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Competitions Salon de Motor 05 Race | Salon de Motor 05 Race |
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| sábado, 09 abril 2005 | |
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Most of you know that on last Sunday 3rd of April the El Salon de Motor de Córdoba was held; a fabulous Mini-z race in the GT and F1 categories and was organized by ARCCA. Every thing was a great success both on a participation level, on a public level and also worth mentioning, on an organizational level because things couldn´t have turned out any better. As is customary in the miniz world, some of the registered participantes got a seak peek of the track on saturday, a fair green carpet with wooden borders set up for the occaision and as is also customary a magnificent atmosphere of comeradery among everyone (and by the way there were more than just a few of them) was prevelant throughout the weekend Technically the organization consisted of 40 inscriptions but counting those who backed out at the last minute and one individual whose 1:1 car broke down along the way, in the end there were 30 participants, a quite considerable figure that comes close to those of national rounds and exceeds almost any regional race to give a few examples. The track, as we have already mentioned was made of fair carpet, a relatively slow surface for a race of these dimensions, given that presently it seems as though the oxiron tracks have gained much ground in this area. The route was very fast and the high rev motors let loose with high gear ratios. In fact aproximately 20% of the circuit was "gas wide open". On the contrary, in the central zone there was a succession of bends that weren´t as fast although they weren´t slow at all, A stretch that ended in fork of 180º right bends, the only slow zone of the route, that took you to a semi straight of medium width connected via an wide 180º fork to the left (almost 10m by 150cm) to get to the long lightening fast main straight. All of this together with the grip of the carpet with its gentle skids and rapid bends made the race into a real show for the crowd of people present that even started to cheer on their favourites. After the first qualifying round, it was already quite clear who was advancing quickly and who wasn´t. One could observe an aggressive Javi Lama give a spectacular performance with a McLaren F1, which didn´t suprise those who know him, given that he has always been a fast driver. The suprise came when who took off the body of his car and you could see that it carried a lmwaver O2 with ESC of the same brand and assured that the car ran perfectly and quickly. We also saw the local driver, Rafa Calvo, give a good and fast race. He showed to be in very good form and also Francisco J. Montilla who wasn´t the least bit slower and with only 2 legs had enought time to clock the third best time of the qualifying rounds. Its a pity that due to personal reasons he couldn´t stay to race in the final. However, in the end what made the rest of the pilots tremble and what caused tension amongst the crowd present was when Alberto Sanz´s car pased through. The "Madrileño" put on a real show of fast, clean driving along the route without glitches, without anxiety and definitely without errors. From the first leg, he made it clear that he was the boss of the track. At the end of the three rounds, the final were organized in the following manner: A FINAL: 1st ALBERTO SANZ 2nd RAFA CALVO 3rd RANCISCO J. MONTILLA At a first glance, in the qualifiy rounds there were are few basic mishaps, such as the fault of Javi Lama and Arturo Paz in the A final , but considering the fast speed in which it took place, many of the favourites didn´t make the grade. Suprises such as the 7th place of Paco Almagro, a begginer driver but who drives very fast or the fall of Javi Alanís and Pepe Varo to the C final. However a poor selection of tires in the first case and diverse problems in the second ended up relegating both of them from the final. After a short lunch break, the starting gun of the E final sounded and was deservedly won by José Luis Díaz who gave a clean race although it wasn´t free of of bumps, doing 48 laps in the 15 minute long race. Inmediately following this we saw a D final that was even faster than the previous one in which Jaime Sanchez, a calm but confident pilot, stood out from the rest of the participants. The driver from Granada finished 58 laps. We now reach the C final where Javi Alanís seemed to become reaquainted with his car after a few unconvicing classifying rounds due to a bad selection of tires but now with the correct selection, in which he outshone everyone else completing 59 laps, seven more than the second qualifying round of the same final; a lightening fast pace. In the B final, as usual, Arturo Paz won, giving a great show of impeccable, clean driving but on this occaision I would say he was even faster than usual. Behind Arturo came Javi Lama with his fast Iwaver, but such speed caused him to make mistakes which ended up causing him the qualification to the A Final as well the B Final victory. Then came the final of finals ; a real showcase of limitless velocity, quality driving and an endless list of adjectives that I can´t even think of and coudn´t even fit in this article. There were only 5 cars on the track due to the abandonment of Francisco J. Montilla allowing for a gap in the grid which gave more space for the other cars to enjoy. Right after the start and the first lap, the cars were positioned in single file and all raced at the same pace for a few minutes. Alberto Sanz was the key figure of course, forcing a pace that was really quite frightening. The crowd cheered on the drivers and the accion began. Rafa Calvo began to have signal problems for which we don´t know the cause, although they were in concrete zones of the track, circumstances that his "enemies" took advantage of to jump ahead and launch a battle to become the race leader. However at that point, Alberto Sanz was already in another galaxy. The cleanest driver, undoubtedly Alberto Sanz. The fastest; Rafa Calvo. When Rafa was able to awaken from his signal " lethargy" he had already been overtaken by José Maria Cano (senior) and Luis M. Linares although in the end both Rafa as well as Luis completed 61 laps. Luis had a 3 second advantage on him which cost him the winners podium. The GT qualifying round ended up as follows:
To pick up the pace of the travellers who weren´t going to compete in the F1, the organizers went on to give away the trophies of the GT category and gave out prizes. For this occaision there were trophies for the first 3 places of the A Final as usual and in addition an honorary trophy for the winners of the rest of the respective finals.
1st. Arturo Paz 38 vueltas
After the F1 followed the prize giving for this category that still doesn´t enjoy the enthusiasm that it deserves given the beautiful and spectacular nature of these races. Francisco Javier Alanís |
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