ISRA Worlds 2007

The 2007 World Championships

Videos of the World finals by Pat Skene

F1 final 32 Eurosport Final 24 Europsort Final The Worlds - Pit lane interviews

The ISRA 2007 web site gives all the results, lots of photos and much more about the rules etc. Here Rob Lees writes about the even, and in particular the story of the British competitors.

It's all over here. They are cleaning the track for the last time before taking it apart, and I have a chance to tell you the latest
news. You can of course see all the results and some photos on the ISRA site, and I have added some of Pat Skene's photos to the photos
section here.
1/32 Europsport
ES32 was a win for Horky, with Brian out of sorts for the race. Some good UK results with Shep continuing an excellent week.

1/24 Eurosport

ES24 has just finished. Brian qualified second to give him one of the four sitouts for the semis. Graeme and Shep also qualified well. Graeme won his heat with an excallent drive, and as Brian had done in ES32 had to sweat it out to see if he made the semis. Heat after heat went by (there were 14 in all with 112 competitors) with one or two drivers from each beating Graeme's time, until he needed a few failures in the A and B to get in to the top 20. The was a bit of a crashfest, and with a couple of retirements early on in the A Graeme joined Brian in the semis. An excellent result from him.

The semis and final were this morning. Graeme was up first in the C semi and won the first segment. Gear gremlins then struck and he lost too much time off the track to be a contender, retiring after seven heats. However his speed on the track would have made him a top 10 finisher with a clear run. So disappointment but good signs for him.

Brian went in the A semi with all the quick blokes and had an untroubled run to third qualifier overall. Korec, probably the second fastest Czech, did not make the final.

Brian chose red lane to start on in the Final and this really ended his race before it started, leaving him 8th, 14 laps behind after
the end of the first five minute segment. Horky dominated the race from the front to win from Jiri Karlik and Janis Sneiders (great result for both of them. Brian finished sixth, but only 9 laps behind second but 27 behind Horky. most drivers even in this long race (40 minutes) did not change tyres, unlike previous worlds where tyre wear has often dominated race strategy. Most drivers appear to have been using Piranha rubber, and the track is finished in very smooth gloss paint, so although there is a lot of rubber down it's easy to clean and you can rub off the rubber with your finger and see the clean track beneath - your finger isn't even dirty
afterwards.

We have been holed up in a hotel in the mountains here for a week, subsisting on plain food and Czech beer, with many of the Brit racers discovering Slivovica, the local firewater, as well. It's been great, but now the time has come to say goodbye to 120 racers from over 20 countries, and their families at the end of race banquet tonight and set off for home early tomorrow. Sorry that the intermittent internet here has prevented more postings but more will appear in the December SCRN available in just over a month.

Brian Q6 into final after a strong run. Major story here was world #1 Horky not making the final, finishing 9th.
Brian Saunders
Final:
Landrud led off the line, with Brian 4th at first change. Landrud led for a while, Brian took lead before half time. Great run on black gutter lane sees him stay on the lead lap as landrud makes ground on orange.

Landrud changes tyres early, but drops only 4-5 laps, but his challenge is over.

Brian still in the lead as castricone starts charge, cutting his lead to four then three then two laps. Complete heart in mouth job for the last four segments as huge UK contingent holds its breath.

Last segment trigilio starts pulling 5.0's as castricone copes well with red lane. It's all over about 30 seconds from the end as Castricone falls off in the sweeper and Brian reestablishes a two lap cushion.

After years of trying Brian is World Champion by under two laps in a 40 minute race. He's mobbed at the end by racers from UK and everywhere and the place is still buzzing as I write.

Turning point was his runs on Purple and Black where he established and then held his lead, Black being the slowest lane on the track, a real pig to drive on the tight corners. Landrud and Castricone were class opposition, and defending champ Trigilio came through to third in the end. The Czechs only had one representative in the race, Petr Krcil, and there were new faces in Janis Nabokins from Latvia and Tobias Lestrell from Sweden.

Rob Lees

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