New in the Pits – Bologna

New from ENS Round 1 tyre supplier, Contact Tyres presented their all new soon-to-be-released rims. With a 5-spoke design replacing the current 6 spoke version, the new wheel is lighter despite being slightly wider and incorporates a hole inside each spoke to allow for the fine tuning of the wheel’s balance using set screws.

New from Gi-mar is a new 1/10th clutch system, manufactured by Novarossi – hence the purple coloured flywheel – and sold exclusively by the Italian company. Gi-mar also showed us their new belt tensioner for the Xray NT1 platform designed by David Loppini, which uses a double point floating design so that the tension is always applied where needed.

Finally Marco Rossi from Reds Racing gave us a first look at their latest 1/8th Onroad engine called the M7 WCS. It features new, lightweight cooling head and backplate, a newly designed crankshaft with a new crank bell as well as a new venturi that is taller with a reshaped cone.

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Chassis Focus – Rick Vrielijnck

Chassis – BMT 948
Engine – XRD F.T. Line
Fuel – Runner Time
Tires (handout) – Contact
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Body – Protoform R18

Remarks – Dutch ace Rick V. is debuting his new BMT 984 here in Bologna. Equipped with an F.T. Line clutch, his car also features a new “Flex” chassis with a bigger rear cut and milled sides, a 30T front pulley and a prototype ackermann plate.

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Hagberg & Kerry complete grid in Bologna

Alexander Hagberg & Joe Kerry will complete the 12 car grid for this evening’s 1:10 A-Main at the opening round of the Euro Nitro Series in Bologna, Italy. Both direct qualifiers for the event last year, Kerry qualifying 5th and Hagberg 8th, but this time round they found themselves in a competitive B-Main. A 20-minute encounter, Kerry’s Capricorn started on pole with Hagberg’s Xray starting fourth. Leading away, Kerry would stay out front for 6-laps before Hagberg went to the front where he would stay till the finish winning by almost a full lap over Kerry. The British driver would have to work hard for the final bump up spot coming under intense pressure from the KM of Eduardo Escandon. All over the rear bumper of the pole sitter, the ENS Fiorano Finalist would come together with Kerry and end up on the grass ending his chances of a bump to the reduced 30-minute A-Main.

Hagberg said the main reason he found himself outside the direct Top 10 qualifying positions was because ‘I couldn’t get my shit together in qualifying’. The World champion continued, ‘we had various problems and in a field that is so close you miss out on the A-Main. The Top 15 drivers this weekend are so close’. Coming up with a set-up for the B-Main that was a ‘bit better’ the Swede said he ‘just tried to stay consistent and stay in front’. Looking to the final and having gained good track time in terms of evaluating tyre wear, he said ‘impossible to do 30-minutes without a tyre change so its going to make for an interesting final’. With rain forecast later this evening race organisers have made the decision to reduce the race from 45-minutes with almost unanimous backing of drivers, master of race strategy Lamberto Collari one driver who was against the move.

Kerry said the race was intense at times but ‘it worked out quite good at the end’. One of the surprise stars of qualifying last year, he said ‘the competition is a lot higher with it being a 1:10 Worlds year’. He added, ‘qualifying wasn’t too good and it was the third round before we found a set-up’. For the main event, he said the shorter 30-minute race distance would make for an easier race as now one tyre stop should be enough. After that he said his plan was to ‘drive a consistent race and see where I end up’.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Chassis Focus – Robert Pietsch

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

Remarks – Mugen Onroad designer Robert Pietsch is running the latest 1/8th scale release from the Japanese manufacturer. His car sports a set of new low-friction pulleys and a new nickel treated clutch bell and pinions with both options available soon on the market.

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Balestri starts ENS title defense on pole

Dario Balestri will start his title defence from pole position after securing the overall TQ for the second year running at the Euro Nitro Series season opener in Bologna, Italy. Going into the fourth & final round of qualifying as one of four drivers who could become Top Qualifier, the Capricorn ace almost matched his Q1 TQ pace to again top the times, this time from Infinity’s Carmine Raiola and WRC’s Andrea Pirani, the latter posting the fastest lap of the round. While traffic would again hamper him in Q4, thanks to his TQ run in Q2 Mirko Salemi secures an ENS career best of 2nd on the grid. Carmine’s P2 in the final qualifier would see him snatch third on the grid from Simon Kurzbuch on tie break while Robert Pietsch made it five different manufacturers at the front end of the grid.

‘I’m super happy to TQ as the track was super hard in the last round’ was Balestri reaction to the TQ that marks him out as the ENS’ best qualifier. With track temperature dropping for the final heat, qualifying having to be packed in a single day due to the pending bad weather, he said his CO8 RS ‘had super steering in the front’ he said to complete the qualifier ‘without a mistake was good’. Asked about the final, the Italian said, ‘at the moment I don’t know the forecast but one thing is that we change a lot of tyres in the race’.

Impressing everyone with his TQ in Q2, BP Racing’s Salemi said, ‘I’m happy but pole was also possible today’. A previous ENS A-Finalist, this weekend is the first time the 24-year-old has looked like a race contender and asked about the final he said, ‘I’m happy with the performance of the car for the final but with tyre wear so high getting the number of stops right is going to have a big influence on the outcome of the race’.

As one of the original drivers to get involved with the Infinity project, Carmine sad he was very happy to qualify third. The 2013 Worlds Finalist said, ‘I have been involved with Kenji on this project for 2-years and with this the first big race for the team its nice to be the lead Infinity.’ With ‘everything looking good’, the former Italian champion said, ‘I am going for the win’. Asked if had he concerns over tyre wear the 24-year-old’s response was ‘my biggest concern is the start’ adding he hoped for a clean start.

‘Finally I am ready now’ was Kurzbuch’s reaction after his P3 run in the final qualifier. The World Champion said while his Shepherd was fast before it wasn’t easy to drive but now they have got a good feeling with it which is ‘what I need for a 45-minute race’. In with a chance of the overall TQ, the Swiss driver ‘went all in’ in Q4 but a mistake ended his chance however he was still pleased that he now knows he has a good car for the final. Asked about strategy for the final he said tyre wear due to work done on the surface during the off season and fuel consumption due to the high speed layout of the track were going to be factors. Asked how important the pit crew would be he looked to his father and said ‘my pitman is World Champion approved’.

Pietsch’s frame of mind was in contrast to that of Kurzbuch, the former World Champion saying ‘with it (his car) as it is I have no chance’. The Mugen designer and lead driver said ‘I didn’t find the right set-up today and even though I changed it every run I didn’t find a direction that was better’. Asked what he could do for the final, he replied ‘I will change the set-up again and hopefully I will get lucky that the changes work’.

Winner of this event last year, Lamberto Collari starts his home race from 6th on the grid. With ‘the last heat much better’, the master of 1:8 Onroad added, ‘I now have a good feeling in the hands with the car’. Planning some changes to his Infinity’s set-up for the final he said they would make ‘little adjustments and not big differences’. A driver widely respected as the professor of race strategy he said ‘we need to check better the tyre wear but for sure there will be many changes’.

Behind Collari, Toni Gruber had a strong conclusion to qualifying to put his ARC 7th on the grid. Having shown he has the speed by topping practice and TQing the third qualifier, Merlin Depta will start 8th as the top Serpent with Robin D’hondt and Mattia Collavo completing the Top 10 direct qualifiers. Two more drivers will get to bump up from the B-Main to make up the final 12 car grid.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Chassis Focus – Dominic Greiner

Chassis – Serpent 748 Natrix TQ
Engine – Novarossi MiTo Ceramic
Fuel – Runner Time
Tires (handout) – Contact
Radio/Servo – Futaba
Body – SRC Spark

Remarks – Runner-up last season, Dominic Greiner is running an updated version of the 748 “TQ”. His car features a prototype transmission, complete with new smaller differentials, new shock towers and the same big bore shocks that equip Serpent’s electric touring car.

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