Greiner wins ENS finale, Leino is Champion

Dominic Greiner has won the season finale of the Euro Nitro Series but it is Teemu Leino who claimed the biggest prize with 6th in a rain shortened A-Main in Fiorano enough to crown him the 2016 1:10 Champion.  Top Qualifier for the race, a heavy crash with Marc Rheinard would leave Greiner with a difficult car for the final but strategy and quick work by his pit crew would allow the Serpent driver to take his first win of the season.  With the race going 40 of the scheduled 45-minutes, the World Champion’s second ENS win would come ahead of title contender Eric Dankel, the fast closing Mugen driver finishing 4-second off when the race was stopped.  Having led for a time in first half of the race, last year’s race winner Alessio Mazzeo was to complete the podium at Mini Autodromo Jody Scheckter.  Starting second on the grid, while Leino never needed to win the race to secure the title he didn’t make things easy for himself with an early off that resulting in a flameout and the loss of 2-laps raising the heart rates of his Team Infinity crew.  Keeping his composure and a close eye on the progress of points leader coming into the weekend Dirk Wischnewski, the Finn would recover from 11th with the fastest lap of the race to finish 6th. With Wischnewski finishing 4th, this was enough for Leino to take the title by 3-points from the German with Dankel’s second giving him 3rd a further 1-point back.

Commenting on his error that made his title quest that more challenging, Leino said, ‘In the beginning I was just following Dominic and trying to get a gap on third but then I don’t know, the racer kicked in and I wanted to win the race and I made a stupid mistake at the chicane’.  With the error sending his car flying through the air and it flaming out on landing in the far left corner of the track with two laps lost as he was returned to the pits, he said ‘I knew from the first 3-minutes the car was fast enough so there was no need to panic and I could push to make up positions and make the points to become champion’.  He added, ‘I only needed to follow where was Dirk and I was not far behind him’.    Describing his performance this weekend as ‘not the full potential’, his 1:8 Offroad World Championship participation and the lack of practice at the race due to the rain leaving him on the back foot compared to his rivals, he said he was ‘surprised how well the car has gone in such a short time’, it only making its debut at the World Championships in August before taking its first win at the ENS in Aigen.  His first season with the new Infinity team he said, ‘I think next year we can be stronger and I have to thank Kenji for his support because without it this title wouldn’t have been possible.  I also have to thank Novarossi for the engine, it was the same engine I used in all three races’.

‘A super difficult race’ was Greiner’s reaction after finally registering a win this season having been a contender at all four rounds of this season’s ENS.  He continued, ‘I hit Marc (Rheinard) on the back straight in the warm-up and the chassis was tweaked but we had no time to change it’.  He said while the car felt ok at the beginning, his fastest lap coming on the 7th lap, he said as the race went on he could feel the car was not right after the warm-up crash.  Struggling with his tweaked Novarossi powered 748, he was quick to attribute the work of his pit crew for today’s win.  With the same World Championship winning crew of Thomas Günsel and Daniele Ielasi, he said, ‘I had an excellent pit crew again and they made this victory happen’.  Admitting it was going to be a close race with Dankel, describing his fellow countryman as ‘super fast’, Greiner said for 10-laps before the race was stopped he was struggling with conditions adding ‘stopping (the race) was the best decision’.  With ‘bad luck in Aigen’ ending his title chances Greiner said, ‘our package is very good at the moment so I hope for better luck for the next ENS season’.

‘From 9th on the grid it was good’ was how Dankel summed up his race.  The 2014 Champion continued, ‘my opinion is they stopped a little early.  Ok it was a race control decision but on my side it was unlucky but on Dominic side it was good’.  Feeling ‘it would have been close (for the win) had the race gone the whole distance’, he said his fuel strategy was not as good as Greiner’s.  ‘We couldn’t do 5-minutes, Dominic did’.  Further compounding this was Dankel’s own error of pitting a lap early.  He said, ‘I thought I heard my pits call me so I came in but they hadn’t and were expecting a lap later and this messed up our strategy a little’.  Finishing third overall, he said, ‘compared to last season it been a very good year’.  Having moved to Mugen for 2016, he continued, ‘I know more about the car now so if we can start with the same pace next season we should be stronger for the championship’.  Having TQ’d the season opener but the race turn out to be wet, he was to sit out the final having never driven the car in wet conditions before.

‘We were fast but we lost time in the tyre change’, was Mazzeo’s view of where he missed out on the win.   The Serpent driver, who would lead for more than 20% of the race, continued, ‘then after the tyre stop I traction rolled at the end of the straight and lost one lap’.  The Vice-World Champion would un-lap himself and get to within challenging distance of both Greiner and Dankel for the win.  ‘I was only 6-seconds back but the rain came.  If the race didn’t stop I could take the win, I was faster today.  Anyway congratulations to Dominic, he has a very good team and also congratulations to Teemu on the title.’

Wischnewski said ‘for sure we lost it at the beginning’.  Finishing almost 2-laps off the final podium place, the Team Shepherd driver would get caught up in the ‘chaos’ of the first lap and drop from his P5 starting position to 9th.  He said the contact left his car ‘a little tweaked’ but recovering 3 places he would make a mistake that sent him in to the grass and with damp tyres he found himself back in 9th. Opting to change just one side in his tyre stop, the winner of the season opener  said ‘this was a good decision’ but the damage was already done at the start.  Despite this the former European Champion was pleased to end the season as Vice-Champion matching his result of the inaugural season of the ENS.

Elsewhere for yesterdays bump up master, the A-Main being the 7th final of the weekend he would race, a third lap clash with Thilo Tödtmann, would end any chance of a good result for Bruno Coelho.  The Xray driver said after the incident his chassis was ‘like a banana’.  Recovering to finish 5th, the Portuguese driver said while engine issues in qualifying made the weekend an uphill battle he was encouraged for next season by new parts he was running on the car which he said were very good.  For ENS debutant Marc Rheinard an engine change for the final would deny him from backing up his strong qualifying performance.  The Team Infinity driver, who on a one race deal is expected to do a full 2017 ENS programme with the new manufacturer, was caught out by the run time on the new engine suffering a flame out as he pitted for fuel.  Working his way back into podium contention from this unfortunately the multiple Electric Touring Car World Champions engine would move and strip the gears.  The German said, for sure we were close to fight for the win but we will be better prepared for the next time’.

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Groskamp & Salemi complete 1:8 A-Main line-up

Jilles Groskamp and Mirko Salemi will complete the 1:8 A-Main grid at the season final of the Euro Nitro Series in Fiorano after finishing 1-2 in the B-Main this evening at the Mini Autodromo Jody Scheckter track. The 15-minute encounter would see Groskamp, who was to run out of fuel while attempting to bump up from the 1:10 B-Main, take the lead from Salemi due to the BP Racing driver needing to do an extra fuel stop. Salemi, who started 2nd, found himself in the lead when Bruno Coelho went crashing out after establishing an early advantage.  Starting from pole, Coelho’s quest to bump up into both A-Mains, having just won the 1:10 B-Main, ended just before the 2-minute mark as the rear upper bulk heads came loose sending his Xray off the track spectacularly at the end of the main straight.

Commenting on his race Groskamp said, ‘It was a good start and I was running steady in third.  I knew I didn’t need to win to get the car in to the B-Main so I was patient’.  The Team Infinity driver continued, ‘then Bruno crashed and I was in second and when I saw Mirko stop at 4-minutes I knew I had an advantage on him as I could run one stop less.  I saw Max (Vogl) was closing in third but I was able to keep the gap to him before Max crashed in the pitlane’.  The only issue of the race for the Dutch driver was his brakes.  Fitting new brakes to the car for the B-Main he forgot to adjust his radio which he said made it hard to stop in the pitlane.  He added, ‘I was disappointed I didn’t bump up to the 1:10 final because after my flame out my lap times were very good but I actually I’m really happy to make the 1:8 final.  It’s nice to have four cars in the final’.

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Coelho recovers from quali disaster to bump to A-Main

Bruno Coelho has recovered from a qualifying disaster at the Euro Nitro Series season finale to bump up into tomorrow morning’s 1:10 A-Main.  The Xray driver was to suffer engine failures in the opening two qualifiers and with 2 from the reduced 3 rounds to count, the season opener Top Qualifier found himself in the G-Main in Fiorano.  Bumping up a total of six times, when it came to doing the B-Main the World Championship podium finisher had already amassed 90-minutes of race time and that stood to him in the 15-minute encounter which would decide the final to places on the 12-car A-Main grid. Well in his rhythm, starting the encounter from 9th on the grid he would take just 6-laps to get to the front.  Once there he would pull away as his key revivals hit problems.  Running in 2nd, having started from pole, reigning champion Jilles Groskamp would run out of fuel on his in-lap for his first fuel stop, ending the Team Infinity driver’s chances of progressing. Knowing his engine was too rich, the Dutch driver had called to his pit crew that he wasn’t going go the full planned distance, telling him to go one more lap as they got ready for the early stop but with two corners to complete his car ran dry and stopped. The battle for second was then between Spain’s Victor Pelaez and Martin Hudy but the Xray designer’s engine was to go pop at the 9-minute mark leaving Serpent’s Pelaez breathing space to claim the final bump up spot, 1-lap down on Coelho and 4-seconds up on Aigen A-finalist Jakub Rozycki.

‘A busy day’ was Coelho’s reaction after his B-Main win.  Explaining the engine problems that left the former ENS race winner to qualify so lowly, he said, ‘I broke an engine in the first qualifying yesterday, which we put down to a bad engine.  When we broke another in Q2 we knew there must be some other problem and there was with the fuel tubing’.  Replacing all the tubing for the final qualifier, completing the heat without engine issues although his transponder did miss laps which were latter corrected, he said he knew he had a very good car and going into each final he ‘just needed to drive it’.  Looking to the A-Main he said, ‘for the final everything is open, it is 45-minutes so there is plenty of time.  I’m not here to make the A-Main, I am here to win, so that is what I will be going for’.

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Leino takes final qualifier to start 2nd behind Greiner

Teemu Leino has TQ’d the final round of qualifying at the concluding round of the Euro Nitro Series in Italy and will start the title deciding 45-minute A-Main in Fiorano from second on the grid behind Top Qualifier Dominic Greiner.  The Team Infinity driver topped Q3 by 6/10ths from Q1 & 2 pace setter Greiner, with new team-mate Marc Rheinard a further 7/10ths off completing the Top 3.  For Leino’s main title rivals the round would net a P6 for championship points leader Dirk Wischnewski while Erik Dankel would go out with conrod failure while setting the TQ pace. The result means Wischnewski starts 5th while 2014 Champion Dankel will line up 9th.

Describing his car as ‘a little bit easier to drive that time’, Leino added, ‘but sometimes the rear got loose but I think it was the same for everyone’.  Planning to ‘keep it the same for the final’, this year’s only double race winner added, ‘there is no need to win the final’, fourth place or better enough to secure him his first ENS title even if Wischnewski or Dankel can take the win.  In terms of his tyre strategy the Ettlingen and Aigen race winner said ‘we know what to do’ adding ‘Aigen the tyre wear was maximum high but here its more normal’.  Looking to take over the ENS title from team-mate Jilles Groskamp, who just missed a direct spot in the final ending qualifying P11, Leino said, ‘If I remember right Jilles did this race last year on one set (of tyres) but ran out and got passed for the win on the second last lap’.

Using the final qualifier as a test session, Greiner would use his standard bodyshell in the warm-up and then switch to a new prototype shell from Xtreme Aerodynamics.  The World Champion said the prototype made his Serpent 748 ‘a bit difficult’ but he plans to back to back test it again in the morning’s A-Main Warm-up.  Also using the qualifier to run a second Novarossi engine he said it ran well and now the plan for tomorrow is to just refresh everything on the car adding in terms of a race strategy ‘everything seems ok’.

Securing third on the grid, Alessio Mazzeo would make a mistake on his opening lap and opt then to use the rest of the qualifier as a test session.  Having completely changed his car’s set-up, the Serpent driver would pit for further changes.  Rejoining, he was happy to go back out and set his fastest lap of all three qualifiers.  Describing the car as ‘now more stable but not perfect’ the Italian said they ‘still need to find more’ from the set-up saying ‘stability in the corner continues to be the problem’.  One change he will try for the morning’s 10-minute warm-up is to change the position of the weight in the car concluding ‘I think this is the problem’.

Having struggled in Q2 after a rear diff set-up change, Marc Rheinard would revert back to his Q1 ‘softer diff’ set-up to better his Q1 P4 run and secure fourth on the grid.  The German, who hasn’t raced nitro since the 2012 World Championships, said ‘because of my Q2 result I just drove a safe round to put it in the final, I didn’t try too hard, I did nothing crazy’.  Describing his Team Infinity as ‘easy to drive,’ he continued ‘maybe this is good for the final’.  More used to the short burst 5-minute finals format of the electric touring car, the 4-time electric World Champion said, ‘Qualifying 4th is a good result for my first ENS but I really have no idea what to do for the final’.  Although he ran the 1-hour Main at the 2010 World Championship and finished Runner-up he said working out a strategy wasn’t something he had any experience of.

Behind Rheinard in the final qualifier, Thilo Tödtmann would post the fourth fastest time to 7th on the grid between the Xray’s of David Loppini and Leo Arnold.  The Capricorn driver, who finished on the podium in Aigen, said, ‘the car has always been good but the problem was with the driver but the last one I put it all together’.  The German, who sits fourth in the championship standings, added, ‘I am happy to be mixing against such great drivers’.  Describing his tyre and fuel consumption as ‘pretty good’, he said he will decided on his strategy once he has a better idea of the weather.

Wischnewski was pleased that he had improved his set-up but ‘unfortunately (he) made a mistake in traffic’.  The Shepherd driver described the car’s Q3 performance as being ‘quite positive for the final’ adding the car was ‘getting better as the run goes on’.  Content to race the car as is for the final, the former European Champion said his strategy would depend on the race start time.  Currently set to start early in the morning due to the impending rain which is forecast, he said he would need to consider the conditions, adding track moisture could be a factor at the current start time.

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Greiner secures TQ at ENS Finale

Dominic Greiner has secured the overall TQ at the season finale of the Euro Nitro Series again taking the second round of qualifying in Fiorano.  The Serpent driver became the fourth different Top Qualifier of the season after topping the Q2 times ahead of Top Qualifiers of the last two races Erik Dankel and Teemu Leino.   Top Qualifier of the event last year but lasting just 3-minutes in the final before suffering a conrod failure, today’s TQ marks Greiner’s first of the season with the World Champion determined to convert it into his first win of the season this time round.  Unfortunately for this season’s other Top Qualifier, Round 1 pole sitter Bruno Coelho was to again suffer engine wows and failed to start the qualifier and with 2 out 3 heats to count it means the Portuguese driver is going to need a good run of bump ups if he is to stand a chance of making tomorrow’s A-Main.

The ENS’ most successful qualifier, this his fifth TQ in the championship’s 12 race history, Greiner was pleased to claim the TQ a round early but only described his Q2 performance as ‘OK’ adding it ‘it was a close qualifying again’.  Topping the times by 4/10th, the World Champion said his Novarossi powered 748 WC Edition ‘was a bit loose in the rear’ adding ‘Teemu had the same problem’.  Putting this down to the fact ‘the track changed a bit from yesterday’, the German said now that the TQ was wrapped up they could use the final qualifier to try improve the car for the conditions.  One item he is considering testing a a new prototype bodyshell from Xtreme Aerodynamics.  With rain limiting track time with no dry running on Thursday and then just two dry practice rounds on Friday, he said they hadn’t had the chance to test it so its something he would like to compare to the SRC Spark he has run so far.  In terms of the final, he said ‘without a tyre change is not possible but we need more running to calculate tyre wear because so far we have only been able to measure twice (the two qualifiers).  He concluded, ‘everything else is fine and like always run time is no issue’.

‘Without mistake this time’ was how Dankel summed up Q2.  The Mugen driver was on TQ but said when pitman Robert Pietsch told him he was on a ‘super good run’ he started to push too hard causing him to lose time. The 2014 Champion felt he also had a better set of tyres saying the set he had in Q1, in which he was only P12, left the car to understeer in one direction and oversteer in the other. One of the contenders for this year’s title,  the German said for Q3 he will ‘change nothing’ and instead ‘just make no mistakes’.  Happy with his ORCAN powered MTX6R, he said his ‘main problem is I push too hard and then start to make mistakes, the car is fine and I just need to drive it’.

‘It felt absolutely loose, in the warm-up I spin three times’, was Leino’s reaction after Q2.  The only driver this season to back up a TQ with victory, he continued, ‘it was better in the race but still loose and I had one spin’.  Putting the lower traction down to ‘the weather change’ it a much sunnier day today in Fiorano,  he said the problem was also compounded by a set-up change after Q1 to give his Team Infinity more steering.  He will go back to his Q1 set-up for the final qualifier saying it gave him a ‘more safe car’ which would also be better for the longer final.

Posting the fourth fastest time, Serpent’s Alessio Mazzeo said, ‘I don’t have a good feeling with the car’.  Having changed his set-up he said this caused his Gimar powered 748 to ‘lose stability in the chicane and mid corner’.  Describing the car as ‘difficult’ adding ‘there is less grip now’, the Vice-World Champion said he initially pushed to try and run with Greiner but he was competitive leading to a mistake after which he decided to just finish the qualifier to make sure he made the A-Main. For the final qualifier, last year’s race winner plans to run ‘a completely different set-up’.

Championship leader Dirk Wischnewski would take his Shepherd to the sixth fastest time behind Italian Xray driver David Loppini despite a late mistake.  The winner of the season opener in Bologna, he said, ‘I was running one second behind Dominic and it was going quite ok but then I had a mistake that lost me 2-seconds’.  He continued ‘Anyway I got two runs and I’m in the final which was my first goal.  Look at Bruno (Coelho) he had two bad runs which leaves him nowhere’.  Describing his car as ‘still not super perfect but OK’ for the final qualifier he will try a different diff and anti roll bar set-up to try to ‘improve the overall set-up’ adding the lack of practice had made it hard to try something big up to now.  Behind Wischnewski, reigning champion Jilles Groskamp would get a P7 for the round.

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Balestri completes qualifying clean sweep

Having already wrapped up the overall TQ last night, Dario Balestri completed a clean sweep of qualifying in Fiorano this morning by making it 3 from 3 in the final round of 1:8 qualifying at the ENS season finale. The Capricorn driver took Q3 ahead of Toni Gruber and Simon Kurzbuch with Lamberto Collari posting the fourth fastest time.  The result means it will be Gruber who will start behind Balestri for the 45-minute A-Main with Collari third ahead of Kurzbuch and Andrea Pirani.

Balestri, who was also Top Qualifier for the race last year but lost out to Kurzbuch for the win, said a different body position was the only change he made to his Tesla powered  LAB-C803 from yesterday.  Asked if the more forward mounted body improved the car, the Italian replied, ‘I don’t know’ adding ‘the track is faster and better than yesterday so it was hard to tell but the overall feeling was OK’.  Looking to the final, the 2015 ENS Champion said, ‘we need to check our strategy for tyres and of course I need to adjust the car to run on small tyres’.  He continued, ‘for me the problem is that the front tyre wear is high so we must try something so we don’t repeat last year with Simon’, a reference to how running out of front tyres allowed Kurzbuch to take the win from him.

Securing his best ever ENS starting position, Gruber said, ‘It’s nice to qualify 2nd and the car is ready for the final so I’m very happy with how everything is going’.  The ARC driver, who is battling with Balestri to become this year’s ENS Vice-Champion, continued, ‘we still must look at what strategy we will take but my goal is to ensure we end up with podium placing in the overall championship’.

Lining up third on the grid, Collari described his final qualifier as not too bad highlighting, ‘our focus is our strategy for the final and we still have some details to finalise’.  The Team Infinity driver will use the A-Main practice to test another body saying the car is ‘a little slow to change direction’.  Currently running a Blitz body he will try Protoform’s R18.   Famed as the master of race strategy in terms of tyres stops he said, ‘we must check again the tyre wear but here it is normally low so usually only 1-stop is needed’.  Collari is a previous ENS race winner at the Mini Autodromo Jody Scheckter track taking the win in 2014, a victory that was achieved with just one tyre stop.

Equalling his worst qualifying of the season, having also started the season opener from 4th on the grid, Kurzbuch said his rebuilt car was ‘ok but not perfect’ for the final qualifier.  Damaging the chassis in the opening qualifier after an off but not having time to rebuild it for Q2, he fitted a new chassis this morning but said the set-up needed some tweaks.  Describing conditions this morning as ‘much better than yesterday’ he joked ‘I’m a daylight driver’.  On strategy for the final he said, ‘the tyre wear is quite low compared to Aigen but still we will need one stop and that’s one extra thing that can go wrong, but we are normally strong on this point’.  Chasing a clean sweep of the championship, which he wrapped up in Austria, on his starting position he said, ‘I’m only 8-metre behind Dario so it’s not a problem. We just need to have no troubles at the start.  I will not be worried if I’m not in the lead at 10-minute because it’s a 45-minute race so there is plenty of time to get to the front but for sure I want to make it four out of four’.

Having hoped to better his starting position after struggling in the flood light conditions last night, although he would post a P2 run in Q2, Pirani wouldn’t get to better his Q1 P6 as his manifold cracked a minute into the final qualifier.  The WRC driver, while disappointed not to get a run ‘in daylight’ said he hoped the manifold failure was his bad luck out of the way and he was looking forward to the final, 5th on the grid his best ENS starting position since the season opener two years ago when he would go onto to claim a podium finish.  Behind Pirani, Francesco Tironi completes the top half of the grid ahead of Robert Pietsch and Alberto Picco, with Silvio Hächler and Jesse Davis the other two direct qualifiers with the final two grids spots to be filled by the Top 2 finishers in the B-Main.

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