Napisal/-a ELO » 19.09.2005, 16:28
THE FINAL
The big one was up next, the culmination of the whole week’s activity. The starting lineup would be as follows:
Adrien Bertin - Kyosho
Robert Pietsch - Mugen
Daniele Ielasi - Mugen
Keisuke Fukuda - Mugen
Masao Tanaka - Mugen
Walter Salemi - Mugen
Kenji Osaka - Mugen
Massimo Fantini - Serpent
Lamberto Collari - Kyosho
Alberto Picco – Serpent
That’s six Mugens, a pair of Kyoshos, and a pair of Serpents.
Driver introductions were made, and the photographers were given an opportunity to take photos of the challengers. The crowd has swelled by this time – every available inch of space around the track was taken, the stands were full, and the pit tent was opened up to allow people inside a view of the track. Reporters were at their computers, and the rest of the world was watching the internet for minute-by-minute news.
During the warm-up period, Kenji Osaka immediately found he had radio problems, and asked for the ten-minute delay, which was granted. Kenji and his team worked furiously on the car, only barely getting it ready on time. When the cars headed to the starting area for the practice start, Kenji was ready. A few minutes later, Sander DeGraaf started the countdown, and the race was ready to start; everyone seemed to hold their breath… the track was dead quiet, but for the sounds of the cars. And they were off! It looked like a perfect start, with some absolute experts in their field showing how it should be done!
A few laps in, Robert Pietsch got stuck in the grass infield and lost a lot of time. The running order was Adrien, Daniele, Keisuke, Salemi, and Massimo. Alberto had problems soon after – he had problems out on the track and was brought back into the pits. As he left the pits, instead of turning, the car mostly went straight into the boards at high speed; Alberto was out of the race before he had time to make his first fuel stop. Daniele was given a stop-and-go penalty for an incident involving Adrien. Ielasi served the penalty time on lap #22, then made his refueling stop, but the officials had Daniele make a second stop-and-go penalty stop because it wasn’t done properly the first time. The running order now was Adrien, Salemi, Keisuke, Lamberto, and Massimo. Twelve minutes into the race Adrien crashed, but the car appeared to be OK. Tire changes would start a few minutes later – while the car getting a tire change would lose time during the change, it would then be faster on new rubber, so keep this in mind when following the position changes.
Sixteen minutes in, Walter made a pass on Adrien to take the lead. The order was Walter, Adrien, Keisuke, Lamberto, and Daniele. A minute later it was Adrien out front, followed by Keisuke, Lamberto, Walter,and Daniele. Twenty-three minutes into the race the running order was Adrien, Keisuke, Walter, and Masai, with Lamberto moving up through the pack. The crowd was cheering Lamberto on, each time he made another pass. Twenty-seven minutes in, Lamberto had taken over the lead, followed by Keisuke, Walter, Masai, and Daniele. I believe Massimo flamed out just about then, and was taken back to the pits.
At the half-way point, Keisuke had taken over the lead, followed by Lamberto, Daniele, Adrien, and Masao. I remember thinking about strategy, and how Lamberto never “went for the win” early in the race, but followed his game plan. Lamberto was looking very strong at this point, seemingly in control of the race pace, but there were a lot of very fast racers still in the game. The car that seemed to be challenging Lamberto the most was Daniele. In fact, 36-minutes into the race, Daniele was leading, followed by Lamberto, Adrien, Keisuke, and Masao. Keisuke lost a lot of time on lap #155 when his car flamed out and required a glow-plug change. Adrien crashed a minute later, and needed to be marshaled, dropping him back in the standings. Lamberto got by Daniele once more, and with 15-minutes to go, the top four seemed to be sorted out, with Lamberto leading, followed by Daniele, and Masao. Adrien and Walter were fighting back and forth over 4th place. Eight minutes later, Daniele seemed to be making a move on Lamberto. Each lap the gap between the cars narrowed. While tire changes might have made a difference as well, watching the cars on the track it was obvious that Daniele was closing in. Daniele came in for fuel, and in a rare case of over-enthusiasm, he spun coming out of the pits, costing him a lot of time. That was a fatal mistake – at this level of racing, you can’t afford to make any mistakes whatever, let alone one that cost many seconds, with less than ten minutes to go in the race. Along with two stop-and-go penalties for aggressive driving early in the race, this would cost him dearly. With five minutes to go, the running order was Lamberto, Daniele, Masao, Adrien, and Walter. Massimo had problems two minutes later, and came into the pits. Lamberto’s pit crew sensed that the race was going to wind up in their favor – while anything can happen, even in the last few minutes, you could see victory in their expressions. As Lamberto came by for the winning lap, the Collari pits erupted in a sea of smiling faces, jumping for joy! Collari had done it again, winning his 7th World Championship in this class – with the Worlds being held every two years, that’s almost a twenty-year domination!
mm copyrighted
Bizgec jaz, bizgec ti, bizgeci mi vsi!!!