Dankel takes second ENS win

Having struggled throughout qualifying Eric Dankel would pull off an impressive performance at Hockenheimring in Germany to take his second win of the inaugural Euro Nitro Series Championship.  Starting from 5th on the grid, the winner of the season opener in Melzo, would work his way to the front getting passed early race dominator Teemu Leino in the final 10 minutes to win the race from Ronald Volker with a late crash & resulting flame-out dropping Leino to third.  For Top Qualifier Dominic Greiner, who lead for the first 10-minutes of the 45-minute encounter, a problem with his throttle servo linkage would see him retire just before the race reached 2/3 distance.

A delighted Dankel, who won the ENS Pilot Race at the track last year, said after the disappointment of yesterday he had ‘no idea what to do’ and he never expected to be able to take the win.  Between the A-Main practice and the race warm-up he was able to find something for the race.  Running three sets of the Enneti controlled tyres being used this weekend, the Capricorn driver said they selected the best two for the race.  With his Maxima powered LAB-CO2 still not great in the warm-up he said a delayed called by Patrick Nähr gave them time to add more rear toe in which would finally give him a car he had confidence with.  Trying to run a steady pace at the start, the German said on lap 3 he would make a ‘stupid mistake’ with the car ending up on its roof with the 4-seconds lost dropping him to 10th.  Sticking with his ‘steady’ approach he said thanks to great work by his ‘awesome’ pit crew who performed an outside tyre change he made up positions one by one finally being able to pass a struggling Leino.  Almost missing his final fuel stop, having heard his pitman late and cutting part of the infield infront of the pits he afterwards ‘apologise(d) to everyone’ for the move but added even had a Stop & Go penalty been issued it wouldn’t have effected the result.

‘Very happy with second’ was how electric touring car ace and ENS debutant Ronald Volker summed up his podium finish.  Describing the 45-minute main as ‘a long race’, the factory Yokomo driver who was on loan to Mugen for the weekend, said he had a ‘terrible’ first lap.  Feeling everyone else looked to have jumped the start, he said his LRP engine was a little rich off the line and then he made a mistake at the first right hand corner leaving him 11th.  Running the race without a tyre stop, the 4-time ETS Champion drove a pace to save tyres which he said at the end might have been too safe as he still had plenty of tyre left at the end.  Complimenting Mugen and its designer Robert Pietsch on their new MTX-6, driving a prototype of the car, Volker said a lack of experience of doing pit stops cost him a little time as he didn’t always stop in the correct position.  Admitting to really enjoying the experience, but ruling out doing the World Championships later this year, he wished to thank both Pietsch and fellow electric touring car driver Freddy Sudhoff, who was his mechanic, for their support adding he was happy for Dankel to get the win.

Having lapped the entire field and looking like he was on for a dominant win, Leino said ultimately too low a ride height cost him the win.  The season opener Top Qualifier, in the 10-minute A-Main practice session they found a good set-up and in the race his Novarossi powered R10 was ‘really good’.  Setting the fastest lap of the race, which was almost 3/10ths fastest than that of Dankel, he said with only 1mm of ride height clearance at the end of the race he couldn’t hold off Dankel but he tried, leading to hitting a dot with less than 2-minutes to go.  The mistake would see the car make heavy impact with the tyres causing his engine to cut with him losing almost 2-laps before rejoining from the pits.

Finishing fourth, Alexander Hagberg said while it was good to improve on his qualifying performance he was disappointed to miss out on the podium.  Having changed the roll centres and clutch on his Orcan powered NT1, the factory Xray driver said this in combination with the cooler conditions gave him a car that was ‘a lot better’ than in qualifying with him able to post the 3rd fastest lap of the final.  Stopping only for a fresh set of right side tyres, like Leino, the Swede too would suffer an engine cut after a mistake led to a heavy impact.

Only his second ever 200mm race and his first time to drive one for 45-minutes, KM Racing’s Silvio Hachler said he tried to run the race with no tyre stop but at the end he was running on the chassis of his ‘Meen Version’ HK-1.  Qualifying 6th, the Swiss driver said he got a ‘fantastic start’ holding 3rd for the early part of the race but having to save tyres he couldn’t push at the same level as the leaders and dropped back.  Really struggling with a lack of tyres at the end he said unfortunately Hagberg got by with just 4 laps to go but ‘all in all (he was) happy’ with the result.

Having bumped up from the B-Main to secure the 12th & final spot on  the grid, Team Shepherd’s Patrick Nähr completed the Top 6.  The 2011 European B Champion said ‘for a bad car not a bad result’.  Having struggled with his Sonic powered Velox V10 being difficult in the 20-minute B final, he said they did improve the car a little.  Running the race on just the one set of tyres the 22-year-old, who hasn’t race since Round 1 back in April, said although he had to drive smooth the strategy worked well.

For title contenders Greiner and Dirk Wischnewski, the final marked a massive blow to their campaigns.  Greiner’s Picco powerd 748 Natrix would suffer almost from the start with throttle issues with the lack of full throttle getting greater and greater as he race went on.  After his retirement it was discovered that a seized bearing in his servo horn was causing the horn to unscrew from the steering effecting the throttle linkage to a point were he could get enough leverage on the carb to continue in the race.  The 21-year-old said it was ‘very disappointing’ as the car set-up was ‘perfect’.  For Wischnewski a crash in the pit lane with Mark Green during the A-Main practice would leave him with a ‘terrible car’ for the final. With not enough time to rebuild the car before the race he said the damage would lead to a broken second gear and then a broken engine, him retiring just before the 40-minute mark.  For Green, who started 4th, his challenge would end when he ran out of fuel.

1:10 A-Main Result
1.(5) Eric Dankel (DE) – Capricorn/Maxima – 132/45:16.682
2.(3) Ronald Volker (DE) – Mugen/LRP – 131/45:12.861
3.(2) Teemu Leino (FI) – HB/Novarossi – 13o/45:05.843
4.(8) Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/Orcan – 130/45:19.531
5.(6) Silvio Hachler (CH) – KM Racing/Novarossi – 129/45:01.554
6.(12)Patrick Nähr (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 128/45:03.246
7.(11)Patrick Schäfer (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 128/45:04.192
8.(10)Thilo Alexander (DE) – Xray/Orcan – 128/45:13.835
9.(4) Mark Green (GB) – Serpent/Novarossi – 126/45:04.722
10.(9)Toni Gruber (DE) – Serpent/Novarossi – 121/42:13.371
11.(7)Dirk Wischnewski (DE) – Shepherd/Orcan – 111/39:18.483
12.(1)Dominic Greiner (DE) – Serpent/Picco – 79/27:52.783

View the complete results here.

View our event image gallery here.