> News

Italy: Padova Dirt Report by Bernard Durand / Bacro (21/12/2011)

By:: Reporter
Linked to:: Cobra 811 1/8 4wd buggy, Cobra TE 1/8 4wd buggy, Cobra 811 Buggy 2.0 1/8 4wd buggy, Cobra Buggy 2.1 4wd 1/8, Cobra Buggy 2.2 GP 4wd 1/8

Located
closed to Venice, the IBR indoor permanent track offers warmed pit area and a nice indoor track. Despite of the date many top drivers attended the race as, Adam Drake, Robert Batlle, Eliot Boots, Reno Savoya and other stars. Everybody wanted to drive on this track builded by well known Joey Christensen who use to build the most impressive US tracks

Thursday:
The facilities are incredible. For this races the removable walls are open, which decreases also the temperature, but save from exhaust fog. The layout is a bit more flowing than the other indoor tracks and the dirt is the usual hard packed soil.

Thursday is devoted on arrival of the pilots and the free practice. Jonathan Bacro is fast in a very short time and switch from the Citys to the Grid Iron which is the most convenient tyre on cold track (till 10Am and from 6PM). The practice runned till 10PM. The handling of the car is good, but we miss high speed corner speed. Jonathan has to break the car too much to keep the right line at the entrance and end of the straight. We moved the join to the inside hole of the rear upright (the inside join is needed on the rod to use the inside hole). High speed handling is better, we still have some tenth to earn but it’s now 10PM. It’s Pizza Diabolo time !

Friday
controlled practice :
Alberto Garcia arrived during the night. We chat a bit and share with him our first test session. For the first practice, we raised the car to 27/29mm and the whoops section drive our competitors crazy ! We added the wheels stiffners and the car is flying over the whoops then. Thorefore, we are still slow in the tightest corners : we need to have quicker rotation on off-throttle corners. We shifted to -1mm front hex-hubs, then -2mm. Unfortunatly, the wheels stiffers touchs the steering block with the -2mm, so we had to run with the -1mm.
In the same time, Jonathan switch from blue to pink front springs. This makes tha car quicker in the tight 180° corners. Jonathan best lap time was 27.9 when the fastest pro guys were reaching 27.6. This makes Jonathan able to be re-setted in the fast heat together with team mate Alberto. It’s 9:30PM it’s time for a double four cheese pizza with additional egg on top !

Saturday : qualification
We made a bad start with a big big big crash which killed Jonathan first round and add more pressure to his shoulders. Nevermind, the second round was smooth and safe. 17th, then 10th in the third round, then 11th in the 4th. Unfortunatly, the last round is on cold track and we forgot to shift back on Grid Iron and stayed in Impact… beginer mistake by lucky guys. Jonathan saves the 16th place which is the latest semi final spot. Alberto had bad luck : he was may be faster but had a lot of trouble with italian traffic. Tonight we have Cesare Rossi (from Novarossi) birthday party. Big cake and Italian Champagne !

Sunday is sunny…… and super freezy. -2° outside temp ! Jonathan focus on driving smooth to save from rolling and marshalling. But these guys are pro and fast and Jonathan was 7th 3 minutes from the end with a 10 seconds gap. But he kept pushing and the gap was only 1.5 second before the last lap. The Cobra was so quick on the whoops section that Jonathan catched the 6th guy in this section and made an inside pass 2 corners before the line. That’s was nice !

For the 45’ main, we hesitated on tires and Jonathan choose the saver choice. This was not the quickest tyres, but the kept going for the whole 45’. With a 9’ strategy, Jonathan was fighting for the 6th place till he had some rolling and dropped to 11th place. Thanks to consistent driving and Cobra’s reliability, Jonathan bumped up to 9th place, wich was the bast he could do with his set of tyres.

Bacro and Garcia set-up here:

Team Serpent France Italy, Spain

Thursday:
The facilities are incredible. For this races the removable walls are open, which decreases also the temperature, but save from exhaust fog. The layout is a bit more flowing than the other indoor tracks and the dirt is the usual hard packed soil.

Thursday is devoted on arrival of the pilots and the free practice. Jonathan Bacro is fast in a very short time and switch from the Citys to the Grid Iron which is the most convenient tyre on cold track (till 10Am and from 6PM). The practice runned till 10PM. The handling of the car is good, but we miss high speed corner speed. Jonathan has to break the car too much to keep the right line at the entrance and end of the straight. We moved the join to the inside hole of the rear upright (the inside join is needed on the rod to use the inside hole). High speed handling is better, we still have some tenth to earn but it’s now 10PM. It’s Pizza Diabolo time !

Friday
controlled practice :
Alberto Garcia arrived during the night. We chat a bit and share with him our first test session. For the first practice, we raised the car to 27/29mm and the whoops section drive our competitors crazy ! We added the wheels stiffners and the car is flying over the whoops then. Thorefore, we are still slow in the tightest corners : we need to have quicker rotation on off-throttle corners. We shifted to -1mm front hex-hubs, then -2mm. Unfortunatly, the wheels stiffers touchs the steering block with the -2mm, so we had to run with the -1mm.
In the same time, Jonathan switch from blue to pink front springs. This makes tha car quicker in the tight 180° corners. Jonathan best lap time was 27.9 when the fastest pro guys were reaching 27.6. This makes Jonathan able to be re-setted in the fast heat together with team mate Alberto. It’s 9:30PM it’s time for a double four cheese pizza with additional egg on top !

Saturday : qualification
We made a bad start with a big big big crash which killed Jonathan first round and add more pressure to his shoulders. Nevermind, the second round was smooth and safe. 17th, then 10th in the third round, then 11th in the 4th. Unfortunatly, the last round is on cold track and we forgot to shift back on Grid Iron and stayed in Impact… beginer mistake by lucky guys. Jonathan saves the 16th place which is the latest semi final spot. Alberto had bad luck : he was may be faster but had a lot of trouble with italian traffic. Tonight we have Cesare Rossi (from Novarossi) birthday party. Big cake and Italian Champagne !

Sunday is sunny…… and super freezy. -2° outside temp ! Jonathan focus on driving smooth to save from rolling and marshalling. But these guys are pro and fast and Jonathan was 7th 3 minutes from the end with a 10 seconds gap. But he kept pushing and the gap was only 1.5 second before the last lap. The Cobra was so quick on the whoops section that Jonathan catched the 6th guy in this section and made an inside pass 2 corners before the line. That’s was nice !

For the 45’ main, we hesitated on tires and Jonathan choose the saver choice. This was not the quickest tyres, but the kept going for the whole 45’. With a 9’ strategy, Jonathan was fighting for the 6th place till he had some rolling and dropped to 11th place. Thanks to consistent driving and Cobra’s reliability, Jonathan bumped up to 9th place, wich was the bast he could do with his set of tyres.

Bacro and Garcia set-up here:

Team Serpent France Italy, Spain

Sunday is sunny…… and super freezy. -2° outside temp ! Jonathan focus on driving smooth to save from rolling and marshalling. But these guys are pro and fast and Jonathan was 7th 3 minutes from the end with a 10 seconds gap. But he kept pushing and the gap was only 1.5 second before the last lap. The Cobra was so quick on the whoops section that Jonathan catched the 6th guy in this section and made an inside pass 2 corners before the line. That’s was nice !

For the 45’ main, we hesitated on tires and Jonathan choose the saver choice. This was not the quickest tyres, but the kept going for the whole 45’. With a 9’ strategy, Jonathan was fighting for the 6th place till he had some rolling and dropped to 11th place. Thanks to consistent driving and Cobra’s reliability, Jonathan bumped up to 9th place, wich was the bast he could do with his set of tyres.

Bacro and Garcia set-up here:

Team Serpent France Italy, Spain

Pictures by: www.justbuggy.net

Pictures by: www.justbuggy.net