All the action from the intense and hard fought 60-minute Main Final at the 2017 IFMAR 1/8th Onroad World Championships in Monteux, France. With race commentary from the great Oli Meggitt.
Dario Balestri is finally a World Champion. One of nitro racing’s unquestionably fastest & most talented drivers, the Italian delivered a long overdue victory at the 21st running of the 1:8 Onroad World Championships in Monteux, France. Top Qualifier for the 1-hour main, the Infinity driver would waste that opportunity with a very bad start from pole that saw him swallowed up by the pack and off onto the grass. Rejoining a distant last, while new team-mate Naoto Matsukura led from the defending champion Simon Kurzbuch, Balestri set about his recovery eventually going to the front when Matsukura, who he had in his sights, hit trouble. With Matsukura’s championship debut ending with a P8 DNF, it was Kurzbuch who would finish runner-up, 5-seconds back after an hour of intense racing. While not the result the Shepherd driver was after it does complete an impressive run of three consecutive 1:8 World Championship podium finishes. Claiming the final step on the podium would be Shoki Takahata, the Mugen driver having a good recovery after an incident with 2015 runner-up Takaaki Shimo cost him a lot of time due to a tucked body.
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The final round of the Dutch 1/10th Nitro Touring Championship was held at the fast and flowing Baanbrekers track in Rucphen. Both the National and Nomac titles were still up for grabs and with the championship standings close it was all to play for. The weather greeted the drivers with dry conditions on Saturday afternoon, and sunshine on Sunday made for near perfect conditions. Qualifying would start with the Serpent duo of Daan Jacobs and Julius Kolff being only tenths apart, setting the pace from Milan Holthuis who was just a few seconds adrift with his Capricorn. With ever improving conditions, in the second heat everyone looked for improvements but all had minor mishaps which would make for a tense last heat. Julius would start last and this turned out to be an advantage as he could use Milan and Daan as a target and with the only 21-laps run of the day he snatched the TQ.
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Simon Kurzbuch is set to defend his World title this evening in France, the Shepherd driver winning his Semi Final to progress to the 1-hour final that will decide the winner of the 21st running of 1:8 Onroad World Championships. Starting from pole in the second of the Semi encounters have lost out on the TQ to Dario Balestri and the Super Pole to Naoto Matsukura, Kurzbuch would win the 30-minute encounter from Jilles Groskamp and Silvio Hachler with the fastest race time to secure 3rd on the grid. Winner of the first Semi ahead of fellow Japanese driver Shoki Takahata, Takaaki Shimo will line up third ahead with Takahata completing the top half of the grid ahead of Groskamp, Hachler, Alberto Picco, Alessio Mazzeo and Lars Hoppe. Coming into the event as one of the pre-event favourites along Kurzbuch and Balestri, there was cruel luck for Bruno Coelho. Starting from pole the Xray driver was in clear control of the race until he suffered a suspected partial engine seize at the end of the straight. While the engine fired back up in the pits he title hopes were done. Also suffering similar faith was former World Champion Adrien Bertin. With the large French crowd fully behind the HB driver, cheering loudly his every pass, he worked his way to the front leading for a time but with 8-minutes to go his engine stopped. A heartbreaking end to what was to be the veteran racers retirement from competitive racing.
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The 21st running of the 1:8 Onroad World Championships is down the final 22 drivers with the 1/4 finals completing the line up for the two Semi finals which will decide the 8 drivers to join Dario Balestri and Naoto Matsukura in the fight to become the World Champion. In the first of the 1/4 encounters it was JJ Wang who took the win ahead of Takaaki Shimo after the 2015 Vice Champion was given a penalty for bad refuelling. Behind them John Ermen was holding third but the ARC driver came under intense pressure from 2013 World Champion Tadahiko Sahashi in the final laps. With the Serpent driver all over the Dutchman the pair made contact at the final corner with Ermen ending up on the grass. While Ermen protested the result, after watching video footage of the pass officials deemed the result would stand with Sahashi progressing to the Semis.
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Naoto Matsukura will feature in the final of the 1:8 Onroad World Championships in Monteux, France tomorrow after the Infinity driver won the Super Pole shoot out to directly join Top Qualifier Dario Balestri on the grid. The first time Super Pole has been used at the 1:8 World Championships, having been introduced at last year’s 1:10 Worlds in Italy, Matsukura would come out best of the four drivers setting the fastest lap from reigning World Champion Simon Kurzbuch who was last to run his 6-laps. Also taking part, Super Pole open to the drivers who qualify 2nd through 5th, Bruno Coelho would set the third fastest single lap ahead of Jesse Davis who was first to go and set a time.
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In a showdown between the reigning World Champion and the one driver probably most deserving of the sport’s great title, it was the latter, Dario Balestri, who delivered in a thrilling qualifying showdown at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships in France. Having made his mark on the first day of qualifying with two TQs and a P2 run, the Infinity driver came under pressure today from defending Champion Simon Kurzbuch as the Shepherd driver took the opening two qualifiers of the second day. Setting up a winner-takes-all situation between the two great rivals, the rescheduled rain interrupted fifth round of qualifying would go down to the wire, Balestri and Kurzbuch throwing everything at it with Balestri coming out the victor. In the end a late mistake from Kurzbuch would leave him with a P3, a great 27-lap run from reigning 1:10 World Champion Dominic Greiner netting him a P2 but just not enough to make the Super Pole as he secured 6th in the final ranking. With Kurzbuch now aiming to secure his direct place in the final through tomorrow’s Super Pole his opposition will come from Naoto Matsukura, Bruno Coelho and Jesse Davis.
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It is game on at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships in France as Simon Kurzbuch delivered a second TQ meaning the overall TQ will be decided in the final rescheduled 5th qualifier. During the fifth round of qualifying a short but torrential rain shower halted proceedings leaving drivers to wait for the track to dry. With IFMAR rules permitting a round of qualifying to resume after rain once the track returns to the same condition, the call was made to run Q6 first and afterwards finish out Q5. With reigning champion Kurzbuch clearly fired up it would be his lighting fast pit stop that would force the battle between himself and Dario Balestri to be decided in the final qualifier of the 21st running of the World Championships.
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