Groskamp & HB claim ENS title

Jilles Groskamp and HB are the new Euro Nitro Series Champions after a thrilling final at the concluding round in Fiorano, Italy.  With four drivers in contention for the title, Groskamp starting behind his rivals after a tough qualifying, the Dutch racer drove a near perfect strategy only being denied his first win of the season on the penultimate lap by Alessio Mazzeo.  Still with his rivals having issues,  the fourth 2nd place finish of the four round ENS gave him the title with team-mate Teemu Leino making it a championship 1-2 for HB.  The title marks the first major success for the Japanese company’s R10.  Having been the dominant force in qualifying unfortunately for Serpent’s Dominic Greiner the chance to complete the perfect weekend would be taken out of his control, a conrod failure while leading the Main & on target for the title ending his race.

Giving his reaction to his title victory a delighted Groskamp said, ‘I’m super happy to win the championship and I’m super happy for HB & Maxima. After struggling in practice and struggling in qualifying, the team did a great job improving the car for the final.  We didn’t have a rocket for the final but it was so consistent it allowed us to fight for the win’.  Ending the season how he started, qualifying 7th on the grid also in Bologna and work his way up to second, he said ‘we went into the race just for the win as I know if I could win, the title was mine as second behind Dominic, Teemu or Bruno (Coelho) would not have been enough’.  Lacking the outright speed of in particular Greiner he said they knew they had to go for the win on strategy and it was always planned to go the full 45-minutes on the one set of tyres as well as running 6-minutes between fuels stops him feeling they probably could have stretched that even more such was the economy of his Maxima engine.  With Mazzeo catching him with just 20-seconds to go, he said he wanted to close the door on the Italian but with his own tyres done and the Italian not in title contention he knew second would still get him the ‘goal’ of the championship.

‘An amazing race, the level is very hard’, was Mazzeo’s reaction to his first ENS race win adding ‘congratulations to Jilles on winning the championship’.  Starting 3rd on the grid, the former European Champion said he made a big push to get by Coelho at the start and take up rear guard to his team-mate Greiner.  With Greiner going out after 3-minutes, he would lead the way but in the final 5-minutes before his tyre stop he said Coelho was very fast and closing him down.  With both Coelho and Leino making contact the 24-year-old said he then felt in control of the race after his tyre stop until his pitcrew informed him that Groskamp was not changing tyres, adding this meant the start of a race.  With his Gimar powered 748 better on the second set of tyres he would ‘push a lot’ encouraged by the updates from his team that he was closing on the HB driver by 3/10ths a lap.  Describing it as ‘a very nice but hard race’ with Groskamp, complimenting his style of racing, he said he waited for the best moment to make a pass, joking ‘just like (Valentino) Rossi’.

Joining Alessio and Groskamp on the podium would be Patrick Nähr, the Shepherd driver delighted to end the season with his first ENS podium finish.  The 23-year-old former European B Champion said ‘the race was not so easy’ as after his tyre change his Velox V10 was difficult to drive due to understeer. Other than this small issue he said ‘the rest of the rest went very good’.  Changing tyres at 20-minute he said his crew did a very good job changing all four tyres in 18-seconds.

Finishing the race fifth behind Capricorn’s Kyle Branson, Leino was happy to hold the second he had coming into the weekend saying it was a great overall result for HB.  On the race itself, the Finn said it was all going as planned at the beginning until ‘Bruno crashed into me at the end of the straight’ while rejoining from a pit stop.  He said while the Portuguese driver waited, the contact ruined his challenge for the win.  With the contact chunking a tyre, it was also discovered afterwards that the impact also caused the exhaust to move and not sit in the manifold correctly explaining the engine loosing its edge. The Aigen race winner would be ‘taken out’ a second time towards the end of the race by Tom Krägefski, leading Leino to sum up the race as ‘not a perfect final’.

Coelho said ‘I had a great car but a mistake in the chicane when I flipped on curbing and flamed out finished the race for me’.  Commenting on his contact with Leino, the Bologna race winner said ‘it was my fault,  I tried to leave room by staying wide but that was also the line he choose’.  Finishing the race 8th, the Xray driver would still hold on for third in the overall championship.

The driver who set the benchmark from the first practice and who was quickly establishing a lead in the final, Greiner said ‘the car was perfect, the only problem was I played safe and changed the engine’.  Running just 3 of the 45-minutes, in which he set the fastest lap of the race, the German said the Max engine he used to claim the overall TQ had a special lightened conrod so they opted for a more standard engine.  Fitting the engine for Q4 to test it he said while it has less power it had better run time so they stuck with it to be safe but ‘it wasn’t to be’.  His retirement would allow Ettlingen race winner Dirk Wischnewski, who finished today’s race 6th, to pass him for fourth in the final standings.

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Hoppe & Picco complete 1:8 grid in Fiorano

Lars Hoppe and Alberto Picco complete the grid for the final 1:8 A-Main of the 2015 Euro Nitro Series after bumping up from the B-Main at the championship’s fourth & concluding round in Italy.   Like the 1:10 B-Main it was another close 20-minutes of racing, the Top 3 all finishing on the same lap, with Hoppe from third on the grid winning by 8/10ths of a second from Picco. Having bumped up from the C-Main, unfortunately for ENS race winner John Ermen, who set the fastest lap of the race, his recovery from a difficult qualifying would come to an end as he finished half a lap down on the leaders.  The race would also mark the end of the event for 2014 finalists Andrea Lorenzi and Michael Salven.

A podium finish at Round 2 in Aigen, ARC driver Lars Hoppe described the final as ‘not so bad’ adding ‘but I need a new engine’.  With his Reds Racing engine set ‘way too lean’ he said it was done after the 20-minutes and he would have to fit a new one for the final.  Only getting his R8.0 right in the third qualifier, but making mistakes over that 4-minute run, the German said the car has been really good since and he will leave it unchanged for the main race adding he is confident he can improve from his 11th on the grid.

Qualifying fourth for this race last year, Picco said he ‘started the race a little angry’ after being hit by another car at the start despite trying his best for a ‘careful’ start.  Driving his Mugen ‘as fast as he could’ the Picco engine boss said the car was the best it has been all weekend and planning to make no changes for qualifying he is looking forward to working his way through the field in the final.

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Loppini & Krägefski progress, Hagberg out

Xray drivers David Loppini and Tom Krägefski will complete the line-up for the 1:10 A-Main at the Euro Nitro Series season finale in Italy, the pair denying World Champion Alexander Hagberg from progressing to the main event.  Starting from third on the grid, after 20-minutes of close racing it was Loppini who would take the win by 2.2 seconds from Krägefski with a similar gap back to Hagberg, all three drivers having taken turns at leading the race.

Direct A-Main qualifier at the Fiorano based event last year, the 21-year-old had to work a little harder for his place on the 12-car grid this time.  Struggling with a little understeer at the start of the race which then turned to oversteer, he said overall the car was good but looking to the longer 45-minute final he said he is going to need to make some tweaks to his self modified NT1.

Having started the race from pole position, Krägefski said it was a ‘difficult’ race in terms of fuel consumption.  Opting to go safe rather than risk 5-minutes between stops from his ORCAN engine, the 26-year-old who has attended all four rounds of the ENS was happy to book the final spot on the grid for his first A-Main appearance of the season.  Planning to just run a ‘safe race’ in the final, the German is targeting a midfield finish.

‘Struggling with the feeling of the car’, Hagberg said his NT1 was ‘difficult to drive’ adding he needs to look for something wrong with the car. Running 5-minute fuel stops, saving him one stop over Loppini and Krägefski, the factory Xray driver said it still wasn’t enough as he was just ‘way too slow’. This was also highlighted by the Swede’s 17-second fastest lap when the rest of the field bar one running 16-second laps.

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Greiner secures dominant overall TQ at ENS Italy

Dominic Greiner secured an early overall TQ for tomorrow’s Euro Nitro Series title deciding final in Italy, a third TQ run by the Serpent driver in the third of the four qualifiers putting pole position beyond the reach of his rivals.  With four drivers in contention to become the new 1:10 Champion, the grid will see the drivers line up in reverse as to how they came into the weekend in the standings.  Third in the standings ahead of Greiner, it is Bruno Coelho who will start 2nd after the Xray driver denied Serpent a 1-2 by taking the final qualifier ahead of Alessio Mazzeo.  Second in the standings behind his HB team-mate Jilles Groskamp, Aigen winner Teemu Leino will line-up 4th for the start of the 45-minute Main with marked improvements from Groskamp over the final two qualifiers securing him 7th.

Improving his pace by almost 2-seconds in Q3 to post the fastest time of qualifying, Greiner said ‘everything is working so well, the car perfect’.   Letting his team-mate by after an early mistake in Q4 and not wanting to hamper Mazzeo’s chances of securing P2 on the grid this would prevent the German from doing the clean sweep. His second TQ of the season, the 2014 ENS race winner dominating all five rounds of qualifying in Ettlingen before problems in the pits left him to finish Round 3 in 4th, Greiner said the bonus point ‘makes no difference, I still need to win’.  Believing his 748 qualifying pace can be carried through to the final he said he plans no set-up change. Using the last qualifier to try a new set of tyres, he will also try a new set of the handout Hot Race tyres in the final practice tomorrow to build up knowledge on how shore differences effect the car so that they can start the final with any required adjustments.  With pitstops having been his achilles heel at ENS Germany, he has a new pitman Thomas Guensel this weekend pointing out the new partnership has already proved successful with him in the pits for his German National title victory in August.  In terms of his strategy for the final, Greiner said he still needs to calculate tyre wear but said the race will require ‘one stop for sure’.  Pleased with the run time from his Max engine, he said ‘everything is looking good’.

Having aired on the side of caution with the tuning of his Max engines in the opening three qualifiers, Coelho said in the search for maximising run time for the final they leaned off the engine for Q4 and it was much better.  Pleased to secure second as a result of his TQ run, the Xray driver said anything can happen in a 45-minute main but with the car ‘getting better step by step’ he is confident its now good enough to fight for the win.  Winner of the season opener in Bologna, the newly crowned 4WD EP Buggy World Champion said his busy schedule leaves little time for nitro testing and so for both himself and his World Champion team-mate Alexander Hagberg they are always having to play catch-up on arrival at the track.  Qualifying 14th, Hagberg will have to try to bump his way up from the B-Main and fill one of the remaining two spots on the 12-car grid.

Suffering a bad start to the second day of qualifying when a radio problem towards the end of Q2 caused his 748 to crash heavily at the end of the straight, Mazzeo would have to change car and the former European Champion said he never found a set-up he was happy with.  Running a different set-up every round he said in Q4 the car was impossible to drive consistently and they need to work on something new for the final practice session. While his team-mate Greiner needs the win to take the title, the 24-year-old said he was going to win tomorrow making it clear he wouldn’t be playing to any team orders.

While an off at the end of Q4 cost him the chance to start the final ahead of Mazzeo, Leino said he was happy after a transmitter change transformed his Novarossi powered R10.  Having started the event with Sanwa’s new M12S, for Q2 he revert back to his older M12 and immediately found pace posting a 2nd in Q2 and 3rd in Q3.  The Finn said the new software on the S model is different and so it is not possible to copy the radio settings.  Surprised at how big a difference it could make he said he needs more time with the new radio but he was happy to make that discovery when he did.  He said going from looking like making the final would be difficult to being in contention for TQ runs he was ‘happy’.  Winner of a thrilling and spectacularly close Aigen final, he said with his car easy to drive he was positive he can race for the win but added finals are impossible to predict.

Driving for outgoing champion manufacturer Capricorn who also won this race last year with tomorrow’s 1:8 Top Qualifier Dario Balestri, Top 3 runs in Q2 & 4 secured Kyle Branson 5th on the grid.  The British driver, who was also on for a strong Q3 before a crash, said they made good progress with set-up today and while ‘its not perfect’ he’s ‘happy with it’.  Looking to make it smoother through the corners, he will make some changes for the practice tomorrow adding he thinks a podium is possible with his plan being to drive his own race.

With Spain’s Eduardo Escandón securing sixth on the grid on his ENS debut starting behind him is championship leader Jilles Groskamp.  After struggling in Q1 yesterday, the Dutch ace would get ‘back in the game’ with a complete change of direction in his set-up.  Having run his Maxima powered R10 soft in practice and the opening qualifier he said overnight he ‘thought a bit more logic’ and went ‘stiffer and thicker with everything’. Trying a different spring for Q4 he said this wasn’t an improvement and he would go back but going into the final things were ‘looking a lot better than at the beginning’.  Having started the final at Bologna from seventh on the grid and claiming the first of a trio of second places, the former Electric Touring Car World Champion is happy with his pace adding his ‘tyre wear and fuel consumption are very good’.

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Balestri is Top Qualifier at ENS title decider

Dario Balestri is Top Qualifier for the title deciding season finale of the Euro Nitro Series in Fiorano, Italy.  The Capricorn driver secured pole position for tomorrow’s 45-minute main when he posted a second TQ run in the fourth & final qualifier at the Mini Autodromo Jody Scheckter track ahead of Robert Pietsch and Lamberto Collari.  With only reigning 1:8 champion Simon Kurzbuch and Daniele Ielasi in contention for the overall TQ going into Q4, both would fail to repeat their early TQ runs with Ielasi posting a P4 run while Kurzbuch was 5th fastest.  The result means that Kurzbuch will start second behind Balestri with the third of the title contenders Pietsch lining up 4th behind Ielasi.

commenting on his second TQ of the Season #2 of the ENS, Balestri said ‘this is the best year for me with the package I have and I want to thank Capricorn and Tesla for this and in particular Patrizio (Rossi) and (Massimo) Fantini who have been a super help this year’.  On the final qualifier he said a rear camber change was ‘very good’ but added the times are ‘very close’ with it ‘very competitive between me Lamberto, Robert and Simon’.  Gaining the bonus point offered for the overall TQ, last year’s  1:10 race winner said now he only needs to finish 3rd to claim the title but this doesn’t change his strategy and he will ‘start (the race) for the win’.  Asked about how he felt his package would deal with the longer race conditions he simple replied ‘no problem’.

Having targeted the TQ bonus point, Kurzbuch said his ‘strategy didn’t go well’.  Passing both Mattia Collavo and Andrea Lorenzi on his out lap so as he would have a clean track behind Collari, he said Collari had some mistakes and running close to the Infinity driver, when he tried to pass him he made mistakes of his own which cost him a shot at the TQ.  As result of missing out on the TQ, the Shepherd driver said ‘I have to attack in the final as I have to win, but we are ready for that’.  Asked about his strategy for the final he said ‘I think the tyre wear is not that high but the problem is the front wear much faster than the rear’.  On run time the factory Novarossi driver said he will fit a different venturi adding ‘I think we should be fine as we have improved mileage a bit this year’.

The man with the biggest smile in the paddock, having not been on the radar until the penultimate round of qualifying, Ielasi stated ‘I am super happy and I know I have a competitive car for tomorrow’.  Posting a surprise TQ run in Q3 despite running in Heat 11 of 15, the WRC driver said he lost out on challenging for the overall TQ in the opening 5-6 laps of the final qualifier due to having to run new tyres.  Only 0.5 off Balestri’s time at the end of the 4-minutes he said things are so close that every fraction is critical.  Feeling he has a very consistent car for the final, he said he has a really good feeling for tomorrow pointing out that while he has nothing to lose, the two starting ahead of him are fighting for the title.

Pietsch said his final qualifier was ok but in the last 2-3 laps he lost out on the TQ due to a small mistake, the deficit to Balestri just 0.180 of a second.  Debuting the Japanese manufacturer’s new MRX-6, the German said the car is easy to drive and he has no plans to change it for the final adding ‘you are not going to find anything that allows you to pull clear of the others’.  Predicting it is ‘going to be a very tight race’, the factory Picco driver feels mileage might be one advantage he has over the three starting ahead of him.

Top Qualifier and winner of this race last year, Collari said his run was ok but not enough to get him a Top 3 starting position.  Winner of all three previous ENS races he has contested, the 9-time World Champion is famed for his race strategies and although starting from 5th on the grid he appeared to be confident for the final saying he had tyre wear and fuel consumption ‘under control’.

Joining his WRC team-mate in the final, Andrea Pirani will complete the top half of the grid, two cars bumping up from the B Final for a 12 car grid.  A podium finisher at the season opener, Pirani said an engine problem forced him to pull off early but having ran a modified front upper arm in Q4 he had improved the car.  Targeting a podium in the final which should in term secure him a Top 3 in the overall championship he said with the car working good he is confident for tomorrow.  Behind Pirani, Bruno Coelho secured both his and Xray’s first 1:8 A-Main appearance of the season with the 1:10 title contender securing 7th ahead of Shepherd’s Francesco Tironi, Serpent’s Merlin Depta and BP Racing’s Mirko Salemi.

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Q3 Update – Ielasi puts in surprise TQ run

Daniele Ielasi put in a surprise TQ run in the third round of qualifying at the ENS in Fiorano to top the times from Q2 pace setter Simon Kurzbuch.  Having snapped a car in half on the opening practice day, the WRC driver would also damage his second car in controlled practice yesterday leaving him to be seeded in Heat 11 of 15, however despite the slower heat the Italian would top the times by 2/10th from Kurzbuch and the Swiss driver’s title rivals Robert Pietsch and Dario Balestri.  Another surprise for the round would be the performance of 1:10 championship contender Bruno Coelho, the Xray driver taking his RX8 to the 5th fastest time ahead of Lamberto Collari.

Commenting on his TQ run, Ielasi said ‘finally I have some luck’.  Explaining what has been a challenging start to the ENS season finale, the former 1:10 World Champion said, ‘two days ago I broke my good car in half and in controlled practice I had more bad luck when I also destroyed my spare car’.  With his ‘good car’, that particular GTX featuring a prototype front end, unsalvageable due to the parts being one off pieces he was able to rebuild his spare ‘standard’ car.  Describing his surviving car as ‘feeling good’, he added it was a pity he didn’t have his ‘good car’ as the prototype was ‘for sure better’.   A driver who always finds a positive out of every situation, he said ‘racing in Round 11 it is harder to pass but anyway he is happy now to fight for the overall TQ’.

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