Kurzbuch takes Q1 in Aigen

Having topped both free & timed practice, Team Shepherd’s Simon Kurzbuch carried his form through to the opening qualifying at Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series in Aigen, Austria.  The reigning 1:8 champion would post the fastest time by 6/10ths of a second from Robert Pietsch who was lucky to start the qualifier after suffering deep cut to his finger from a drinks bottle just before hand.  Behind last year’s title rivals, ARC’s Lars Hoppe put in a strong qualifier to complete the Top 3 ahead of Round 1 Top Qualifier Dario Balestri.

‘Nearly perfect’ was how Kurzbuch summed up the first qualifier.  The reason for the ‘nearly’ was that with two laps to go he suffered a clutch thrust bearing failure adding that he ‘got a little lucky’ in the fact he made it to the finish.  Having not changed the set-up on his Velox V8 since the second of the days 7 rounds of practice, the Swiss driver would set the fastest lap of the race by almost 2/10ths from Pietsch’s best, the second fastest lap being set by WRC’s new signing Daniele Ielasi who ended up P10 after a mistake.  Planning to continue with the car as is he said ‘I will just clean & refresh everything for tomorrow’.

Cutting his figure badly when the glass bottle he was opening shattered in his hand, Pietsch said he felt a bit strange afterwards.  In the warm-up he said his Mugen MRX-5 due to being on new tyres had ‘zero steering and his initial thought was to stop immediately and give the qualifier a miss.  With Edo Picco as his pitman he said they decreased the rear toe all the way which made it drivable but still it doesn’t have enough steering to go fast. He said initial steering is the main issue and they ‘need to find something for tomorrow’.

Hoppe, who has been making a name for himself in the ETS this season, said his R8.0 was good despite his Reds Racing engine being set a little too lean for Q1.  The German was very happy with third saying his ‘pace was not so bad’.  Hoping he can continue his form through to tomorrow and qualify directly into the A-Main, he said with the car a little tricky to drive he would make an ackermann change for Q2.  New team-mate Silvio Hachler would complete the Top 6.  The Swiss driver was frustrated at being held up by Shasa Lackner saying he had a Top 3 pace before his team-mate blocked him and ‘destroyed’ his heat.

Making a steering geometry change to his Tesla powered LAB C802, Dario Balestri said it left him with even more understeer than practice and fourth was the best he could manage.  For Q2, the Italian will would revert back to the same set-up he ran in final practice.

Behind Balestri, Rick Vrielijnck set the fifth fastest time.  The Mugen driver said with the setting sun making it difficult to see he opted to take it easy.  Happy his MRX-5 and Picco engine have good speed he said tomorrow he will push harder and he ‘should be fine’.

Heading the Serpent 1:8 challenge Merlin Depta also had issues with the evening lighting.  The ENS Round 1 A-Finalist said his 977 was ‘super fast’ but he ‘messed up’ when he misjudged a shadow on the track and hit the curbing adding in ‘such a hot field the loss of a few tenths mean your done’.

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Groskamp TQs opening ENS qualifier

Jilles Groskamp has TQ’d the opening round of 1:10 qualifying at the Euro Nitro Series in Austria.  Fastest in timed practice making him top seed for qualifying, the HB driver took the opening qualifier ahead of Capricorn’s Thilo Todtmann who was just 0.030 of a second off.  A very close qualifier, the Top 10 covered by 4.5 seconds, Dirk Wischnewski completed the Top 3 followed by ENS Round 1 winner Bruno Coelho.

Only his second race with HB’s R10, Groskamp described his TQ as ‘just a consistent run’.  Having felt he was ‘a little ahead’ in practice, the 2012 Electric Touring Car World Champion said he was surprised how close the qualifier turned out. He said on one hand he drove safe but on the other he was pushing close to the limit, highlighted by his fastest lap of the round, adding it was like a ‘dare to push a little harder’ as the risk of mistakes was high. Happy to open the event with a TQ he said it gives him scope to push a little more tomorrow. He added that starting from the TQ is always nice but having started 7th at Round 1 and got a podium he said in a 45-minute main the starting position is not a huge factor like in electric touring cars.  Team-mate & Round 1 Top Qualifier Teemu Leino would open with the seventh fastest time, the Finn lucky to even start the qualifier.  As his R10 was put down to start the warm-up his first gear flew off due to them forgetting to put in the screws that at supposed to hold it in place.  Remounting the gear but only getting two warm-up laps, Leino said this lead to a ‘panic drive’ which saw him put the car on the grass.  With the car working well he joked ‘we just need to make sure all the screws are tight tomorrow’.

‘Very good’ was Todtmann’s reaction to his impressive P2 for the round.  The German said he knew from race director Uwe Rheinard that it was a close race for the TQ but as soon as heard it was him and Groskamp that were in contention he messed up his braking and overshot the corner.   Very happy with his Tesla powered LAB CO-3 he said it was very easy to drive and having went for a ‘safe drive’ his plan was to repeat that for the first 2 of tomorrow’s four qualifiers in the hope of locking in a direct A-Main grid position.

Wischnewski said traffic on the last two laps cost him the chance of a TQ. Describing the competition as ‘super close’, last season’s championship runner-up said his Velox V10 and ORCAN engine both ran really well but the setting sun caused him some issues with being able to see the car.  Planning to ‘just refresh’ the car for tomorrow’s four qualifiers, the German said he is confident he can challenge for the overall TQ.

Setting the fourth fastest time, Xray’s Bruno Coehlo sad while his Max powered NT1 was ‘super good’ he didn’t start the qualifier well. Losing time on the first lap after missing his braking point, the winner of the season opener in Bologna said while he tried to make back up the time he couldn’t but he will go into Q2 much more confident in the car.  Team-mate Alexander Hagberg would set the 6th fastest time, the Swede also happy with improvements made to his Orcan powered NT1.  Starting out ‘too slow’ and also having to open up for Todtmann he said while he pace at the end was good he lost too much time early on.  Describing his car as ‘not bad now’, he said for tomorrow he would work more on his driving.

Winner of this race last year, Serpent’s Dominic Greiner was not happy with his opening qualifier.  In the warm-up he would crash his Max powered 748 as a result of having no brakes.  This was traced to a loose brake pulley adaptor. Unfortunately while his crew got to tighten the hub in time for the start of the 5-minute qualifier, the crash had damaged his tyres and together with his engine being too rich he said it was ‘very difficult’ to drive.  Team-mate Nacho Lopez, who is making his ENS debut having driven the 2,000km from Valencia in Spain, would post the 9th fastest time. A race winner in this year’s Spanish National Championship he said he hopes to build on his pace tomorrow.

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Kurzbuch tops 1:8 free practice in Austria

Reigning Champion Simon Kurzbuch has got Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series in Austria off to a good by topping free practice at the Aigen-Schlägl track.  The Team Shepherd driver setting the fastest 3 consecutive laps around the challenging track 4/10ths faster than Robert Pietsch with ENS Round 1 Top Qualifier Dario Balestri completing the Top 3. Making his debut with category newcomer ARC, Silvio Hachler had an impressive early showing setting the fourth fastest time ahead of team-mate Lars Hoppe with last year’s race winner John Ermen 9th fastest.

Posting his best time in the opening practice, on what has been a very hot first day of the event, Kurzbuch said his Velox V8 has been good from the very first time he put it on the track this morning.  Making a small change for FP2, the Swiss ace said he hasn’t changed anything in terms of set-up over the remaining four rounds.  With most of his rivals having difficulty with their cars being loose in the low traction the multiple Worlds finalist said he is ok with the conditions and the only issue he was having was the slight left to right raise in the track which meant some corners are downhill making it very easy to overshoot them.  Testing a number of Novarossi’s new Mito 9C engines he said in that department he is also very happy how the day has started out.

Mugen lead driver and designer Pietsch said he is having trouble getting the right set-up on his MRX-5.  The former World Champion said his normal approach to a race weekend is to get a set-up which makes the car stable under braking but here that is resulting in slow lap times.  He said while his fastest lap times are ‘ok’ the car is difficult to drive.  He said when the car is good under braking it feels good when driving but on the clock the lap times are off and he said he ‘can’t say why this is’ adding that he needs to find a better set-up for qualifying.

‘A very hard race’ was Balestri’s response when asked how free practice had gone.  Runner-up at Round 1 in Italy, the Capricorn driver said the asphalt had no grip and despite making changes every run it made no difference to the car.  The Italian added ‘if you have no rear grip you can work on the front end or if you have no front end traction you change the rear set-up, he there is nothing so its very difficult’.

Having started out the 2015 ENS driving a Mugen, Hachler has been signed up by ARC and the World Championship finalist is very upbeat about his early pace.  Having fitted in a very busy test schedule with the R8.0 ahead of the event, running the car at the Leno track as part of a test with Novarossi for the new Mito 9C engines, then a day at Ettlingen in Germany which will host Round 3 of the ENS and a final day at his local track, he said this all helped to get a good base set-up for the car.  Describing that set-up as not 100% yet he said it was a good starting point for his debut race.  Happy that he can compete with the leading times but admitting his fellow countryman Kurzbuch has an edge over everyone, he said his first impressions of the car are ‘amazing’.  Hoppe said his Reds Racing powered example of the R8.0 has been great all day and he has just been making small tweaks to the set-up.  Having also tested the car a lot, the German coming to the team from racing for Shepherd last season,  he said the track is the biggest challenge for this race adding ‘you can’t push too hard as it only loses you time so its not so easy’.

Another driver to switch team since the season opener is Daniele Ielasi.  Moving from BMT to WRC he would set the 6th fastest time two places ahead of new team-mate and Round 1 podium finisher Andrea Pirani.  His first big race with the GTX, a recent trophy race more of a test for the Italian, he said he is very happy with his new car and in particular how easy it is to find a good set-up.  Having done a lot of testing to better understand the car he is really happy at how quickly he has adjusted to it.  For timed practice he plans to run a different chassis on the car which has more front flex which he hopes will give him a little more steering.

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Groskamp tops free practice at ENS

Jilles Groskamp set the pace in free practice at Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series in Austria.  On his first visit to the Aigen-Schlägl track, the HB driver set the fastet lap from Dirk Wischnewski and last year’s race winner Dominic Greiner.  In complete contrast to last year’s Austrian encounter when rain halted the opening day’s action, a very hot day meant the top 3 set their best laps in the cooler conditions of the first of the five free practice rounds. For Round 1 Top Qualifier Teemu Leino and race winner Bruno Coelho they would end the free practice 5th and 6th fastest respectively.

While his fastest time came when track conditions were at their best in the morning, Groskamp said he was happy with the pace of his Maxima powered R10.  Running the car very similar to how it ran when he finished on the podium at Rund 1 in Bologna, he said the main difference is he is running a softer spring to help the car with the bumpier surface.  Happy with his car he said today’s focus has very much been on engines. Having run Novarossi based engines at Round 1, Maxima have moved to OS based units which the Dutch ace said in addition to having more power have better drivability.  Team-mate Leino said ‘should be there now with the set-up’ but added he is waiting to see how the car works on the handout Contact tyres come qualifying.  Running Novarossi engines in his R10, the Finn said the long straight and an infield full with many 180 degress corners make it difficult to get a good tuning with the low traction also playing a part as you ‘can’t have too much punch’.

Wischnewski was happy with his practice in particular his last run which the Team Shepherd driver said despite the hot conditions was ‘very good’.  Playing around with bodyshells and wing position today to try and alleviate understeer in the sweeper he said its always going to be a compromise.  Commenting on tyre wear he said ‘its huge’ and he believes 2-tyre stops will be necessary for the final.  While tyre wear normally reduces as more cars lay down rubber and build up traction the German said here it has just stayed the same from the first open practice run yesterday.

Serpent’s Greiner said every run he was making changes to his Max powered 748 Natrix to try and find more steering but said the traction and nature of the track meant the problem was never going to be solved.  Despite having to drive around the oversteer, the German said his car was ‘fast & easy to drive’ and he predicts a very close qualifying between the Top 6.  For the first of the two timed practices, the driver’s fastest 3-laps counting for the seeding of the qualifying heats, he will prepare a new bodyshell as well as running a harder rear diff.  Set to give more forward traction he joked maybe this will help him find an extra ‘half a 1/10th of a second’.

With work commitments forcing reigning champion Eric Dankel from making the trip to Austria, it is his Capricorn team-mate Thilo Todtmann who leads the Italian manufacturer in 1:10 this weekend. Setting the 4th fastest time, he described his practice as having gone ‘great’.  Liking the track layout, saying its more of a drivers track than Bologna which was all about power, he said his big focus has been making his LAB CO-3 easier to drive on the high curbing.  Also running two Tesla engines over the day he said he has both a good qualifying and race engine, the race engines set to be able to save him at least one fuel stop in the final.

Completing the Top 6, Coehlo described his practice pace as ‘so, so’.  The Portuguese star said he had been running a spare Max engine to save his qualifying engine and expects that once thats in his NT1 it should bring him some more speed.  Looking to improve the car’s rotation in the corner as well as finding more steering, a combination he himself said was not going to be easy to achieve. World Champion team-mate Alexander Hagberg also described his pace as ‘so, so’.  Setiing only the 10th fastest lap time the Swede said his ‘car is not very good’ with corner speed needing to be worked on.  With two timed practices before the day ends with the opening round of qualifying he said ‘we will keep trying changes and see what that does’,

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Track Focus – Aigen-Schlägl

Track Name – Aigen-Schlägl
Club – Modell Auto Verein Aigen-Schlägl
Country – Austria
Location – Aigen-Schlägl (50km Northwest of Linz)
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Asphalt
No. of ENS Races hosted – 1 (2014)

Situated in the hilly Austrian countryside 7km from border with the Czech Republic and 10km from the German border, the Aigen-Schlägl track plays host to Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series.  One of the tracks that made up the inugaural season of the ENS last year, the most noticeable difference is the weather.  602 metres above sea level, the 2014 event was a very wet and cold affair but drivers have been greeted on the first official day of this year’s event by very hot conditions and the good news is other than a small chance of some overnight rain on Saturday it’s set to be three days of dry competition.  Built in 2006, since the last ENS visit the track has undergone some major expansion work to the pit area that has almost doubled in size with full covered pit spaces for 120 drivers.  One very nice feature of the expansion in the electric shutters which run the lenght of the pits and which automatically close when the wind picks up.  The improvements, which also includes a new perimeter fence around the facility, was funded by sponsorship from local businesses and support from the local Aigen government.

Featuring a 65 metre long straight which rises by 5-degrees, the track layout is proving very popular with drivers.  Two drivers on their first visit to the track are Round 1 winner Bruno Coehlo and Jilles Groskamp.  Coelho described it as one of the best tracks he has ever been to but the Xray driver added it was a difficult track to get right.   Groskamp also really likes the layout but having watched video’s from last year’s event he said it’s a lot more narrow in reality.  Decribing it as ‘quite technical’ the HB driver said the up & down layout makes gearing very important with the centre section a critical spot as you enter it from a slightly downhill approach making it easy to overshoot.

Round 1 1:8 podium finisher Andrea Pirani said this is the most difficult track he has raced on.  The WRC driver claimed clean lines and accuracy with braking are key to a good lap.  The Italian added if you push you just go slower and the laps that seem slow are those that produce the best lap times.  Winner of the event last year in the wet, ARC’s John Ermen joked ‘it’s too dry’ when asked what he thought of the track.  The Dutch driver said he ‘really like(s) the flow of the layout’ but with such a ‘narrow grip line’ it’s very easy to overshoot and miss apexes.  He added with the low traction the tyre wear is ‘dramatic’.

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