Serpent Nitro Tour Fiorano report
The Serpent Nitro Tour kicked off in Fiorano last weekend and Shepherd driver and race runner up Simon Kurzbuch sent us this report. Me, my family and Rolf Suter from RA Speed Switzerland went last weekend with well prepared cars to Fiorano (Italy) and had an excellent roll-out on the first international race in the 1/8 scale season 2010.
Friday, 26th March 2010
On Friday morning after a long trip during night, we arrived directly to the wonderful RC Jody Scheckter-track in Fiorano. My Velox V8 had from the beginning a good setup and I was quite fast during the first rounds. The goal was to make as most as possible rounds to get the feeling for the track. The track got very fast an excellent grip because of a high traffic with lot of drivers. For that my Velox ran faster and faster. After an amazing day we cleaned up our cars and went out for an excellent Italian dinner with Sergio Pesenti’s family. It was wonderful.
Saturday, 27th March 2010
With a lot of sun the first qualification day started. About 150 drivers in both categories 1/8 and 1/10 participated on the well organised race. The free training started in the morning and the lap time was the base for the organization of the different groups. So the driver tried to get fast lap times.
The setup of my Velox V8 were superb and my XL9 TQ Max engine was full of power. The quali can start now. I was classified in the 9th of total 10 groups. At noon time the qualiheats started and the people followed some exiting race duels. In the first qualifying heat i was quite fast but were stopped about a lot of traffic. In the second qualiheat the same. At the end of two qualiheats I was placed on 4th position. My collegues Mattia Pesenti was 2nd and Silvio Hächler 6th after the first two heats. In the evening it was time to have a look on the car and check the setup. Cleaning and preparing was the meanwork after a long day.
Sunday, 28th March 2010 / Start: 9.00
On the 3rd heat my best lap time was 15.258sec. Unfortunately I had a little crash with a slower car which came back from the greenfield to the track. My Velox was completely crashed in the front axle. Now we had a challenge to repair the car as fast as possible. The car must be ready for final qualiheat. My brother Pascal helped me very much and we prepared the car on time. I was happy to feel that the Shepherd was again very fast and I decreased my lap times and the total time again.
The final heats were classified into A-/B-/C-…Finals and I was starting as number 5. My colleagues Mattia started in position 4 and Silvio Hächler in position 9 for the 30 minute A-Final. I felt very happy to get the support of William Ursillo from the Italian Shepherd Team. He was present as the mechanic and supported our team excellent. The start was very good and after one round I was on 3rd place. I pushed very much and had the potential to end the race as 1st or 2nd. It was an exciting final heat on a wonderful and well prepared track. My mechanics Rolf, Pascal and William made an excellent job.
I would like to thank especially to my mechanics Rolf, Pascal and William, the whole Shepherd Team, Max Power and finally RA Speed Switzerland.
Source: RA Speed [raspeed.com]
