Track Focus – Aigen-Schlägl

Track Name – Aigen-Schlägl
Club – Modell Auto Verein Aigen-Schlägl
Country – Austria
Location – Aigen-Schlägl (50km Northwest of Linz)
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Asphalt
No. of ENS Races hosted – 1 (2014)

Situated in the hilly Austrian countryside 7km from border with the Czech Republic and 10km from the German border, the Aigen-Schlägl track plays host to Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series.  One of the tracks that made up the inugaural season of the ENS last year, the most noticeable difference is the weather.  602 metres above sea level, the 2014 event was a very wet and cold affair but drivers have been greeted on the first official day of this year’s event by very hot conditions and the good news is other than a small chance of some overnight rain on Saturday it’s set to be three days of dry competition.  Built in 2006, since the last ENS visit the track has undergone some major expansion work to the pit area that has almost doubled in size with full covered pit spaces for 120 drivers.  One very nice feature of the expansion in the electric shutters which run the lenght of the pits and which automatically close when the wind picks up.  The improvements, which also includes a new perimeter fence around the facility, was funded by sponsorship from local businesses and support from the local Aigen government.

Featuring a 65 metre long straight which rises by 5-degrees, the track layout is proving very popular with drivers.  Two drivers on their first visit to the track are Round 1 winner Bruno Coehlo and Jilles Groskamp.  Coelho described it as one of the best tracks he has ever been to but the Xray driver added it was a difficult track to get right.   Groskamp also really likes the layout but having watched video’s from last year’s event he said it’s a lot more narrow in reality.  Decribing it as ‘quite technical’ the HB driver said the up & down layout makes gearing very important with the centre section a critical spot as you enter it from a slightly downhill approach making it easy to overshoot.

Round 1 1:8 podium finisher Andrea Pirani said this is the most difficult track he has raced on.  The WRC driver claimed clean lines and accuracy with braking are key to a good lap.  The Italian added if you push you just go slower and the laps that seem slow are those that produce the best lap times.  Winner of the event last year in the wet, ARC’s John Ermen joked ‘it’s too dry’ when asked what he thought of the track.  The Dutch driver said he ‘really like(s) the flow of the layout’ but with such a ‘narrow grip line’ it’s very easy to overshoot and miss apexes.  He added with the low traction the tyre wear is ‘dramatic’.

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