Tironi 1:10 Top Qualifier at Euro Nitro Series

Team Shepherd’s Francesco Tironi is Top Qualifier for Round 2 of the new Euro Nitro Series,  the Italian securing the No.1 starting position for the 45-minute 1:10 A-Main after posting the fastest time of the weekend in the fourth & final qualifier at Aigen in Austria. In contention for overall TQ going into the final round, team-mate Dirk Wischnewski would finish Q4 second fastest 3 seconds off Tironi to make it a Shepherd 1-2 on the grid. Serpent’s Dominic Greiner, who excelled in the very wet Q3, would post the third fastest time to put his new 748 Natrix third on the grid.

Having sat out the morning’s Q3 due to conditions, the track then being at its wettest of qualifying, Tironi said for the damp track of Q4 his Novarossi powered Velox V10 was ‘the same like yesterday so very good’. Fastest in Q1 and second in Q2, the runner up to Erik Dankel at Round 1 in Melzo said the biggest problem now is to see what conditions the final will be run in with the track now quickly drying out. Having only ran three sets of tyres in the dry on Thursday after only getting in half a day’s testing, he said he is not no sure of his pace should it be dry but if it’s a damp track again he said his car is more than good for the win. He said half an hour before the main they will make the final call of which set-up and engine to run.

Only his second big race for Shepherd, his debut being the opening round of the ENS last month in Italy, Wischnewski said he was lacking power in the final qualifier as he ran his rain engine and the track dried much better than expected. With both a dry and a wet car he said he will make the call on which to use nearer the time but said if its a dry race he is pretty sure drivers will need to stop twice for tyres and this could have a big bearing on the race outcome.

Greiner said for the lightly damp track he doesn’t have the right tyres so third in Q4 was an ‘OK’ performance. The German said he needs either a very wet race or a completely dry track if he is to challenge for the win. Expecting that 20-minutes is ‘possible but not easy’ on one set of tyres on the abrasive track, should it be dry he said it will ‘be fun to see how drivers deal with such conditions’.

Starting fourth on the grid Eric Dankel feels if the final is damp he doesn’t have the pace to match those starting ahead of him. The German said nothing has changed since yesterday and he is still struggling a little on the wet track. Praying that conditions dry up for the Main, he said based on Thursday’s dry practice he is confident he would have a very fast car and be easily able to challenge for his second win of the season.

Starting behind Austrian Shepherd driver Leonardo Varga, Balestri is another who so desperately wants the final to be dry having struggled to get to grips with the damp conditions. The former 2-time European Champion, like team-mate Dankel, believes his XRD powered Capricorn with a dry set-up would be a competitive package.

1:10 A-Main Grid (2 drivers still to bump up)
1. Francesco Tironi (IT) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 310 pts
2. Dirk Wischnewski (DE) – Shepherd/Orcan – 308
3. Dominic Greiner (DE) – Serpent/Picco – 308
4. Eric Dankel (DE) – Capricorn/Maxima – 303
5. Leonardo Varga (AT) – Shepherd/Orcan – 302
6. Dario Balestri (IT) – Capricorn/XRD – 301
7. Martin Lissau (DK) – Shepherd/Reds Racing – 299
8. Patrick Schafer (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 299
9. Stephan Fischer (CH) – Xray/Picco – 297
10.Bernd Rausch (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 295

1:10 Qualifying Round 4 times
1. Francesco Tironi – Shepherd/Novarossi – 12/4:06.148
2. Dirk Wischnewski – Shepherd/Orcan – 12/4:09.168
3. Dominic Greiner – Serpent/Picco – 12/4:10.258
4. Eric Dankel – Capricorn/Maxima – 12/4:11.324
5. Dario Balestri – Capricorn/XRD – 12/4:15.010
6. Bernd Rausch – Shepherd/Sonic – 12/4:17.360
7. Patrick Schafer – Shepherd/Sonic – 11/4:05.288
8. Stephan Fischer – Xray/Picco – 11:4:14.863
9. Franz Engel – Shepherd/Orcan – 11/4:15.814
10.Leonardo Varga – Shepherd/Orcan – 11/4:23.061

View the complete results here.

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Mack & Greiner take 3rd Qualifier at ENS

Overnight TQ holder Oliver Mack moved a step closer to the overall TQ for Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series in Austria as he again topped the times in the third of the four qualifiers.  Another wet day at the Aigen track, the Shepherd driver was fastest from Mugen’s Robert Pietsch with BMT’s Daniele Ielasi completing the Top 3.  In 1:10, only a hand full of drivers took to the wet track with Serpent’s Dominic Greiner in a completely different class running almost a full lap more than the Shepherd of Leonardo Varga with Q2 pace setter Dirk Wischnewski 3rd.

With the track wetter for Q3 than both of yesterday’s two qualifiers,  Mack said conditions were more difficult but after getting over some traffic issues early on the rest of the run was ‘perfect’.  Finishing 1.3 seconds faster than Pietsch, Mack was ‘very happy’ to post his second TQ run of the weekend and now plans to use the final qualifier to test a different set of tyres adding that his damp tyre choice is limited.

Having struggled in Q2, Pietsch said a switch from the soft rain set-up to the standard dry setting on his Picco powered MRX5 transformed the car despite the wetter conditions. With his place in the A-Main now secured, the former World Champion will use the last heat to test saying he is ‘still missing pace to Oliver (Mack)’. Feeling his front tyre wear is quite high, the ENS Round 1 Top Qualifier will change his overdrive to add more drive to the front.

‘Drifting a little but all OK’, was how Daniele Ielasi summed up his third qualifier on the wet track. Having failed to make the start of Q1 due to a lack of screws in the rear end of his BMT, he said he was happy to get another third to go with his Q2 time. With his putting him directly into the A-Main, the Italian who again posted the fastest lap of the race being the only one to break into the 19seconds, he said for Q4 he will ‘push a little bit’ more and see what the limits of the damp track are.

Another driver to move away from a full wet set-up and find a good pace as a result was Shepherd’s Lars Hoppe. Switching from Kiss Rain to Shepherd Umido tyres, he said they made a ‘big difference’ but hardening up the front end of his Sonic engined Velox V8 he said this made it a lot easier to drive. For the final qualifier he plans to move another step closer to a dry set-up switching to a harder spring all round.

Making his first appearance on the track today, having opted to sit out yesterday’s wet running, HB’s Adrien Bertin posted the 5th fastest time.  The French onroad nitro ace, took to the track with the personal car of the R8’s designer Takashi Miyashita, saying with his own car contain many prototype parts they didn’t want to damage them running in the wet. The former World Champion who is not a fan of racing in the wet said the Orion powered chassis was ‘super stable, maybe too much’. With no points on the board and 2 of the 4 counting he said he took a very careful approach to the run as he knew he needed to get a good finish and overall he was very happy with how it went.

Topping the opening qualifier Michael Salven could only manage the sixth fastest time. The Serpent driver/designer said his tyres did suit the wetter conditions. The only driver who can now challenge Mack for the overall TQ, he said conditions were ‘really slippery’ and he hopes that it is slightly dryer for Q4 so he can get the best from his 10-year-old foam wet tyres.

Having hoped for a wet track last night, Greiner got what he was looking for so he could make the most of his Pitshimizu rubber tyres. The German was visually quicker than the rather small field, many of the drivers opting to sit out the round. Fastest in Q1 and second fastest in Q2, Shepherd’s Francesco Tironi sat out the round due to the much wetter conditions saving his car for what will hopefully be a drier Q4 when there will be a three way battle between himself, Greiner and Wischnewski for TQ.

For Dario Balestri, who would clearly prefer to be back in Italy enjoying the sunshine, his weekend didn’t get any better as a spin in the warm-up saw his Capricorn get collected by his team-mate Eric Dankel causing the receiver box to split open and he only managed 1 lap of the actual qualifier. Dankel was unaffected but the ENS Round 1 winner could only manage the 6th fastest time.

1:8 Qualifying Round 3 times
1. Oliver Mack – Shepherd/Sonic – 12/4:03.707
2. Robert Pietsch – Mugen/Picco – 12/4:05.032
3. Daniele Ielasi – BMT/RB – 12/4:07.044
4. Lars Hoppe – Shepherd/Sonic – 12/4:09.984
5. Adrien Bertin – HB/Orion – 12/4:10.901
6. Michael Salven – Serpent/Picco – 12/4:11.580
7. Andrea Pirani – WRC/OS Speed – 12/4:13.632
8. Michael Klausner – Mugen/Novarossi – 12/4:14.002
9. Sabrina Lechner – Serpent/XRD – 12/4:14.183
10.Simon Kurzbuch – Shepherd/Novarossi – 12/4:15.542

1:10 Qualifying Round 3 times
1. Dominic Greiner – Serpent/Picco – 12/4:16.835
2. Leonardo Varga – Shepherd/Orcan – 11/4:15.462
3. Dirk Wischnewski – Shepherd/Orcan – 10/4:01.275
4. Bernd Hasselbring – Xray/ORcan – 10/4:01.895
5. Patrick Schafer – Shepherd/Sonic – 10/4:03.015
6. Eric Dankel – Capricorn/Maxima – 10/4:03.789
7. Marco Nenner – KM Racing/Orion – 10/4:04.651
8. Steve Baumgarten – Mugen/Novarossi – 10/4:11.690
9. Christoph Rohrmoser – Shepherd/Novarossi – 10/4:13.928
10.Marcus May – Shepherd/RB – 10/4:14.897

View the complete results here.

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‘From Race Control’ – Day 3, Qualifying/Finals

While not as wet a start as yesterday morning it is another wet day in Aigen, Austria, for Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series. With the track having dried to a decent level yesterday evening, unfortunately over night rain again means it’s back to a full wet track. On the schedule are the final two rounds of the four qualifiers, 2 of 4 to count, which will be followed by the finals. Originally the finals should see two mains per driver with the A-Main qualifiers doing a 45-minute final but Race Director Uwe Rheinard has said that this may have to be changed to reflect how the weather is after lunch.

Video – 1/10th Qualifying Rd2

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9kutppYlSM[/youtube]

Video – 1/8th Qualifying Rd2

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlANdtlgu78[/youtube]

Team Shepherd’s Mack & Wischnewski take Q2 at ENS

Team Shepherd concluded Day 1 of qualifying at the Euro Nitro Series at Aigen, Austria, with a double as their drivers Oliver Mack and Dirk Wischnewski TQ’d Q2 of their respective classes.  Having just missed out in Q1 to Serpent’s Michael Salven, Mack would take the second qualifier of the rain effected event in a more convincing manner finishing 3.4 seconds faster than Xray’s John Ermen.  Behind the German it was very close with Ermen, Salven and BMT’s Daniele Ielasi separated by just 3/10ths.  In 1:10 Wischnewski topped the time sheets on a much drier track by .177 from Q1 pace setter and chassis team-mate Francesco Tironi with Serpent’s Dominic Greiner completing the Top 3.

Happy with his TQ run, the drier conditions allowing the lead drivers to run an extra lap of the 290 metre long track, Mack said a ‘change of tyres made the biggest difference’.  Planning to run a Shepherd Umido tyre he did not like the feeling they gave in the warm-up and so his mechanic changed him to a set of Matrix damp tyres for the start of the qualifier.  Having ran some hard laps in the warm-up but felt it was too close to the edge he said for the run he took no risks.  Pointing out that Ielasi was fast, the Italian posting the fastest lap of the race, he said that he also had two spins so his own more conservative approach had paid off.  With a 1 and 2 from the opening two qualifiers, 2 of the 4 scheduled rounds to count, Mack has already secured a strong starting position for the A-Main and looking to tomorrow’s qualifiers he said what he will do for Q3 & 4 will depend on what he wakes up to in the morning in terms of the weather.

‘For the wet my car is quite perfect’ was Ermen’s summary of his improved second qualifier.  A former Dutch National Champion, he said everything felt really good for the run and its now just a matter of seeing what tomorrow brings but he is confident he has cars good for what ever way conditions turn out.  Having ran in the dry on Thursday he said his ‘dry’ car felt good and as he has just shown if it remains wet his Reds Racing RX8 is also good.

Despite having a gearbox issue for the first three laps after his pit crew applied a little to much oil to the one way bearing, Salven said his Picco powered 977 Viper was still OK.  The German said it was obvious that Mack had found something better for Q2 in terms of tyres but with a 1 & 3 in the books he was really happy.  At Round 1 in Melzo a tough qualifying meant he had to depend on his B-Main race time to make the A-Main something that is now not going to be a scenario he will face at Round 2.  For the moment Salven said he plans to leave his car and tyre choice the same for Q3.

Having failed to start Q1 due to human error, he forgot to tighten screws in the rear suspension bracket of his 981, Ielasi was very happy with his Q2 performance.  The former 1:10 World Champion described the car as ‘super fast’, this being backed up by his 19.049 fastest lap of the race set on the last lap, adding that his Matrix tyres and chassis set-up ‘worked really good’.  The only issue for the new BMT signing was traffic which he said cost him ‘a lot of time’.  Pleased with his car now both in the wet and dry, him one of the many drivers to avail of Thursday’s dry open practice, he said he is ready for tomorrow no matter what the weather does ‘once I don’t forget to tighten all the screws’.

WRC’s Andrea Pirani was a lot happier with his OS powered car in Q2.  Having ran a solid front axle in Q1 he said it wasn’t wet enough and he struggled with a lack of steering.  Fitting a one-way for the second run the Italian said his ‘feeling with the car was very good’ and with a clear track around him for the entire 4-minutes he said it was ‘easy’ to put in a very clean qualifier.  For tomorrow, based on conditions being similar to today, he will switch to a softer shock spring on the car which compared to Melzo is much closer to the final car which class newcomer WRC will put into production.

Posting the third fastest time in Q1, ENS Round 1 Top Qualifier Robert Pietsch had a ‘bad round’ in Q2.  The Mugen driver said his car was ‘not good’ but trying to get by another car really messed up his run.  Losing almost 4-seconds in the incident, he would end up only 11th fastest.

Having only been 5th fastest in Q1, Wischnewski said he could not believe how big a difference a change from rubber to foam tyres could make.  The German said his Orcan powered Velox V10 had way more traction. Starting off the run a little slowly as he adjusted to the extra traction he was able to up his pace for another clean but faster run.  Asked about his plans for Q3, the new for 2014 Shepherd signing said ‘we will wait to see what comes’.

Setting the second fastest time, Tironi had issues before the second qualifier even started.  With his topping Q1 by a commanding margin, race officials checked his tyres ahead of Q2 declaring themselves unhappy with what was on his Velox V10.  Forced to change to a brandnew set of tyres, he said the bone dry tyres took time to come in but as they absorbed the mositure they just got better and better, him once again setting the fastest lap.  For tomorrow he said if the track is the same they are ready but if its dry he is not so sure as they only had half a day of dry testing on the track.  Asked what conditions he preferred he replied ‘once I’m fastest I don’t mind what the conditions are’.

Making up a set of damp tyres from team-mate Salven’s 1:8 tyre stocks, Greiner said they didn’t work out too good.  The German said he didn’t have so much traction so third was an ‘ok’ result.  Not planning to run the home made set of tyres again, he said he must check what options he has available to him adding that if there is more rain then the rubber tyres he ran in Q1 will be perfect.

Struggling in Q1 and clearly not a fan of racing in the wet, Dario Balestri had a much more competitive Q2 posting the fourth fastest time.  Running a set of tyres he said are at least 5-years old, he said ‘to be competitive you need the right materials’ adding that ‘in Italy when it rains we go home’. Third fastest in Q1, Round 1 race winner Eric Dankel would DNF Q2 after suffering a throttle servo failure just before the 3-minute mark.

1:8 Qualifying Round 2 times
1. Oliver Mack – Shepherd/Sonic – 13/4:10.868
2. John Ermen – Xray/Reds Racing – 13/4:14.295
3. Michael Salven – Serpent/Picco – 13/4:14.465
4. Daniele Ielasi – BMT/RB – 13/4:14.628
5. Andrea Pirani – WRC/OS Speed – 13/4:15.888
6. Lars Hoppe – Shepherd/Sonic – 13/4:17.368
7. Michael Klausner – Mugen/Novarossi – 13/4:18.705
8. Manuel Gremlica – KM Racing/Woldt- 13/4:19.171
9. Mirko Salemi – BP Racing/Novarossi – 13/4:19.212
10.Arie Manten – Shepherd/Picco – 12/4:19.779

1:10 Qualifying Round 2 times
1. Dirk Wischnewski – Shepherd/Orcan – 12/4:06.415
2. Francesco Tironi – Shepherd/Novarossi – 12/4:06.592
3. Dominic Greiner – Serpent/Picco – 12/4:08.757
4. Dario Balestri – Capricorn/XRD – 12/4:16.100
5. Stephan Fischer – Xray/Picco – 11:4:15.526
6. Patrick Schafer – Shepherd/Sonic – 11/4:18.103
7. Martin Lissau – Shepherd/Reds Racing – 10:4:06.688
8. Bjorn Moser – Shepherd/Orcan – 10/4:11.784
9. Steve Baumgarten – Mugen/Novarossi – 10/4:16.182
10.Christoph Rohrmoser – Shepherd/Novarossi – 10/4:18.788

View the complete results here.

View our event image gallery here.