Trofeo Amatori Italiano, III stage, Franciacorta!
The third stage of Trofeo Amatori Italiano in Franciacorta is over: Nataliya Lyubimova is on the podium again!
The racing week-end in Italy was as hot as the present Moscow summer. 48 people took part in qualifications under extremely tough weather conditions. However, the narrow and short track which has practically no space for frequent over-taking enabled only 36 racers to reach the main race. All those who failed in the qualification round in all Trofeo Amatori classes (Base, Pro, 600, 1000) were included in the mixed start grid.
Both pilots of "Yakhnich Motorsport" were successful in the qualification having taken the 24th and 34th positions in their class, and it is a rather good result taking into consideration that the gap between the quickest and the slowest time was only 4 seconds. The girls hoped to improve their positions in the main race but unfortunately they were not very lucky on the start and in the first half of the race Lyubimova and Yakhnich had to work hard in order to win back their positions. The heat, narrow track and, consequently, problems in finding a right moment for over-taking influenced the final results of the race. Though the pilots didn't take the top places, the team interprets this racing week-end in Italy as extremely useful experience: it was important to finish and maintain the positions. Besides that Natalya Lubimova made her fans glad again having taken the 3rd place in STK-35 for the second time. Even in spite of unlucky start, the difficult but very interesting fight for the podium turned out to be successful for the pilot of "Yakhnich Motorsport"!
Nataliya Lyubimova: "I am very happy to be fit for racing again! Nadya and I worked well at the Friday practice and Saturday qualifications following all the coach's recommendations. We are glad to see our results. From race to race the rivalry in our class becomes tougher and tougher. For example, 13 people shared the start grid with my time 1:19!!!! We regard this race as a very important experience for our racing history. We are going on!"