Kurzbuch takes Q2 at ENS

Simon Kurzbuch has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the Euro Nitro Series season finale in Italy.  Only 5th fastest in Q1, the Shepherd driver topped the round ahead of last year’s race winner Lamberto Collari with Robert Pietsch completing the Top 3.  For yesterday’s Q1 pace setter Dario Balestri, Q2 would result in a DNF after the championship leader had an off after running wide and hitting a damp patch from the overnight dew.

Not happy with his Q1 performance, Kurzbuch described his latest qualifier as ‘very good’.  Changing the set-up on his Novarossi powered Velox V8 back to what he ran yesterday morning in free practice he said he had reached the goal of how he wanted his car to feel. While the car was fast over a lap in Q1 he said it lacked consistency, but the change to a wider front and rear set-up improved this.  ‘Super happy to TQ’, he said he was now ready to fight Balestri for the overall TQ, the two title contenders separated by just 2-points at the top of the standings.

Almost 8/10ths off Kurzbuch, Collari was content with his qualifier but had a issue with his Infinity weaving on the main straight, something he believes may be tyre related.  Having had issues with traffic in Q1, which ended his challenge for the TQ, the 3-time ENS race winner said ‘this time  all was ok’.  Looking for ‘more stability’ from the pre-production chassis of the yet to be model named Infinity, he has planned a few as yet undecided changes for the third of the four qualifiers.

The other key title contender, Pietsch described his qualifier as ‘ok’.  The Mugen designer & lead driver felt he was slightly disadvantaged by having to run new tyres describing them as ‘not perfect’. Using CP1 to run in a set of tyres for qualifying, a rear would come unglued and having used the set he ran in in CP2 in Q1, he had no choice but to use a fresh set.  For his next run he plans to leave his all new MRX-6 unchanged, however he will make a transmitter setting change to reduce the steering servo speed so as to try to make the car a little less nervous.

‘Today is starting in a good way’, was how Andrea Pirani summed up posting the 4th fastest time.  The WRC driver had a mistake half way through Q1 while on a Top 3 run but said today it was a clean round.  Having made no changes to his OS Speed powered GTX, the Italian will continue with the same car with the aim being another clean run, however for Q3 will try a different manifold to gauge fuel consumption for the final.

Setting the fifth fastest time was Francesco Tironi.  The Shepherd driver struggled with tyres in Q1, opting to start on used tyres but running out of front tyre by the end of the 4-minutes leaving him to struggle with understeer to the 11th fastest time.  Also changing to a narrower front end set-up on his XRD powered Velox V8, he was much happier with the car on the new tyres with the only issue being a ‘little mistake’ on the first lap of the qualifier.  Behind Tironi, Serpent’s Merlin Depta completed the Top 6.

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Balestri TQ’s Q1 ahead of Pietsch at ENS Italy

ENS 1:8 championship leader Dario Balestri has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the season finale in Italy.  The Capricorn driver topped the first of the four qualifier but just a tenth of a second from Robert Pietsch, the Mugen driver running in the second fastest heat after issues in controlled practice.  Behind the two title protagonists, qualifying top seed Lamberto Collari completed the Top 3 with his new Infinity chassis.  The third key title contender, reigning ENS champion Simon Kurzbuch would get a fifth for the round behind fellow Swiss racer Silvio Hächler.

Having struggled a little in practice with the batch change of the handout Hot Race tyres as drivers had to start using tyres from the tyre impound area, Balestri was happier with his LAB C802 for the opening qualifier.  The Bologna Top Qualifier and Aigen race winner, said his Tesla engine was a bit rich at the start forcing him to have to wait for it to come in but once it did he could push and ‘all was ok’.  Setting the fastest lap of Q1, a 14.859, for the second qualifier he will make a front caster change as he looks to get more steering in the first part of the corner.

Asked how he felt his qualifier went Pietsch replied ‘Good, I’m happy’.  Giving his new MRX-6 creation its race debut this weekend, the Mugen designer joked he would have been even happier having the 0.1 second gap be the other way round putting the deficit down to a ‘little traffic’.  The former World Champion said with the lap times so close you can overtake immediately if a driver doesn’t open up and these slight delays are enough to cost places.  Very happy with his 4-minute pace, the German plans to leave his car unchanged for Q2.

Another driver to feel traffic hampered his challenge for the TQ, Collari said overall he had a good feeling with the car adding he is a lot more confident with his new chassis.  Admitting he ‘need(s) to improve the car a little bit’ for tomorrow he said its down to ‘really small details’ in the set-up.  A driver famed for his race strategies, already the legend of the sport is using the tyre wear and fuel economy of his OS Speed engine to start to his calculations for the finals adding that unlike his Mugen he is having to learn how the car works the tyres and its effects on run time.

Having found his second gear carrier very loose after controlled practice and opting to replace it for Q1 meaning he needed to re-adjust his gearbox setting, Hächler said he was a little nervous about his gearbox but it ‘was a good’.  Making some small mistakes, he was otherwise happy with the run adding his ARC R8.0 has been good from the start of the event.

Not happy with his Shepherd in controlled practice, Kurzbuch said his ‘car was now better’.  As a run he said ‘he wanted to TQ too much’ and this lead to him making ‘too many mistakes’.  Pleased with the pace of his Novarossi powered Velox V8, he is confident tomorrow he can fight for the TQ.  Behind Kurzbuch, BP Racing’s Mirko Salemi completed the Top 6.

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Greiner TQs opening qualifier at ENS title decider

Dominic Greiner has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the title deciding season finale of the Euro Nitro Series in Italy.  The championship contender picked up where he left off in practice again heading a Serpent 1-2 from team-mate Alessio Mazzeo.  Another of the title contenders, Bruno Coelho would make a marked improvement over the 4-minutes to open qualifying with a 3rd while Spanish ENS debutant Eduardo Escandón backed up his impressive practice performance to record the fourth fastest time.  For championship points leader Jilles Groskamp and his HB team-mate Teemu Leino Q1 would only net P9 & 10 respectively.

After his radio problems in controlled practice, Greiner said he was ‘a bit nervous’ for the opening qualifier but having changed both the battery and the receiver in his 748 it ‘all felt great’.  Going for a safe opening round, he said his Max engine ‘was a bit too rich’ hinting there is more to come from his car/engine package tomorrow.

Mazzeo said second was a good result but it was a difficult qualifier as changes made after practice left his Gimar powered 748 with oversteer making it ‘very hard to drive with any consistency’.  The former European Champion said considering how difficult his car was, he was very ‘satisfied’ with finishing second to his team-mate.  Set to revert to a previous set-up the Italian is confident he has scope for a big improvement tomorrow, his deficit to Greiner being almost 2-seconds.

4-minutes is very different to 3-laps said a much happier Coelho after setting the third fastest time.  The European Champion said while he drove to get a safe run, small changes to his Xray had helped with the NT1 ‘a little better’ than in practice.  Describing the car as ‘still not perfect’, the 22-year-old said they needed to improve the set-up further for tomorrow but it had been a positive start to qualifying.

Escandón said his opening laps were not perfect.  Waiting to give Mazzeo a gap just before the start of the qualifying he said he ended up with Hagberg on his rear bumper and this was a early distraction.  Eventually finding his rhythm he said he was happy with his pace and to post the 4th fastest time.  Changing back to a more rear mounted Spark body having made a change for the final controlled practice the former European Championship podium finisher said his KM Racing H-K1 ‘was perfect again’ and he had no plans to make changes for Q2 tomorrow.

Another driver on his first visit to the Mini Autodromo Jody Scheckter track, Patrick Nähr would post P5 for Q1.  The Shepherd driver said his Velox V10 was easy to drive compared to controlled practice and he was putting that down to a better set of tyres.  The former European B Champion said his driving was also a factor as he gets more used to the track.  With ‘a good overall feeling from the car’ he will leave it unchanged for Q2.  Behind Nähr, Capricorn driver Kyle Branson completed the Top 6.

‘Just no pace’, that was how Groskamp summed up Q1.  The HB driver added ‘it feels like there is no traction’ and ‘we have tried everything even a different chassis’.  The former electric Touring Car World Champion said ‘Aigen was also low traction but our car worked really well there but here compared to others we have no traction’.  Running in the second fastest heat he said watching the top heat and his team-mate Leino its clear to see they lack the traction of their rivals.

Giving his reaction to Q1, Leino said it was ‘completely shit’.  While on target for a Top 5 until a last lap crash, the Finn said he felt like he was ‘wheel spinning and drifting out of the pitlane’ adding Q1 was the worst his R10 has been since arriving in Fiorano.

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Collari tops controlled practice at Italian ENS

Making his ENS debut with new 1:8 entrant Infinity, Lamberto Collari topped controlled practice at the concluding round of the Euro Nitro Series in Italy. Winner of the Fiorano event last year, then driving a Mugen, the 9-time World Champion set the fastest three laps ahead of fellow Italians Andrea Lorenzi and Mattia Collavo. Best of the visitors would be ARC’s Silvio Hächler, the Swiss driver posting the fourth fastest time around the Mini Autodromo Jody Scheckter track.  Of the title contenders it was defending champion Simon Kurzbuch who would prove fastest with 5th, almost 3/10th off Collari.  Having set the pace in practice, points leader Dario Balestri would be sixth ahead of Andrea Pirani, while Robert Pietsch would manage only 12th meaning the Mugen driver will run in the second fastest heat for qualifying.

‘Not bad’ was Collari’s reaction to topping the times.  The winner of the season opener added ‘every time we change the car we make it better and develop it for this track, and now the overall speed is good’.  He continued while ‘the balance is good it is a little nervous to drive’ adding they still need to work on consistency.  Despite this, he plans to leave the car unchanged for the first of the four qualifiers which will bring the day’s action to a close.

Winning the title here last year when he finished runner-up to Collari in the 45-minute Main, Kurzbuch declared his controlled practice performance as ‘OK’ but it was clear from the Swiss driver’s body language he was disappointed.  The Aigen race winner said he was finding it hard get the optimum set-up from his Shepherd.  Feeling there are ‘little differences between the sets (of handout) tyres’, he said this was creating problems for the small changes he was making to the car based on the car’s feeling over the previous run.  Looking to qualifying he thinks over the full 4-minutes things should be better.

Balestri also felt his drop off in form was due to tyres.  Having used his own batch of Hot Race tyres for free practice, he said the batch from which the handout tyres are being issued is slightly different and he has had to change his Capricorn’s set-up for this.  He continued ‘I hope we are on top of it now’ adding ‘the handout system does make it very hard for getting the set-up right’.

Pietsch summed up his seeding runs as ‘bad’.  In the first of the 5-minute runs he had a problem with a badly glued rear tyre, while in the second he said the problem was he simply missed getting in three good consecutive laps.  The only driver to match Collari’s 15.0 fastest lap pace with a 15.077 compared to his Italian rival’s 15.076, the German is confident his new MRX-6 is on the pace and good for qualifying.  Asked about running in the second fastest heat he said this might play to his advantage for the opening qualifier as the light will be starting to fade at that time of the evening.

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Greiner top seed for qualifying at ENS Finale

Dominic Greiner is the top seed for qualifying at the Euro Nitro Series in Fiorano, the title challenger heading a Serpent 1-2 in controlled practice.  Despite having suffered radio problems in the first and fastest of his two runs Greiner would end up over 4/10ths faster than team-mate Alessio Mazzeo.  Spanish driver Eduardo Escandón would complete the Top 3 ahead of World Champion Alexander Hagberg, with Dirk Wischnewski and Bruno Coelho completing the Top 6, all drivers setting the best times in CP1.  The highest placed driver to record his time in CP2 would be Shepherd’s Patrick Nähr who was seventh fastest.  For championship leader Jilles Groskamp his struggles continued as he ended up only 18th fastest with a time set in the slower track conditions of CP2.

While happy to maintain his position at the top of the time sheets having also set the pace in free practice, Greiner said the controlled practices did not go well.  In CP1 having just laid down his fastest 3-consecutive laps, the German would suffer a ‘hard crash’ as a result of radio problems.  Fitting new parts to his 748 following the impact, he would start CP2 late as they had just finished the car and as a result he ran much of the run with a cold engine, but once it got up to temperature and he got some clean laps he was happy the car was not affected by the crash.

Describing his car as ‘very, very good’, Mazzeo said they tried a different set-up in CP2 targeted at 4-minutes as opposed to just 3-laps and the just turned 24-year-old believes they can further improve the 748 for Q1.  Running Gimar’s 2016 engine release, he was very happy with the new unit adding he was confident that he and his team-mate Greiner are in good shape for qualifying.

2014 European Championship runner-up Escandòn, who is making his ENS debut, said he was very happy with controlled practice having struggled with engine problems yesterday.  The 25-year-old KM Racing driver said his Novarossi engines were working much better today and he is ‘pretty happy’ with his pace.  Changing bodyshell for CP2 to a more forward mounted Spark body he said it was not good and he will go back to the previous one.

Hagberg said his NT1 was now pretty good with him having found ‘good steering’.  The Swede added while it ‘may be a little hard to drive’ in terms of consistency he was ‘happy with (his) pace so far’.  Looking to improve consistency he will make ‘some small changes for qualifying’.  Team-mate Coelho, who was 6th fastest, said while they improved a little he still needed to find more steering.  Trying a more aggressive driving style to get the rear of the car to break loose in corners to induce more steering he said due to the low grip this didn’t help and he ‘need(s) to do something in the car’.

Fifth fastest between the two Xray’s, Wischnewski said he struggled in CP2 after making a set-up change he expected would give more steering but didn’t.  Planning to go back to his CP1 set-up, the Shepherd driver said it ‘seems warmer conditions causes the car to struggle’.

For the HB team, who sit 1-2 in the championship standings, their drivers had opposing views.  Setting the 9th fastest time Teemu Leino said a tuning issue with his Novarossi engine which was too rich in CP1 left him with a time worse than his actual pace.  Describing his R10 as ‘feel(ing) pretty good now’ the Finn feels with the right engine tuning it should be all OK for Q1.  Groskamp was less positive about things going into qualifying, the Dutch driver saying he is ‘still struggling and not sure what it is’.  Adding ‘it’s hard to find a good set-up here’, he said while CP2 was a slower track at least he was able to improve on his CP1 time.

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Championship leader Balestri sets early Fiorano pace

Euro Nitro Series championship leader Dario Balestri set the pace in free practice at the season finale in Fiorano, Italy.  The Capricorn driver set the pace ahead of Shepherd’s Francesco Tironi with title rival Robert Pietsch making a promising start to proceedings on the debut of Mugen’s new MRX-6 with the third fastest time.  Defending champion Simon Kurzbuch, who sits just 2-points off Balestri, would post the 4th fastest 3-consecutive laps with his Shepherd.  Behind Kurzbuch, the fourth title contender, albeit with a very slim chance, WRC’s Andrea Pirani would set the 5th fastest time.

Securing his first 1:8 ENS win at the previous round in Germany, Balestri said ‘I have a good package and I just need to improve something small but I’m happy with my pace’.  While its a track he knows probably better than his rivals, last years 200mm race winner said ‘its not an easy track but we start the event good’.  Asked about the championship battle, the former European Champion said ‘I am not thinking about points, my focus is just the race and getting the best result’.

Having only had one test day with his latest creation, Pietsch was ‘already very happy with the new car’.  The Mugen designer said compared to its predecessor the MRX-6 reacts different and he has had to change his driving style to suit this.  With the brakes on the new car moved back to the gearbox shaft and the rear end much lighter he said this has moved the weight more to the centre.  With the MRX-5 loose under braking he said the 6 is the opposite adding it requires a style of driving more like that of electric touring cars.

Kurzbuch said while a change for the final practice was not an improvement , he said overall things were ‘running really well’.  He added his Velox V8 is good but he still wants to find ‘that last little piece’ to give him the perfect car.  Set to go back to his morning set-up, the Swiss ace is looking to get his 3-laps done in he first of the timed practices allowing him then to use the final practice as a practice qualifying run, the first of the four qualifiers taking place this evening.  Describing conditions as ‘special’ this weekend, the ENS Aigen winner said that due to a major 1:5 scale race held last weekend the grip was high and he expects this is how it will remain for the weekend.

Pirani said practice had been a little bit difficult as he was ‘searching for steering’.  Only arriving yesterday while most of his rivals arrived earlier in the week, the Italian was confident they would catch up the track time having already made good progress with improving the GTX since arriving.  Admitting himself that he would need some sort of miracle to win the title, he said his aim is for a podium on Sunday which should also give him a podium finish in the overall championship.

Making his return to the ENS after his win at Round 1 in Bologna, Lamberto Collari makes his Infinity debut in the championship.  The legendary Italian, who has a 100% ENS winning record winning all three races he has contested over the past two season including this race last year, is expecting a challenging weekend.  Saying the level of the ENS is very high he added it makes winning always challenging but with the extra element of working with a brand new car and team makes that challenge even greater. Running a pre-production version of 1:8’s newest manufacturer, Collari said the key objective of running at the ENS this weekend was while testing can help you improve a car it is competitive racing that allows you to gauge exactly where things are at and this will be important for the development of the project.

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