Pirani & Schafer complete A-Main line-up

Andrea Pirani and Patrick Schafer will complete the 1:8 A-Main line-up at Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series in Aigen.  A podium finisher at the opening round of the championship in Bologna, the WRC driver won on consistency rather than pace and did the full 20-minutes around the high wear track on the same set of tyres.  Unfortunately for pole starter Rick Vrielijnck it was a tyre stop that would prevent him race leader from bumping up.  Changing just the outside tyres, the Mugen driver would suffer an engine cut.  Unable to make back up the time lost the Dutch driver and Round 1 finalist would finish third, 2.3 seconds off Schafer.  Starting the race 8th, Shepherd boss Schafer would also change outside tyres after just 5-minutes, a strategy the German said ‘paid off’.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Kaufmann & Püpke progress to 1:10 A-Main

Marco Kaufmann and Rene Püpke have progressed to the 1:10 A-Main at the ENS in Austria to completed the 12 car line-up that will battle for the win at the second round of the championship.  Set to start on pole position for the 20-minunte encounter, Xray driver Tom Krägefski wouldn’t make the start as he suffered a throttle servo failure.  This left a clear track in front of nitro racing debutant Kaufmann.  Starting from the number 2 position he would lead the entire race.  Behind, it was the Capricorn of Rico Kröber who held second for much of the race, the German setting the fastest lap, but with 10-laps to go Püpke’s Shepherd got by to book the final spot on the grid 1.1 seconds behind Kaufmann.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Chassis Focus – Daniele Ielasi

Chassis – WRC GTX
Engine – Novarossi Ielasi Tuned
Fuel – MLC
Tires (handout) – Contact
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Body – Matrix R18 Evo

Remarks – New WRC signing Daniele Ielasi is running a GTX that features some little custom tweaks. The swaybars have been ground down to make them softer, and the bumper features carbon stiffeners. Daniele is also using a brass LiPo mount and a brass rear engine mount to find the perfect weight balance on his car.

Image Gallery

Chassis Focus – Dominic Greiner

Chassis – Serpent 748 Natrix TQ
Engine – Max Power RP3 Racing Edition
Fuel – Runner Time
Tires (handout) – Contact
Radio/Servo – Futaba
Body – SRC Spark

Remarks – Pole sitter here in Aigen after qualifying, German Serpent driver Dominic Greiner is running the latest “TQ” version of the 748 Natrix. His car is equipped with titanium screws, an aluminium brake horn, rear body standoffs and he is using brass weights in the centre of the chassis plate under the LiPo holder.

Image Gallery

Video – 1/10th Qualifying Rd5

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjjV9G-w7JE[/youtube]

Greiner on pole for ENS Round 2

Last year he won a wet race in Austria from 3rd on the grid but after a super close final qualifier Dominic Greiner will start the second round of the Euro Nitro Series from pole position.  In contrasting weather conditions to last season at the Aigen-Schlägl track, Greiner went into the final qualifier in a head to head battle with ENS Italy Top Qualifier Teemu Leino.  While Leino would do what he had to and post his second TQ run, matching Greiner, it was a blistering fastest last lap that would secure the German his second ever ENS TQ.  Getting ahead of Leino’s team-mate Jilles Groskamp for a P2 as a result of the lap it was this race time that would give the factory Serpent driver the tie break by just 0.15 of a second. On his first visit to the difficult track Groskamp will line up 3rd with Capricorn’s Thilo Todtmann securing 4th.

Having crashed out of the final at the season opener in Bologna, Greiner was happy to put his Max powered 748 at the front of the grid saying ‘the TQ point is for sure an important first step to the weekend’.  With tyre wear on every driver’s mind for tomorrow, the World Championship Top Qualifier said ‘its a big problem’.  Planning to work on his strategy in the A-Main practice tomorrow he said while he hopes for no rain tomorrow a bit of overnight rain might not be the worst thing in terms of tyre wear.  With the times throughout qualifying extremely close over all five rounds, Greiner said with ‘its going to be an interesting race with everyone so even’.

‘Maximum close’ was how Leino summed things up after qualifying.  A two time ENS Top Qualifier, he said ‘its going to be a tough race for sure and will be all about what happens in the pits’.  Having previous highlighted that the narrow racing line is going to make overtaking very difficult without mistakes, he said tyre & fuel strategy is where the position changes will come from over the 45-minutes.

‘(I) think it is going to be close’, that was Groskamp’s prediction for the final.  He continued ‘3 of us are really close and the others are not far behind’.  Commenting on his qualifying the Dutch ace said he tried too hard in qualifying and its a track that doesn’t reward hard driving.  Able to better gauge his pace in the race as he will be able to see his rivals, he is confident of a good race.  Very happy with the run time from his OS Speed based Maxima engines he said he knows where to save both fuel and tyres leaving the Round 1 podium finisher pretty upbeat going into the final day.

Starting sixth behind Todtmann and Shepherd’s Dirk Wischnewski, ENS Italy winner Bruno Coelho said his Xray was a little strange in the final qualifier and they need to improve it for tomorrow.  The Portuguese ace said ‘its not going to be an easy race’ adding the starting position is not important as a lot with change over the 45-minutes.  ‘A difficult track’ he said as a result it will be almost impossible to run consistent for the entire final and this will be compounded by the high tyre wear, many drivers expected to do two tyre changes.  Alexander Hagberg, who finished on the podium in Bologna from 8th on the grid, starts behind his Xray team-mate in 7th.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.