showed that you can have bad luck in the qualifiers but still make it into the main finals as he went all the way through the 1/8-, 1/4- and the semifinals to grab a spot for the main race. With the first semifinal being a bit faster than the second one five drivers proceeded to the main while the second semi only had three drivers to bump up. Ultimately Piromalli, Kragefsky, Wood, Stefanizzi, Vecchiatti, Pausini, Vaccariello, Pethoud, Massari and Annunziata had the chance to grab the 2015 Euro B title.
From the start of the 45 minute fianl Piromalli showed why he was the polesitter and winner of three rounds of qualifying, as Luca opened a gap of around half a lap to Stefanizzi and Kragefsky. Due to different fuel and tire strategies by master mechanic Bertram Kessler Kragefsky was able to close up and even get into the lead at some point of the final, but a small mistake when exciting the pit lane let him fell back into 2nd place; otherwise it would have been a battle for the win till the last minutes. At the end Luca Piromalli grabbed the European Championship title one lap ahead of Tom Kragefski Kragefsky with Davide Stefanizzi rounding out the podium in 3rd.
Final result:
1. Luca Priromalli – 178L 45.11.785
2. Tom Kragefski – 177L 45.00.918
3. Davide Stefanizzi – 176L 45.03.319
4. Francesco Annunziata – 176L 45.07.601
5. Paolo Massari – 176L 45.14.105
6. Tim Wood – 175L 45.11.610
7. Alberto Vaccariello – 174L 45.03.001
8. Christophe Pethoud – 172L 44.49.557
9. Simone Pausini – 171L 45.10.562
10.Fabio Vecchiatti – 171L 45.14.628
The trophy for the Youth European Champion went to Simone Pausini this year.
Thanks to Sander de Graaf for the report.
