Over the weekend the
RME 'Lamberto Collari' track held a race to celebrate Collari's
8 World Championship titles.
This race was held on the very very fast track in Cassino which
is located between Rome and Napoli, that gave some very good
weather forecasts.
With the sun shining strongly during saturday's qualifing saw
some very close racing action.
Collari was initally setting pace but later during the day Pirani,
Vanni, Elias and Michele made a faster 5 minute qualifing run
and thus placing Collari on the fifth spot for the A final.
For Saturday night RME organized a dinner, lottery and a moment
to put Lamberto Collari in the spotlight, or in 3 words: a relaxed
evening.
With a live music band playing some famous italian songs saw
Andrea (the mechanic of Lamberto Collari) dancing with Claudia
(mechanic of Dario Balestri).
On Sunday it was the "final day".
The finals where run in A-B-C format, with the race time varing
from 15 minutes for the E final to a 30 minute long A final.
The A final 1:8 had the following starting order:
01 - Andrea Pirani - NOVA
02 - Marco Vanni - NOVA
03 - Flavio Elias - NOVA COLLARI
04 - Michele Baruzzi - NOVA
05 - Lamberto Collari - NOVA COLLARI
06 - Carmine Raiola
07 - Domenico Spagnolo - NOVA
08 - Stefano Puccinelli - NOVA
09 - Giacomo Luchetti
10 - Stefano Gandin
After the lower finals for the 1:8 & 1:10 which saw some
nice racing action it became time for the fastest of them all.
The A final 1:8:
The start for the 1:8 A final was a bit wild because Flavio
Elias made a very very fast start and hitting Marco Vanni and
with that action Flavio gained 2nd position but placed Marco
Vanni dead last.
Later Vanni sayed that Flavio made a kamikaze start because
of the serious possibility that his action could take them both
out of the race.
After the first 2 laps Pirani leaded the pack with about 10
meter margin over Flavio Elias and Michele Baruzzi in third.
Lamberto moved 1 position up because Vanni dropped to 10th,
with Lamberto driving hard it didn't take long before Lamberto
and Michele changed position in favor of Lamberto.
Not long after Lamberto was on the tail of Flavio Elias and
with 4 laps before the first pitstops Lamberto passed Flavio
under a cheering public.
Flavio didn't let that put him down and within the next lap
he re-took the second position.
Then it became time for the first refuel stop, Pirani entered
as first, exited as first.
Next up where Flavio Elias and Lamberto but it was Lamberto
who was the first of the 2 who exited the pitlane, Flavio followed
full throttle.
Michele Baruzzi made a fast entrance and making a pass in the
pitlane but unfortunatly his engine stalled and he dropped down
the ranking.
The next ten minutes Lamberto was putting pressure on the young&fast
Andrea Pirani who eventually made a little mistake by going
a little to far over the curb to shave some tenths of his laptime
but now there was air packing up under his car and he got airborne
with a serious high speed.
During his frightning flight his car hit the pitwall with a
deafning bang and against all odds the damage to his car was
a ruined rear tire.
Nevertheless, Lamberto attempt to pass Andrea worked as Andrea
was now in the pit to change his right rear tire.
This accident put Andrea a bit down the ranking but with a fresh
tire was in good shape to make up the lost time.
At this point Marco Vanni was in the box replacing some broken
parts from his crash which resulted in a torn off engine! His
engine was clearly torn off his engine monoblock... unbelievable
the damage to his engine was only a bent cooling rib on the
cooling head!
But this was a costly stop for Vanni and put him out of the
race but he still crossed the finishline after 30 minutes, be
it in 8th position with 69 laps behind the later winner.
After the last pitstop it was Lamberto Collari leading the
race with 111 laps, Carmine Raiola in second with 110 laps,
Andrea Pirani recoverd from is deadly looking crash was in third
position with 108 laps, Flavio in 4th with 107 laps and Michele
Baruzzi in fifth with 106 laps.
Michele Baruzzi and Stefano Puccinelli had a nice battle with
each other, changing places a few times.
But in the end it was Stefano who crossed the finishline 3 seconds
earlier then Michele.
After 30 minutes of intense racing this is the finishing order:
01 - Lamberto Collari with 125
laps;
02 - Carmine Raiola with 123 laps;
03 - Andrea Pirani with 122 laps;
04 - Flavio Elias with 120 laps;
05 - Stefano Puccinelli with 119 laps;
06 - Michele Baruzzi with 119 laps;
07 - Stefano Gandin with 119 laps;
08 - Marco Vanni with 56 laps;
09 - Giacomo Luchetti DNF;
10 - Domenico Spagnolo DNF;
Full event results and more pictures can be found on the website
of RME.
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