Kurzbuch sets pace in Hockenheim

Euro Nitro Series championship leader Simon Kuzbuch set the pace in the opening 1:8 timed practice at the Hockenheimring in Germany which hosts Round 3 of the new championship.  The Team Shepherd driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps to top the timing sheets from the Mugen’s of Rick Vrielijnck, Robert Pietsch and Italy’s Stefano Solaroli.  For Round 2 winner John Ermen it was a tough practice with the Team Xray driver posting on the 15th fastest time.

‘Going very good’ was how Kurzbuch summed up his early performance.  The Swiss driver said throughout free practice he focused a lot on shock set-up building two sets of shocks, one hard and one soft, from which he was able to determine the suitable oil to run.  His first time to the large Hockenheimring track he now ‘like(s) it a lot’ admitting at first he found it a little difficult learning the hard way that you don’t touch the yellow curbing.  Very happy with his Novarossi powered Velox V8, the former World Championship finalist said he will leave the car the same for the final practice using the track time instead to scrub in a set of the controlled Enneti tyres for qualifying.

Another driving making his first visit to the track and really liking it, Vrielijnck was very happy with his run which marks his return to Mugen.  Having only driven his brand new Picco powered MRX-5 for the first time yesterday, the Dutch driver said the car is very responsive to set-up changes with it also providing a lot of traction out of the corners.  Happy with the car for the first 3-minutes of the opening timed practice the former Worlds Finalist said a pick up in the wind then made it difficult to stay on the racing line.  To try and counteract this for his next outing he will switch to a harder front spring which will hopefully make it more consistent again.

A previous winner here, winning the 2012 European Nitro Challenge, Pietsch said he is struggling with his set-up.  While the car he was responsible for designing feels good to drive, the former former World Champion said he cant carry enough corner speed.  Having switched to a set-up he got from Japan, which yesterday worked good, he will now ditch that and go back to his own base set-up for the final practice adding he ‘wants to be faster’.

Behind Solaroli, star of last weekend ETS Pro-Stock encounter in Luxembourg, Lars Hoppe would set the fifth fastest time but the Team Shepherd driver said his car was ‘not perfect’ adding he ‘has a bit work to do’.  Trying a different bodyshell as well as a lot of set-up changes,  he said the overall feeling was not very good. Planning to switch back to a Blitz TS030 bodyshell for the final practice, the German will also change all the Velox V8 plastic suspension parts to the harder option.  Behind Hoppe, Serpent’s Patrick Gassauer completed the Top 6.

Asked what was the problem that caused him to be outside the Top 10 times, Ermen joked ‘if I only knew that it would be great’.  The Dutchman is struggling with the overall balance of his RX8 saying sometimes he has too much steering and then other times he has too much traction.  With the car ‘every time different’ he said this is also making it very hard to find his rhythm for the track.  In the CP1, he said the wind added to the challenge with him one lap able to hit his corners ‘OK’ and then the next time round be blown 1 metre wide.  For the final practice he will switch his shocks from front to rear which will leave the car softer in the front compared to having been softer in the rear.

View the complete results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Greiner tops first timed practice at ENS

Having secured his first Euro Nitro Series win in wet conditions at Round 2 in Austria last month, Serpent’s Dominic Greiner has picked up where he left off by topping the first controlled practice for Round 3 at a very hot & dry Hockenheimring in Germany.  Over three consecutive laps, the German, who jointly leads the standings, was the only driver to run a 59-second time with series debutant Ronald Volker and his prototype Mugen the closest challenger almost 3/10th adrift. Capricorn’s Eric Dankel, winner of the season opener, completed the Top 3 followed by HB’s Teemu Leino.

Declaring himself very happy with his Picco powered preproduction 748 Natrix, Greiner said he used the first controlled practice run to scrub in tyres for qualifying.  With Enneti the controlled tyre provider for the Hockenheim event, he said as the run went on the tyres just got better and better adding with wear is very low and this is good as he should be able to run half of the 6 scheduled qualifiers on the same set of tyres.  In terms of his car, the 21-year-old, said the car has a little understeer but this suits the wide open track.  Having tried in free practice yesterday to dial in more steering he said this resulted in slower lap times.  Describing the track as changing every hour due to the hot humid conditions he said it is hard to decide what if any changes to make between runs but declared how his car was in the run he is happy to go with that for the first qualifying which takes place this evening.

Having had limited previous nitro running with his last outing being the World Championship one & a half years ago, Volker was very happy with his performance so far.  Having been in the Top 3 throughout free practice, the electric touring car ace said although he has no previous experience of driving a Mugen the new MTX-6 Prototype has felt good from the start.  With a top crew for the weekend, the car’s designer Robert Pietsch providing set-up advice, engine tuner Eduardo Picco looking after his LRP engine, and former European B Champion now Awesomatix lead electric touring car driver Freddy Sudhoff as his mechanic the German said he has little room for excuses this weekend.  Enjoying the experience a lot, he said in early free practice he tried to adjust his driving to what he thought would be better for nitro but struggling a little with this on reverting back to normal electric driving style he was immediately more comfortable.  In terms of set-up Volker said because the car is new they have been making minor changes every run and for the final timed practice they will try a different suspension geometry.

Winner of the ENS Pilot Race here last year, Dankel said his Maxima powered LAB CO2 was ok but he was still searching for mid corner speed.  ‘A lot better compared to yesterday’ when as the tyre get smaller the car got loose in the rear, edgy and inconsistent, he said a switch away from a spool to a front diff for today was the biggest single factor in improving the car.  Feeling he is now heading in the right direction with the set-up he said just some small changes should give him the car he is looking for.

Top Qualifier at the season opener in Melzo, Italy, Leino described his R10 as ‘pretty decent’ adding he has had ‘no major issues.’  The Finn, who had a terrible time at Round 2, said his biggest issue has been the difference between sets of tyres.  Making changes every run, he said so far the set-up he had for the final free practice was the best, and should adjustments for the last timed practice not  work out he will revert to that for Q1.  The World Championship Top Qualifier said the hot conditions make for very low traction that set-up changes would cure.

Running the second of Serpent’s 748 Natrix chassis this weekend, having missed Round 2, Mark Green set the fifth fastest time.  Having taken a win with the car at the last round of the British Nationals he summed up his performance so far as ‘reasonable’.  Feeling he is ‘lacking a bit of everything’, the winner of 1:8 here last year, started out the event doing his own thing but for timed practice copied the set-up of Greiner.  Describing it as feeling like driving someone else’s car, he said he will stick with it so as to try and get used to it along with making small tweaks so as to get it more comfortable for his driving style.

Completing the Top 6 was Team Shepherd’s Dirk Wischnewski.  The team’s leading contender this weekend with Francesco Tironi having to pull out due to illness, he said his is struggling a little today.  Happy with how his Orcan powered Velox V10 ran yesterday he said today it feels ‘lazy’.  Putting the change down to possiblly the track conditions having changed, the track having more traction today, he will try a spool and heavier springs for the final practice, the order of the qualifier heats being determined by their best 3-consecutive laps from 1 of the two time practice runs.

Behind the former European Champion Shepherd team boss & Round 2 podium finisher Patrick Schafer was 7th fastest followed by France’s Leo Arnold.  Making his first ENS appearance Team Xray’s Alexander Hagberg was 9th fastest with top Dutch driver Perdo Rombouts completing the Top 10.

View the complete results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Chassis Focus – Ronald Volker

Chassis – Mugen MTX-6 Prototype
Engine – LRP
Fuel – Maxima
Tires (handout) – Enneti
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Sanwa
Body – Protoform SRS Lightweight

Remarks – The recently crowned ETS champion Ronald Volker is attending the third round of ENS here in Hockenheim using a car he borrowed from fellow countryman and good friend Robert Pietsch. The big news, though, comes from the fact that the car he is running is a 99% stage prototype of the new 200mm car from Mugen Seiki which will be called MTX-6. We spoke to Ronald and Robert, who talked us through the main new features. First of all there are a bunch of reinforced parts, such as the chassis, the differential mounts, the rear arms and their mounting brackets, the rear differential plastic parts and the front turnbuckles. The second gear has also being reinforced, the spur and the pinion now being both 1mm wider, which together with the new carbon fibre stiffeners should help solve the problems that some customers had on the MTX-5 with their second gear. Staying on the rear end, the braking system is moved on the gear shaft, and its improved linkage provides more power. The front end also features new differential mounts that allow faster access and a new servo saver with interchangeable ackermann plates, while on both front and rear the car also sports lower shock towers.

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Track Focus – Hockenheimring

Track Name – Hockenheimring
Club – RC-Team Hockenheim
Country – Germany
Location – Hockenheimring (95km south of Frankfurt)
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Asphalt
Previous key events hosted – ENS Pilot Race (2013), European Nitro Challenge (2011 & 12)

Round 3 of the Euro Nitro Series returns to the track out of where the idea for the championship was first mooted back in 2012 during the European Nitro Challenge. Located directly behind the grandstands that overlook the main straight of the famous Hockenheimring motor racing track, which next month hosts the German F1 Grand Prix, the track has been home to the small 20 member RC-Team Hockenheim since 2006 having formerly been used as an outdoor karting track. With the kart track stopping operation, the club which raced on various car parks around the area with a mobile track system approached the Hockenheimring about the possibility to use the ideal site to which the huge venue was very accommodating.

The deal that was struck for the use of the track is a very interesting and fair one for the club who instead of paying an annual fee instead have to buy a €6 entry ticket to the Formula 1 track’s museum, which is located right next to the r/c track, for every driver that takes part in one of the four to five r/c events the club holds annually. Twice a year the track essentially disappears as the area has to be cleared for the Hockenheimring’s two key events, the Grand Prix and DTM, when the area becomes a merchandise village.

Intially racing on the same layout as was used by the karts this would prove a little too open and in 2008 they switched to the current layout. The change meant certain sections of the track had to be painted to cover over the old layout but the club did their research using a black paint that is certified by the FIA, the world governing body for motorsport, for use in 1:1 scale racing track repairs. In size the lap of the track covers 330 metres with it being 5-metres wide all the way round. With a straight 75 metres long, 1:8 cars were recorded at 120kph last year during the opening ENS Pilot Race. In addition to the ENS Round, which morphed out of the club’s European Nitro Challenge, the club’s next biggest race is their annual Large scale Glühweincup.

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