Kurzbuch in control at ENS Austria as he takes Q1 & 2

Simon Kurzbuch remains in control at ENS Austria with the Shepherd driver taking the opening two rounds of qualifying. Having set the pace in practice at Aigen, the reigning champion would take both qualifier’s ahead of title rival Bruno Coelho, the Xray driver just 2/10ths of a second off in Q1 after hitting traffic late in the run. After a crash with Toni Gruber in Q1, Silvio Hächler completing the Top 3 of the opening qualifier, Robert Pietsch would have a better second attempt setting the third fastest time in Q2 ahead of Gruber, Hächler and Jilles Groskamp.

Summing up the first of his TQ runs, Kurzbuch said, ‘It was really close at the end’.  He continued, ‘I was a little nervous in the first one but I could come back at the end and beat Bruno.  My car was really good so I could make some hot laps’.  On his second run the World Champion said, ‘this was very good. I could push for the 4-minutes, everything went perfect’.  Finishing the run with a new track record of 14.706 on his last lap, the Swiss driver ran used tyres on his second run but said while they were ‘a little faster at the beginning’ after 2-minutes they there was no noticeable difference between having started on new or used. He added that even though drivers get a long 4-minute warm-up before the start of the qualifier a new set of tyres still needs more time before they fully come in.

Summing up his qualifying Coelho said, ‘the last one I had a few mistakes but overall it was still ok’.  Finishing Q2 1.5-seconds off Kurzbuch, the championship points leader felt his opening qualifier was a better run and it was only traffic at the end that cost him a TQ run.  Reporting a not perfect clutch in seeding practice, he still feels he is missing bottom end power and while he accepts it is a ‘specific issue’ of the Aigen track layout he feels it is something they can work on for the next qualifier.

Pietsch, while happier with Q2 after his crash with Gruber in Q1 led to a DNF, only described his P3 as ‘OK’.  A former Top Qualifier in Aigen, the Mugen designer and lead driver said, ‘this temperature is not good, I have a better package when its cooler’.  With the final 2 qualifiers of the day, rain forecast for tomorrow making it a busier Day 1 for drivers than normal with 4 rounds of qualifying, the German is hoping he can benefit from the hot & humid conditions dropping as the evening sets in.

Gruber put his incident with Pietsch down to his engine changing tune during the run. With the engine changing to rich he said it was hard to drive hence his P6 for the round.  With the engine issue sorted for Q2, the WRC driver said this amplified his set-up having too much steering out of corners. With some ideas of what they need to change to cure this the German is hoping to be closer to the pace for Q3.

‘I’m happy’ said a pleased looking Silvio Hächler.  The OS Speed backed driver continued, ‘I have a super good engine and I think I’m in the right way for the Worlds which has been my goal this year’.  P3 in Q1 and 5th in Q2, the ARC driver added, ‘I’ve a pretty good car too. It could be a little more stable but that’s something that is the same here for everyone’.  Feeling there is more stability to be gotten from the car he will run a different rear end set-up for Q3.

Completing the Top 6 in Q2 having posted a P7 in Q1, Groskamp felt he has lost some of the speed he had in practice.  The only Infinity driver in attendance this weekend, the Dutchman said, ‘Practice was all good, the controlled practice was a struggle and in Q1 I chunked a tyre.’  He continued, ‘before the car was very stable but now it is more loose so we need to look at how to make it more easy to drive.  My practice pace was very nice and I was not far away.  Q1 was very bad but I was closer in Q2 but for sure not the same as practice’.  While a broken drive shaft in the first controlled practice would hamper him running-in one of his sets of tyres, Groskamp thinks part of the drop off in pace could be down to different tyre batch between free practice and the controlled race sets but he is confident they are ‘getting there’ in terms of getting back closer to the pace.

In 1:10, Bruno Coelho, the only driver double driving this weekend, would take the opening two qualifiers.  He would TQ each run comfortably ahead of Xray team-mate Leo Arnold with Shepherd’s Thilo Tödtmann completing the Top 3 both rounds.

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Kurzbuch tops seeding at ENS Austria

With the newly resurfaced MAV Aigen-Schlägl the venue for the third round of the Euro Nitro Series, it is Simon Kurzbuch who leads a competitive 1:8 field at the end of practice. The Shepherd driver was fastest in both rounds of controlled practice and will go into a busy evening of qualifying as the top seed. With five different manufacturers in the Top 5, Kurzbuch was fastest over 3-consecutive laps from Robert Pietsch, Toni Gruber, Bruno Coelho and Merlin Depta. While a perfect summer day in Aigen, unfortunately the forecast in particular for tomorrow morning is less favourable so the decision has been made to run late and ensure 4 of the 6 scheduled qualifiers get run today in dry conditions.

Winner in Aigen for the last 2-years, Kurzbuch said, ‘Practice went good. I had two good runs and got to run two different engines which both worked good so I’m confident we are prepared for qualifying’. The reigning champion continued, ‘we want to take the extra point for TQ so we can catch up to Bruno after what happened in Mulhouse so will give our best for that’. Asked about his car set-up the Swiss driver replied, ‘yesterday we tried a lot but we have ended up back at our standard set-up’. With the new asphalt improving with the more running it got, the World Champion said the traction levels as now very stable adding ‘the heat is not affecting the lap times which is quite surprising’.

‘I think we found something good in the car from the year before’, was how Pietsch summed up his practice. The Mugen driver continued, ‘we are running some new parts on the car for the Worlds and they work really well’. Asked his thoughts on the new surface he replied, ‘it’s getting better and better each run and it’s much better on the tyre wear’. Describing his car as being ‘on the edge’ he will add ‘a little more toe-in on the rear to be more safe’.

Fresh from being crowned the new European 1:10 Champion at Mulhouse in France last week, venue of the ENS Season opener, Toni Gruber said, ‘I think we are on the right way now for qualifying’. The WRC driver said, the event started off ‘difficult’ as they struggled to find a set-up for the track. He said having ‘needed a lot of time to find a set-up’ he is now able to get his lap times under 15-seconds with a car he described as ‘consistent’. Another driver pleased with the track’s much reduced tyre wear, the German said for Q1 he will run the car ‘how it is now’.

Fourth fastest, Coelho reported his clutch not being perfectly set for the final practice adding he was ‘lacking bottom power’ as a result. The Xray driver said this aside, ‘everything is looking good’ given how close the field is adding ‘the first four guys are within the same 1/10th (of a second)’. Describing the track as having a ‘very difficult layout’, this being only his second time to Aigen, he said the key to the track is ‘you have got to be consistent’. Planning to adjust his clutch but leave the rest of the car unchanged he concluded, ‘I should get some time from that’.

‘Quite OK’ was how Serpent’s Merla Depta summed up practice. The German used both seeding rounds to run the championship’s controlled MR33 tyre saying ‘I am never super fast on big tyres’. Asked about qualifying, he said, Dominic (Greiner) is fast so I think we have a good car but I think everyone’s times are almost the same. It is super close’. Greiner, a former 1:10 winner in Aigen, described his event as ‘ok so far’. He added, ‘we tried different engines and set-ups and while not 100% its close’. The 1:10 World Champion who has switched his attentions to 1:8 this season said, ‘I had too much steering on throttle in the last (practice) and its difficult with the curbing here. If you touch them you lose so much time so we will look to make the car more stable for Q1.’

With the timing of last week’s 1:10 European Championship affecting the 1:10 entry in Aigen, it looks like the perfect opportunity for Bruno Coelho to make back ground following his retirement from the A-Main at Round 2 in Ettlingen. Winner of the season opener, he was easily quickest in seeding from Xray team-mates Leo Arnold and Jakub Rozycki. Thilo Tödtmann heads the early Shepherd challenge with the fourth fastest time.

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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 (new surface 2017)
No. of ENS Races hosted – 3 (2014, ’15 & ’16)

High up in the hills in the picturesque Austrian countryside is probably the last place one would expect to find an RC track. Just 10km from the German border and 7km from the Czech Republic, MAV Aigen-Schlägl is situated just outside its name sake town and is up there as a top class circuit with facilities to match. One of the stops on the ENS’ inaugural calendar in 2014, the track has hosted a round each season since and under the guidance of club President Martin Mayrhofer has made improvements ahead of each ENS visit to make a better experience for racers during there stay. With the pit area having been expanded in previous years, this year the track has undergone work that directly effects the performance of the cars with the laying of a new asphalt surface. The first resurfacing of the track since it was built on government owned land in 2006, the new surface will bring an end to the tracks reputation as a tyre eater.

With a lap covering 290 metres made up of a 65 metre long main straight that features a 5-degree uphill incline, the track is even more popular with drivers after its resurfacing. Making a return to the track after a busy schedule forced him to miss the event last year, Bruno Coelho is still a fan of the track which on his first visit in 2015 he described as one of the best tracks he has ever been to. The 1:8 Championship leader likes the ‘technical layout’ and feels the new surface offers ‘double traction’ to what the old surface had. While the layout is unchanged, the Xray driver said with the fresh asphalt the ‘flow of the track is much better now’. Reigning 1:8 champion and winner here on the last two visits, Simon Kurzbuch said, ‘the track looks great with the surface and new curbing. The curbs are now raised so you need to stay away from them’. The Shepherd driver said after lacking traction in initial runs on Thursday morning the grip levels are ‘now getting to normal status’ adding ‘I think now this is the best track in the ENS for tyre wear’. While describing the track as ‘small for 1:8’ he continued, ‘I really like it, it not flat as its built in a hill and that makes it more special’.

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