Track Focus – Aigen-Schlägl

Track Name – Aigen-Schlägl
Club – Modell Auto Verein Aigen-Schlägl
Country – Austria
Location – Aigen-Schlägl (50km Northwest of Linz)
Direction – Anti-Clockwise
Surface – Asphalt
No. of ENS Races hosted – 2 (2014 & 2015)

As track locations go, the setting for Aigen-Schlägl is up there as one of the most picturesque.  602 metres above sea level, the track is nestled in the hilly countryside of North Austria just 10km from the German border and 7km from the Czech Republic.  On the Euro Nitro Series calendar each season since its inspection 3-years ago, the track was built in 2006 on land donated by the local government to local RC club Modell Auto Verein Aigen-Schlägl.  Needing to raise money for building the track, the club approached local businesses who were quick to support the project by taking banners around the track.  Last year the track underwent some major expansion work to the pit area which almost doubled in size to provide full covered pit spaces for 120 drivers.  Funded by sponsorship from local businesses and support from the local Aigen government, the work includes electric shutters which run the length of the pits and automatically close when the wind picks up, an important feature in such a high location.  In terms of track layout, a lap covers 290 metres with the main straight 65 metres long and featuring a 5-degree uphill incline.

Making his first ever visit to Aigen for this weekend’s ENS, 9-time World Champion Lamberto Collari is enjoying his first experience of the track saying, ‘I like it’.  Not understanding some of the negativity he had heard about the track prior to the race, he said, ‘it’s really nice and has all the right facilities and it is also situated in a really nice area’.   Describing the layout as ‘technical’, the Team Infinity driver said with its ‘many slow corners’ getting into the corner and out of it again are key to a good lap so in terms of set-up you are looking for ‘good steering and good traction’.   Winning a wet final on the ENS’ first visit to Aigen in 2014, newly crowned 1:10 World Champion Dominic Greiner is a fan of the track.  The Serpent driver said, ‘I like the track, its very technical and its medium speed requires good driving skills’.  A layout that requires your car to have good steering, the German said the surface creates ‘very high tyre wear’ and that makes tyre strategy very important for the final.

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