1/8 On Road EFRA GP - Tolmin 2006
race of Laurent Buemi and Axel Piaget:

The event:

1:8 On-Road EFRA GP of Slovenia (Tolmin, 40 km from Gorizia, Italy, Europe), Friday 14th, Saturday 15th and Sunday March 16th, 2006. Raining on Sunday, Sunny on Saturday and Friday. Track: 300m long, 4m wide.

Club Internet link : http://mk-tolmin.klub-kts.si/en/

Organization :

The club is beautiful. The covered boxes are large and have a lot of room. All the infrastructures are modern and everything Pilots and Mechanics would need was there. The Organization was perfect. All the Staff were well trained, even if as the Director said, there is always something to learn. Philippe Bertrand was the EFRA Referee and he did an excellent Job with the Race Director.

Qualifications (Saturday):

Sefano Solaroli (Mugen MRX4-R) was the fastest pilot and got the pole position. Jernej Vuga (Serpent 960) despite some problems of getting the right setting made it very close from TQ. All the qualifications have been ran on a dry track.

The Swiss driver Laurent Buemi got his best qualification on the 6th run and without a small error on the 3rd lap, he could have reached a 18 laps. Axel Piaget on his side made also a few errors in his best run, but still got a 17 laps.

Semi-Finals:

The track had a lot of water and only the cars well prepared and with the right tires could complete. Lot of drivers had problems with the one way bearing of the 2 speed housing (Forgot to put oil), some others didn’t have the right tires. For this occasion, Axel Piaget and Laurent Buemi had Kissling Tyres which was the best choice regarding the conditions.

Main Final:

The track during the final was very wet. Jernej, Stefano and Axel did an excellent start. Laurent who was at position 9 was following the group. After 12 minutes, Jernej had to stop because of a radio problem. Laurent who got at the 3rd position took advantage of a tyre problem of Stefano to lead the race. Behind, there were 4 pilots in the same lap, Stefano, Gabriel, Axel and Marco. Axel got to 2nd position until the 20th minutes but did a few errors, has been passed by Stefano and 5 minutes before the end by Mutu. Laurent has done a wonderful race. He drove without error and kept 2 laps in front of Stefano. Stefano kept trying to catch Laurent but did also some errors and finally couldn’t come back.

Conclusion :

This race was exceptional for Axel and Laurent. It was the first Victory since they are racing, the 1st final in a EFRA GP. This race was the 3rd of the season after Paris (Tremblay, local Race) and the Efra of Beaumont-Monteux. Axel and Laurent get faster and more confident after each race. They still need experience in races to improve their precision, get the right setting for the MRX4-R and the right setting on their Novarossi Engines. They are still very young (Laurent 14, Axel 13) and have time this year to improve on all fields.

Our next races will be on 22-23 of April in Schaffhausen (Switzerland) and it will be the first 2 races (out of 12) of the Swiss Championship.

Many Thanks to our Sponsors Mugenseiki, Novarossi, UFRA and Team-Titan.