Riccardo Berton takes Italian 1/8th Buggy Champs
Riccardo Berton’s 2015 season goes on in the best possible of ways, with the young Kyosho driver winning the third round of the Italian Nationals and with it the overall Championship following his victory at the EFRA European Championships B earlier this Summer. The main final would see 14 drivers at the start after the unanimous decision to skip the semifinals, due to only having 14 entries in the Expert class. Top Qualifier Alex Zanchettin led the race for the opening five minutes, but before the first fuel pit stops a flame out would drop him mid-pack. The Worlds finalist and Euros podium finisher’s race ended some minutes later with a broken steering servo. With Alex out of the mix, the lead was taken by Baruffolo and Ongaro, who would fight for the lead for about 30 minutes. With 10 minutes to go all of Baruffolo’s tyres would come unglued and with this leading to a broken body shell that forced the TLR driver to a long pit stop to replace it. This opened the way for Ongaro, who could now benefit from the lead over Berton. Riccardo had been playing the patience game for the whole length of the final, but his car seemed to be easier to drive than Ongaro’s and he was able to put pressure on Davide. The strategy paid off with Berton managing to force Ongaro into a couple of mistakes to take the race and with it the championship.
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