Business as usual for Kurzbuch at ENS Aigen

It was business as usual for Simon Kurzbuch on the opening day of the Euro Nitro Series in Austria as the points leader topped seeding for qualifying at the third round.  The Shepherd driver would set the pace from Dario Balestri although it was the Capricorn driver who would be fastest in the second of the two controlled rounds of practice getting to within 0.038 of a second of Kurzbuch’s CP1 time.  Behind the former & current ENS champions, Robert Pietsch would complete the now traditional Top 3 ahead of the ARC trio Lars Hoppe, John Ermen and Round 2 podium finisher Toni Gruber.

Having also topped the time for the five rounds of free practice earlier in the day, Kurzbuch said ‘the first one was very good and the second one was also good but Dario was a little faster’.  With the pair separated by just 17/1000ths, he said they used CP2 to run in the engine he will use for Qualifying with the World Champion declaring, ‘it felt very good and everything looks good for tomorrow’.

Commenting on his strong pace in the second controlled practice, having been over 2/10th off Kurzbuch in the first, Balestri said, ‘On lap times yes it was good but I was over the limit and can’t drive like this for qualifying’.  The Italian continued, ‘I have the same problem of missing traction so for sure we still have to find something for tomorrow’.

Suffering a broken fly weight in his clutch in CP1, Pietsch said ‘the second one was OK’.  Asked why it was only OK, the German said, ‘I was driving with Dario and I am missing something in the corner coming onto the main straight as he was faster in this corner.  We were the same the rest of the lap’.  Almost half a second off Kurzbuch’s pace over 3-laps, the Mugen designer concluded, ‘I need to find something for tomorrow’.

A podium finisher when the ENS made its first visit to the Aigen track in 2014, Hoppe said after ‘a difficult free practice’ they managed to get the car good for the first controlled practice.  Making a rear anti roll bar change for CP2 as well as adding more flex to the front of the car he said it wasn’t as good.  With ARC having a number of prototype parts here that will form the 2017 version of the R8.0, Hoppe said while he tested them yesterday with the day proving ‘difficult’ he opted to run what he knows and so for today has focused on getting himself up to speed with the standard car.

Winner here in 2014, then racing for Xray, Ermen on the other hand has been able to utilise the prototype parts today saying controlled practice was ‘pretty good actually’.  The Dutch driver used yesterday to back to back test the current car against one fitted with prototype parts. Working off the same set-up to what he ran here last year, some ‘minor tweaks’ have given him a set-up he is ‘pretty happy’ with.  Feeling the new parts are working ‘better here’ he plans to just clean and check over his car for tomorrow.  For qualifying, Ermen feels tyre strategy is going to come into play as the car is a bit difficult on the bigger tyres.  With drivers having to run a pre trued set diameter tyre, Hotrace the official supplier this weekend, drivers have the option to leave a set of tyre in technical control to use them again.

View complete event results here.

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Teemu tops seeding at ENS Aigen

Teemu Leino is the top seed for 1:10 qualifying at the Austrian Euro Nitro Series encounter, the Team Infinity driver fastest in the two rounds of controlled practice at the third round of the championship in Aigen.  Having set the pace in free practice, last year’s race winner was again quickest from Serpent’s Dominic Greiner, the Finn having a 3/10ths advantage over 3-laps.  Behind them inaugural ENS Champion Erik Dankel made a big improvement on his free practice form to post the third fastest time ahead of Francesco Tironi and championship leader Dirk Wischnewski.

While pleased with his performance over the opening day of the event, Leino wasn’t giving himself much phrase saying, ‘Me and Dominic are pretty much the same pace’.  Having focused on the shock set-up on his prototype Infinity car since free practice, he said they had managed to get it ‘a little easier to drive’.  With the car having ‘so much steering’, which he added is ‘pretty good here’, he said they ‘needed to make the car more smooth (to drive)’ and working on the shock set-up have helped a lot with this.

‘The car is easy to drive but must find more steering’ was Greiner’s reaction after controlled practice.  The newly crowned World Champion feels he has a more consistent car than his rivals pointing out they start off slower and only get quick after 2-minutes.  Feeling his consistency should be an advantage for qualifying he said ‘it’s going to be interesting tomorrow’.  Fastest after the first controlled practice, the German ‘tried different things’ for CP2 but they were ‘not better’.  Planning to rebuild his Novarossi powered 748 for tomorrow’s qualifying he said he will try to figure out what set-up changes could help him find the steering he is looking for.

Commenting on his improvement of 2/10th of a second a lap, Dankel said, ‘In free practice the car was not so good but we changed to softer roll bars and this improved the car a lot’.  He added, ‘Now it’s up to me to make it fast’.  The German who had a torrid season as the defending champion last year, said while his MTX-6 has ‘slight understeer’ it is very consistent.  Declaring ‘Teemu is very fast’, the 2 time ENS race winner concluded ‘but tomorrow is a new day’.

A former Top Qualifier at Aigen, Tironi said ‘over 3 laps it is really hard to understand who is fast but I have quite a good feeling for tomorrow’.  Making changes to his Infinity after free practice, the Italian said he found ‘a little more rear traction and grip in the braking’.  While he said the car is ‘not easy’, adding racing at this level it is ‘never easy’, he is confident he has a good car for qualifying.

‘So so’ was Wischnewski’s response to his P5 pace.  Winner of the season opener, the Shepherd driver said ‘it took quite long for the tyres to come in’ something he added ‘is not good for 4-minutes (the duration of the qualifiers)’.  The former European Champion said, ‘the start is very bad, I have no traction at all but at the end it is good’.  Asked about plans to improve the car for qualifying he replied, ‘I don’t know what to change’.  Behind Wischnewski, Xray’s Leo Arnold completed the Top 6 ahead of Capricorn’s Thilo Tödtmann and 2014 Aigen podium finisher Patrick Schafer.

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Chassis Focus – Simon Kurzbuch

Chassis – Shepherd Velox V8 “Oli Mack Edition”
Engine – Novarossi Mito WC Ceramic
Fuel – Meccafuel
Tires (handout) – HotRace
Radio/Servo – Futaba
Body – Xtreme Aerodynamics R18 Flat

Remarks – Reigning World Champion Simon Kurzbuch has topped the times in free practice here in Aigen driving the “Oliver Mack” version of the V8. His car is equipped with hard suspension plastics, aluminium wheel axles and a prototype gearbox that is lighter than the standard version and uses a 0.8 pitch. In order to add some steering without changing the good balance of the car he is also using the “Flat” version of the Xtreme Aerodynamics R18 bodyshell.

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Leino & Kurzbuch top free practice at ENS Austria

Teemu Leino and Simon Kurzbuch set the pace in free practice at Round 3 of the Euro Nitro Series, the championship resuming after a 10 week break with last year’s event winners topping the times.  In 1:10 Leino was fastest over the 5-rounds of free practice at the Aigen-Schlägl track from 2014 event winner Dominic Greiner.  With Leino’s team-mate Francesco Tironi third fastest it was a good start to the weekend for Team Infinity with Capricorn’s Thilo Tödtmann completing the Top 4.  For championship leader Dirk Wischnewski practice would see the Shepherd driver post only the seventh fastest time over 3-consecutive laps of what all drivers agree is one of the more difficult tracks on the ENS calendar.   In 1:8 it was pretty much business as usual for Kurzbuch as he topped the times from reigning champion Dario Balestri and Robert Pietsch.

Running the same prototype Infinity car that Creation Model debuted at the World Championships in Italy last month, Leino said the big difference to then is that they have had ‘the extra 2-days of testing we needed’ to properly get to grips with the new car.  Describing the car as ‘now getting better’, the Finn who won an epic final here last year from Jilles Groskamp and Greiner, added ‘the car is fast but I need to make it more easy to drive’.

‘Ok so far’ was how Greiner summed up practice adding, ‘it’s very close between Teemu & me’.  Fresh from winning the German Nationals last weekend, joking he is going for 3-in a row this weekend, the Serpent driver said his 748 is ‘very safe to drive’.  Feeling it is ‘a bit to easy at the moment’ he will try to find more steering in the two rounds of controlled practice that will bring a close to the first official day of the event.  Looking to qualifying, all 5 rounds on tomorrow’s schedule, he said ‘4-minutes is a bit different to 3-laps’.

Tironi felt his free practice performance was ‘quite good’ adding his ‘car feels quite good’.  The Italian who was Top Qualifier here in 2014, then driving for Shepherd, continued, ‘we fight to try to stay with both Teemu and Greiner’.  Echoing Leino’s view on progress made with the prototype Infinity he said, ‘for sure one more week of testing has helped and we definitely have a good base car so we can only make it better and better’.  In terms of improving the car for the Aigen track, the former Words podium finisher said ‘when I push hard it gets loose on the rear so we will try to improve this for qualifying’.

Heading the 1:8 times, Kurzbuch said, ‘I have had a lot of practice now which allowed us to test many different things’.  Back to back testing the new R18 Flat bodyshell from Xtreme Aerodynamics against the R18 EVO he said he found the Flat to give him more mid corner steering.  Also testing all day yesterday, the factory Novarossi driver has been able to use the track time to choose his engines for both ‘the push’ in qualifying and the final.  Describing the track as ‘unique’, he ‘really like(s) it’ highlighting its slight inclination as a nice feature.

‘Always the same, Simon, me and Robert’ was Balestri’s reaction to the free practice times.  The Capricorn driver said, ‘there is a lot of work with this track, it’s super hard on the car’ a reference to getting the car to work on the bumps and deal with the low traction.  On his LAB C802 set-up he said, ‘we are still trying to find something good’.  Asked what that was he replied, ‘more traction’.

While Pietsch said the free practice had gone ‘pretty good’, the former World Champion added, ‘I always have a little problem on small tracks like this because my engine is good for fast tracks as it has very good top speed while the mid range could be better’.   The factory Mugen/Picco driver still feels ‘it’s going to be very close but Simon will be fastest and Dario and me will find our position’ adding ‘the car set-up is good’.

View complete event results here.

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Chassis Focus – Robert Pietsch

Chassis – Mugen MRX-6
Engine – Picco “Otto”
Fuel – Maxima
Tires (handout) – HotRace
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Body – Xtreme Aerodynamics R18

Remarks – 2011 World Champion Robert Pietsch is racing a nearly standard version of the MRX-6 at Round 3 of the Euro Nitro Series in Aigen.  The only option present on the German’s car being a set of low friction pulleys. In terms of set-up, with the Austrian track’s surface being rougher than other tracks, he has tried to maximise the steering using softer shock oils and a smaller front sway bar than usual.

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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 – Anti-Clockwise
Surface – Asphalt
No. of ENS Races hosted – 2 (2014 & 2015)

As track locations go, the setting for Aigen-Schlägl is up there as one of the most picturesque.  602 metres above sea level, the track is nestled in the hilly countryside of North Austria just 10km from the German border and 7km from the Czech Republic.  On the Euro Nitro Series calendar each season since its inspection 3-years ago, the track was built in 2006 on land donated by the local government to local RC club Modell Auto Verein Aigen-Schlägl.  Needing to raise money for building the track, the club approached local businesses who were quick to support the project by taking banners around the track.  Last year the track underwent some major expansion work to the pit area which almost doubled in size to provide full covered pit spaces for 120 drivers.  Funded by sponsorship from local businesses and support from the local Aigen government, the work includes electric shutters which run the length of the pits and automatically close when the wind picks up, an important feature in such a high location.  In terms of track layout, a lap covers 290 metres with the main straight 65 metres long and featuring a 5-degree uphill incline.

Making his first ever visit to Aigen for this weekend’s ENS, 9-time World Champion Lamberto Collari is enjoying his first experience of the track saying, ‘I like it’.  Not understanding some of the negativity he had heard about the track prior to the race, he said, ‘it’s really nice and has all the right facilities and it is also situated in a really nice area’.   Describing the layout as ‘technical’, the Team Infinity driver said with its ‘many slow corners’ getting into the corner and out of it again are key to a good lap so in terms of set-up you are looking for ‘good steering and good traction’.   Winning a wet final on the ENS’ first visit to Aigen in 2014, newly crowned 1:10 World Champion Dominic Greiner is a fan of the track.  The Serpent driver said, ‘I like the track, its very technical and its medium speed requires good driving skills’.  A layout that requires your car to have good steering, the German said the surface creates ‘very high tyre wear’ and that makes tyre strategy very important for the final.

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