Pro-Line driver Elliott Boots TQ’s with M4 Holeshot and Alex Zanchettin Wins The Italian Job at IBR Padova with M4 ION
(Photo Courtesy of Chris Boots)
From Chris Boots:
“The Italian Job race at the IBR in Padova indoor track was a great meeting as Elliott was attending as one of the favourites for this event. We arrived at the track on the Thursday for testing with our new engines with Reds Racing. We were going to use the M4 Holeshot as we tested them before and found that these were the best for this track. We did test some M4 Suburbs but decided that the Holeshot would be better. Throughout the qualifying where Elliott TQ’d 2 of the 3 rounds of qualifying were running M4 Holeshot tires. We did try the X4 Holeshot in our semi-final warm-up but went back to the M4 Holeshot so this is what we ended up on. The tyre wear was very good. The track was quite dusty in places but Elliott had plenty of traction and grip. In the final, unfortunately, we had some bad driving from other drivers where it put Elliott down the pack at the start and as this was a new format for the final where we had 3 x 15 minute heats with your best 2 scores to count we ended up 6th overall. It was very good to see the Fellow Pro-Line Driver, Alex Zanchettin, take the win. He was running M4 ION tires.”
Zanchettin wins Italian Job Thriller
Alex Zanchettin, aptly sitting in his throne, arguably the king of IBR Padova, a fairytale victory for the Italian, surrounded by mythical women – making for perhaps the most outlandish yet memorable prize giving ceremony we’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing, Maugrafix’ Evlin dressed as Batwoman, Tehannah Cradock as a Peter Pan pixie, Lia Gandini as Alice in Wonderland and Sara Vanucchi as Minnie Mouse!
Alex Zanchettin won a chaotic last A final which saw him recover from a poor opening lap to dominate the field, Robert Batlle and Ronnefalk snuck by, things looking rosy for the Spaniard only for him to bobble a few jumps later, dropping him right back into the pack, what followed was chaos and he was unable to recover. Elliott Boots had a similarly poor start but drove well to finish 4th. The next racer to try his hand at leading was David Ronnefalk, the Swede was still in the hunt for a win but had Zanchettin under his rear wing with Ongaro again sniffing for scraps.
Whilst watching the two leaders it was clear that Zanchettin looked more comfortable and a short landing saw him bobble and run slightly wide, Zanchettin needed no invitation and snuck past in an opportunist masterstroke, Ronnefalk immediately throttled up to the 150% he was driving in A2 and looked like he might stay with Zanchettin, a rare mistake from the Italian allowed Ronnefalk the briefest of sniffs up the inside but he thought better and backed out of it, a lap later however Ronnefalk got the rhythm section slightly wrong lost some momentum and was soon having to fend off Davide Ongaro from behind. A wild bit of driving allowed Ongaro past, and he began to hunt down the leader of the Italian Rat Pack.
Despite having a comfortable gap, Zanchettin had a freak landing from the front side step up jump, which allowed Ongaro past, cue much excitement with great racing in store, only for Ongaro’s buggy to come to a dead halt, the 3rd problem for the Italian sensation. Zanchettin kept it clean and rolled to a deserved win, after his disastrous start Robert Batlle ended up 6th with Savoya taking 2nd and Martin Wollanka with his thousands of ‘virtual kilometre’ mileage took 3rd
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Anyway, have a read through the finals from NeoBuggy.net for accounts of each one of the electric style final setup, whilst a few drivers inevitably groan at the merest hint of change, the 15min 3x final format went down a treat, each one producing roughly 18 x the amount of exciting racing compared with a 45-60min ‘pounding round and round’ fest – thumbs up from NeoBuggy.
All in all, it was a deserved drive from Zanchettin, he had Europe’s elite pressurizing him, but on home turf he once again proved to have the upper hand, whether he can use this victory to mount a serious challenge at other international events on foreign turf remains to be seen, but its fair to say that TLR’s hopes in Europe lie firmly with him.
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Under the Hood: Elliott Boots
Chassis: Kyosho MP9 TKI3
Engine: Reds R5 Team Edition
Tyres: Pro-Line Holeshot M4
Fuel: VP Powermaster 25%
Radio & Servos: Sanwa exzes radio, KO RSX servos (currently testing them)
Notes: REDS engine debut, Q1 TQ, usually run a TCD diff in front, for this race they are not, diff oils 5/5/2 (37.5 oil in front shock, 27.5 oil in rear). Mentioned that the engine has a much better ‘feel’ to it, the work they did with Mario Rossi has improved their understanding a huge amount, also switched gearing from 14/48 to 13/46.
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