Mack & Greiner take 3rd Qualifier at ENS
Overnight TQ holder Oliver Mack moved a step closer to the overall TQ for Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series in Austria as he again topped the times in the third of the four qualifiers. Another wet day at the Aigen track, the Shepherd driver was fastest from Mugen’s Robert Pietsch with BMT’s Daniele Ielasi completing the Top 3. In 1:10, only a hand full of drivers took to the wet track with Serpent’s Dominic Greiner in a completely different class running almost a full lap more than the Shepherd of Leonardo Varga with Q2 pace setter Dirk Wischnewski 3rd.
With the track wetter for Q3 than both of yesterday’s two qualifiers, Mack said conditions were more difficult but after getting over some traffic issues early on the rest of the run was ‘perfect’. Finishing 1.3 seconds faster than Pietsch, Mack was ‘very happy’ to post his second TQ run of the weekend and now plans to use the final qualifier to test a different set of tyres adding that his damp tyre choice is limited.
Having struggled in Q2, Pietsch said a switch from the soft rain set-up to the standard dry setting on his Picco powered MRX5 transformed the car despite the wetter conditions. With his place in the A-Main now secured, the former World Champion will use the last heat to test saying he is ‘still missing pace to Oliver (Mack)’. Feeling his front tyre wear is quite high, the ENS Round 1 Top Qualifier will change his overdrive to add more drive to the front.
‘Drifting a little but all OK’, was how Daniele Ielasi summed up his third qualifier on the wet track. Having failed to make the start of Q1 due to a lack of screws in the rear end of his BMT, he said he was happy to get another third to go with his Q2 time. With his putting him directly into the A-Main, the Italian who again posted the fastest lap of the race being the only one to break into the 19seconds, he said for Q4 he will ‘push a little bit’ more and see what the limits of the damp track are.
Another driver to move away from a full wet set-up and find a good pace as a result was Shepherd’s Lars Hoppe. Switching from Kiss Rain to Shepherd Umido tyres, he said they made a ‘big difference’ but hardening up the front end of his Sonic engined Velox V8 he said this made it a lot easier to drive. For the final qualifier he plans to move another step closer to a dry set-up switching to a harder spring all round.
Making his first appearance on the track today, having opted to sit out yesterday’s wet running, HB’s Adrien Bertin posted the 5th fastest time. The French onroad nitro ace, took to the track with the personal car of the R8’s designer Takashi Miyashita, saying with his own car contain many prototype parts they didn’t want to damage them running in the wet. The former World Champion who is not a fan of racing in the wet said the Orion powered chassis was ‘super stable, maybe too much’. With no points on the board and 2 of the 4 counting he said he took a very careful approach to the run as he knew he needed to get a good finish and overall he was very happy with how it went.
Topping the opening qualifier Michael Salven could only manage the sixth fastest time. The Serpent driver/designer said his tyres did suit the wetter conditions. The only driver who can now challenge Mack for the overall TQ, he said conditions were ‘really slippery’ and he hopes that it is slightly dryer for Q4 so he can get the best from his 10-year-old foam wet tyres.
Having hoped for a wet track last night, Greiner got what he was looking for so he could make the most of his Pitshimizu rubber tyres. The German was visually quicker than the rather small field, many of the drivers opting to sit out the round. Fastest in Q1 and second fastest in Q2, Shepherd’s Francesco Tironi sat out the round due to the much wetter conditions saving his car for what will hopefully be a drier Q4 when there will be a three way battle between himself, Greiner and Wischnewski for TQ.
For Dario Balestri, who would clearly prefer to be back in Italy enjoying the sunshine, his weekend didn’t get any better as a spin in the warm-up saw his Capricorn get collected by his team-mate Eric Dankel causing the receiver box to split open and he only managed 1 lap of the actual qualifier. Dankel was unaffected but the ENS Round 1 winner could only manage the 6th fastest time.
1:8 Qualifying Round 3 times
1. Oliver Mack – Shepherd/Sonic – 12/4:03.707
2. Robert Pietsch – Mugen/Picco – 12/4:05.032
3. Daniele Ielasi – BMT/RB – 12/4:07.044
4. Lars Hoppe – Shepherd/Sonic – 12/4:09.984
5. Adrien Bertin – HB/Orion – 12/4:10.901
6. Michael Salven – Serpent/Picco – 12/4:11.580
7. Andrea Pirani – WRC/OS Speed – 12/4:13.632
8. Michael Klausner – Mugen/Novarossi – 12/4:14.002
9. Sabrina Lechner – Serpent/XRD – 12/4:14.183
10.Simon Kurzbuch – Shepherd/Novarossi – 12/4:15.542
1:10 Qualifying Round 3 times
1. Dominic Greiner – Serpent/Picco – 12/4:16.835
2. Leonardo Varga – Shepherd/Orcan – 11/4:15.462
3. Dirk Wischnewski – Shepherd/Orcan – 10/4:01.275
4. Bernd Hasselbring – Xray/ORcan – 10/4:01.895
5. Patrick Schafer – Shepherd/Sonic – 10/4:03.015
6. Eric Dankel – Capricorn/Maxima – 10/4:03.789
7. Marco Nenner – KM Racing/Orion – 10/4:04.651
8. Steve Baumgarten – Mugen/Novarossi – 10/4:11.690
9. Christoph Rohrmoser – Shepherd/Novarossi – 10/4:13.928
10.Marcus May – Shepherd/RB – 10/4:14.897
View the complete results here.
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