How to Be Fast on a Slow Track

Well, life is not a bed of roses, right? This could be a suitable recap for describing the 4Fun racers’ performances in the second week of the DTM and Abarth Assetto Corse championships, since our pilots were engaged in hard fights in Nūrburgring (Omer Kinay) and Magione (Dario Bucalo and Gianluca Roncaglia) with no wins at all. Sad, isn’t it? But just dry your tears and go on reading since the thrill is yet to come!

On the Saturday race, Kinay grabbed his best result with a 3rd place after a monster fight with Matteo Venuti. In the last four laps Venuti repeatedly attacked Kinay with over the top driving, showing his face on every corner, flashing his lights and also launching front car rockets, but Kinay lifted his shield and defended his place by all means, cracking the whip on his Alfa on the final straight of the final lap for a hard-earned third place. Unfortunately, after the race Kinay was disqualified for non-regulatory car weight since he sweated off 6 kg due to the race tension. Too bad. Nevertheless, Kinay is still on the 4th overall place in the championship, and already locked himself in his alchemist laboratory working on new setups for Monza and planning his revenge with Bach compositions for organ as a background music. Be prepared for some surprises!

After solving some setup issues with the Abarth – he is 6 ft 3 tall and couldn’t enter the car – Gianluca Roncaglia was able to increase his astounding collection of second places (five already in the series) before getting off for the weekend on celebrating his wedding anniversary. Roncaglia anticipated his return home – “Life is made of priorities and you have to face the side effects of your choices, like divorce”, he said – in order to have his fifth race of the week, but could only reach a disappointing 6th place and gain a smack in the face from his wife. However, he is leading the ranking for incidents ratio (0.2 in 10 races) and proudly shows to everyone who wasn’t able to escape in time his Abarth with no scratches or bumps.

Dario Bucalo also had his hard times in Magione before securing a 3rd place, but couldn’t get the right feelings on the curvy and slow Umbrian track throughout all the week. “I’m a damn fast racing pilot, goddammit”, he yelled, “how am I supposed to flat foot the throttle with all those damn turns? Hey, you guys at Magione, what about straighten up all those damn corners and hairpins? I’d like a 3 km straight and a damn dragsters race next time!”. Will Bucalo’s fervent pray be received? We’ll see. Meanwhile, stay tuned for the next week report!