Baldan, Volt and Taylor send TCR Italy title fight down to the wire

The battle for the TCR Italy title is going down to the wire, with a trio of contenders covered by 35 points ahead of the season finale at Monza on 26/27 October. Nicola Baldan is still leading the standings, 18 points ahead of Ruben Volt, with Nicolas Taylor third 17 further points adrift. Mathematically speaking, Salvatore Tavano is also still in contention, but he has a gap of 72 points when 95 remain at stake.
The two eventful races at Vallelunga resulted in victories for Taylor from the pole in Saturday’s Race 1 and Levente Losonczy who inherited the win in Race 2 following a penalty inflicted to Junesung Park.
Race 1 – Taylor and Paolo Rocca shared the front row after having battled for the pole for all of the session, with the Canadian beating the Italian by 47 thousandths. The other title contenders Volt and Baldan qualified third and fourth, while Tavano was only 21st. Taylor made good use of the pole and led from Volt, Baldan and Rocca who was passed by Junesung Park in lap 1. As Volt struggled to defend his second place, Taylor was able to pull away. After several aborted attempts, Baldan dived to the inside of Volt at Cimini 2 and took second; Park took advantage from the fight and moved into P3. With Taylor who had built a five-second lead, focus shifted on the battle for P6 between Matteo Poloni, Alex Ley, Losonczy, Damiano Reduzzi and Junui Park. Eventually Losonczy emerged from the pack and closed in on Rocca. In lap 14, Filippo Barberi beached his Audi at T13 and the safety car was deployed; when racing resumed with only two laps to go Ley retired from seventh with a blown front tyre. On the last lap, Rocca stopped on the track losing fifth. Taylor held on to the lead and claimed his maiden win from Baldan, Park, Volt and Losonczy.
Race 2 – Poloni had the pole of the top eight reversed grid, with Losonczy alongside him; Poloni got away well and led from Losonczy who was chased by Junesung Park while Baldan had moved from P5 to P4 ahead of Junui Park. During the first lap, Baldan was pushed wide by Luciano Martínez and dropped to sixth ahead of Taylor. The safety car was deployed at the end of the lap to recover Pietro Alessi’s Audi that had stopped with a broken suspension. Racing resumed in lap 5, with Poloni leading from Losonczy and the Parks. In lap 7, Junesung Park overtook Losonczy for second at the hairpin but was given a warning for making contact with his rival. In lap 8, Volt overtook Taylor for P7 and began pressuring Baldan. All those fighting had helped Poloni to build a small lead, but Park was closing the gap and by lap 13 he was on the tail of the leading Audi. At the same time, Martínez went wide and was passed by the trio of Baldan, Volt and Taylor. Poloni was under huge pressure but kept the lead, while Losonczy tried to take advantage from the situation and attacked Park who rejected the assault. This had helped Poloni to pull away again, but at the end of the penultimate lap the leader pitted with a flat front tyre leaving Junesung Park, Losonczy and Junui Park to finish in the order, with Baldan, Volt and Taylor filling the positions from fourth to seventh. However, after the race, five-second time penalties were imposed to Junesung Park and Taylor for incidents with Losonczy and Rocca respectively and so they dropped to fifth and seventh.
DSG – Luca Franca (Aikoa Racing, Audi) moved another step closer to the title thank to a third place in Race 1 and a victory – the second for him in the season so far – in Race 2. Franca has stretched his lead in the standings to 51 points over Luca Verdi (Planet Motorsport, Audi) when 95 will be on offer in the season finale. The first race was won by Federico Scionti (Event e Service, CUPRA) who made a second successful appearance in the series; after winning both races at Mugello, Scionti set pole position, claimed a dominant win on Saturday and finished third on Sunday.
 
Vallelunga – Race 1
1. Nicolas Taylor (PMA Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 17 laps
2. Nicola Baldan (Aikoa Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 1.103
3. Junesung Park (Indigo Racing, Hyundai Elantra N), 1.493
 
Vallelunga – Race 2
1. Levente Losonczy (ALM Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 16 laps
2. Junui Park (Indigo Racing, Hyundai Elantra N), 0.674
3. Nicola Baldan (Aikoa Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 2.021
 
Championship points
1. N. Baldan, 319 pts; 2. R. Volt, 301; 3. N. Taylor, 284
 
DSG Championship points
1. L. Franca, 368 pts; 2. L. Verdi, 317; 3. A. Alcidi, 297
 
Picture: ACI Sport