Kurzbuch cuts it fine with fuel to take 1/8th Q1
Simon Kurzbuch has taken the opening round of qualifying at the ENS season opener in Bologna as a number of the leaders struggled with fuel on the last lap of the 4-minute qualifier. Carmine Raiola took the 2nd spot from the 2nd fastest heat, while Dario Balestri took 3rd having lead the heat until coming up dry on the final lap. Lamberto Collari took 4th on his home track while Mirko Salemi ended Q1 in 5th, just ahead of top seed Robert Pietsch who struggled with traffic at the beginning of the run which threw him out of his rhythm. Running out of fuel directly after crossing the line, Kurzbuch admitted that it was ‘really tight’ and he was lucky that the qualifying was over when his car came to a halt. Happy to take the first round TQ he said the first 2 minutes were good but then he came upon two other cars in the run but he wasn’t able to close the gap and so lost a lot of time in the final half of the run. Having flamed out at high speed, the Swiss driver will now check over his Novarossi engine for any potential damage.
Having had a difficult timed practice, Carmine Raiola was able to pull it together when it mattered and take the 2nd spot from the 2nd fastest heat. Able to push at the start of the run, at the end he was not able to push because of a lot of traffic which meant he lost some time. For Q2 the plan is to ‘push, push’ and get another good run in the books.
Dario Balestri was not happy despite taking the 3rd fastest time, the World Champion running out of fuel on the last lap and spluttering across the finish line. Before that it was a ‘good run’, the Infinity driver on for the TQ before the fuel problems. He will now check his fuel tank to ensure he has the maximum allowed capacity and may change carburettor venturi on his Max engine to a slightly smaller diameter in order to get some more fuel mileage.
Multiple World Champion and track owner Lamberto Collari came through the heat with no problems to take 4th at the end, declaring the run as ‘not too bad’. Admitting to ‘little problems with setup’ which he explained as the car being too loose, he will work on the setup for tomorrow. Unlike his fellow front runners, he did not have any problem with run time with his Max Power engine, perhaps the benefit of 10s of thousands of laps on this track giving him the experience to better control his fuel mileage. Capricorn driver Mirko Salemi would take 5th for the round from the 2nd heat with Robert Pietsch, Jeffrey Rietveld, Silvio Hachler, Rick Vrielinjck and Francesco Tironi, who had a coming together with Dominic Greiner, completed the top 10. In the 40+ class, it was Andrea Hachler who took first blood ahead of reigning champion Arie Manten in 2nd with Angelo Fagnani in 3rd.
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Q1 goes to Leo Arnold
Continuing on where he left off in timed practice Leo Arnold took the opening qualifier in Bologna ahead of the closely matched Infinity pairing of Jilles Groskamp and Teemu Leino. Alessio Mazzeo was 4th, despite running out of fuel, with Thilo Todtmann putting in a clean 4-minutes to take 5th. Describing his run as ‘pretty clean’ Arnold said he had only one slide and continued to compliment his new Xray saying the ‘car was perfect’, Xray seeming to make a big leap in performance with their 2019 car. Commenting that he needs ‘just one or two more good runs’ the French man’s plan for tomorrow’s remaining 3 qualifiers is to ‘leave the car as is’.
‘I’m ok with 2nd’ was how Groskamp summed up his first qualifier, continuing by saying ‘I came out of the pitlane ahead of both Mazzeo and Leo so it wasn’t so nice to have that pressure from the very start’. Admitting to having some mistakes during the run the Infinity driver said ‘It was clear during the run that Leo was faster’ and with Mazzeo flaming out late in the run he declared himself ‘lucky to get 2nd’. Looking to tomorrow, Jilles plans a change to a new stiffer chassis plate as the one on his car is from last year’s Worlds in Miami and a fresher chassis might improve things.
Taking 3rd spot, only 2 tenths back on his team mate, Teemu Leino complained that his car ‘just wasn’t there’, the problem being too much understeer. Not understanding why it had changed so drastically the Finn believes it could have been the tires or even the changing track but either way he will make changes to the setup of his IF15 to try dial back in more steering.
Mazzeo was on pace to take a top 2 finish before running out of fuel on the last lap. Asked about the unusual flameout the Xray driver admitted that the fuel gun was not completely empty, declaring it ‘a little mistake’. Despite the problem the Italian was very happy with his car, declaring that ‘everything’s good’. The trio of Shepherds remained closely match through qualifying with Thilo Todtmann emerging out on top of the intra team battle with Eduardo Escandon in 6th and Melvin Diekmann in 7th.
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Pietsch ends timed practice as top seed
Despite being one of only 3 drivers in the top 20 not to improve their time in the final timed practice session Robert Pietsch will go into qualifying as top seed. While the advantage he held after the opening practice was substantial, that gap was all but eroded away by the chasing pack with Dario Balestri putting in a much improved run to end up in 2nd just 1 tenth back. The World Champion despite being fast said his car was much too nervous and while it was not bad it was still not perfect. Dominic Greiner ended up in 3rd putting his improvement down to his driving and some tweaks to the OS engine in his Serpent and going into qualifying needs to make the car a bit more stable to have a good 4 minute pace. Despite also improving Simon Kurzbuch dropped 2 places to complete practice in 4th, just ahead of Lamberto Collari in 5th. In the 40+ class it was veteran Italian racer Stefano Solaroli who headed practice by a substantial 9 tenths over 3 laps followed by German Shepherd driver Andreas Giesa in 2nd with Austrian Rudi Scherer 3rd, while reigning champion Arie Manten and Alain Levy complete the top 5.
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Leo Arnold tops 1/10th seeding at ENS season opener
Leo Arnold is top seed for the 1/10th scale class at the ENS season opener in Bologna, the Xray driver improving on his CP1 time to go over 2 tenths quicker in his 2nd timed run. The Frenchman put his improvement down to changing to a shorter first gear which improved the drivability of his NT1. His team mate Alessio Mazzeo also improved his time but will stay as 3rd seed, behind Teemu Leino who failed to improve in the 2nd session having tried a different body shell but finding it much slower. Jilles Groskamp who was continuing experimenting with setup took 3rd in CP2 but being slightly slower than his CP1 time he ended practice 4th and will now revert to his setup from the final free practice session. The Shepherd trio of Melvin Diekmann, Eduardo Escandon and Thilo Todtmann complete the top 7 after practice.
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Robert Pietsch heads first timed practice by large margin
In the opening timed practice for the 1/8th scale class it was former world champion Robert Pietsch who was the clear leader, the Mugen driver some 5 tenths up on his nearest rival over 3 laps. Francesco Tironi was the best of the rest, the Italian driver heading another former World Champion Simon Kurzbuch in 3rd, with Andrea Pirani and current World Champion Dario Balestri completing the top 5. Asked about his rather large advantage on his rivals, the German put it down to a number of factors such as his good working relationship with his mechanic and new engines from sponsor OS which he says has more power which together makes for a better overall package. Looking ahead he doesn’t plan to make any changes to his Mugen, instead focusing on his driving saying ‘the track is easy, but it also very easy to push too much and go wide, losing a lot of time’, continuing ‘my main focus is stay calm and drive smoothly’.
Tironi was very pleased with his car and engine combo, the Infinity driver saying the feeling with the car is really good having worked a lot on setup and ending up using a much narrower track width setting which they normally can’t use, but which the current conditions allow. Working closely with Max Fantini, Francesco has been testing a lot of different engines as well as settings and now has to pick the best one before qualifying gets underway this afternoon.
Some 7 tenths back on Pietsch, Kurzbuch was very happy with his Shepherd but will continue to try different things, such as further shock changes. The Swiss driver’s main focus is to select the correct engine, looking for the best balance between outright speed and fuel economy. On that point he has been testing different blends of fuel from fuel sponsor Energy to get the most out of his package.
Andrea Pirani sits in 4th place following CP1 and described practice so far as ‘quite good’. Searching for more steering as well as more traction, the aim is to make the car more safe to drive due to the heavy tire wear. For CP2 he plans to raise the rear shocks on his Shepherd as well as check the run time so that are no surprises when qualifying starts. Completing the top 5 is reigning ENS champion Dario Balestri, who heads two of his Infinity team mates Lamberto Collari and Rick Vrielijnck, with Dominic Greiner, Luca Piromalli and Anthony Abisset rounding out the top 10.
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