Green & Dankel post a 2nd TQ run

The third round of qualifying for the Euro Nitro Series ‘Pilot Race’ saw Mark Green and Eric Dankel record a second TQ run at the Hockenheimring in Germany.  Opening the event, earlier in the day, with a TQ run Green took Q3 from Shepherd’s Lars Hoppe in a round that saw Q2 pace setter Robert Pietsch suffer an engine failure and Michael Salven make yet another costly mistake while on a TQ pace.  After a bad start to qualifying, Capricorn’s Dankel backed up his Q2 topping performance with another TQ run again ahead of Dirk Wischnewski who is struggling to find a set-up for the still low traction caused by the rain that effected the event all of yesterday and for the first part of today.

Having cooked his Novarossi engine in Q2 but still getting 3rd for the round, Green was delighted with his second TQ run as they didn’t have much time to get the tuning on his new second engine totally correct before the start of the 4-minute qualifier.  With the tune of the second engine different to his previous unit this meant his gearbox was also not set correctly which the Brit said made the car difficult to drive as it was starting to change up early in the infield just as he was looking to hit the apex of the corners causing it to want to run on.  Despite this issue, Green said his chassis set-up still allowed him to run a strong pace and with better gearbox & engine tuning for the penultimate round of qualifying, which will bring today’s action to a close, he is confident he can challenge for the pole position for tomorrow’s 45-minue final.

Hoppe said he just went for a ‘safe round’ following engine issues in the opening two qualifiers.  Suffering an engine failure in Q1 and a flame out in Q2, the German was surprised how competitive his ‘safe round’ turned out to be.  Finishing less than a second off Green, he said that due to his engine troubles he hasn’t touched the set-up on his Velox V8 which he added is working really well.  Asked what his plan was for Q4 he replied that he was going for ‘another safe round’.

Knocking on the door of a Top 3 time in the opening two qualifiers, setting the fourth fastest time on both occasions, Nicolai Bähr posted his first 14 lap run to claim 3rd in front of fellow Serpent driver Merlin Depta. Having had an ‘accident’ in Q2 Depta said a clean run combined with an exhaust change, which improved his bottom end power in the infield, gave him a ‘super fast’ car allowing him to also break into the 14 laps.  For Q4 the German will run a different body position, running the same shell type but with the holes allowing it be be mounted 5mm more forward which he hopes will give him more steering.

Suffering a conrod failure on his final lap while on target for a TQ run, Pietsch said it was unfortunate but added that narrowing the track width of his MRX-5 to suit the offset of the handout Matrix tyre had improved the car a lot. Setting the fastest lap so far of qualifying he now is a lot more confident with the feeling of the car and with a new engine fitted for Q4 he is confident he can force the overall TQ honours to be decided in the morning’s fifth & final qualifier.

Setting the TQ pace for the first three laps Salven caught a corner dot in the infield causing his 977 Viper to get ‘airbourne’.  The roll dislodged the centering pin of the rear body post giving the impression the car’s rear end was broke.  With the car returned to the pits it was realised what was wrong and promptly fixed to allow Michael to get out just before the time was up so he could run a lap to ensure no other damage had been done to the car.

Running a new set of the Enneti controlled tyres in use at the ENS weekend, Contact being the tyres for Race 2 in Austria, Dankel said he had a much better feeling with the car than in Q2 when he said by the end of the run his Lab C02 started to get very loose on the second run of the tyres.  The German said this was partly due to him running too low a ride height but he said for the remaining qualifiers he will go with a new set of tyres each time.  In terms of changes, he will focus on clutch and engine for Q4, making a set-up adjustment to the clutch and fitting a fresh engine as he is not happy with how the current engine is idling.

Wischnewski, who last year qualified second behind Dankel but took the win when the Capricorn driver hit trouble, said he is struggling to find a good set-up, with his car very edgy to drive.  He said conditions are still difficult but for Q4 he hopes a softer diff will improve things. Behind Wischnewski, Freddy Sudhoff was again the fastest of the Team Shepherd drivers. Debuting the new Velox V10 Pro, which features 70% new parts, ‘Fast Freddy’ tried a different shock piston which he said caused the car to ‘push too much’. Sudhoff said he is also struggling with a lack of bottom end power from his LRP engine but he thinks they should be able to sort this for the rest of qualifying.

Posting Serpent’s best performance of qualifying so far Tom Kragefski took his OS Speed powered 747 to 4th for the round.  The 23-year-old said his car is difficult to drive and so he is very happy with the result.  For Q4 the German will adjust his rear camber and add .5 degree of toe which he hopes will give him a car he is more comfortable with. Behind Kragefski was Pedro Rombouts who said while his Xray feels OK on the track, when he sees his lap time he is not happy with how far off the leaders pace he is. Completing the Top 6 was Michael Derderian, the French driver finding it difficult to find a good balance between having not enough steering and a loose rear end, the latter his issue in Q3.

1:8 Qualifying Round 3
1. Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi – 14/4:14.006
2. Lars Hoppe – Shepherd/Sonic – 14/4:14.984
3. Nicolai Bähr – Serpent/Sonic – 14/4:15.217
4. Merlin Depta  – Serpent/Xceed – 14/4:17.546
5. Robert Pietsch – Mugen/Novarossi – 13/3.53.845
6. Maximilian Vogl – Shepherd/Sonic – 13/4:00.361
7. Toni Gruber – Serpent/Xceed – 13/4:00.757
8. Tobias Hepp – Xray/Novarossi – 13/4:01.479
9. Daniel Sieber – Shepherd/Sonic – 13/4:02.064
10.Oliver Lembeck – Mugen/Novarossi – 13/4:06.291

1:10 Qualifying Round 3
1. Eric Dankel – Capricorn/Novarossi – 12/4:03.690
2. Dirk Wischnewski – Xray/Novarossi – 12/4:04.126
3. Freddy Sudhoff – Shepherd/LRP – 12/4:08.193
4. Tom Kragefski – Serpent/OS – 12/4:08.732
5. Pedro Rombouts – Xray/Orcan – 12/4:10.574
6. Michael Derderian – Xray/G-Mar – 12/4:10.616
7. Aurelien Rivard – Xray/RB – 12/4:11.259
8. Concialdi Basile – Capricorn/Orion – 12/4:12.202
9. Patrick Nahr – Shepherd/Sonic – 12/4:12.218
10.Jakub Rozycki – 12/4:12.682

View complete results here.

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