Kurzbuch tops 1:8 free practice in Austria

Reigning Champion Simon Kurzbuch has got Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series in Austria off to a good by topping free practice at the Aigen-Schlägl track.  The Team Shepherd driver setting the fastest 3 consecutive laps around the challenging track 4/10ths faster than Robert Pietsch with ENS Round 1 Top Qualifier Dario Balestri completing the Top 3. Making his debut with category newcomer ARC, Silvio Hachler had an impressive early showing setting the fourth fastest time ahead of team-mate Lars Hoppe with last year’s race winner John Ermen 9th fastest.

Posting his best time in the opening practice, on what has been a very hot first day of the event, Kurzbuch said his Velox V8 has been good from the very first time he put it on the track this morning.  Making a small change for FP2, the Swiss ace said he hasn’t changed anything in terms of set-up over the remaining four rounds.  With most of his rivals having difficulty with their cars being loose in the low traction the multiple Worlds finalist said he is ok with the conditions and the only issue he was having was the slight left to right raise in the track which meant some corners are downhill making it very easy to overshoot them.  Testing a number of Novarossi’s new Mito 9C engines he said in that department he is also very happy how the day has started out.

Mugen lead driver and designer Pietsch said he is having trouble getting the right set-up on his MRX-5.  The former World Champion said his normal approach to a race weekend is to get a set-up which makes the car stable under braking but here that is resulting in slow lap times.  He said while his fastest lap times are ‘ok’ the car is difficult to drive.  He said when the car is good under braking it feels good when driving but on the clock the lap times are off and he said he ‘can’t say why this is’ adding that he needs to find a better set-up for qualifying.

‘A very hard race’ was Balestri’s response when asked how free practice had gone.  Runner-up at Round 1 in Italy, the Capricorn driver said the asphalt had no grip and despite making changes every run it made no difference to the car.  The Italian added ‘if you have no rear grip you can work on the front end or if you have no front end traction you change the rear set-up, he there is nothing so its very difficult’.

Having started out the 2015 ENS driving a Mugen, Hachler has been signed up by ARC and the World Championship finalist is very upbeat about his early pace.  Having fitted in a very busy test schedule with the R8.0 ahead of the event, running the car at the Leno track as part of a test with Novarossi for the new Mito 9C engines, then a day at Ettlingen in Germany which will host Round 3 of the ENS and a final day at his local track, he said this all helped to get a good base set-up for the car.  Describing that set-up as not 100% yet he said it was a good starting point for his debut race.  Happy that he can compete with the leading times but admitting his fellow countryman Kurzbuch has an edge over everyone, he said his first impressions of the car are ‘amazing’.  Hoppe said his Reds Racing powered example of the R8.0 has been great all day and he has just been making small tweaks to the set-up.  Having also tested the car a lot, the German coming to the team from racing for Shepherd last season,  he said the track is the biggest challenge for this race adding ‘you can’t push too hard as it only loses you time so its not so easy’.

Another driver to switch team since the season opener is Daniele Ielasi.  Moving from BMT to WRC he would set the 6th fastest time two places ahead of new team-mate and Round 1 podium finisher Andrea Pirani.  His first big race with the GTX, a recent trophy race more of a test for the Italian, he said he is very happy with his new car and in particular how easy it is to find a good set-up.  Having done a lot of testing to better understand the car he is really happy at how quickly he has adjusted to it.  For timed practice he plans to run a different chassis on the car which has more front flex which he hopes will give him a little more steering.

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