Coelho wins ENS season opener

Man of the moment Bruno Coelho has won the opening round of Season #2 of the Euro Nitro Series in Bologna, Italy.  Making his ENS debut, the factory Xray driver took victory in the 45-minute encounter over the HB of Jilles Groskamp and his Xray World Champion team-mate Alexander Hagberg.  Top Qualifier Teemu Leino’s race would come to a sudden end when having lead the race for 25-minutes the Finn would pull a front corner of his HB as he hit the pitwall as he came in for a scheduled stop.  2014 ENS title front runner Dominic Greiner would suffer a similar faith as he broke the rear suspension on his Serpent 10-minutes into the race.

Delighted with his race Coelho afterwards said ‘finally a win’, the new star of international onroad racing having been unlucky not to win last weekend’s ETS third round that was also held in Italy. Set to contest all four rounds of the ENS, he continued ‘it is a perfect start for the championship’. Having got the race off to a strong passing Leino on the third lap on the very next lap he would flip his Max powered NT1’15 after getting caught out by the high ride height he was running on his new NT1 ’15 for the long race.  Losing 5-seconds as a result of the mistake and dropping to 10th, he would set about a strong recovery.  Getting back up to second his quest for a win on his ENS debut would be made all the easier by Leino’s exit from the race.  Having considered a tyre strategy of changing just the outside tyres he said that would have been a bad decision and his call to change all 4 of the event handout Matrix tyres was correct.  Changing his Max engine for the final to one that he ran in practice and put aside specifically for the Main, the 21-year-old said it was ‘super good’ from start to finish.  Stopping at 4:30 intervals he said everything but that one early mistake went to plan and he is already looking forward to Round 2 in Aigen, Austria, in June.

‘(I) Must say I’m happy with second starting from 7th’ was Groskamp’s reaction to the race.  The Dutch ace’s first race with the R10, he made ‘a lot changes’ for the final and it ‘felt really good getting faster as the tyres went lower’.  Suffering from his engine going rich on the bottom end allowing both Hagberg and Coelho go by, he said on having it adjusted during one of his fuel stops the change made was too big turning the engine too lean.  This resulted in a crash as he overshot a corner losing over 10-seconds.  Saying he then had nothing to lose he would ‘just go for it’ making in a number places over the middle of the race.  Pitting just to change outside tyres he said once in second in knew Coelho was already too far ahead to catch and he went safe for the rest of the race as he could hear the engine tune was making the Maxima unit work extras hard.  The high bottom end also caused him to overshoot his pitstops a number of time with the 2012 Electric Touring Car World Champion saying everything considered he was ‘really happy’ to start his ENS campaign with a second considering it was his first race with a new car and that the track was different to anything they have raced it on before.

After a poor start to the event having struggled in practice and early qualifying Hagberg was happy to make the podium.  Starting from 8th on the grid the Swede said he is ‘always better in the final than qualifying’ and it would have bee nice for Xray if he could have made it a 1-2 finish but getting hit by a back marker ended that possibility.  The contact would chunk one of his tyres and having to finish the race with this cost him second place.  Other than suffering a flame out during his tyre stop he said the rest of the race went to plan.

Having bumped up from the B-Main to take the 12th & final spot on the grid, Gerhard Kandlehart was delighted to take his Shepherd to fourth.  The Austrian, joking ‘for an old man the pace is too fast’, said he just ‘kept going around easy for the 45-minutes’ and ‘it worked out’.  Only changing his outside tyres the former 235mm European Champion compliment his pit crew for a ‘super fast’ stop.

Finishing fifth Xray’s Martin Hudy said ‘as a it was a very good race and we came so close to getting a 1-2’.  As a driver the race was ‘very frustrating’. Suffering a crash caused by traffic on the third lap he said this left his car tweaked.  First thinking he had a damaged tyre as a result of the incident he pitted for new tyres but the car was still not right and for 44-mins he ‘was struggling not racing’ just trying to survive to the finish.

Completing the Top 6 Alessio Mazzeo’s hopes of a win on his ENS debut would disappear when the Serpent ran out of fuel just before his first stop.  Despite recording the fastest lap of the race, the 2013 European Champion would suffer a number of flame outs and leave the Italian to finish 10-laps down on the winner.

Also Top Qualifier at last year’s season opener but only finishing 4th, Leino was looking on target for his first ENS win until he made his tyre change.  The former World Championship Top Qualifier opted to change just his outside tyres which left his R10 car pulling to one side. While able to control it on the track through his radio’s wheel, coming in for his next fuel stop he didn’t make the correction causing the left side of the car to hit the start of the pit wall resulting in instant retirement.

Struggling with his 748 being really loose, Greiner was struggling with his car but able to run 5-minutes between stops he was hoping the 2-stops saved would give him a chance of a podium finish.  Not sure as to whether it was the set of tyre or the track temperature that lost him his speed, struggling with the car under breaking for the pits it broke loose and collected the right side pit wall ending the 2014 ENS race winner’s final.  While reigning champion Eric Dankel didn’t even make the Main, championship runner-up Dirk Wischnewski wouldn’t fare much better as his race lasted just 4-laps as his engine suffered a conrod failure.

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Rinaldi & Depta join 1:8 A-Main grid

Italy’s Mattia Rinaldi and Germany’s Merlin Depta join the 1:8 A-Main grid as the 11th and 12th starters after bumping up from the B-Main and into the main event of the opening round of Season #2 of the Euro Nitro Series.  Starting the 20-minute encounter from pole position and recording the fastest lap, Rinaldi’s Mugen would lead from start to finish to take the win by just 7/10th of a second from the Serpent of 2014 ENS finalist Depta.  10-seconds back Stefano Puccinelli would finish 3rd having bumped up from the C-Main.  Unfortunately while holding a bump up position, Team Xray’s Bruno Coelho would go out with a broken car after heavy contact when he collected a car that had made a mistake ahead of him.

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Tödtmann & Kandelhart complete 1:10 grid

Capricorn’s Thilo Tödtmann and Shepherd driver Gerhard Kandelhart will complete the grid for the 45-minute Main Final at Round 1 of the Euro Nitro Series as they bumped up from the 20-minute B-Main.  Qualifying 19th overall after engine issues resulted in three non finishes, for Tödtmann the race would be the German’s second bump up of the day having started off on pole in the C-Final.  Winning his first encounter to line up 9th on the grid for the B-Main, last season’s 3-time A-Finalist quickly shot to the front before having a moment coming up on 3-minutes that would drop him back to 5th.  Within a dozen laps he was back to the front again where he would stay until the end.  Saying afterwards his tyres were struggling at the end, the reigning European B Champion would take the win by 1-second from Kandelhart and former European B Champion Patrick Nähr who was just 7/10ths of a second back.  Unfortunately for reigning champion Eric Dankel it was not a good start to his title defence as after a bad qualifying the German’s event did not improve with the Capricorn driving retiring half way through the B-Main.

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Balestri TQs 1:8 at Euro Nitro Series

Dario Balestri is the Top Qualifier for the season opening race of the Euro Nitro Series, the Capricorn driver set to start Sunday’s 45-minute Main ahead of host track owner and master of race strategy Lamberto Collari.  Going into the sixth round of qualifying it was only Collari who could deny the European Champion from starting on pole but it would be Alberto Picco that would catch them all by surprise as he TQ’d what would become the days final qualifier.  A scheduled seventh round of qualifying would be cancelled due to the arrival of rain at the L.Collari RC Raceway.  Defending ENS Champion Simon Kurzbuch will line-up 6th for the start of his title defence, two places behind his main 2014 title rival Robert Pietsch.

Despite crashing in the pitlane at the start of the sixth qualifier when unsighted by mechanics he ran into Picco’s Mugen, damaging his Capricorn’s bumper and bodyshell, Balestri was happy to secure the overall TQ.  Taking three of the six qualifiers, the Italian said while he expects a hard race he goes into the final ‘confident’ he can become the first driver to record a win in both categories of the ENS having won last season’s final round in 1:10.  Expecting the greatest challenge to come ‘as always from Lamberto (Collari) and Robert (Pietsch)’.  Describing tyre wear as medium he said everyone will need to stop once but two could be necessary.  His first international race with his new Tesla engines, he said while they managed a 5-minute run in practice the risk was too high for the final and he will play safe with a 4:30 strategy.

While Collari is sure to have a master plan for a track he knows like the back of his hand having started his 9-time World Championship winning career here aged 6 when the track was opened in 1978, starting third on the grid Andrea Pirani’s main focus is to run an error free final.  The WRC driver said with the top 5 very close on pace its going to be a difficult race and while the track is hard on engines he is going to do one more fuel stop to be safe adding he doesn’t think 5-minutes would be possible anyway due to how much of the lap is full throttle. On tyres he said he will make one stop but this would be the case for everyone.

Qualifying just behind his leading team driver Pietsch, Picco was very happy with his TQ run in Q6 which helped him secure 5th on the grid.  Looking to the final the 1:8 onroad veteran said the field was very strong with the gap between them very small. Going up against ‘younger, better drivers’ he would just do his best and ‘see what happens’.  Asking the Picco engines owner about runtime he said 5-minutes was a risk especially repeating it over 45-minutes.  He said the risk of damaging a plug and the engine by running out of fuel made it best to take the conservative option of one extra stop.

‘Sixth not bad considering my heat’ was how Kurzbuch summed up his qualifying performance. Having been seeded in the second fastest heat with traffic delaying the 2-time World Finalist each round, the Shepherd driver said he had hoped to use Q7 to test a different Novarossi engine but will now do that along with his tyre calculations in tomorrow’s practice session.

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Leino is Top Qualifier at ENS season opener

Just as he did last year when the Euro Nitro Series kicked off in Melzo, Italy, Teemu Leino is the 1:10 Top Qualifier for Round 1 of the 2015 championship at the L.Collari RC Raceway in Bologna.  The HB driver claimed the No.1 starting spot on the grid for tomorrow’s 45-minute final when he took his R10 to its third TQ run of the weekend in the sixth & final round of qualifying. Behind the Finn, Team Xray’s Bruno Coelho secured second overall for his first ENS race start ahead of the Serpent’s of Dominic Greiner and Alessio Mazzeo. For defending champion Eric Dankel his title defence is going to start out in the B-Main, a difficult day meaning he will need to bump up having qualified only 14th overall.

Pleased to take the TQ, Leino said he hoped using a bodyshell painted in his colours for the first time in 5-years would bring him a change of luck for the final.  Asked about strategy for the final, the 2012 Worlds Top Qualifier said having run new tyres each qualifier he has no concerns over big tyres and having also run small tyres in practice he said his R10 is good on both.  Commenting on run time around the high speed track he predicts no one will try to run longer stops due to the nature of the track.  Confident that he has the package to claim his first ENS win he added but ‘over such long races you never know what can happen’.

Topping the third round of qualifying, Coelho said while his new NT1 2015 is ‘super good’ a good result is going to be ‘difficult’ as there are ‘a lot of great drivers’.  The Portuguese star expects his own team-mate and reigning World Champion Alexander Hagberg will be in the fight for the win.  The Swede had a tough qualifying but getting his only Top 6 run of the weekend in the final qualifier, he starts 8th with a car & engine that he has finally got working as a package. Asked about his strategy for the final Coelho said he would use the A-Main practice to work out tyre wear and then decide.

Second fastest behind Leino in the final qualifying, rain forcing the seventh round to be cancelled, Greiner said he was ‘finally happy with both car and engine’.  Topping Q5 despite not liking how his Max powered 748 ran then, he said he had planned to use Q7 to ‘test something’ but that will have to now happen in the A-Main practice.  The winner in Austria last year, he said in long runs his car is normally very good but still running without a tyre change will not be possible and the decision to be made was whether to change all four or just the outside.   Expecting a very close race the German said one danger man could be HB’s Jilles Groskamp who starts 7th due to his ‘super smooth driving style’ which should benefit the 2012 Electric Touring Car World Champion over the long distance.  Also strong will be Greiner’s team-mate Mazzeo, the Italian a proven race winner taking the European Championship in 2013.

Making a big impression on his ENS debut, British National Championship front runner Joe Kerry will start 5th.  Asked about the final, the 23-year-old Capricorn driver said ‘I’m looking forward to it’.  Describing his car as ‘very consistent and easy to drive’ he feels ‘pretty confident’ for the final and with his tyre wear also ‘quite low’ he ‘might be in good shape’.  Admitting that 5-min refuelling would be difficult he said he would play it safe but had still yet to decide on 4 or 4:30 stops with his OS Speed engine.

Completing the top half of the grid, 10 direct qualifiers being joined by the top 2 finishers in the B-Main, Dirk Wischnewski is confident for the final saying racing is a different game to qualifying and normally racing goes better for him.  Describing his 6th overall in qualifying as ‘not bad’, the 2014 ENS championship runner-up will use the A-Main practice to determine his race game plan in terms of tyres.

Set to start 4th on the grid in the B-Main, Dankel said he had no luck today highlighting his final qualifier which was going to plan until the penultimate lap when his Capricorn got launched onto the grass.  The round would still be his best qualifier as he posted the 7th fastest time.  Hoping he can progress to the A-Main, the German said the equipment has the pace to run strong in the A-Main but he just needs to get it there first.

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Balestri closes on ENS Round 1 TQ

Dario Balestri closed in on becoming Top Qualifier for the Euro Nitro Series season opener at the track owned by Lamberto Collari, the two Italians swapping position in the latest two rounds of qualifying in Bologna.  With Collari posting his first TQ run just ahead of Balestri in Q4, the order would be reversed in the fifth qualifier as the latter claimed his third TQ run of the event.  Behind, Q4 would see an improved Albero Picco complete the Top 3 while Q3 pace setter Robert Pietsch would post the third quickest time on his fifth run.

Having suffered with a lean bottom end in the day’s opening qualifier, Balestri said his Telsa engine was ‘perfect’ for the next two rounds.  Commenting on Q4, the 2014 1:10 ENS race winner said he had some issues with being held up in traffic but in terms of his Capricorn car ‘all was good’. Leaving it unchanged for Q5, he would set a new fastest qualifying time running half a second quicker than Collari.  With only Collari able to deny Balestri pole position for tomorrow’s 45-minute main, once he finishes the round quicker than the 9-time World Champion the overall TQ is his.

Having suffered a stripped second gear in Q3,  a number of changes to his set-up for Q4 gave Collari a ‘better’ car.  Backing that up with a P2 in Q5, the rc racing legend said his MRX5 is nervous in the corners and for the penultimate qualifier he will make further changes to try and improve stability.

Opening his day with a TQ run, Robert Pietsch would suffer a mistake in Q4.  Touching the curbing on the second lap it forced his kit standard MRX-5, the only modification being a cut in the chassis plate for more flex, wide and out onto the dirty line costing the German over a second in time.  Running the car the same for round 5 he would get third describing the run as ‘quite OK’ given how close the times are.  For Q6, he will try a set-up change his engine sponsor Alberto Picco made which the Italian found improved his MRX-5 which entails removing a side screw from the front upper arm mount bracket.

Fourth in Q5, Andrea Pirani said a rollbar change after Q3 had worked well but he lost time in both runs trying to get by Bruno Coelho.  Setting the fastest lap of Round 5, the WRC driver and designer said the championship’s controlled tyres make the pace of everyone very close making it hard to have any advantage to execute a safe pass. For Q6 his only plan is to freshen up his GTX.

Enjoying good runs in the last two qualifiers, Picco said his standard kit MRX5 ‘set-up is fine’ and he ‘just need(s) to push more in (his) driving’.

Completing the Top 6 in the fifth round, defending champion Simon Kurzbuch is struggling with traffic.  With rain meaning only a single round of timed practice was run the Team Shepherd driver found himself in the second fastest heat after encountering problems in the practice.  Setting the fastest lap of Q4, the Swiss driver said his lap times are good but getting a clean run is the issue.

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