Leino Top Qualifier at ENS Austria

Teemu Leino is the Top Qualifier at ENS Austria, the Infinity driver putting in a dominant performance to take all four rounds of qualifying at the Aigen track.  A two time winner up in the Austrian hills, the Championship leader will start ahead of team-mate Jilles Groskamp, the reigning Champion unable challenge to match the Finn’s blistering pace.  Claiming his best ever ENS qualifying result, Jakub Rozycki will start from 3rd on the grid for the 45-minute encounter, which, due to inbound rain has been rescheduled to run tonight.  Matching his 2017 qualifying result at the track, Melvin Diekmann will start 4th ahead of Milan Holthuis and 2017 podium finisher Thilo Tödtmann.

His second consecutive TQ of the season, Leino said, ‘today was really good, all worked good.  Yesterday was good too but we just had the engine issue in the first qualifier’.  Chasing his third win of the Season, which would secure him the ENS title he previously won in 2015, he played down his dominance of the event so far saying, ‘I just want to finish the final, I don’t need to take the win’.  Asked about strategy for the final, he replied, ‘tyre wear is going to be important.  The tyre wear is high but we will see in the practice what we will do for the race’.

Asked to sum up his qualifying, Groskamp replied, ‘Teemu is in a different world although in the last one I closed the gap a little.  The car is really good but we struggled with the engine tuning.’  Suffering a flame out in Q3, the Dutch driver explained, ‘the bottom power is not so good so we will run a different engine in the practice to be safe for the final.  It is my engine from ENS Round 2 so I know it is stable’.  He concluded, ‘the car is working really well and 45-minutes is a different story.  I’m looking forward to it’.

A very pleased Rozycki said, ‘my car and engine have been perfect.  We found a set-up in practice and didn’t have to chance it in qualifying’.  The 22-year-old Polish Xray driver added, ‘I am comfortable with car and confident of a good final.  Our tyre strategy is to change just one but we want to check this in the 10-minute final practice’.

Diekmann described his qualifying as having gone ‘very good’.  Admitting to a making a nervous start in the first two qualifiers, the German said Q3 was good as the temperatures came.  With his Shepherd having too much steering in the cold conditions he said he hopes some set-up changes will give him a better car for the final which is due to take place just before 18:00 when the track should be starting to cool again.  The 20-year-old said it’s been a busy event with him having to learn how changes to the many new parts on his car effect the set-up.

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Chassis Focus – Melvin Diekmann

Chassis – Velox V10 Black Edition
Engine – Gimar Eagle.12
Fuel – Energy
Tires (handout) – Matrix
Radio/Servo – Futaba/Futaba
Body – Protoform P47

Remarks – Melvin is running a host of new test parts on his Shepherd this weekend in preparations for the up coming European Championships.  The car features a prototype battery mount which positions the battery to the left side of the car to allow the use of adjustable brass weights.  He is also running new front bulk heads which unlike their predecessor are now full closed, the focus be on reducing flex.  A new front carbon insert in the front of the chassis is also being tested for flex as is a brace plate mounted at the front of the radio plate.

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Chassis Focus – Simon Kurzbuch

Chassis – Velox V8.2
Engine – Novarossi Mephisto
Fuel – Energy
Tires (handout) – Matrix
Radio/Servo – Futaba/Futaba
Body – Xtreme Diablo

Remarks – Simon is running Shepherd’s all new Velox B8.2 which they just announced last month.  Running the car pretty much out of the box but has been trying out different option parts to play around with the flex characteristics of the all new chassis design.  The factory Novarossi driver is also testing a new prototype manifold which he said he was unsure if it was something they planned to release.

Kurzbuch takes Q2 in Austria

Simon Kurzbuch has taken the second round of qualifying at ENS Austria this morning on what is going to a be busy day for drivers.  With rain forecast for tomorrow the schedule has been revised to include the running of all finals tonight following the conclusion of the four rounds of qualifying.  Having just missed out on the TQ in yesterday evening’s opening qualifier to Dario Balestri, Kurzbuch would take Q2 by over a second from Carmine Raiola with Balestri just 3/100ths further off in third as the only drivers to 17-lap runs of the Aigen track.  New to the Shepherd team for the 2019 season, Toni Gruber posted the 4th fastest time ahead of Silvio Hächler with Merlin Depta the top Serpent after ENS Italy winner Dominic Greiner had an off while running on a Top 3 pace.

Commenting on his TQ run, the fastest of the two qualifiers so far, Kurzbuch said, ‘It was a good run.  I had a clear track for all the 4-minutes.  The car and engine was good like yesterday and I was happy I could show what it could do.  I would like to do the same again in the next one’.  A four time winner at Aigen, looking to Q3 the Shepherd driver said, ‘I will leave the car as it is and try to get a clear track.  That is the important thing around here’.

‘It was not bad’, was Riola’s reaction to his P2 for the round.  Setting the fastest lap of Q2, the Infinity driver explained, ‘the car is still nervous.  I can make super fast lap times but it’s not consistent’.  Hoping to reduce how aggressive his car is, the Italian will reduce his ride height for the next one hoping it will make it less aggressive.

Balestri said, ‘I started with new tyres and this is the result’.  He added, ‘we made a mistake with the tyres yesterday and now I needed new ones’.  Top Qualifier at the Dutch ENS encounter, asked he expected a better Q3 now he had used tyres at his disposal, the World Champion re;pied, ‘the was the best one (round) because of cooler morning conditions.  For sure the next one will be more hot but we will see what we can do’.

Reacting to his fourth fastest time in Q2, Gruber said, ‘the first round yesterday was difficult so we did a lot of work on the car in the practice last night.  We changed the rear roll bar, the body and the camber at the front and it was really good to drive but the track changed a lot this morning and it was not good’.  The German said for the next qualifier they will change back to yesterday’s settings, with last year’s race runner-up confident ‘it should be better the next one’.

In 1:10, Teemu Leino continued to lead proceedings backing up his Q1 TQ with another again over his Infinity team-mate Jilles Groskamp.  The reigning Champion was over 3-seconds off the Finn with young Dutch driver Milan Holthuis making it an all Infinity Top 3.  Thilo Tödtmann was best of the others taking his Shepherd to a P4 ahead of Dirk Wischnewski and Melvin Diekmann.  In 1:8 40+, Alain Levy took a very closely contested TQ over Q1 pace setter Arie Manten with Andreas Giesa third.

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Reigning Champions TQ first qualifier at ENS Austria

The Euro Nitro Series three reigning Champions got their weekends off to the best possible start in Austria this evening as they each TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at Aigen-Schlägl.  Having topped 1:10 seeding, Teemu Leino would start a dominant evening for the Infinity team as he TQ’d the first of the four scheduled qualifiers from team-mate Jilles Groskamp with Jakub Rozycki third.  Next it was the turn of the 1:8 40+ class to run their opening qualifier with 4th seed Arie Manten taking the TQ with one & a half seconds in hand over top seed Klaus Köwenig.  It was however 1:8 that delivered the closest finish, as Dario Balestri just held off Simon Kurzbuch for the TQ by 0.024 of a second!  Having been in the mix for the TQ before an error, a recovering Carmine Raiola completed the Top 3 followed by Oliver Krähemann, Toni Gruber and Dominic Greiner, the latter lacking the pace he had shown in the final practice.

Reacting to his TQ run, Balestri said, ‘in the last 5-laps I lost all the gap I gained in the middle of the race to Simon.  We both lost time with traffic at different parts of the run but I am happy to get the TQ’.  The Italian, who wouldn’t rate the Aigen track among one of his most successful, said he had a moment during the qualifier when he hit a stone at the end of the straight which saw him get out of shape for the following corners.  Looking to tomorrow, the current schedule made up of 3 rounds of qualifying after a review of the weather showed the arrival of rain Sunday afternoon, Balestri replied, ‘All is OK with the car and the best way is not to lose time in traffic’.

‘It was close but it was second’, was Kurzbuch’s thoughts on Q1.  The Shepherd driver continued, ‘the car was again a bit loose in the rear but I struggled a bit with a lot of traffic during the run.  It is hard to get by cars on this track without getting super close.  I could not do it as quick as needed’.  Looking for his 5th Aigen win, the former Champion concluded, ‘the speed overall was there and it was only the first qualifier’.

Frustrated by his mistake Riola said, ‘the run was not bad expect for the mistake.  I touched the curb and almost ended up in the carpark’.  The Italian continued, ‘I think I was last after that but I still came back to third so with no mistake I can push for TQ.  We will see what we can do tomorrow’.

Despite his 1:10 TQ, Leino said, ‘It was not good’.  The Finn explained, ‘We tuned the engine in the warm-up but in the race it became too lean and at the end I had no power.  At least I survived the 4-minutes.  The car was good like just like in practice’.  Asked if he had any concerns over his engine being damaged he said, we ran it after it is ok for tomorrow but I haven’t decided if I will change the engine anyway for the next qualifier’.

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Kurzbuch & Leino top seeding at ENS

Simon Kurzbuch and Teemu Leino are the top seeds at ENS Austria in Aigen.  Second fastest to Carmine Raiola in free practice, Kurzbuch produced a new fastest 3-consecutive laps in the first of the two controlled practices to secure the top seeding ahead of Dario Balestri, the World Champions split by 9/100ths of a second.  Topping CP2 ahead of Kurzbuch, this time would leave Dominic Greiner 3rd overall ahead of Riola who also was unable to improve on the time he set in CP1.  Last year’s race runner-up Toni Gruber will be seeded 5th ahead of Silvio Hächler with Jeffrey Rietveld being the only other driver in the Top 10 to improve his time in CP2 ending up 7th fastest.  In 1:10 Leino was able to remain at the top as he had done in free practice.  Topping both his runs, the Finn’s closest challenger was again team-mate Jilles Groskamp with Shepherd’s Melvin Diekmann stepping into the Top 3.

‘Everything is good, the car is a bit easier to drive now’, was how Kurzbuch summed up his form after seeding.  Chasing his fifth consecutive win at the Aigen track, the Swiss ace said, ‘we have been slowly adjusting the rear of the car each run to get more rear traction.  We might adjust it a little more for the first qualifying but I should be able to make a consistent 4-minutes now’.  The Novarossi driver also added, ‘I have 3 good engines I can choose from for qualification so things look good’.

Summing up his performance in controlled practice, Balestri said, ‘honestly all is OK and I just need to drive slow and then I can try to make something more consistent in pace.  It (the track) is really loose’.  Infinity team-mate, Raiola admitted changes in CP1 did little to get his car easier to drive saying ‘we added more camber but we still had the same problem.  It’s a difficult track’.  For the final practice the Italian said they used the track time to ‘just bed in tyres for the qualification’ and they will pick the best tyres from the two sets for Q1.

Enjoying his first ever 1:8 win of the ENS at this year’s season opener in Bologna, Greiner described his controlled practice as ‘so so’.  The Serpent driver added, ‘I am not really happy with the car.  We just need a little bit more and then it would be perfect.  My car is better for long runs not for 4-minutes, we have a good car for the final’.  Fastest in CP2, the German said, ‘I think I can go faster if I can make the car more stable but the issue is the consistency over 4-minutes.  I will try a different shock in the rear for Q1 as now it was a little too loose’.

Reacting to topping 1:10 seeding, Leino said, ‘my car has been good here from the first practice. It is almost the same as we ran in Holland but we found more rear traction and it is better. I leave it as is for Q1’.  A two time Aigen winner, asked his thoughts on the track he replied, ‘For 1:10 it is the perfect size of track. For 1:8 it is a little small but I like it’.

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