Riccardo Berton takes Italian 1/8th Buggy Champs
Riccardo Berton’s 2015 season goes on in the best possible of ways, with the young Kyosho driver winning the third round of the Italian Nationals and with it the overall Championship following his victory at the EFRA European Championships B earlier this Summer. The main final would see 14 drivers at the start after the unanimous decision to skip the semifinals, due to only having 14 entries in the Expert class. Top Qualifier Alex Zanchettin led the race for the opening five minutes, but before the first fuel pit stops a flame out would drop him mid-pack. The Worlds finalist and Euros podium finisher’s race ended some minutes later with a broken steering servo. With Alex out of the mix, the lead was taken by Baruffolo and Ongaro, who would fight for the lead for about 30 minutes. With 10 minutes to go all of Baruffolo’s tyres would come unglued and with this leading to a broken body shell that forced the TLR driver to a long pit stop to replace it. This opened the way for Ongaro, who could now benefit from the lead over Berton. Riccardo had been playing the patience game for the whole length of the final, but his car seemed to be easier to drive than Ongaro’s and he was able to put pressure on Davide. The strategy paid off with Berton managing to force Ongaro into a couple of mistakes to take the race and with it the championship.
Backed by a very solid package, Riccardo Berton called himself “very happy” to have reached this important result. Supported by his dad Luca, he once again was able to express the speed and the consistence that distinguish him. “After the first five minutes where I made two mistakes, I decided to go for a solid pace, trying not to make any more. Despite being slightly slower, at the end I managed to catch them” he said in reference to the Baruffolo/Ongaro duo commenting his race. The new Adrien Bertin’s protege has his eyes to the future already, the goal is “to improve and do well at the upcoming 1/10 Euros in the UK”, but he doesn’t forget to thank his sponsors, but above all his dad and family for the huge support.
Coming very close to a podium finish at the Euros on his home track, second at the third round of Nationals and always blistering fast, Davide Ongaro can complain about a couple mistakes he made towards the end of the main final. Driving a car that was second to none in terms of raw speed but for sure harder to drive than Berton’s Kyosho, the young Mugen driver could not capitalise on the chance he got after Baruffolo’s tyre problem.
Despite showing disappointment for the result, Marco Baruffolo was anyway satisfied with his performances. Another finalist at this month’s Euros, Marco for sure benefited of the switch to TLR and Picco he made at the start of the season. “After all, a third place is still a good result, but my race was very unlucky due to the various problems, and without them we could win. Let’s hope luck will start to work with me sooner or later” was how he commented the race, showing a little frustration but, above all, a good confidence that will for sure help him through the next races.
Source: AMSCI [amscinews.com]
