published: 2012-08-18 20:58:31 (60262) Author: Oli_M |
Huber is European Champion! |
| After an intense 45 minutes of action, the sole Austrian driver in the final takes the victory! |
 The big news today was firstly that the defending champion, Robert Pietsch, would not progress any further than his quarter final qualifying place, after unfortunatly hitting an upside-down car at the end of the main straight, putting him out and meaning we would have a new champion.In the two Semi Finals, the drama continued as Dario Balestri led the first, only to suffer an engine cut on his penultime pitstop, putting him out of chance of a final spot. Jilles Groskamp won the second Semi Final and would start the main Final from the pole position. |
 As the main final got underway, Groskamp spun on the first corner, allowing Guiseppe D'Angelo (car pictured) into the lead. Groskamp recovered quickly to second place, and the lead two drivers began to pull away from the rest of the field.As the first pit stops came about, the two remained a few seconds apart. D'Angelo lost a lot of time during his stop, which he made at the three-and-a-half minute mark. Groskamp ran 30 seconds further and assumed the lead of the race. |
 Shortly after his pitstop, however, Groskamp almost flipped his car coming around the final corner before the main straight. In an effort to catch the car, he understeered badly and hit the solid pit wall. This clearly damaged his car and he limped around the rest of the lap before taking his car to the pitlane. It was later discovered that the incident had allowed his rear belt to come off the differential gear, leaving him with only 2-wheel-drive.This allowed Manuel Huber (car pictured) up into the race lead, whilst Groskamp's mechanics fixed his car and returned him to the track, but the Dutch driver had lost 4 laps through the incident. |
 Huber maintained the lead for much of the rest of the race, occasionally be closed on by Dino Giacalone (car pictured) and Mario Spiniello through the pit stop phases. Surprisingly, very few drivers chose to change tires during the hot 45 minute race, feeling that the tire wear wasn't quite as high as expected and the time would be too great.As the race reached its conclusion, Giacalone appeared to be closing in on Huber, even taking the lead through the penultimate pitstop, however just after taking the lead an incident with a backmarker sadly put him out of the race. |
 This allowed Jilles Groskamp to pull off a remarkable comeback, making up over 2 of his lost laps to end up third overall and on the podium. But Huber had done more than enough to take the win after many years of trying.The Austrian driver, who was fifth last year, said it was very hard all week to compete with, in particular, the numerous fast Italian drivers on home soil and he therefore feels the win is very special. Spiniello (car pictured) finished second, delighted to make the podium after only qualifying in the 1/8 final. |
2012 1/10th TRACK EFRA EUROS - OVERALL RESULT EUROPEAN CHAMPION MANUEL HUBER - AUSTRIA Xray / Novarossi / ZAC Project Tires / Runner Time Fuel 2 - Mario Spiniello (IT) Xray/Novarossi/Hotrace/MLC 3 - Jilles Groskamp (NL) Capricorn/Maxima/Hotrace/Maxima 4 Alessio Mazzeo (IT) 5 Dirk Wischnewski (DE) 6 Rico Krober (DE) 7 Martin Hudy (SK) 8 Dino Giacalone (IT) 9 Giuseppe D'Angelo (IT) 10 Daniele Ielasi (IT) Don't forget you can find our full highlights video package later this evening, right here at www.EFRA.ws Congratulations to Manuel Huber on his title, and a big thank you to the Lamberto Collari RME circuit for hosting the event. |