16.03.2016
Report by J-P.Huhtala (VRC race reporter)
2016 Season 1 and round 5, Messina
At fifth round this series travelled to Italy, Messina circuit. This track is on the island Sicily in the south of Italy. The track hosted 2005 IFMAR World Championship for 1:8 scale sportcars, and it was wonned by racing legend Lamberto Collari. Lay-out of this track is guite simple but this makes it even more difficult to gain time and make a difference.
QUALIFYING
As the qualifying was helded, Hungarian talent Barnabas Toth had greatest pace, but there was this Swedish driver, Christian Holmström who didnt gave this easy to Toth. After round ended, Holmström losted the TQ, only 0.6 seconds margin to Toth. Third grid went also to Sweden, Andre Fossto`s gap to winner was 3.3 seconds. Benjamin Lehmann from Germany drove to fourth and French Arthur Brule to fifth grid. By these results, we could expect that final would be two mans fight of the win, others would have to find something special for next one, if they wanted to challenge those two at front.
RACE
From the tone, anything special didnt happend and race was on. German Benjamin Lehmann seemed to be like lightning when he lefted from his grid. Ok, all these talents were very good aware that everything was counted here to result. You had to be awake from allready from start.
After first lap three drivers separeted from others, Toth was in first, Holmström in second, Lehmann in third spot and chasing group was coming over half second distance to these.
At second lap Holmström`s pressure made a result as he passed Toth at 8th corner before mainstraight. But this Hungarian hadnt surrender, he was there and very very close. No huge differences were founded from these two paces and we got very good entertainment as these two were in battle.
Toth(green) was stronger than Holmström here. But it was very nice to see that somebody can challenge Barnabas very strongly.
Lehmann in third position was also in close range, only half second behind these two. At fourth spot was driving French Arthur Brule, Brules gap to third spot was allmost one second when 5th lap started. Brule wasnt either in easy place, as Raistrick was very close behind at fifth place. At 7th lap Brule made this easy for Raistrick as he donned a mistake. He cutted corner three, rolled his car and dropped two places behind Bailes. Now Raistrick was in fourth and Bailes in fifth place. At lead it looked that Toth had got his ”no mercy” rhytm on and he had little gap to Holmström, but this 33years old Swedish hadnt gave up. Distance between these two were only half second when 11th lap started. Lehman was driving in third place, 1.3seconds behind Holmström.
Lehmann had great pace, little more and those two at front would be in trouble.
At back, Brule had pressured Bailes at fifth place and passed this in earlier lap. Now Brule was chasing Raistrick at fourth spot very aggressively and this made result when Raistrick went wide to first corner at 13th lap and Brule passed him.
When final minute started, anything miracles didnt happend, everybody drived very consistent last minute and nothing changed in results. Toth came first to finishline, with one second ahead of Holmström. Third and last podium place travelled to Germany, to Benjamin Lehmann. Benjamin`s gap to winner was 3.8 seconds. Brule who got in trouble in 7th lap, fighted his place back and crossed the finishline in fourth position. Raistrick was in fifth and Bailes at sixth position.
Italian Massimiliano Tanturri got seventh place and Estonian Olev Pihl eight place.
Raistrick(white) had to surrender to Brule. Brule had to make full job to gain his position back after his 7th lap mistake.
In SPORT level race, race was wonned by Sean Krause from Germany. Sean had good race against French Nicolas Chauvet. THey were in battle all the way up to 15th lap when Nicolas made bigger mistake and this solved victory to Sean. Sean drived safely last three laps and came to finishline with allmost 5 seconds before Nicolas.
Third place went to Brasilian Marcelo Borges. When Nicolas made mistake, Marcelo passed him and got the second place. Finally Nicolas pace was little better than Marcelo`s and this Brasilian had to settle to third place.
In CLUB level, Finnish Antti Silvennoinen wonned the race. This didnt came easy to Antti as he was battlying with Portugues Nuno Lourenco. Nuno`s pace was pit better than Antti`s, but this 37 years old Portugues made five seconds mistake in early stage in Final and this made this very interesting. Silvennoinen hold his nerves and drove well deserved victory in here.
Third place went to Seiya Inoue from Japan.
A main PRO
1|Barnabás Tóth|HU|19|05:10.310
2|Christian Holmström|SE|19|05:11.330
3|Benjamin Lehmann|DE|19|05:14.112
4|Arthur Brulé|FR|19|05:15.446
5|Graham Raistrick|GB|19|05:16.008
6|Dana Bailes|US|18|05:01.368
7|Massimiliano Tanturri|IT|18|05:02.822
8|Olev Pihl|EE|18|05:06.168
9|André Fossto|SE|DNS
10|Willem Janse van Rensburg|ZA|DNS
A main SPORT
1|Sean Krause|DE|18|05:06.166
2|Chauvet Nicolas|FR|18|05:10.854
3|Marcelo Borges|BR|18|05:11.374
4|Heikki Huhtala|FI|18|05:14.366
5|Markus Andreasson|SE|18|05:14.554
6|VRC Korea Master|KR|18|05:14.900
7|Andreas Börjesson|SE|18|05:18.624
8|Hijrah Saputra|ID|16|05:09.354
9|Arie Sugiarto|ID|DNS
10|Ari Azhari|ID|DNS
A main CLUB
1|Antti Silvennoinen|FI|18|05:13.650
2|Nuno Lourenco|PT|18|05:14.068
3|Seiya Inoue|JP|17|05:02.258
4|Nathan Beddoes|AU|17|05:03.790
5|Stephen Cheung|AU|17|05:04.888
6|Luca Bottai|IT|17|05:12.778
7|Mario Unverzagt|DE|16|05:01.838
8|Gilles Bigot|FR|DNS
9|Frank Hempel|DE|DNS
10|pierre clain|RE|DNS
SEASON STANDINGS AFTER 5 RACES
PRO LEVEL
1|Dana Bailes|537
2|Graham Raistrick|534
3|Willem Janse van Rensburg|474
4|Olev Pihl|469
5|Benjamin Lehmann|468
6|Arthur Brulé|453
7|Herve Becet|445
8|Ralf H. Vey|391
9|Billy Yeung|391
10|Giovanni F. Di Berardino|363
SPORT LEVEL
1|Hijrah Saputra|567
2|Marcelo Borges|465
3|Bart Acda|452
4|Yuriy Meshkov|450
5|Emanuel Riplinger|447
6|Heikki Huhtala|438
7|Paulo Guedes|412
8|Thomas Klingen|401
9|Hans Guenther Heitsch|387
10|Joost Wouters|386
CLUB LEVEL
1|Seiya Inoue|561
2|Antti Silvennoinen|474
3|Romain LACROIX|414
4|Steve Solosy|407
5|Yasuhiro Morta|382
6|Tony DELMASTRO|379
7|Gary Climie|366
8|Nuno Lourenco|339
9|Jodie Grein|333
10|Paulo Machado|325
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