Track Focus – Road Race Riccione
Name – Road Race Riccione RC Circuit Marco Simoncelli
Country – Italy
Location – Riccione
Host Club – Road Race Riccione
Surface – Asphalt
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Previous ETS races hosted – 2015 (Winner Yannic Prumper) & 2016 (Winner Bruno Coelho)
Road Race Riccione RC Circuit Marco Simoncelli is the venue for Round 4 of the Euro Touring Series, this being the third time the Italian circuit has hosted the championship. First appearing on the calendar in 2015 after a long search by the championship organisers to find a venue to bring Italy back onto the ETS calendar, the track was initially a big hit with racers. Not just fans of the track, it was also the location that was been key to the success of the race. One of Italy’s famed tourist destinations, the majority of racers get to wake in the hotels to a view of the beach and thankfully this year the weather is looking a lot more accommodating to the wearing of shorts and sitting outside the restaurants once the day at the track is complete.
With World Champion Ronald Volker declaring it one of his favourite tracks on his first visit, the Yokomo driver still stands by that feeling however the track’s famous bump appears to be becoming a bigger issue. Situated just before the corner entering onto the main straight it has proven to be a place where many drivers’ chances of success have come to a violent end, their cars usually getting launched in a roll up the grass banking along the main straight. Volker said, ‘This year I see a lot more people crashing there’. Team-mate Meen Vejrak , who is a podium finisher at the track, added, ‘the good line is getting narrower, I think the bump has got wider and its much harder to avoid it’. One driver getting his first taste of the track this year is Infinity’s Akio Sobue. The Japanese ace has not been enamoured by the track, quickly pointing to the bump and saying ‘I don’t like this’.
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