Another TQ run from Kurzbuch

Picking up where he left off yesterday Simon Kurzbuch has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the ENS in Germany. The Shepherd driver again topped the times from Robert Pietsch, the Mugen driver almost 4/10th off at the end of the 4-minutes.  As he did in Q1, Capricorn’s Dario Balestri completed the Top 3, the Italian closer to his rival’s pace this morning.  The biggest improvements on the start of Day 2 of the event would come from Aigen podium finisher Lars Hoppe and Belgian Robin D’Hondt who posted the 4th and 5th fastest times respectively ahead of Oliver Mack.  Unfortunately for Francesco Tironi his Q2 would be short lived.  Getting out of shape on lap 2, his Shepherd would get collected by the ARC of Silvio Hächler forcing Tironi out with a broken suspension with the incident also ending Andrea Lorenzi’s qualifier.

Describing his P4 run as ‘a little difficult’, Hoppe said the result was good after ‘a lot of problems in practice’.  With traction lower today following overnight rain,  the German said his R8.0 was much better in Q1 but the driver was terrible.  Making a ‘huge’ adjustment to the rear toe on his car in the warm-up for Q2, he said even with this the rear was still loose.  A two time ENS podium finisher, he reported his gearbox as changing too late adding he needs to adjust it for Q3.  Happy to open the day with a good run, he said hopefully for Q3 the temperature and traction will be higher as these conditions would suit his car better.

Running in the second fastest heat along with Hoppe, D’Hondt said he made ‘too many mistakes (himself)’ over the run.  Leading the efforts of small Italian manufacturer BMT since the departure of Daniele Ielasi, he said his Picco powered 984 was better today but still difficult to drive. Running a set-up that is ‘completely different to what (he) would run anywhere else’, he feels he can still find something to improve the car further for the Minidrom Ettlingen’s unique asphalt.

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Video – 1/8 Controlled Practice Rd2

[youtube]https://youtu.be/tKE_8byyJ7A[/youtube]

Greiner again in Q2

With 1:10 running 2 of the their 5 scheduled qualifiers on the first official day of ENS Round 3, Serpent’s lead driver Dominic Greiner completed the perfect day by making it two from two.  As he did in the first qualifier, Greiner again topped the times from Dirk Wischnewski.  Behind the two Germans, Teemu Leino made a significant improvement on his Q1 pace to set the third fastest time reducing the deficit down from over 4 to 2.6-seconds. With this his home race, ENS Round 1 & 2 Finalist Thilo Tödtmann took his Capricorn to the fourth fastest time followed by Rene Püpke.

Again completing the Top 6 was Jilles Groskamp’s Maxima powered HB, the Bangkok based Dutchman 1.1-seconds faster than title rival Bruno Coelho who after a poor first round posted the 7th quickest time. Behind the joint championship leaders, reigning champion Eric Dankel managed to run the full heat, having flamed out in Q1, his P8 time 6-seconds off that of Greiner.

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Kurzbuch tops Q1 from Pietsch in Germany

Simon Kurzbuch has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at Round 3 of the ENS in Germany.  A very closely fought 4-minute qualifier, the Shepherd driver would top the times just ahead of Mugen’s Robert Pietsch by 0.38 of a second.  A bit of a gap back, Capricorn’s Dario Balestri would complete the Top 3 ahead of Shepherd team-mates Rick Vrielijnck, Oliver Mack and Francesco Tironi.

‘A perfect start’ was Kurzbuch’s reaction to his Q1 performance.  The Swiss ace said he got a really good run with no traffic and starting behind top seed Robert Pietsch he was able to gauge his pace throughout the heat adding he knew it was close between them for the TQ.  Describing his Velox V8 as ‘a little loose on the rear’ he said he would ‘perhaps change something to try make it more stable’ but overall it was nothing too major.

Pietsch said I can make excuses but I don’t think they make any difference to the fact he (Kurzbuch) was just faster’.  On the opening lap, the German said his engine was too lean due to the fuel tank being too full but this cleared itself. Losing his racing line on a lap in the middle of the qualifier, he said other than those two things he said the run was good run with his MRX-5 ‘really safe’ to drive and going up against Kurzbuch was ‘fun’.

‘All OK, only problem is Robert and Simon are too fast’, that was how a surprisingly upbeat Balestri viewed Q1.  The Italian added, ‘they test too much and are two of the best drivers’ so considering this and having some traffic issues ‘I am happy’. Pleased with how both his car and Tesla engine ran and he said with his limited testing he was happy with where he has ended the day in terms of set-up.

The number 2 seed after practice, Vrielijnck said his Velox V8 was good but engine issues stoped him from pushing the Velox V8 to its full potential.  Having his engine go lean but able to get it going again he said this cost him time.  Feeling things were still not right at the end of the run he is putting this down to a clutch problem.  Starting to come in early, he feels this caused the engine to get hot and go off tune but he hopes to have everything back good again for Q2 in the morning.

Fifth fastest, Mack said ‘for me I am happy with the result but the performance was only ok’.  Describing the engine he was running as ‘not the best’ he said ‘I was not fast in terms of lap times but I was very consistent’.  A Top Qualifier in last season’s ENS, ahead of tomorrow’s four scheduled qualifiers he will change engine.

Completing the Top 6, Tironi said the run ‘was OK’ pointing out it was very close between 4th to 6th, the three drivers separated by just 2/10ths of a second.  With his XRD engine running a bit rich at the start of the run, he said he could have pushed a little harder but instead opted to stay safe and ‘for today the result was OK’.  He said he was looking for ‘more rear traction and stability but that is the same problem as everyone else’ and he needs to think about what he can change to improve that.

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Greiner takes opening qualifier at ENS

Dominic Greiner has taken the first round of qualifying at the Euro Nitro Series in Germany.  The Serpent driver topped the times from Shepherd’s Dirk Wischnewski, the two Germans considerable faster than their rivals over the 4-minute qualifier around the Ettlingen track.  Behind them Patrick Nahr would post the third fastest time just ahead of Teemu Leino. After a good showing in practice when he posted the fourth fastest time, unfortunately for reigning champion Eric Dankel an engine cut 1-minute in would ruin his qualifier.

‘It was a good run’, that was how Greiner summed up outpacing Wischnewski by 1.3-seconds.  Top Qualifier at the previous ENS encounter in Austria, he said the run didn’t start off so well. Running a new set of the handout pre-trued Shepherd tyres, while trying to get as many laps on them as possible for the qualifier he would flip his Max powered 747 damaging one of the tyres.  Needing to change it for the qualifier, he was only able to run one lap on it before the start off the qualifier.  Making the car ‘a little difficult’ for the first 2 to 3-minutes he said it got better towards the end.  Describing his car and engine as ‘very good especially for the high temperatures’ in which they are having to work, his only plan for Q2, which should be cooler, was to again fit new tyres.

Summing up his opening attempt as ‘a solid run’, Wischnewski said traffic cost him a few tenths.  Also feeling his Orcan engine was set slightly too rich he said overall it was a good run and it was ‘good’ having a speed advantage over the others.  Last season’s championship runner-up he said his Velox V10 is good and the only thing that needs improving for Q2 is the tune on the engine.

Former European B Champion Nahr was most happy that he finally completed a run without flipping his Novarossi powered example of the Velox V10.  Making a front anti-roll bar change for Q1 he said this improved the car with Wischnewski joking about the change that his team-mate finally listened to him.  Happy to leave the car unchanged for his next run, he said the only thing he needs to do is rebuilt his rear diff which developed a leak over the final 2-minutes of the heat.

Asked how he thought his opening qualifier went, Leino replied ‘not so well’.  The ENS Round 2 winner felt he was off the pace and he was ‘not sure why’.  With his car ‘sometimes fast, sometimes not’, the Finn plans to run a new tyres the next one to see if that improves things. A double ENS Top Qualifier the HB driver added ‘the Germans are fast here so its not so easy’.

Making it a good showing for Shepherd Rene Pupke would post the 5th fastest time.  The German said his Orcan powered example of the V10 was ‘perfect’ and the only issue was that the driver ‘missed the lines a few times’.  Describing the track as difficult but liking the layout he will continue with the car as is and aim for ‘a second clean run’.

Completing the Top 6 ahead of the Capricorns of Thilo Tödtmann and Leo Arnold, Jilles Groskamp declared Q1 as ‘just a steady run’.  The joint championship leader said with his ‘car not the fastest’ his aim now is first to just make the Main.  Having got lost with his set-up and ‘struggling’, he has started over with the set-up for Q1 and while it was ‘safe’ it was ‘too slow’.  He continued ‘the local guys are super fast and obviously know some tricks for what he repeated is ‘a difficult track’.  With good points from Q1, he added ‘we have four more rounds to get the car right for the final and with the heat causing a number of drivers issues it is still all to play for’.

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Chassis Focus – Rick Vrielijnck

Chassis – Shepherd Velox V8 EC
Engine – Picco EMX
Fuel – Runner Time
Tires (handout) – Shepherd Tyres
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Body – Protoform R18

Remarks – Running very strong in practice, Dutchman Rick Vrielijnck is debuting with his new team here in Ettlingen driving a pretty standard EC version of the Velox V8. The only options the car is equipped with are hard pulleys, titanium screws and rear CVDs.

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