Last weekend the Xray Challenge Italy was held at the great facilities of RC Landia, in Scandiano, Emilia Romagna, Italy and Alexander Hagberg sent this report. The event was booked out in few days due the limit of 100 entries maximum. The race was split in three classes: 1/12, Touring Car Stock and Modified. Drivers from Italy and surrouding countries entered the race. Xray had most of its European team present, with team leader Martin Hudy, Marek Černý from the Czech Republic, myself, Magnus Vässmar and Niclas Nilsson from Sweden, Marco Kaufmann from Germany as well as the Italian stars Francesco Martini and Alessio Menicucci.
The race started with open practice on Friday and Saturday. All drivers immediately started to get used to the technical, high grip layout. It was clear that the Italian drivers had done a lot of practice already as they were all very fast. Traction was high, similar to that of the Charity Race in December last year. We used the same Ride 32 tires also for this race. Qualifying was FTD based, using the quickest time from three rounds.
In the 1/12 class it was myself who set the pace in qualifying, take TQ by a few seconds in front of my Swedish team mate Christofer Hedlund who also showed a very good pace with his X12 chassis. Third was local driver Marco Donadelli. In the finals I managed to win the first two with a big margin, and thus securing the overall win. The car was fast and easy to drive throughout the race and I did not have to change my set-up at all in order to be competitive. In the end, Hedlund would finish 3rd overall as Donadelli snatched the win in A3 with my absence.
The stock class was dominated from start to end my Czech driver Marek Černý who took his car from TQ position to three A-main wins. Marek continues in his strong form to take another international win. The final was dominated by T4 cars, with Mattia Collina being a perfect runner-up, challenging Černý for some short moments in the finals.
In the modified division, Alessio Menicucci set the early pace in qualifying with a very quick TQ run. I was able to finish 0.8 second short of his TQ to take 2nd place on the grid, just in front of fellow team mate Magnus Vässmar. The finals were going to be a close affair. It was a lot of fun to race against the team mates at this high level, and everyone definitely stepped up their game to put on a good show. In A1 I was not able to pass Alessio as he drove a perfect final from tone to tone, and I finished narrowly behind him. In A2 it was the same story until the very last lap where Alessio made a small mistake before the straightaway, and I was able to pass. A3 was going to be the deciding final. The tone went off and Alessio immediately pulled away as I was struggling at the start. I had to drive defensively with Magnus closing from behind. At the 2 minute mark my car was feeling a lot better so could start to track down Alessio. I was soon on his tail and in the closing moments of the race, I was trying to pass. Alessio went wide coming onto the straight so I passed him side by side to take the lead and held it until the end, to win the race.
The modified class saw 10 Xray T4 cars in the final. We were all happy with the handling of our cars and most notably did we have a lot of fun at this race.
We must thank the organizers for a perfect show, and especially a very nice Italian Classic Xray Part with excellent dinner on the Saturday night, at the local restaurant “1495″. The food and the lottery was enjoyed by everyone, as could be seen from the atmosphere. We had two highly expected and successful lucky draws, one in the race and one at the Xray Party and all the Italians were freaky crazy that the famous Italian actress Ana Laura Ribas came on Sunday for the prize ceremony to hand out the prizes to the participants. Thank you to Francesco Martini and Fabio Domanin for your efforts in the organization. Alberto Montecchi and his crew for a perfect event at RC Landia, and finally to all drivers for making this event a great success! I can not wait for the next race and I am excited already now for the Xray Challenge Roma.
1/12 results:
1. Alexander Hagberg – Xray X12
2. Marco Donadelli
3. Christofer Hedlund – Xray X12
4. Davide Campanini
5. Andrea Selva – Xray X12
6. Eugenio Carlevaro
7. Nicola Galli
8. Andrea Aquilino
9. Marcello Galli
Stock results:
1. Marek Černý – Xray T4
2. Mattia Collina – Xray T4
3. Nico Catelani – Xray T4
4. Manuel Busoli
5. Umberto Pernice – Xray T4
6. Andrea Nerone – Xray T4
7. Andrea Retrivi – Xray T4
8. Marco Puleo – Xray T4
9. Christofer Hedlund – Xray T4
10. Simone Leonardi
Modified results:
1. Alexander Hagberg – Xray T4
2. Alessio Menicucci – Xray T4
3. Magnus Vässmar – Xray T4
4. Martin Hudy – Xray T4
5. Marco Kaufmann – Xray T4
6. Francesco Martini – Xray T4
7. Niclas Nilsson – Xray T4
8. Diego Macchioni – Xray T4
9. Luca Toreggiani – Xray T4
10.Niklas Johansson – Xray T4
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
