Kurzbuch claims first ENS win in Aigen

Simon Kurzbuch claimed his first Euro Nitro Series victory in Aigen, Austria, today when he won the second round of the championship ahead of 2014 title rival Robert Pietsch.  The Team Shepherd driver took advantage of Top Qualifier Pietsch losing a front wheel off his Mugen to claim a popular win.  Completing the Top 3 at the end of a very hot three days racing at the challenging Aigen-Schlägl track was Lars Hoppe, the German giving class newcomer ARC its first podium with last year’s race winner John Ermen taking his example to 4th.

Delighted to finally claim his & Shepherd’s first win, joining Lamberto Collari, Pietsch and Ermen as the only race winners of the high profile championship,  Kurzbuch said tyre strategy was key to his success.  After a poor start dropped him to fourth, his mechanic not releasing his car on the start tone, the Swiss ace said stopping twice for only new right side tyre and a full change midway through the 45-minute encounter meant he could drive without having to worry about the track’s high tyre wear.  He said apart from the start everything else was perfect in the race describing his Velox V8 as ‘amazing’.  Stopping for fuel at 4:30 ‘to be safe’ he said his new Novarossi Mito 9C ran faultless, the multiple World Championship finalist missing out on the overall TQ due to engine issues in the final two qualifiers. On seeing Pietsch’s tyre issues he said was able to drive safe to the finish.  With the win putting him 4-points in front in the championship standings from Dario Balestri, he said he is already looking forward to Round 3 at Ettlingen in Germany a track he recently tested at.  Kurzbuch’s Shepherd team boss Patrick Schafer had a good A-Main, having bumped up from the B-Main to claim the 12th & final spot on the grid he would finish the race 6th.

Working to a two tyre stop strategy, changing all four Contact tyres on his Mugen every 15-minutes, Pietsch said the race started out pretty good.  Describing it as a ‘super intense race’ with Kurzbuch a strong challenger, the German said his second set of tyres had a problem with one wheel having a bad vibration.  Hitting the curbing however worse was to come as the contact caused a front wheel to part company with his Picco powered MRX-5.  Having to drive half a lap on three wheels he would lose 10-12 seconds getting back to the pits.  With super quick work from his pit crew of Edo Picco and Marco Muscara, who recorded the fastest tyre stop of the race, he was quickly back on his way on new tyres but the unscheduled stop meant he would have to do an extra fuel stop over the race and also have to run longer on his third set of tyres.  He said while frustrated to lose the win, second together with the TQ bonus point was not so bad but having had problems with missing screws at Round 1 in Bologna the former World Champion said he hoped Ettlingen would bring better luck.

Equaling his previous best result, a 3rd at Hockenheim last season then driving for Team Shepherd, Hoppe said today was a very good showing for ARC and for a new car to have four in the final was a great achievement.  Commenting on his race the German said 3rd was ‘the maximum result’ he could have got due to his Reds Racing powered R8.0 being a little harder to drive than qualifying yesterday.  This he said made it a ‘very hard race’ and while he pushed the entire race ‘it was not easy’.  Running a two tyres stop strategy on 15 and 30-minutes he said this worked well and overall it was an incident free race.

Team-mate Ermen, who started from 10th after a difficult qualifying, described his fourth place finish as ‘pretty great actually’. The Dutch driver said problems finding a set-up at the start of the weekend left him on the back foot in qualifying but in the A-Main practice session he said the got it figured out.  He said starting so far down the grid he lost a lot of time working his way to the front, an intermittent slipping one way also delaying him, and by the time he got fourth Hoppe was too far ahead to challenge.  ‘Very happy with (the) result’, he said it was something solid to build on for the next ENS encounter in a months time.

Starting and finishing 5th on his debut with WRC, team-mate & Round 1 podium finisher Andrea Pirani finishing 11th, Daniele Ielasi said the result was ‘the maximum for today’.  Describing the Aigen circuit’s conditions as ‘unique to this track’, the Italian said it was hard to find the right set-up and for that reason his tyre wear was ‘extreme’.  Having to change tyres earlier than everyone else he said ‘after 30-minute I wanted to stop’.  With a month and an Italian National race to help him get more acquainted with his GTX he said Round 3 should be better.

Having made a very strong start, Round 1 Top Qualifier and race runner up Dario Balestri ran second for the first third of the race. Contact with a backmarker who he said ‘was stopped in the middle of the track’ would damage the Capricorn driver’s bodyshell and mounting posts leaving him to lose pace for the rest of the race.  Having made a huge step forward with his pace in the final qualifier, the Italian said he was very happy with the car/engine package he had for the final along with a good strategy and it was frustrating to have suffer such a stupid incident and finish 8th after being in contention for the lead.

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Leino heads HB 1-2 at ENS Austria

Teemu Leino headed a HB/HPI Racing 1-2 at the Euro Nitro Series in Austria after a super close race long 3-way battle for the win.  In the end it was a perfect strategy that secured Leino his first ENS win ahead of team-mate Jilles Groskamp. Top Qualifier Dominic Greiner would complete the podium at Aigen-Schlägl, the top 3 covered by just 6-second after a hot 45-minutes of racing.  Winner of the season opener in Italy, Bruno Coelho would finish 4th, a result that leaves him tied at the top of the championship with Groskamp.

‘Finally’ was Leino’s reaction as he hugged his mechanic Takashi Miyashita, the race not just marking his first win but the first time the two time Top Qualifier has finished a race.  Starting from second on the grid, having lost out on the overall TQ on a tie breaker with Greiner, the Finn said it was ‘different strategy’ that gave him the edge.  Having crashed out while leading Round 1  in Bologna, he said stopping twice for tyres when they did meant he could ‘push maximum speed’, something the former World Championship Top Qualifier said is the easiest way for him to drive.  Changing the outside tyres at 11-minutes and then all four at 27-minutes he said he knew his tyres and fuel were good and he could could just drive.  Knowing before hand that Groskamp would do a single tyres stop, adding the Dutch driver has a smooth enough driving style for such a strategy, he said what gave him the edge over Greiner was a ‘super fast’ pit crew.  Joining Miyashita in the pits was 1:8 A-Finalist Daniele Ielasi who would turn out to be lightening fast with changing tyres. The Italian’s role came about after Leino build shocks for the WRC driver that helped him take a P3 run in qualifying with Leino crediting both him and Miyashita for the 4-second winning margin.

‘A great result for the team to finish 1-2 and I am delighted for Teemu’, that was Groskamp’s reaction to what he described as the perfect race by all three drivers.  With the result putting him joint leader of the standings he was ‘maximum happy with 2nd’ today.  Commenting on his strategy, stopping for a complete tyre change midway through, the 2012 Electric Touring Car World Champion said his second set were not so good as his first set and in such a close race with was enough to end his challenge. Setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 24, when asked if he felt his strategy was the right one he said it was but he would analyse the times sheets and see how his fuel & tyre stops compared to his rival and see if there is anything they are missing.  Groskamp said towards the end of the final he knew he couldn’t catch his team-mate and it being the first race for his engine & fuel sponsor Maxima to use the OS T4R he said he also played safe, conscious of the high revs & fuel consumption of small diameter tyres.

‘Very, very, close race’, was how Greiner summed up the final.  Winner of the event in very different, wet, conditions last year, the Serpent team driver said ‘maybe we chose not the best tyre strategy today’.  Leading for the first third of the race, he said they stopped for a full tyre change one stop too late and for that extra 5-minutes he ran on small tyres he lost valuable time to his rivals.  The World Championship Top Qualifier said HB had a better car on smaller tyres and he also felt his tyre stops were not so good particularly when compare to those of Leino. Congratulating Leino on his win the 23-year-old said his own podium finish was ‘very good’ for the championship, him having also collected the bonus TQ championship point.

Finishing in front of his World Champion team-mate Alexander Hagberg, Coelho described his race as ‘so, so’.  The Xray driver said his strategy was not the best, the Portuguese ace opting to stop just once for four tyres at the 25-minute mark.  He said this meant he had to drive smooth and as a result lost a lot time.  He said it was ‘difficult to decide’ the right strategy but ‘Teemu made the best call’ being able to drive at his maximum rather than trying to conserve tyres.  Happy with his NT1 and Max engines over the race, he said having qualified 6th fourth was an ok result as it keeps him at the top of the points table.

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Pirani & Schafer complete A-Main line-up

Andrea Pirani and Patrick Schafer will complete the 1:8 A-Main line-up at Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series in Aigen.  A podium finisher at the opening round of the championship in Bologna, the WRC driver won on consistency rather than pace and did the full 20-minutes around the high wear track on the same set of tyres.  Unfortunately for pole starter Rick Vrielijnck it was a tyre stop that would prevent him race leader from bumping up.  Changing just the outside tyres, the Mugen driver would suffer an engine cut.  Unable to make back up the time lost the Dutch driver and Round 1 finalist would finish third, 2.3 seconds off Schafer.  Starting the race 8th, Shepherd boss Schafer would also change outside tyres after just 5-minutes, a strategy the German said ‘paid off’.

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Kaufmann & Püpke progress to 1:10 A-Main

Marco Kaufmann and Rene Püpke have progressed to the 1:10 A-Main at the ENS in Austria to completed the 12 car line-up that will battle for the win at the second round of the championship.  Set to start on pole position for the 20-minunte encounter, Xray driver Tom Krägefski wouldn’t make the start as he suffered a throttle servo failure.  This left a clear track in front of nitro racing debutant Kaufmann.  Starting from the number 2 position he would lead the entire race.  Behind, it was the Capricorn of Rico Kröber who held second for much of the race, the German setting the fastest lap, but with 10-laps to go Püpke’s Shepherd got by to book the final spot on the grid 1.1 seconds behind Kaufmann.

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