Selman, Callegari and Stendler won second round of TopRC Track Masters series in Croatia

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report from XRAY:
www.teamxray.com

XRAY RX8 wins at TopRC Track Masters

The second race of the TopRC Track Masters 2016 – Zagreb (Croatia) was held on 21/22nd May at the very nice Ayrton Senna track. The very technical but smooth and fast track layout provided some great racing again, which was also emphasized by the great number of drivers registered to the race and a big number of spectators on Sunday. 

The organizers offered also a free dinner party on Saturday evening and some of us had also a nice after party at the near hotel…

In 1/10 Touring Stock 13,5T were some drivers from Slovenia, Italy and Croatia. Young driver Patrik Pozgaj from Croatia (XRAY T4) was dominating during free practice on Saturday and he took all qualification runs with most constant lap times on Sunday morning. First final run was battle between Zeljko Selman(Croatia) and Patrik Pozgaj. After very good fight during run, Zeljko hit Patrik and Patrik lost his first position. Zeljko won first final run, Gabriel Benvenuti (Italy) finished 2nd, Patrik 3rd. 

Second final run started not so good for Patrik, he did early mistake and lost 2 positions. At this moment leader was Benvenuti, following by Selman on 2nd and Pozgaj on 3rd. Pozgaj was trying pass Selman but he couldn't. 1st-Benvenuti, 2nd-Selman, 3rd-Pozgaj. Benvenuti showed that he was the calmest driver in that run. 

In 3rd final run Patrik Pozgaj was pushing really hard and finished first without a mistake, Selman was 2nd, Benvenuti 3rd. 

Patrik Pozgaj (XRAY T4) set new track record in STOCK 13,5T 20,179 sec. The 1 set of controlled tyres used for this category were SP Racing SPEL034 which worked great.

13,5 stock results: 

1. Zeljko Selman 
2. Gabriel Benvenuti (XRAY T4) 
3. Patrik Pozgaj (XRAY T4) 
4. Darko Nemec (XRAY T4) 
5. Zvonko Pungracic (XRAY T4) 
6. Stanislav Kokol (XRAY T4) 
7. Adolfo Ferraioli (XRAY T4) 
8. Bjan MIklozic (XRAY T4) 
9. Kristjan Miklozic (XRAY T4) 

In 1/8 Nitro GT class it was Fabio Callegari (XRAY RX8) who set TQ in front of Majsec Boris and Zvonimir Matošič 

The final was very intense since the TQ man Fabio had an engine flame out at the start and then another one during the first minutes, because of a wrong engine setting. After adjusting the engine his race went just upwards and he recovered till 2nd and in the last minutes he could also overtake the leading car of Majsec, also helped by fast refueling of his mechanics. At the end Fabio Callegari won the race in front of Boris Majsec and Mlivič Denis.

1/8 Nitro GT results:

1. Fabio Callegari (XRAY RX8)
2. Majsec Boris  
3. Mlivic Denis 
4. Matosic Zvonimir  
5. Zaja Aleksandar  
6. Galekovic Mihael  
7. Kaucki Rocco  
8. Benc Tomislav  
9. Pelin Patric  

In 1/8 IC Track category it was a very tight competition between 3 drivers: Nejc Mihelič (TopRC fuel), Jernej Vuga Štendler (XRAY RX8) and Herfried Pucher. 

In the first qualifying round it was Jernej who TQ the run. In the second run Jernej did not take part since he was busy with support at the race, so it was Nejc who just bettered the run from Jernej by making just the 20 laps. In the last qualifying round the track was slower, so the final 3 positions were: Nejc, Jernej and Herfried. 

The final was a thriller. After the start Nejc pulled some meters and Jernej was having difficulties with his tyres at the beginning, so Herfried passed him. But then Jernej started to chase him and passed. Then he went to challenge Nejc and when he was getting near Nejc had a contact with a slower car and his engine stopped. Jernej was now in the lead and controlling the race without pushing a lot since tyre wear was an issue. At the 20min of the race Jernej decided to change only the outside tyres and was still able to get in front of Nejc who was pushing a lot and was getting near. Jernej then started to push again to make the gap a little bigger. But then Nejc hit a slower car and needed to get for repairs. Jernej just had to drive then till the end without pushing. 

In the final a new lap record was made by Jernej (XRAY RX8 2016). 

1/8 IC results:

1. Jernej Vuga Štendler (XRAY RX8) 
2. Mihelic Nejc  
3. Busac Luka 
4. Riegler Roland 
5. Knapp Gottfried 
6. Stelcl Simon 
7. Vignjevic Goran 
8. Mis Valentin  
9. Restivo Stefano  
10. Pucher Herfried 
11. Matosic Zvonimir  
12. Sustersic Lovro  

TopRC would like to congratulate all the drivers who were present this season! 

It was a very nice event with great and warm weather, a lot of drivers and spectators present and of course some great and exciting racing! 

The 3rd and last race of the TopRC Track Masters 2016 will be held in Lavanttal (Austria) on 11th September at the LAMAC track where the champions will be declared. 

We will soon post the series ranking on www.toprc.eu site and Facebook. Till next race!

Štendler’s winning RX8 setup:
forum.teamxray.com/xform/index.php?act=view&ID=21&setup=rx8_2016