Balestri claims first win at German ENS

Dario Balestri has claimed his first 1:8 Euro Nitro Series win with a sterling performance at the record breaking entry third round in Germany.  Also giving Capricorn their first 1:8 win of the championship, from second on the grid the Italian took advantage of early errors by reigning champion Simon Kurzbuch and Robert Pietsch who started each side of him.  Going to the front after just 8-laps, once there last season’s 1:10 race winner made the race his own and leaves the event as the new championship leader.  Having come into the weekend top of the points standings, Kurzbuch would crash out of podium placing in the final 10-minutes as he tried to avoid John Ermen’s car as it returned to the track following an excursion onto the grass.  With the Shepherd driver losing over a minute as his car was repaired, the Austrian ENS winner would eventually finish 7th.  Cutting the first corner at the start and dropping to 8th Pietsch would finish second 5-seconds back at the end of the dry 45-minute race, the rain that caused the earlier 1:10 A-Main to be stopped after 31-minutes clearing over the Minidrom Ettlingen track. In a surprise performance Silvio Hächler would complete the Top 3, the ARC driver having bumped from the B-Main to claim his first ENS podium.

‘Maybe one of my best races ever’ was how Balestri summed up what the win meant to him.  Having ended qualifying yesterday with a TQ run, he said running the same set-up in the 10-minute A-Main practice session which took place just before the running of the B-Main his C802 was ‘very hard to drive’.  Putting the change down to the morning rain which delayed proceedings, he said a carefully thought out set-up change for the race itself left him with an ‘amazing’ car.  Getting by Kurzbuch after the Swiss driver ran wide, the Bologna ENS Top Qualifier & race runner-up said ‘to be honest I have to thank Patrizio (Rossi) for his good work in the pits as his refuelling was faster than Kurzbuch’s and this helped me a lot to build the lead’.  With the Capricorn boss also executing a tyre stop with ‘no problems’, Balestri complimented his Tesla engine which he said ‘gave no problems’.

Pietsch, who also finished second in Austria, joked ‘it feels like I am starting a collection of 2nd places’ adding ‘I hope for the Euros and Fiorano (ENS Finale) I can go one better’.  Despite still searching for his first win of the season, the Mugen driver was ‘really happy with today’s result because all the strategy worked out’.  The German said the only problem of the race was the ‘start crash’ caused by the ‘grid boxes (being) too close together’ which let the 12-car field closely bunched up at the start. As a result of this he ‘lost too much time’ and with it any chance of the win.  Driving his ‘own race’, he said his Picco powered MRX-5 ran faultlessly and he was ‘really happy’ that he also ran the rest of the race with ‘no mistakes’ adding it was nice that they got to have a dry race unlike in 1:10.

‘I’m super happy with third’ was Hächler’s reaction to finishing on the podium.  Securing the final spot on the grid after a ‘really close’ battle with Steven Cuypers in the B-Main, the ARC team driver said his ‘car was never really good today’.  Happy with the R8.0 in the final qualifier yesterday, the 23-year-old said after the rain the track had a different feeling which didn’t suit his car making his podium finish even more rewarding.  Describing his fuel & tyre stops as ‘perfect’, the Swiss driver said he is feeling confident for the Euros and the fourth Round of the ENS.

Finishing fourth, just 1.3 seconds behind Hächler, when asked how his race went Robin D’Hondt replied ‘I had a shit start and lost almost a lap’.  Starting from P5, the BMT driver was last at the end of lap 1 following the start chaos after which he ‘just drove (his) own race’ saying he ‘didn’t know  where (he) was running’ for the entire race ending the sentence by looking to confirm he finished fourth. Happy with stops over the race the Belgian said after his tyre change the car was ‘a bit difficult’ on the big new tyres and it took him a few laps to get back into a good rhythm.  His first A-Main appearance of the ENS since joining BMT for the 2015 season, the World Championship finalist has found a good base set-up now for the 984 but still the car is too aggressive and he needs to get it smoother adding with this he hopes to go at least one place better at the next round in Fiorano, Italy to claim his first podium finish.  Behind D’Hondt, ENS Round 1 podium finisher Andrea Pirani finished 5th with Shepherd’s Francesco Tironi rounding out the Top 6.

A very deflated Kurzbuch said ‘the start was ok’ but they were ‘difficult conditions’ and he made a ‘little mistake and dropped behind Dario’.  Setting the fastest lap of the race as the only driver to do a 12-second lap, he would suffer an engine flame during his tyre stop and then spinning on exiting the pitlane he said from then on he was ‘always behind and couldn’t catch (the leaders)’.  Settling for third, the multiple World Championship finalist’s drama were not over.  Spotting Ermen’s car coming across the grass he tried to avoid the ARC team driver resulting in him crashing which he said ‘destroyed the car’ although he would manage to complete the full race distance albeit falling back in 7th.

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Wischnewski ‘rains’ at German ENS

Dirk Wischnewski has claimed his first Euro Nitro Series victory, the Team Shepherd driver winning a rain shortened Round 3 of the championship at Minidrom Ettlingen in Germany.  Starting from second on the grid, the win ahead of Jilles Groskamp marks the German’s first international win since being crowned European Champion in 2009.   Pushing Top Qualifier Dominic Greiner hard for the first third of the race, Wischnewski got his big break when the Serpent driver ran out of fuel and there after was able to cruise to the finish even moving over to let the recovering Greiner unlap himself.  Unfortunately for Greiner his charge back to the front was cut short when rain arrived as the 45-minute race entered the final 15-minutes.  Stopped at 31-minutes the order was declared a result with Groskamp’s third consecutive second place finish putting him firmly in the lead of the championship standings.  Having come into the event as joint championship leader, Bruno Coelho would like Greiner also run out of fuel in the opening stages of the race. Opting to change tyres when his Xray was returned to the pits, the early race finish worked against the Bologna ENS winner with him classified 11th.

‘Finally I win again’, that was a joyous Wischneski’s reaction to his win.  Runner-up in last season’s ENS championship, he said ‘this is my first win since switching away from Xray and changing my mechanic and while its been a long time coming its a great feeling to finally win again’.  Commenting on his race he said ‘it was very tough at the start, myself and Dominic were both pushing very hard’.  With Greiner loosing a lap after running out of fuel, he said he ‘then backed off’ knowing Leino was quite a bit back.  Had Greiner not flamed out it he said with the two of them so closely matched it ‘would have been a good show’ for onlookers.  Describing his Orcan powered Velox V10 as ‘very good’ he said the only moment of the race was when he suffered a flame out in the pits during his tyre stop in which he only changed the outside tyres.

The man probably with the biggest smile after the race was stopped was Groskamp.  The Dutch ace said having ‘struggled with engine, clutch and car set-up’ throughout the weekend he couldn’t have asked for a better result.  Struggling with too much grip on fresh tyres in qualifying, lining up 8th on the grid he said the final started out nicely with his aim to stay out of trouble early on.  With most refuelling on 4:30, the Maxima driver was able to go 5:30 between stops saving him 2-stops over the original race distance.  With his R10 and engine getting ‘better and better’ as the tyres got smaller he got into his rhythm and on hearing he was up to second he said he just kept cruising around.  Not making a tyre stop, adding they would have been pretty on the limit had the race went full distance, he was ‘really happy to finish second and go home with a strong championship lead’.

Claiming his first podium finish Thilo Tödtmann was very happy with his race saying ‘finally we had no problems in the final’.  Retiring from the final in Austria he said other than flameout during his tyre stop at 14-minutes, the rest of the race was flameless.  With his first set of tyres leaving the rear of his Capricorn loose he said on the second set the car was ‘very good’.  An unassuming driver who feels just making the A-Main at the ENS is a good result, he said to get a podium made for a ‘great weekend’ and shows he has been continually improving as a driver over the season.

Finishing fourth, Greiner said ‘At the beginning it was very close with Dirk but everything was under control’ until he ran out of fuel.  Designer of his 747, Michael Salven would take responsibility for the short coming saying he must not have filled the tank full the previous stop.  While this cost him time, it was a bad tyre change that would ultimately cost him a good result.  Stopping to change all four tyres one of his pit crew would, despite using a magnetic nut driver, lose a wheel nut during the stop which ended up taking almost a minute.  Describing the botched stop as ‘maximum bullshit’ when he did get going on the second set of tyres he said while catching Wischnewski wasn’t possible had the race run the full distance he was confident he had the car to catch and get by Groskamp for second.

The only driver, albeit it coming late, to trouble Greiner and Wischnewski in qualifying, third placed qualifier Leino would finish a disappointing fifth.  The HB driver said his race was going to plan and he was cruising around like team-mate Groskamp him able to run longer between refuelling.  However coming in for tyre stop while leading the race his mechanic would twice drop the nut driver leading to a 58-second lap time that dropped the Austrian ENS winner out of contention.  Finishing on the same lap as Groskamp he said ‘for sure I had a good change of 2nd as I had fresher tyres than Jilles but the rain came’.  Behind Leino, Team Shepherd’s Patrick Nähr would complete the Top 6 ahead of Eric Dankel, the reigning champion having hoped for more on his first A-Main appearance of the season.

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ARC duo complete 1:8 A-Main line-up

ARC team-mates John Ermen and Silvio Hächler complete the 12-car A-Main line-up for Round 3 of the ENS at Etllingen.  Early on it was pole sitter and Round 1 & 2 Finalist Merlin Depta who would lead the way but the Serpent driver would suffer engine problems dropping the German back down the field.  Starting from 6th on the grid, Depta’s problems handed Ermen a lead the Dutchman would hold till the end to win by 5-seconds.  Behind, having started from 7th, Hächler found his way passed the number 3 car of Steven Cuypers in the second half of the race to secure the final bump up spot by 1.2 seconds.

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