Section Chairman’s report for Efra 1/8 European Championship Vila Real Portugal

ORGANISER…. ANVR supported by FEPRA

Race Director…Jose Alfonso Pineda (AECAR)

Time Keeper…Javier Llobregat (AECAR)

Efra Referee. Giacomo Moretti( EFRA)

National Referee…Pedro Pereira (FEPRA)

Arriving Monday morning at the AMVR to find most of the drivers/pilots getting ready for a 09:00 start.

All the tables had been marked with the appropriate countries that were attending, flags were up from each country all that was left to do was get the Efra banners up and get the Technical Inspection kit out ready to go. The OTS was opened for training tyres. Fuel was purchased and we are away!

At 09:00 we started with open practise with blue skies and lots of optimism, this was changed at 12:00 lunchtime to go into Groups according to 2022 Rankings.Practise finished at 17:45 so the drivers could do some prep and then get out for some socialising time.

This is important in the early days of an EC to catch up with old and new friends and putting some fun into the week!

Tuesday and Wednesday continued the same for the drivers/pilots with the Technical inspection opening up so the cars are all marked ready for Thursday.

The Opening Ceremony was on Wednesday evening with the local dignitary attending and myself declaring the EC officially open! AMVR supplied drinks and snacks for all afterwards.

RC TV / CTRL arrived in the morning and set up for the lIve coverage for the rest of the EC.

2 Controlled timed Practise started Thursday off for us, and after lunch with re-seeding and a practise session…we moved onto 2 rounds of qualifying. With Toni Gruber and Dario Balestri having 1 win each, Dario Balestri took the TQ overnight.

Friday we continued with a practise session then 3 rounds of qualifying.

This was getting really close ,with Dario and Tony taking one round of qualifying each again…who was going to get the overall TQ?After a last good qualifying,Toni Gruber took the honours for Capricorn with his Ielasi Tuned Engine!

So now we were set for Super pole…..

Dario Balestri. Infinity Chassis/ Max power Engines

Robert Pietsch. Mugen chassis/Ielasi Tuned

Jilles Groscamp Infinity Chassis/ Kabuto Engine

Mirko Salemi Capricorn chassis/ Max Power Engine

Dario Balestri takes the superpole with time of ….18.388

It was also decided that ALL finals would be run on Saturday for all drivers to be racing on the same day.

To do this ,the 1/16 A&B finals contained 12 drivers in each final.It is,if possible that all drivers/pilots race the same day to keep the atmosphere for everyone.

Saturday “Finals Day” arrives with the 1/16th B starting the day, but after this race ,it was decided to change the starting grid on request from the Team Managers, this caused a small delay when suddenly during the delay it started raining!!!!

Not one weather App forecast this, so took us all by surprise! So we were delayed until 10:45.

We Re-started with 1/16 A and continued through with no issues, the sun came out and we off and running again.Finals continued up to semi-finals with 3 drivers bumping up, then for semi’s 3 from each plus 2 fastest from either final.

This now led us to the last chance qualifier …..what a race!!!!!

12 drivers who had not bumped up now give their all to take the last place into the 11 driver A Final over 15 minutes.

With some big names in this final ..it was wide open, it was fast and furious with John Ermen and Alvaro Fernandez Calvo fighting it out with really close and fair driving, until Calvo did the overtake that took the place.

Great racing guys and brilliant to watch!!!!

The Finalist were called and photographed then went to the rostrum….off we go, unfortunately we lost some of the contenders, Calvo, Greiner, Pietsch and with Gruber having to manage a technical issue which put him at a disadvantage.

Dario never looked back doing what a professional does and just managed the race.

Overall Results….

European Champion….Dario Balestri……Infinity/Max Power

Vice Champion….Simon Kurzbuch……….Mugen/Hasi Tuned

3rd ….Toni Gruber………………………….Capricorn/Ielasi Tuned.