Davide Ongaro dominates RCGP Series Rd3 & Rd4
Rounds 3 and 4 of the newly-founded RCGP Series were held in Fehring, Austria over the weekend. Saturday’s round 3 saw Team Associated’s Davide Ongaro taking the overall TQ and he would also cruise to the win in the opening of the two A-main finals to make a first step towards taking the overall win. A last lap tangle secured Infinity’s Kyle McBride the runner-up spot from Infinity teammate, Lee Martin while the SWorkz trio of Jörn Neumann, Elliott Boots and Juan Carlos Canas came in 4th to 6th place.
The second final saw another flawless start from Ongaro, as he again attempted to stretch the gap at the front, whilst behind him the rest of the field was decidedly calmer for the opening laps. However, it wasn’t long before things were shaken up, as Ongaro made a slight error which allowed Marco Baruffolo to jump to the front, with his BeachRC Wildcard teammate Batlle following closely in third and Canas in fourth. The lead fight that ensued gave the race a very different dynamic to the first encounter of the day, as Baruffolo attempted to maintain his advantage whilst the dominant force of Ongaro pushed hard to bridge the gap. The latter stages of the race saw Ongaro begin to close in, before the opportunity presented itself to make a move back into the lead, which the young Italian pounced on – a closely fought wheel-to-wheel battle saw Baruffolo sneak ahead once again however, forcing Ongaro to try and find another way through. Despite another last lap push, it would be Baruffolo who took the win, less than a second ahead of Ongaro. Juan Carlos Canas delivered a 3rd place for SWorkz, as Kyle McBride backed up his impressive race one display in 4th. With the scores combined, the overall win went to Davide Ongaro, making it three victories from three rounds in the championship. McBride’s consistency earned him an impressive second place overall, ahead of race two winner Baruffolo who rounded out the podium.
On Sunday and with three different drivers – Ongaro, Neumann and Canas – taking the top spot in the first three rounds of qualifying, it would be down to the results of the fourth to determine the overall top qualifier for Sunday’s main event. In the end, we would see a fourth different winner, as David Ronnefalk was able to deliver a crucial run to solidify a strong starting spot in the Final, ahead of Kyle McBride and Jorn Neumann, both of whom had shown consistency throughout the entirety of qualifying. However, this wasn’t enough to topple Marco Baruffolo, as he secured the overall TQ honours ahead of Ongaro, Ronnefalk, McBride, Canas, Boots, Batlle and Neumann.
The main 89-lap show on Sunday afternoon got underway with a clean start for the polesitter Baruffolo, whilst Ronnefalk suffered a costly mistake on the opening lap to drop down to thirteenth after mounting an initial challenge for the lead. The JQRacing pair of Quagraine and Mort found themselves slotting into third and fourth early on with a similarly clean start, before Mort also dropped back due to an error. Baruffolo’s first stop on lap ten handed the lead to Ongaro – during the same lap, the Infinity of Kyle McBride stopped on track, forcing its retrieval and dropping him down a number of laps. Whilst Ongaro began to manage his ever increasing lead, the battle behind raged on, with Canas and Ronnefalk locked into an on-track duel as they both attempted to execute a longer run time strategy. SWorkz International driver Elliott Boots capitalised on this however, snatching second position away comfortably as both Canas and Ronnefalk pitted – the move up the field was short lived however, as Boots flamed out just minutes later, losing him two laps on the leader in the process. The later stage of the race saw the gaps between the key players in the race stabilise somewhat, as Ronnefalk continued to play the strategy game behind Ongaro. Batlle was able to pass Canas for 3rd, a position he would manage to hold onto to the end. With Ongaro’s final fuel stop completed, the lead gap reduced to just five seconds, but time was running out for Ronnefalk to mount a serious challenge. Despite David’s best efforts, it would be Davide Ongaro taking the win once again, a sensational fourth consecutive victory for the young Italian driver. Juan Carlos Canas was next up in 4th, with pole man Marco Baruffolo ending up 5th after a fairly quiet race, ahead of Ogden, Neumann and Quagraine.
Source: RCGP [rc-gp.com]
