Serpent at the Dirt Nitro Challenge in Italy
Some of the European Serpent team headed out to Italy to race at the Dirt Nitro Challenge on the US-style track at Padova. Here is their report:
From the first qualification rounds, the Serpent Cobra was really fast getting Alberto Garcia into 12th place in Q1 of buggy and third in the truggy class with the Serpent Cobra 811T. The Serpent team was working closely together and we were able to improve the car every round, getting a perfect balance of speed and handling. The cold surface with big jumps required a good set-up to be at the front. After qualifying, Jonathan Bacro took a fantastic 16th place in F1 Buggy while Alberto GarcÃa qualified in third position in truggy, without getting more than two clean rounds in buggy, and therefore starting the final day from the quarter finals.
For the finals day, the team, with an already good set-up, was able to use softer tyres to improve their lap times. Alberto GarcÃa was able to win the first truggy semi final, in front of thre-time European Champion, Reno Savoya, and would start the final in second behind USA driver, Adam Drake. In the truggy 30-minute final, Alberto held his own in the first three positions, racing closely with Drake and Savoya, but with a better fuel strategy thanks to Cobra 811T’s high traction, being able to refuel at over ten minutes. When the strategy was about to show its strength, Alberto had to retire from a podium place with a broken clutch bell.
On the other hand, Jonathan Bacro managed a place in the F1 final. The French driver adapted well with the car from the first practice round and with the help of the Serpent team, had an
almost perfect package, and only a better tyre choice for the final would have improved a fantastic ninth place! To complete the excellent performance of the Serpent drivers, young
Italian driver Andrea Ubaldi, following the tips about set-ups of the team, showed incredible skills to finish second in the F2 buggy class. To sum up, the Serpent team was present in the three finals of the three categories! Surely from the Dirt Nitro Challenge 2011, we had better performance than the results showed, but luck was still missing and we will continue to push.
Source: Serpent
