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Riccobono report of Monaco / 966 (26/10/2009)

By:: Reporter
Linked to:: Serpent 966 1/8 scale 4WD EVO, Serpent 966 -TE 1/8 scale 4WD, Serpent 966 -TE v2 1/8 scale 4WD

Shortly :

“In fact it was a good week-end for me, although I could only arrive on Friday at 13H00…

I know this track since my beginnings 16 years ago, so it wasn’t so hard for me… ;-)

I improved the car constantly, thanks to testing and to speaking with Andrea Cristiani about the different ways to follow and try for the set-up…

I qualified for the semi-final. I was quite fast in the semi, but ran out of fuel after 9’50. In fact, the tyres wear was important, and the consumption was higher due to small tyres… But I had to try, and it was a mistake…

So I then pushed a lot, and managed to go in the main final.

In the final, I started 10th, but after 1 lap I was 6th, which was a really good start !

I fighted with my friend Jacky Mouton, passed him, and then he passed me… It was exciting !

But after nearly 5 minutes, just before the pitstop, I hit a small “rock”, or maybe a part of a car from the previous race, in the banking, when on full throttle, and the front of the car took off, and the car then started flying until it crashed in the barrier !!!!

The noise it made sounded horrible ! The car was clearly broken, so I retired… It could have been very dangerous for the marshals or the spectators without the protections that weren’t there a few years ago… So it shows that the staff did a great job on this track during the last years !

But before that, I could see that the 966 is really strong, because I “tried to break it” a few times, hitting the “F1 like barriers” along or after the straight, and the car was still working perfectly…

All the Serpent Guys did a good job, especially Andrea, Serge, and Jacky.

Great race, great track, a wonderful view, that you can’t find anywhere else (cf pictures), a “Monaco-like” track, very difficult for drivers, that is worth discovering… All the staff is really welcoming, as always, especially Stephane Vanpoucke, Nathalie Perillot, and Patrick Rinaldi.”

Stephane Riccobono