Green & Dankel claim Euro Nitro Series win

Mark Green and Eric Dankel took the wins at the first ever Euro Nitro Series held at the Hockenheimring in Germany where the winning margin in both the 1:8 and 1:10 Touring finals was just 3-seconds. Green’s first international win for some time, the British ace was joined on the podium by the Mugen of World Champion Robert Pietsch and his Serpent team-mate Michael Salven.  Leading the Touring Car final from start to finish Top Qualifier Dankel was surrounded by French drivers on the podium with Basile Concialdi finishing 2nd to making it a Capricorn 1-2 with fellow countryman Michael Derderian driving an Xray in 3rd.

Starting from second on the grid after Pietsch secured the honour of Top Qualifier on tie break, Green said he was ‘Super Happy’ to take the win.  Happy with his Novarossi powered 977 Viper from the minute he put it on the track when he arrived on Thursday, he said they went into the race with a plan and stuck with it, the only mishap being him missing the call for his final pitstop and having to nervously do one extra lap. Taking the approach to not push at the beginning of the race he said this worked out really well with his tyres holding up for the entire race distance. A key part of the ENS is its system of a controlled handout tyre which got a big thumbs up from Green.  Using a tyre from Matrix for the 1:8 class, Green also complimented the Italian company on the quality of their tyre describing it as ‘very good’.

As the defending champion of this event, having won last year’s Europen Nitro Challenge which would become the foundation for the ENS, Pietsch described his final as ‘terrible’.  Starting off well and able to open up a small but comfortable gap over the pursuing Serpent’s he said from the first fuel stop the race went downhill.  Hitting a car that was put down in front of his MRX5 as he exited the pitlane, causing damage to his bodyshell, he then went on to suffer gearbox issues and a flame out.  As the race went on the change to second gear got later and later leading to two mistakes which would allow Green to go to the front on lap 73 of 143.  Also the reigning European Champion, Pietsch would drop back to third but got the position back when Salven had to make an unplanned tyre stop.

Happy with his pace Salven described his final as ‘messy’. A bad start left him 9th at the end of lap 1 and during his second stop he suffered a flame out as his mechanic struggled to get to his car in the busy pitlane.  The German looked on target to give the 977, of which he is designer, a 1-2 finish but chunked the outside rear tyre.  Coming into change just the damaged tyre, he said the diameter difference between the new tyre and the used inside tyre made the car ‘feel so bad for a few’ laps.  Setting the fastest lap of the race Salven said overall he was very happy with the pace of the car and himself but added he can do better.

Top Shepherd in the race, this being their home track, was Maximilian Vogl who finished fourth a lap down on the podium finishers who all finished on the same lap.  At one stage it looked like Lars Hoppe might have made it three different manufacturers in the top 3 but his race can to an end just before the half hour mark when his front axle parted company with the car, the German suspecting the c-clip that holds it in place broke. Hoppe said it was a disappointing to have this happen as for sure he could have finished at least fourth but he added he was still happy with his pace over the weekend especially after his engine issues in the opening two qualifiers.

With the win eluding him at the Hockenheimring last year when he was also the Top Qualifier, Dankel was delighted with how his race went saying his C02 and Novarossi engine ran perfectly.  The only issue the German had was during his third fuel stop when his body tucked as his pitman lifted the car costing him 3-seconds but he took full responsibility for the lost time saying it was his own fault for not fitting stiffers.  With his main rival Dirk Wischnewski’s challenge coming to an end when he ran out of fuel just as the second round of stops got underway, Dankel said he then paced himself with his pit crew telling him lap times of between 20.8 to 21 seconds would secure him the win.  Despite the input from his pit crew he said for a time he had concerns about the pace of fellow Capricorn driver Concialdi who was just 3.8 seconds behind him at the end of 127 laps. Dankel said the closeness of the race highlighted the success of the tyre system used this weekend which he said worked ‘very very well’.  Dankel also said with no preparing or truing of the tyres required it made for a much more relaxed event.

Starting the race from 9th Concialdi was delighted with his result also contributing the handout Enneti tyre to how even the field was.  Starting the race on a 4:30 fuel stop strategy the reigning French National Champion said he decided to play it safe and switch to 4-minute stops rather than risk loosing a podium finish.  While he said this cost a little time he doesn’t think it was enough to have allowed him to challenge Dankel for the win.

Lining up one place ahead of Concialdi on the grid, Derderian said having only arrived on Friday, when no running was possible due to the heavy rain, a podium finish was a great result considering his lack of track time.  Driving an Gi-mar powered NT1, he said both the car and engine worked well but by the end of the race he was struggling with his tyre wear.  Happy that ‘Team France’ made the podium he said it would have been better if he had finished ahead of his French National Championship rival but slow pit stops made this impossible.

Unfortunately for Wischnewski engine tuning issues cost him a chance of back to back wins at Hockenheim.  During the Warm-up the factory Xray driver had trouble getting a good tune on his engine and this would result in him running out of fuel before his second stop.  Rejoining the race he said he then pushed too hard and ran out of tyres finishing up 10th 14 laps down on Dankel who he admitted was a little faster than him this weekend.

Setting the fastest lap of the race with the new Velox V10 Pro, Patrick Schafer was pleased with his pace even if a good result was not possible.  The Shepherd boss, who started third on the grid, was holding position until lap 10 when he made a mistake which resulted in his tyre getting chunked but a flame out would ultimately end his challenge.  Eventually fitting a new set of tyres he said the car was ‘super fast’ allowing him to do a 20.277 lap on lap 85.  One of the key contributors to the format of the ENS, Schafer said he was really happy with how the event went and in particular the tyre solution with the feedback he got being nothing but positive.  Unfortunately for Freddy Sudhoff another glowplug failure would end his race while his Shepherd team mate Patrick Nahr who ran second for a time would succumb to engine problems leaving him to finish 7th as the highest placed Velox.

Despite Mother-nature’s best efforts on Friday the first Euro Nitro Series has been a huge success and already drivers are setting the attentions on the second round of the ‘Pilot Series’ which takes place at the end of the month at the Stohr-Ring in Austria.

1:8 A-Main Result
1.(2) Mark Green (GB) – Serpent/Novarossi – 143/45:00.075
2.(1) Robert Pietsch (DE) – Mugen/Novarossi – 143/45:03.335
3.(3) Michael Salven (DE) – Serpent/Xceed – 143/45:15.410
4.(8) Maximilian Vogl (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 142/45:10.994
5.(7) Merlin Depta (DE) – Serpent/Xceed – 140/45:13.091
6.(5) Nicolai Bähr (DE) – Serpent/Sonic – 137/45:09.725
7.(6) Toni Gruber (DE) – Serpent/Xceed – 137 45:09.725
8.(9) Alexander Thilo (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 130/45:18.987
9.(4) Lars Hoppe (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 88/28:35.572
10.(10)Tobias Hepp (DE) – Xray/Novarossi – 75/26:41.876
11.(12)Frank Schewiola (DE) – Shepherd/Xceed – 31/10:04.693
12.(11)Tobias Kerler (DE) – Serpent/Picco – 31/10:18.983

1:10 Touring A-Main Result
1.(1) Eric Dankel (DE) – Capricorn/Novarossi – 127/45:02.007
2.(9) Basile Concialdi (FR) – Capricorn/Orion – 127/45:05.935
3.(8) Michael Derderian (FR) – Xray/Gi-mar – 126/45:05.531
4.(7) Tom Kragefski (DE) – Serpent/OS Speed – 125/45:14.822
5.(6) Pedro Rombouts (NL) – Xray/Orcan – 124/45:09.842
6.(12)Franz Engel (AT) – Xray/Orcan – 121/45:12.051
7.(5) Patrick Nahr (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 120/45:02.846
8.(3) Patrick Schafer (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 118/45:20.901
9.(11)Daniel Toennessen (DE) – Mugen/RB – 116/45:04.983
10.(2)Dirk Wischnewski (DE) – Xray/Novarossi – 113/41:33.441
11.(10)Sebastian Burge (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 113/45:02.231
12.(4)Freddy Sudhoff (DE) – Shepherd/LRP – 93/34:48.150

View complete results here.

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