Balestri takes opening qualifier at 200mm Worlds

Dario Balestri has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the 1:10 200mm World Championships in Miami, Florida.  Only 10th in seeding, just making it into the top heat, the reigning 1:8 World Champion topped the first of the six qualifier by 4/10ths of a second from Infinity team-mate Naoto Matsukura.  With the 8th running of the nitro touring car Worlds now featuring 7-minute qualifier, an impressive run from Simon Kurzbuch saw him take P3 after he ran the full distance without stopping for fuel. For Dominic Greiner he opened his title defence with a P5 run which later became P4 when Shoki Takahata was disqualified.  The Japanese driver fell foul of the body ruling that no two openings can be closer than 5mm and in his case he had only a 4mm gap between the rear window and roof hole for the glowplug.  Jesse Davis would set the fifth fastest time with Tadahiko Sahashi completing the Top 6.  Having topped seeding on his 200mm Worlds debut, Lamberto Collari could only manage the 12th fastest time in Q1 reporting afterwards that he had a glowplug issue that meant he couldn’t get a good tune on his engine.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.