Raiola & Krägefski progress to A-Main

Carmine Raiola and Tom Krägefski will progress to the 1:10 A-Main at Round 3 of the Euro Nitro Series in Austria after claiming a straight forward 1-2 in the B-Main.  Starting 1 and 2 on the grid for the 20-minute encounter, they started as they finished with really only Gerhard Kandelhart mounting any serious kind of challenge until the Shepherd driver hit problems at the 2/3 distance.  In the end Björn Moser would complete the Top 3 finishing over 6-seconds off a bump up position.

Missing out on directly qualifying for the 45-minute A-Main, Raiola said he didn’t have issues in qualifying but as this is his first visit to Aigen he ‘needed more time to find a set-up for this unique track’.  A finalist at last month’s World Championship on the debut of Team Infinity’s prototype nitro touring car, the 25-year-old will be the third Infinity on the grid joining Top Qualifier Teemu Leino and fourth place starter Francesco Tironi making it a good ENS debut for the Singapore manufacturer.  Asked about the pending final the Italian plans to ‘try something different again’ with the car set-up but put the potential for a good result down to ‘planning a good tyre strategy’, the track having high wear.

Having also bumped up from the B-Main at the previous round in Ettlingen, Krägefski said, ‘it was not my decision to do it the hard way’.  The Xray driver, who joins Leo Arnold and Nicola Marrone on the 12 car A-Main grid, said engine problems where the reason for finding himself in the B-Main.  In Q2 he ‘destroyed’ his good engine and with its replacement couldn’t get it tuned round over Q3, 4 and 5.  Finally getting the engine set right in free practice this morning, the German said ‘he was hanging onto Riaola but didn’t want to pass’.  Not sure of tyre wear he said once Kandelhart went out he was ‘off the throttle to save tyres and make a safe finish’.   Setting the fastest lap of the final, he said with his ‘pace much better than yesterday the plan for the final is to push maximum’ adding coming up with a good tyre strategy was going to be important.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Chassis Focus – Dominic Greiner

Chassis – Serpent 784 Natrix “WC Edition”
Engine – Novarossi Mito .12 C
Fuel – Runner Time
Tires (handout) – HotRace
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Body – SRC Spark

Remarks – Newly crowned World Champion Dominic Greiner is set to start second on the grid for the A-Main here in Aigen. The German is running the WC version of the 748 which is distinguished by the adoption of big bore shocks, lower shock towers and a new transmission that features a smaller front diff.

Image Gallery

Greiner takes final qualifier

Dominic Greiner has taken the final round of qualifying at the Euro Nitro Series’ third round in Austria.  While the TQ would change nothing in terms of the front end of the grid, Teemu Leino wrapping up the overall TQ in Q3, the run did leave the World Champion more positive about taking the fight to Leino in tomorrow’s 45-minute A-Main at the Aigen-Schlägl track.  With Leino, who took the opening four qualifier, using the last qualifier to test a different engine ending up with a P4,  Erik Dankel would get a P2 to secure third on the grid behind Greiner.  Posting a P2 time in the previous round of heats, current championship leader Dirk Wischnewski will start fourth with 2014 Top Qualifier Francesco Tironi and Leo Arnold completing the top half of the 12 car grid.

After becoming the only driver other than Leino to post a TQ run, Greiner said, ‘We improved the car and now it is much better. It is very consistent’.  Making the changes for the penultimate qualifier but flipping his Serpent 748 when he touched the curb, 2014 Aigen winner added ‘I think it will now be more interesting tomorrow’.

Top Qualifier last time out but not able to carry that pace into the final in Ettlingen finishing 6th, Dankel said a front diff change on his Mugen made the car ‘better but more difficult to drive’.  Feeling he was ‘not competitive in the 3rd and 4th round (of qualifying)’, he said it was good to end the day back on pace like he was in the morning but isn’t sure what to do in terms of his set-up.  The 2014 Champion said one option is to try the car with more oil in the front diff but he concluded he’s ‘not yet sure’ what is the best option.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Kurzbuch on pole for ENS Austria

Simon Kurzbuch will start on pole position for tomorrow’s third round of the Euro Nitro Series, the Shepherd driver claiming the honour of Top Qualifier for a second time this season when he made it three TQ runs in a row in the third of the five qualifiers.  Having set the pace yesterday at the unique Aigen track up in the hills of northern Austria there was no let up in the advantage the World Champion has over his rivals when qualifying started, although in Q4 reigning champion Dario Balestri did close the gap benefiting too from traffic to post his first TQ run.  Balestri would also take the final qualifier, Kurzbuch crashing out while on for another TQ round.  Robert Pietsch continued to shadow Kurzbuch and Balestri posting the 3rd fastest time in the opening four qualifiers.

Reacting to his overall TQ, Kurzbuch said, ‘Q3 was very good. It was closer than before with Dario but we got the job done and took the TQ which is the important thing’.  Looking on target for 3 wins in a row and wrapping up a second ENS title, the Swiss ace added, ‘Dario is closing up which is going to be interesting for the final’.  Expecting to make ‘minimum 2 tyre stops’ in the 45-minute A-Main, the track having high wear, he said while the current set-up on his Novarossi powered Velox V8 is good for a final they may tweak it slightly to add ‘more traction to make the rear slide less for better wear’.  Using the final two qualifiers to ‘try things for the final’, the inaugural ENS champion said ‘I have one engine that can do 5-minutes and one that can do a little less so I have to decide which to use’.

Securing P2 on the grid with his TQ run in the penultimate qualifier, which he repeated in Q6, Balestri was much happier with his Capricorn saying, ‘I changed something in the rear and it was better but not perfect’ adding ‘it’s now more close to where it should be’.  The Italian however says he ‘still (has) a big problem with the bumps’.  Having to run a hard spring on his Tesla powered C802 to ‘keep traction’ he said this is making the track bumps worse to deal with.  Having had his final last year in Aigen ruined by a back marker, looking to tomorrow’s affair Balestri was straight to the the point about the race, saying, ‘the race will be decided in the tyre change. Who is the fastest at this will win’.

Describing his overall qualifying performance as ‘solid’, Pietsch said, ‘the car is very good, I just need more power as I am losing a little bit on the exit of the corners’.  From the outset, the 2011 World Champion said the medium speed track wouldn’t suit his Picco engine, it more suited to high speed track due to its strong stop speed.  Asked about his changes for the final, the Mugen designer said, ‘to be honest I don’t think it is possible to catch Simon’.  He continued, ‘I think he will make long stops and his team is very fast on the tyre stops so it’s hard to beat him’.  Asked if he could take the race to Balestri he replied ‘I might have a chance’.

Securing fourth on the grid, Lars Hoppe said his ARC was ‘very good’ adding ‘it is very easy to drive which is good for the final’.  A podium finisher at the ENS’ first visit to Aigen two years ago, the German said he hopes to make the podium again tomorrow saying that would come down to a good strategy.  With the ‘high tyre wear’, he said it was ‘difficult to get (the strategy) right at this track but ‘I hope to battle for the podium’.

Securing his first ENS podium last time out with an impressive drive at Ettlingen, Toni Gruber secures 5th on the grid thanks to a competitive P2 in the final qualifier.  Lining up for the start in between ARC team-mates Hoppe and John Ermen, who completes the top half of the grid, the 20-year-old said his car was ‘now perfect’.  Having ‘problems earlier’ that included a DNS in Q2, the German said they struggled with ‘too much steering’ resulting in him ‘losing the rear’ of his R8.0.  Acknowledging the contribution of Daniele Ielasi in helping him come up with the new set-up, allowing him to finish only 3/10ths off Balestri despite being delayed by Kurzbuch’s crash, he said based on his speed he feels ‘maybe a podium is possible’.  Describing the track as a little small for 1:8, and admitting it not being his type of track, he concluded ‘with the car as it is now is no problem to drive 45-minutes on this track so I will see what I can do’.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Chassis Focus – Teemu Leino

Chassis – Infinity Prototype
Engine – Novarossi Mito .12 C
Fuel – Runner Time
Tires (handout) – HotRace
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Body – Protoform SRS

Remarks – Finnish star Teemu Leino has TQ’d Round 3 of the Euro Nitro Series here in Aigen running a prototype of the upcoming Infinity 1/10th car. While all the carbon fiber and aluminium part as well as the shocks are produced by Infinity themselves, the front arms on Teemu’s car come from a Kyosho kit, the rear arms are Xray while the uprights are taken from the Capricorn LAB-C03. Sporting a Xray gearbox, the prototype is also equipped with a Capricorn clutch.

Image Gallery