Business as usual for Kurzbuch at ENS Aigen

It was business as usual for Simon Kurzbuch on the opening day of the Euro Nitro Series in Austria as the points leader topped seeding for qualifying at the third round.  The Shepherd driver would set the pace from Dario Balestri although it was the Capricorn driver who would be fastest in the second of the two controlled rounds of practice getting to within 0.038 of a second of Kurzbuch’s CP1 time.  Behind the former & current ENS champions, Robert Pietsch would complete the now traditional Top 3 ahead of the ARC trio Lars Hoppe, John Ermen and Round 2 podium finisher Toni Gruber.

Having also topped the time for the five rounds of free practice earlier in the day, Kurzbuch said ‘the first one was very good and the second one was also good but Dario was a little faster’.  With the pair separated by just 17/1000ths, he said they used CP2 to run in the engine he will use for Qualifying with the World Champion declaring, ‘it felt very good and everything looks good for tomorrow’.

Commenting on his strong pace in the second controlled practice, having been over 2/10th off Kurzbuch in the first, Balestri said, ‘On lap times yes it was good but I was over the limit and can’t drive like this for qualifying’.  The Italian continued, ‘I have the same problem of missing traction so for sure we still have to find something for tomorrow’.

Suffering a broken fly weight in his clutch in CP1, Pietsch said ‘the second one was OK’.  Asked why it was only OK, the German said, ‘I was driving with Dario and I am missing something in the corner coming onto the main straight as he was faster in this corner.  We were the same the rest of the lap’.  Almost half a second off Kurzbuch’s pace over 3-laps, the Mugen designer concluded, ‘I need to find something for tomorrow’.

A podium finisher when the ENS made its first visit to the Aigen track in 2014, Hoppe said after ‘a difficult free practice’ they managed to get the car good for the first controlled practice.  Making a rear anti roll bar change for CP2 as well as adding more flex to the front of the car he said it wasn’t as good.  With ARC having a number of prototype parts here that will form the 2017 version of the R8.0, Hoppe said while he tested them yesterday with the day proving ‘difficult’ he opted to run what he knows and so for today has focused on getting himself up to speed with the standard car.

Winner here in 2014, then racing for Xray, Ermen on the other hand has been able to utilise the prototype parts today saying controlled practice was ‘pretty good actually’.  The Dutch driver used yesterday to back to back test the current car against one fitted with prototype parts. Working off the same set-up to what he ran here last year, some ‘minor tweaks’ have given him a set-up he is ‘pretty happy’ with.  Feeling the new parts are working ‘better here’ he plans to just clean and check over his car for tomorrow.  For qualifying, Ermen feels tyre strategy is going to come into play as the car is a bit difficult on the bigger tyres.  With drivers having to run a pre trued set diameter tyre, Hotrace the official supplier this weekend, drivers have the option to leave a set of tyre in technical control to use them again.

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