D’amico new 1:5 Touring Car World Champion

Italian Mecatech driver Emanuele D’amico is the new IFMAR 1:5 Touring Car World Champion, the 2024 European Champion winning the 12th running of the World Championship today at Lostallo in Switzerland.  Qualifying P2 behind compatriot and team-mate Edoardo Repetti, D’amico would win the 1-hour final ahead of the Top Qualifier by a margin of almost 10-seconds with 2016 European Champion Giovanni Verbrugghe from Belgium completing the podium, the Semi Final winner having started from P3.  Repetti lead away the 10-car grid but 8-minutes in had a mistake that allowed D’amico to go to the front while defending Champion Markus Feldmann had worked his way into 3rd from P5 on the grid.  Coming up to the half way distance, D’amico advantage was 5-seconds as Repetti was coming under pressure from Feldmann.  Unfortunately for the German, who was chasing a third World title, he would run out of fuel with 32-minutes remaining on the clock.  With everyone else pitting at the half way distance, once the race settled after the fuel stops it was D’amico who still controlled the race, his last lap a victory lap as Repetti’s time had already expired.  While Feldmann would rejoin the race and go about setting the fastest lap, he would not complete final ending up classified P7.

Image: AMSCI [Facebook]