> News

EFRA GP Slovenia - Tolmin report (18/04/2006)

By:: Jernej Vuga

Practise

The race started for me on thursday when I came to the track to run the second Novarossi engine for the race (although it wasn't necessary, because the old one was still very good).

I also tried the second car with a different set-up, but it wasn't good. So I decided to focus on the old car with the set-up I tried 2 weeks before.

In the afternoon we started to do some set-up modifications, but I soon discovered that the track changed so much.

So, untill saturday morning I wasn't able to find a good set-up and I was very worried, because I couldn't put down all the power.

Qualifying

As I mentioned before I had several problems with my car. In my first heat I didn't do 5 minutes, because I ran out of fuel. I changed something on my engine and the fuel consumption was sorted out. In my second heat I knew I had to do a decent time and I went up to 3rd position, some 6 seconds from pole. I really put 120% to do this time and I knew I had to better my car's handling. My super mechanic Matej and me were thinking what to do...

For the 5th heat we narrowed the rear end and put the front shocks down. This really improved the car and I was now onyl 1.5s from pole. For the last 6th heat we decided to put off the front offset and this was another improvement.
The car was better, but still not perfect. I drove very good and at the end was just 0.15s from pole. Without some overtaking problems I would be on pole...

Final

The Sunday started and finished wet.
We worked all the morning protecting the car/radio, but as you will see it didn't help.

I started from second place and at the start of the final in the first corner I was allready leading. My pace was so fast (about 2s per lap faster) that after 6min I had about 2-3L advantage. But after 12min when I entered pit for refueling my radio went dead. That was the end for me.

It is a pitty, because the win was allmost there for me. It seems that in Tolmin bad luck is often with me...

Conclusions

Of course I'm disappointed about the result, but on the other hand I'm happy that I was very fast in all conditions (especially in wet).

Also the 960 set-up is getting better and better for me...so I'm looking forward to the next races.
My Novarossi engine was just fantastic. It worked for several hours without stopping even a single time.
The Enneti tyres were also fast and consistent.

At the end I would like to thank all my sponsors: Serpent Motorsport, Novarossi, Enneti, Top-Modeltehnik...for all the support.
And my mechanic Matej Miklavec who was just fantastic all the weekend - thanks man!!!

See U!

Jernej

Final results

http://mk-tolmin.klub-kts.si/en/efra_novice.php

The GP banner

The nice Tolmin's track layout...still dry

Start of the wet 1/8 final

Me overtaking in the wet

Cups for the finalist & pole sitters