OUR RACE SERVER FROM
 
 
 
   
Help Us To
Keep You Racing
 
 
 
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
SUNDAY DECEMBER 28 2008 - IMOLA, ITALY
The inaugural MDR Christmas event for formula nippons held a few surprises, but ultimately delivered the goods on Sunday, when the seemingly unbeatable ADF-Red-5 took the double header, and his second MDR hosted event in succession.

Throughout practice ADF-Monjen dominated the field, with outstanding repetitive lap times of under 1:28, while Nugget and ADF-Red-5 could not best him registering almost a half a second slower.

The surprise package of practice was MDR-Quasi consistently posting times of 1:30 and 1:31, until the closing stages, where he put in a blindingly quick, and smooth 1:29, almost 3 seconds clear of the remainder of the field. Qualifying, however, was a different story, with ADF-Monjen securing pole, ahead of Nugget, then MDR-Quasi, and Adsta.

Meanwhile ADF-Red-5's run of bad luck in qualifying continued when he left the track on the qualifying outlap, causing his rear wing to come loose from the car. Although his crew were able to carry out repairs he began the 12 lap race 1 from the rear of the grid, with the prospect of making his way through the field, as he had done at the Albert Park event. Also starting at rear of field was AUS-Butakup, who put his Toyota into a wall during qualifying, losing his nose cone.

Race 1 saw a clean start from the line, with ADF-Monjen leading the way, whilst Nugget, Adsta and MDR-Quasi began the battle for lead positions. When Monjen left the track a the turn 3 hairpin Quasi slipped into 2nd behind Nugget, taking Adsta with him, in 3rd.

Shortly afterward though, whilst leading, Nugget dropped from the positional tally, and never re-entered the contest.

By lap 6 Quasi had his hands full with a storming Red-5 filling his mirrors, in an attempt to work his way to challenge for the lead, behind Monjen who had recovered, regaing first place, ahead of Quasi. It didn't take too long and Red-5 took Quasi under brakes approaching the hairpin, and shortly after passed Monjen to lead for the remainder of the opening heat of the event.

Race 2 saw similair action, though with Red-5 starting from the front alongside Monjen, who surrendered his position to Quasi, when he again left the track at the turn 3 hairpin, bringing Adsta up to 3rd in the order. He recovered quickly, however, and took advantage of a spin by Quasi at the first chicane, who then had to wait for the entire field to flow through, before rejoining.

The leading order at this stage of proceedings was then ADF-Red-5, ADF-Monjen, and Adsta, filling the possible podium spots, whilst AUS-Butakup, OxAgro, and OzLoudmouth battled for minor placings had to contend with a determined MDR-Quasi fighting his way back to eventually challenge Adsta for third, grabbing a personal best for the circuit of 1:29.5 in the process.

Fuel and tyres however hampered the effort, and Quasi settled for a 4th place finish, after a brilliant display of defensive driving from Adsta, who held 3rd behind, ADF-Monjen, and the race, and event winner, ADF-Red-5.