Collari wins intense opening ENS encounter

Lamberto Collari has won the opening round of the all new Euro Nitro Series.  The Italian legend won from fellow former World Champion Robert Pietsch by just 1.5 seconds after 45-minutes of super close racing,  a late and hard pass by the 9-time World Champion on the Top Qualifier deciding the intense race.  The podium for the Italian event, held at the spectacular Melzo track, was completed by two time World Championship finalist Simon Kurzbuch, it being a good event for Swiss drivers with another Worlds finalist Silvio Hachler finishing fourth having started 10th on the world class grid.

‘Start to finish a super close race’, that was how Collari summed up the encounter that saw the Top 2 run the entire race no more than 5-6 seconds apart on a track that reaped huge praise from the drivers over the weekend.  Driving a privately entered Mugen MRX5, for which Pietsch was responsible for its design, he said he had to push hard the entire race and he really enjoyed this.  Posting the fastest lap of the race,  the master of  strategy said his plan was always to pit for tyres one stop after the German did so he would have bigger tyres.  He said this worked perfectly as at the end of the race it allowed him to close right in on the lead.  Commenting on the pass which resulted in Pietsch’s Mugen ending up on its roof and needing to be marshalled, Collari said there was a gap and he went for it and the contact was just racing.  Complimenting the organisers of the Euro Nitro Series on the format of the weekend and its tyre control measures, he said he plans to contest the rest of the inaugural season adding that for now he will continue with the Mugen/OS package after such a successful debut with the combination this weekend.

‘For sure he needs to buy me one beer after that’ was Pietsch’s response to Collari’s pass.  Describing the move as ‘a bit over the limit’, the father to be said ‘anyway it happened’ and overall he enjoyed the race long ‘super close’ battle.   Making his race debut this weekend for new engine sponsor Picco, he said he was very happy with how they ran all weekend although for the final he said his clutch was set a bit early.  Noticing this in the 3-minute warm-up before the start of the final he said he opted not to try adjust this and overall it didn’t cause him too much issues.  Fuelling every 5-minute, the 16% nitro fuel ruling giving engines much better economy, he said all his stops including his tyre change were perfect.

Kurzbuch was very happy with his podium finish saying he got a very good start from his fifth position on the grid.  The factory Team Shepherd driver said knowing he couldn’t match the pace of Collari and Pietsch he drove his own ‘safe’ race.  Running Novarossi engines he ran a strategy of stopping every 4:30 with a tyre change half way in to the race.  Describing his two mechanic’s work as ‘perfect’, he said 3rd was a great start to the championship.

Making his debut for KM Racing this weekend, Hachler was ‘very happy’ with his first outing with the K8 snatching fourth position from Shepherd’s Oliver Mack 2-corners from the finish.  Running a 5-minute fuel strategy with his Novarossi engine, he said other than his mechanic’s finger slipping off the tank lid during the last stop the rest of his stops went really well.

Mack described his race as ‘perfect except for the last two corners’.  A trouble free race in terms of his car and Sonic engines, the German Shepherd driver was pleased to finish fifth and at the end he was only one lap down on the best drivers in the world after 45-minutes of hard action.   Completing the Top 6 was new BMT signing Daniele Ielasi who lost almost a lap at the start after an unintentional coming together with Alberto Picco.  With a damaged pipe Picco would run out of fuel as the damage caused his engine to run rich and he would end up 8th overall.  Running in fourth position, Capricorn’s Kyle Branson would retire from the race 18 minutes in after a big off at the end of the straight.  Having just stopped for fuel and planning to change tyres on his next stop his car bottomed out on the low tyres at the end of the straight sending it flying off the track and resulting in a broken servo arm.

1:8 A-Main Result
1.(2) Lamberto Collari (IT) – Mugen/OS – 144/45:02.476
2.(1) Robert Pietsch (IT) – Mugen/Picco – 144/45:04.025
3.(5) Simon Kurzbuch (CH) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 143/45:07.461
4.(10)Silvio Hachler (CH) – KM Racing/Novarossi – 143/45:18.758
5.(7) Oliver Mack (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 143/45:18.833
6.(4) Daniele Ielasi (IT) – BMT/RB – 141/45:05.502
7.(11)Teemu Leino (FI) – HB/Novarossi – 141/45:11.347
8.(3) Alberto Picco (IT) – Mugen/Picco – 140/45:25.005
9.(8) Andrea Pirani (IT) – WRC/OS – 139/45:21.229
10.(9)Francesco Tironi (IT) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 110/37:57.627
11.(12)Michael Salven (DE) – Serpent/Picco – 104/35:42.035
12.(6)Kyle Branson (GB) – Capricorn/XRD – 59/18:26.610

View the complete results here.

View our event image gallery here.