Hagberg & Kerry complete grid in Bologna

Alexander Hagberg & Joe Kerry will complete the 12 car grid for this evening’s 1:10 A-Main at the opening round of the Euro Nitro Series in Bologna, Italy. Both direct qualifiers for the event last year, Kerry qualifying 5th and Hagberg 8th, but this time round they found themselves in a competitive B-Main. A 20-minute encounter, Kerry’s Capricorn started on pole with Hagberg’s Xray starting fourth. Leading away, Kerry would stay out front for 6-laps before Hagberg went to the front where he would stay till the finish winning by almost a full lap over Kerry. The British driver would have to work hard for the final bump up spot coming under intense pressure from the KM of Eduardo Escandon. All over the rear bumper of the pole sitter, the ENS Fiorano Finalist would come together with Kerry and end up on the grass ending his chances of a bump to the reduced 30-minute A-Main.

Hagberg said the main reason he found himself outside the direct Top 10 qualifying positions was because ‘I couldn’t get my shit together in qualifying’. The World champion continued, ‘we had various problems and in a field that is so close you miss out on the A-Main. The Top 15 drivers this weekend are so close’. Coming up with a set-up for the B-Main that was a ‘bit better’ the Swede said he ‘just tried to stay consistent and stay in front’. Looking to the final and having gained good track time in terms of evaluating tyre wear, he said ‘impossible to do 30-minutes without a tyre change so its going to make for an interesting final’. With rain forecast later this evening race organisers have made the decision to reduce the race from 45-minutes with almost unanimous backing of drivers, master of race strategy Lamberto Collari one driver who was against the move.

Kerry said the race was intense at times but ‘it worked out quite good at the end’. One of the surprise stars of qualifying last year, he said ‘the competition is a lot higher with it being a 1:10 Worlds year’. He added, ‘qualifying wasn’t too good and it was the third round before we found a set-up’. For the main event, he said the shorter 30-minute race distance would make for an easier race as now one tyre stop should be enough. After that he said his plan was to ‘drive a consistent race and see where I end up’.

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Balestri starts ENS title defense on pole

Dario Balestri will start his title defence from pole position after securing the overall TQ for the second year running at the Euro Nitro Series season opener in Bologna, Italy. Going into the fourth & final round of qualifying as one of four drivers who could become Top Qualifier, the Capricorn ace almost matched his Q1 TQ pace to again top the times, this time from Infinity’s Carmine Raiola and WRC’s Andrea Pirani, the latter posting the fastest lap of the round. While traffic would again hamper him in Q4, thanks to his TQ run in Q2 Mirko Salemi secures an ENS career best of 2nd on the grid. Carmine’s P2 in the final qualifier would see him snatch third on the grid from Simon Kurzbuch on tie break while Robert Pietsch made it five different manufacturers at the front end of the grid.

‘I’m super happy to TQ as the track was super hard in the last round’ was Balestri reaction to the TQ that marks him out as the ENS’ best qualifier. With track temperature dropping for the final heat, qualifying having to be packed in a single day due to the pending bad weather, he said his CO8 RS ‘had super steering in the front’ he said to complete the qualifier ‘without a mistake was good’. Asked about the final, the Italian said, ‘at the moment I don’t know the forecast but one thing is that we change a lot of tyres in the race’.

Impressing everyone with his TQ in Q2, BP Racing’s Salemi said, ‘I’m happy but pole was also possible today’. A previous ENS A-Finalist, this weekend is the first time the 24-year-old has looked like a race contender and asked about the final he said, ‘I’m happy with the performance of the car for the final but with tyre wear so high getting the number of stops right is going to have a big influence on the outcome of the race’.

As one of the original drivers to get involved with the Infinity project, Carmine sad he was very happy to qualify third. The 2013 Worlds Finalist said, ‘I have been involved with Kenji on this project for 2-years and with this the first big race for the team its nice to be the lead Infinity.’ With ‘everything looking good’, the former Italian champion said, ‘I am going for the win’. Asked if had he concerns over tyre wear the 24-year-old’s response was ‘my biggest concern is the start’ adding he hoped for a clean start.

‘Finally I am ready now’ was Kurzbuch’s reaction after his P3 run in the final qualifier. The World Champion said while his Shepherd was fast before it wasn’t easy to drive but now they have got a good feeling with it which is ‘what I need for a 45-minute race’. In with a chance of the overall TQ, the Swiss driver ‘went all in’ in Q4 but a mistake ended his chance however he was still pleased that he now knows he has a good car for the final. Asked about strategy for the final he said tyre wear due to work done on the surface during the off season and fuel consumption due to the high speed layout of the track were going to be factors. Asked how important the pit crew would be he looked to his father and said ‘my pitman is World Champion approved’.

Pietsch’s frame of mind was in contrast to that of Kurzbuch, the former World Champion saying ‘with it (his car) as it is I have no chance’. The Mugen designer and lead driver said ‘I didn’t find the right set-up today and even though I changed it every run I didn’t find a direction that was better’. Asked what he could do for the final, he replied ‘I will change the set-up again and hopefully I will get lucky that the changes work’.

Winner of this event last year, Lamberto Collari starts his home race from 6th on the grid. With ‘the last heat much better’, the master of 1:8 Onroad added, ‘I now have a good feeling in the hands with the car’. Planning some changes to his Infinity’s set-up for the final he said they would make ‘little adjustments and not big differences’. A driver widely respected as the professor of race strategy he said ‘we need to check better the tyre wear but for sure there will be many changes’.

Behind Collari, Toni Gruber had a strong conclusion to qualifying to put his ARC 7th on the grid. Having shown he has the speed by topping practice and TQing the third qualifier, Merlin Depta will start 8th as the top Serpent with Robin D’hondt and Mattia Collavo completing the Top 10 direct qualifiers. Two more drivers will get to bump up from the B-Main to make up the final 12 car grid.

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Coelho is Top Qualifier at ENS opener

Bruno Coelho is Top Qualifier for the opening round of the Euro Nitro Series in Bologna, Italy. The Xray driver claimed his first ENS pole position by topping 2 of the 4 qualifiers and was on for a third TQ run in the final qualifier before a mistake. This left an improved Dominic Greiner to take Q4 and with it secure 2nd on the grid ahead of his Serpent team-mate Alessio Mazzeo. Mazzeo was the only one who could deny Coelho the overall TQ but the Q2 pace setter’s engine ran rich over the opening laps which was enough to leave him with a P2 in the very closely match World class driver line-up. For reigning champion Jilles Groskamp he will start his title defence from 6th on the grid behind Mark Green (P4) and former champion Erik Dankel (P5).

Winner of the season opener at L.Collari RC Raceway last year on his ENS debut, Coelho was very happy to bag the first championship point of the 2016 championship. Having not driven a nitro car for seven months due to his busy schedule and only built his NT1 last weekend before travelling to Fiorano earlier this week for testing, the Portuguese ace said it was nice to start off the season with a TQ. Commenting on his mistake in the final qualifier he said ‘I was pushing hard and just made a small mistake but it ended up costing me 9-seconds’. Looking to the final, which is under serious treat due to expected heavy rain for the next two days, he said ‘Greiner has shown he is now fast and with so many others fast for sure the final will be difficult’. Asked about his Max powered NT1, he replied ‘its not perfect but its difficult to get a perfect car here’.

The driver with the most amount of overall ENS TQs to his credit, Greiner was happy to have ended qualifying with a TQ run saying ‘we have found the set-up now’. The German said his Novarossi powered 748 was also very good in Q3 but two mistakes meant he lost out to Coelho by 4/10ths. With ‘very close racing’ in qualifying he said he was ‘very happy with second’ and looking forward to the final. While the weather is not looking good for a dry race, the World Championship Top Qualifier said either way the biggest thing for the final is going to be tyre wear, describing it as ‘the biggest I have ever seen’.

Mazzeo took the blame for his engine tuning wows on the opening lap of the final qualifier but declared ‘P3 is good’. Trying a different set-up every run he said what they ran in Q4 was good for the final. Expecting ‘a very hard race’, the 25-year-old said, ‘the difference between the driver is, there is no difference’. With all three Serpent factory drivers running a new, soon to be released, transmission, he was ‘very happy with how it has performed’ and that is reflected in the car claiming 3 of the Top 4 places on the grid.

Lining up 4th on the grid, Green said the final qualifier went well but one mistake cost him a Top 3 place on the grid. With his ‘car and engine running faultless’ he said he was ‘happy to be in there fighting with the young guys’. Describing his car as stable between hot and cooler runs he said if its dry tomorrow, the biggest issue is going to be tyre wear, adding ‘there is going to be a lot of work for the mechanics’.

After the disaster of last year in Bologna when he failed to make the A-Main as the defending champion, Dankel was very content with fifth on the grid. The new lead 1:10 driver at Mugen, he said they have a good basic set-up for the car but in the last qualifier while it started out good, too little toe-in resulted in it getting a little loose over the 4-minutes. Predicting tyre wear as being key to the final, Mugen designer Robert Pietsch joined in by saying ‘having the quickest tyre changer was going to be the best solution’ for the final.

Summing up his qualifying, Groskamp said, ‘from this morning it all went a bit backwards’. Coming into the event with his main focus on the 1:8 with his new team Infinity, the Dutch driver said , ‘I knew we would be contenders for the TQ and and my goal was always to first put myself in the final and we have achieved that first stage’. He said ‘after Q1 we tried a few things but went a bit the wrong way and I had to makes stops during the last two qualifiers to tune my engine as we tested different stuff’. Using a Capricorn chassis, as Infinity won’t have a 1:10 chassis for this year’s World Championships, he said while they were not really prepared for 1:10 this weekend the race is still good mileage for the Worlds.

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Q3 Update – Depta delivers on practice pace

In the third & penultimate round of qualifying at ENS Bologna, Serpent’s Merlin Depta delivered on his morning practice topping pace to post a TQ run.  After a mistake in Q1, that left him 18th fastest, Depta would only manage 11th in Q2 but bounced right back into contention in Q3 as he topped the times from Team Shepherd’s Simon Kurzbuch and Q1 pace setter Dario Balestri – the Top 3 covered by 4/10ths of a second.  Having pulled out a surprise but popoular TQ run in the second round, unfortunately Mirko Salemi would retire after a coming together with former ENS race winner John Ermen.  With the opening three qualifiers producing three different winners it means it is all to play for in Q4 and with rain forcast for the next two days the overall TQ may yet determine who leaves Italy as the early ENS championship leader.  Moving from a long stint with Serpent, Q3 would see Toni Gruber put in a strong run as he took his ARC to P4 followed by Infinity’s Carmine Raiola with Robert Pietsch rounding out the Top 6 with his Mugen.

After a tyre issue in Q2, Bruno Coelho picked back up from his TQ run in the opening 1:10 qualifier to again top the times.  Behind the Xray driver, Serpent’s Dominic Greiner enjoyed his best run so far with a P2.  Capricorn’s Kyle Branson would complete the Top 3 ahead of Q2 topping Serpent pairing of Alessio Mazzeo and Mark Green.  Shepherd’s Dirk Wischnewski, who claimed his first ENS win in Germany last year, rounded out the Top 6.  While its advantage Coelho going into the final qualifier due to his faster TQ time with a cooler track its everything to play for for Mazzeo in terms of the overall TQ.

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Salemi suprises with TQ run in Q2

Mirko Salemi put in a somewhat surprise TQ run in the second round of qualifying at the Euro Nitro Series in Italy.  Having sent out a warning to his rivals in Q1 when from the second fastest heat he posted a P4 time, the BP Racing driver would outpace reigning champion Dario Balestri by half a second on his second attempt.  Behind them Carmine Raiola would make it an all Italian Top 3 with his Infinity just outpacing the Mugen of Germany’s Robert Pietsch.  In 1:10, Serpent’s Alessio Mazzeo made up for a mistake in Q1, to TQ ahead of team-mate Mark Green with Mugen’s Erik Dankel third.

Running the 2016 version of the RS4, Salemi said his car was ‘going very good’.  Running out of fuel on the last lap of Q1 and coasting across the finish-line, the recently turned 24-year-old made a pipe change for Q2 resulting in better run time that would see him finish with a 15.5 second last lap rather than the 16.3 in the first heat.  Making no changes to his car between qualifiers he will again make no set-up changes but will change engine.  Setting the fastest lap of Q2 and with a direct spot in the A-Main secured, he is looking to save the engine and use Q3 to evaluate a second Novarossi engine for the longer final race distance.

Commenting on his qualifier, Balestri said, ‘I lost time with one car’.  Opting not to change the set-up on his Capricorn from that he used to TQ the opening qualifier, the only driver to win races in both ENS classes said he had ‘a big problem with traction this run’.  Putting this down to getting a harder shore of rear tyres in the set of handout tyres he was given for Q2 he said there was no problem with the car and he was confident for the next one.

2013 World Finalist and Italian National Champion Raiola said he was able to improve the balance of his car between qualifiers as he again was the fastest Infinity driver.  Getting a P5 in Q1, a droop change improved the steering and the 24-year-old will make a further downstop change for the next qualifier.

Having retired from Q1 with an engine problem, Lamberto Collari would take his example of the Infinity to P5 behind Pietsch.  The 9-time World Champion said while ‘a better run’, he needs to work more on a set-up to suit the tyres.  Happy they had found a good set-up he said the issue is the tyres are softer than what they used in testing, the large Creation Model team doing extensive testing in the build up to the season opener.

Having blown Q1 with a driver error, Mazzeo summed up his Q2 TQ with ‘no mistakes’.  Fastest in practice, the Italian started off Q2 cautiously as he ‘was nervous after (his) mistake in (the) first run’. Findng his rhythm and hearing he was running the same pace as Green he then ‘started to push harder’. Having raised the downstop on his Gimar powered 748 which improve the steering he will change it again for his heat.

‘Another nice clean run’ was how Green described his Q2.  He said ‘a couple of mistakes cost me the win but it went to my team-mate so I’m still happy’.  With his XRD powered 748 ‘staying super consistent’ he is ‘just having to look over it’.  With the set-up unchanged from the first practice this morning, he said ‘it’s making my job a lot easier’.

Dankel felt he was ‘over driving at the beginning’ of the qualifier.  Making a change to the front shock oil on his MTX-6 for Q2 the former Champion said this made it worse through the sweeper leading onto the straight with it clear to see his car was rolling more than Mazzeo’s.  He will now change to a harder oil.

Taking the TQ in the first one, Bruno Coelho said his Xray was ‘super difficult to drive’.  Thinking there was a problem with the car he said afterwards they discovered the rear right tyre had come unglued.  Considering this he said ‘4th was OK’. New team-mate Leo Arnold was the next best Xray with the sixth fastest time ahead of reigning champion Jilles Groskamp.

Another of the 2015 title contenders, Dominc Greiner said his Serpent was a lot better but again he had a mistake, this time on the last lap.  Hitting the curbing coming onto the main straight he said the car got out of shape costing him almost a second to leave him with a P5.  Planning further set-up changes in his hunt for better steering he said ‘I’ll just have to try and TQ the last two heats’, the overall TQ carrying an important ENS Championship bonus point.

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Balestri & Coelho take opening ENS qualifier

Dario Balestri and Bruno Coelho have claimed the first round of qualifying at the Euro Nitro Series season opener in Italy.  The reigning 1:8 Champion, Balestri topped the times from Robert Pietsch while in 1:10 Coelho was fastest over the 4-minutes from the touring car class’ reigning champion Jilles Groskamp.  Having started out the day with their drivers topping the times in both classes, Serpent wouldn’t be able to maintain their position, driver errors the prblem for Merlin Depta in 1:8 and both Alessio Mazzeo & Dominic Greiner in the 1:10 encounter.  Mark Green would at least see Serpent in the Top 3 of 1:10 while in 1:8, World Champion Simon Kurzbuch was third fastest.

A massive, by L.Collari RC Raceway standards, 2.1-seconds faster than his closest rival, Balestri was clearly happy with his performance and in particular pleased that his only complaint was his Capricorn LAB-CO8 RS version ‘had a lot steering’.  With understeer the common complaint in the pits in Bologna, last year’s Top Qualifier said his car ‘felt really good for the conditions’.  Posting the fastest lap of Q1, with a 15.286 second lap, for the second of the four qualifiers the Italian ‘might run a bit less camber’ to reduce his steering.

Only 11th fastest in practice, Pietsch was happy to get ‘good points for the first round’ admitting he has been ‘struggling a bit with set-up’.  ‘Not so happy with (the) car at the moment’, the former World Champion thinks he ‘maybe (has a) problem with (his) steering servo’.  Having been unable to get the car to his liking the German will fit a new servo for Q2.

Setting the inital TQ pace, Kurzbuch said ‘it was a good start to quali’ adding ‘I have points now to attack for TQ’.  Describing his Novarossi powered Shepherd V8 as ‘at the beginning very good’ the Swiss driver continued ‘it then started to push on the fast corners and I lost a little pace’.  To try and cure this he will adjust the front down stops and caster.

Behind Kurzbuch, BP Racing’s Mirko Salemi, who is running in the second fastest heat, put in an impressive run to post the fourth fastest time. Behind him, fellow Italian Carmine Raiola would be the quickest Infinity driver with a P5 run with new Capricorn signing Robin D’hondt completing the Top 6.  Unfortunately for 2016 race winner Lamberto Collari he wouldn’t complete the first qualifying, his Infinity coming to a stop just half way through the heat.  Having topped practice, Depta would run into the back of another car but said the biggest loss of time came from pacing himself off the car ahead thinking it was quick when it wasn’t.

Winner of the season opener last year, Coelho summed up his Q1 performance as ‘very good’ adding he had ‘no mistakes’.  Improvng his Xray NT1 from practice he said it was still ‘not perfect’ and he would ‘keep working on it to find more steering’.  Getting the opportunity to follow Groskamp on track he said compared to his rival he felt he had the same level of steering, understeer an issue for all drivers today, but he is having to drive more aggressively than the Dutchman adding ‘thats not good for a final, I can’t drive 45-minute like this’.

Groskamp felt he ‘improved (his) car a little bit’ adding his Maxima engine was also better after a pipe change for Q1.  The Infinity driver who is racing a Capricorn in 1:10 this weekend, said the car was not the fastest over a lap but it was a good for a 4-minute run.  In addition to trying to find more steering for Q2, the former Electric Touring Car World Champion will also adjust his second gear to change later.

‘Was Ok’ was Green’s response after Q1, the British driver reporting being held up at the beginning. He continued ‘for the first run the drivers went a bit mad’ so I just tried to be careful’.  ‘A safe clean run’ he added, ‘My fastest lap didn’t come until my second last lap so there is definitely more to come’.  After leading a Serpent 1, 2, 3 in practice, Mazzeo made a mistake that saw his 748 go off track resulting a chunked tyre.  Greiner also made a mistake that intially lead to a body tuck on his warm-up lap that then resulted in a faster car collecting his Serpent causing him to start the heat late.

Behind the Top 3, Erik Dankel was again fourth fastest as he was in practice. Behind the former Champion, Dirk Wischnewski and David Loppini completed the Top 6.

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