During practice and qualifying we witnessed flashes of speed from RB/RB/RB/RB/RB/RB/RB…. (you get the picture!) driver Marco Baruffolo, amongst other things claiming Q3, although it was home driver Davide Ongaro who claimed the headlines with overall TQ. Baruffolo began to show his cards in his semi as he put in a crushing cruise control drive, pulling a massive gap, this ominous sign saw him start out on pole for the final. Mother nature however had one final flurry as 15mins of rain doused the track somewhat, however the awesome Ongaroring track crew were quickly at it slinging copious amounts of sawdust on the damp patches of track soaking it up. The final got underway with drivers struggling with the tricky changeable conditions, mastering it better than most though, Baruffolo out in front in P1, Ongaro challenged early on however a bad tangle reduced him to a lowly last place – not on the script. Ongaro struggled to recover – not helped by an engine stop on lap 21 – driving robustly but making costly mistakes, he would eventually battle his way through the field and end up 5th. Out front Baruffolo had a gap, during the first and second pitstops Stocco briefly took the lead however on a different strategy but that went out the window when Stocco’s car stopped out on track. This promoted Oscar Baldo to P2, Jurgen Trieb was another that featured in the top until his engine stopped in pitlane, he was soon out again though. Brit Tony Truman finished 6th overall with a flame out, without that a P4 may have been on the cards. Coming in 12th, last year’s Euro B Champion Alessandro Magi – returning like a Jedi master to school the youngsters, however his car was consigned to the Dark Side of  retirement after only 37 laps in the final.

A worthy win for Baruffolo who excelled when the track and weather conditions changed, his all RB combo – including the special suspension system ADS doing the business in Italy. Thanks to EFRA, the Ongaro family and a great Press room!

Final Overall Results

Many more available in Sundays Gallery

Quaifying didn’t produce the biggest of surprises with Davide Ongaro claiming the top spot early on, although the rain arriving at 18:00 was not in the script, not only rain but HEAVY rain, the type of rain you get in Africa and in MTV videos with the word ‘rain’ in the title. Cue EFRA’s majestic Media man Mat McCallum and the montage!

So back to the nitro monsters with four wheels, Q3 TQ Marco Baruffolo suffered an engine stop after the curved double double, he then gave up on that round and practiced a pitstop ahead of the finals. We’ll update later once the overalls are posted and we’ve successfully navigated our way across the various lakes in the pits towards the mudbog carpark!

Top 44 below, no online overall…