Salven takes first 1:8 qualifier in Austria

Michael Salven claimed the TQ for the opening 1:8 qualifier at the Euro Nitro Series in Aigen, Austria. The Serpent driver narrowly outpaced the Shepherd of Oliver Mack on the damp track by 0.248 with Mugen’s Robert Pietsch completing an all German Top 3.  Mirko Salemi was the fastest non-German, the Italian taking his BP Racing chassis to the fourth fastest time ahead of Austria’s Michael Klausner and Dutch Xray driver John Ermen.

Salven summed up his run with ‘old mans weather I guess’. The Serpent designer said it was hard to gauge how much to push in the conditions but seeing Mack closing in on him he pushed a little harder. With his 977 feeling ‘good’ he was able to pull away a little towards the end setting the fastest lap of the race on his penultimate lap. Asked what tyres he ran, the multiple onroad nitro World & European Champion said they were that old he had no idea what they were but he knew as a damp foam they would be good for the conditions. Believing they are more than 10-years-old they are mounted on what looks like a multi coloured rim as with Serpent’s rim offset having changed over the years they are mounted on the old green rim which in turn has been mounted on the new white wheel offset as used today on the Serpent.

Mack joked also about the performance of veteran racer Salven, saying that his own run ‘was OK only the old man was faster’.  Describing his Sonic powered Velox V8 as ‘easy to drive’, he said he didn’t want to risk pushing too hard as to end up on the grass would ruin any chance of a good run. Running a Contact damp foam tyre, for Q2 he will try a Shepherd Umido damp tyre which he said drivers who attended last year’s European B Championship here found to be a good damp tyre option. He also plans to push a little harder.

Top Qualifier at Round 1 of the championship last month, Pietsch declared Q1 a ‘solid run’. Adjusting his clutch after practice for the wet conditions, the former World Champion said there was more grip than he expected and this caused it to come in too early. This in turn caused the car to push in the corners and for Q2 he will adjust it back. Running Contact’s damp foam tyre he will continue with them for the day’s final qualifier.

Having shown good pace in Melzo but missing out on the A-Main, Salemi was content with his first qualifier describing it as ‘OK’.  Running the same Umido tyre choice as used by Mack, he was happy with their performance and is set to continue with them for his next outing. Feeling his gearbox was a little off, this is the only adjustment he will make to his new BP Racing chassis for Q2.

Running two heats earlier than the top drivers, and therefore having to contend with wetter track conditions Team fahr(T)raum driver Klausner was happy with his run. Running a set of Contact Damp tyres which he added extra cuts to, he said for the conditions they were good but for Q2 he will run an untouched set of the same tyre as the abrassive asphalt will be hard on them. He will also remove the front swaybar from his Mugen MRX5 along with changing to one of his better Novarossi engines.

Running his ‘wet’ RX8, Ermen said he just managed to arrange a set of Matrix wet foam tyres in time for the opening qualifier which he added went ‘OK’. The Dutch National Championship frontrunner said the track dried pretty quick and the this was very noticeable from the start to the finish. Looking to Q2, he said he will prepare both his ‘Dry’ and ‘Wet’ Reds Racing powered cars for the run and make a last minute call on which to run.

View the complete results here.

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Chassis Focus – Loran Whiting

Chassis – Xray NT1 2013
Engine – Novarossi Virtus
Fuel – Maxima
Tires (handout) – Contact
Radio/Servos – Futaba
Body – Protoform SRS

Remarks – Fast American female racer Loran Whiting has again made the trip over to Europe to contest the second round of the Euro Nitro Series. Enjoying the sunshine of Melzo in Italy, unfortunately this weekend she has seen the opposite spectrum of the weather with the wet conditions here in Austria. With no experience of racing in the wet, Loran has so far opted not to run in such conditions but she did have a productive day of testing with her Xray NT1 in the dry on Thursday at Aigen. Part of a racing onroad nitro racing family – her dad, younger sister and younger brother all racers, she is running a pretty standard version of Xray’s successful nitro touring car which is equipped with a full ceramic version of Novarossi’s Virtus engine. To obtain a better behaviour on the fast flowing European style track, which provides less traction than what she is used to in the US, her father decided to limit the flex in the chassis using braces on the front of the radio tray making the suspension to work more instead.

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Tironi tops wet Q1 at Euro Nitro Series

Having cancelled Day 1 of the event yesterday due to rain, qualifying finally got underway at Round 2 of the new Euro Nitro Series in Aigen, Austria, with Shepherd’s Francesco Tironi taking Q1 ahead of Serpent’s Dominic Greiner and Round 1 race winner Eric Dankel. Tyres was very much the name of the game on the wet track, a set of soft Matrix tyres giving Tironi a distinct advantage, the Italian also recording the fastest lap of 21.287 which was half a second faster than that of Greiner.

Runner-up at the ENS season opener in Melzo, Italy, Tironi said conditions mean racing is all about having the right tyres and luckily for him his tyres which he said were in the range of 20 to 25 shore gave him a ‘good solution’ for delayed opening qualifier.  Running a standard airfilter on his Novarossi engine, most of his rivals running some sort of modified filter for the damp conditions,  the World Championship podium finisher said the only changes he made to his Velox V10 for the ‘humid conditions’ was to stand up the shock positions and switch to softer springs. For Q2 he said he will only fit a new dry air filter and just wait to see how the track is before choosing what tyre he will use.

Having tried foam tyres on his new 748 Natrix in practice, Greiner said he switched to an old set of Pitshimitzu for Q1 but the track was too dry for the rubber. Having mixed it with Tironi early on in the 4-minute qualifier for the TQ pace, he said his rival had ‘so much more grip’ adding ‘I don’t know how’ he did. Running an ultra low heat sink on his Picco engine, he said if the track continues to dry he will run foams for Q2 but ultimately he would like the track to become a little more wet as he believes on the rubber tyres which are mounted over an old set of foam tyres his car is really good. In terms of set-up he said in these conditions it played little or no part in the performance.

‘Luckily I survived’ was Dankel’s response to his run. Having lasted just four corners in his first practice run of the day due to water getting into his receiver, he said he just drove around and to get third from that he was ‘so happy’. Running a very soft foam tyre he said he is contemplating running a rubber Dunlop wet in Q2 but said he needs to wait to see how the track conditions are nearer the time.

Making a return to onroad nitro racing at ENS Round 1 where he made the A-Main, Denmark’s Martin Lissau claimed the fourth fastest time in Q1. 14 seconds off Dankel’s pace, the Shepherd driver said ‘its all a matter of having the right tyres’. Running a set of rubber 28 Sorex tyres that he had left over from some electric touring car racing he did over the winter, he said at the start they were ok but once the drivers on foam tyres got moisture into their tyres they just pulled clear. Asked about his tyre choice for Q2, the former 1:5 World Champion said himself and his mechanic Tommy Vinge were now going on a ‘treasure hunt’ adding that Shepherd had only one set joking that they might just have to steal them.

‘Wrong tyres’ was how Dirk Wischnewski summed up his uneventful run to the 5th fastest time. The former European Champion said it was ‘a clean qualifier, but just too slow’. Using a rubber tyre, the German said the conditions at the time of the run better suited foam, it having dried quite a bit from practice.

Elsewhere, Dario Balestri would manage only the 10th fastest time, the Italian openly admitting he is ‘not prepared for these conditions’. Like many of his rivals the Capricorn driver tested foam tyres in practice and then switched to rubber for the qualifier this turning out to be a bad call. Top Qualifier at the season opener HB’s Teemu Leino was forced to sit out running on the wet track due to a lack of suitable tyres.

1:10 Qualifying Round 1 times
1. Francesco Tironi – Shepherd/Novarossi – 11/4:00.704
2. Dominic Greiner – Serpent/Picco – 11/4:05.497
3. Eric Dankel – Capricorn/Maxima – 11/4:07.775
4. Martin Lissau – Shepherd/Reds Racing – 11/4:22.129
5. Dirk Wischnewski – Shepherd/Orcan – 11/4:22.713
6. Leonardo Varga – Shepherd/Orcan – 11/4:24.066
7. Patrick Schafer – Shepherd/Sonic – 10/4:01.345
8. Franz Engel – Shepherd/Orcan – 10/4:04.469
9. Bernd Rausch – Shepherd/Orion – 10/4:11.829
10.Dario Balestri – Capricorn/XRD – 10/4:13.240

View the complete results here.

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Track Focus – Aigen-Schlägl

Track Name – Aigen-Schlägl
Club – Modell Auto Verein Aigen-Schlägl
Country – Austria
Location – Aigen-Schlägl (50km Northwest of Linz)
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Asphalt
Previous key events hosted – Kyosho World Cup (2008), European B Championship 1:10 (2008) and 1:8 (2013)

Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series takes places in Austria at the Aigen-Schlägl track. Nestled in the hilly Austrian countryside the track is 602 metres above sea level and is situated in the North of the country just 10km from the German border and 7Km from the Czech Republic. Built in 2006 on land donated by the governments of both Aigen and Schlägl, the club, ‘Modell Auto Verein Aigen-Schlägl’, funded the building of the track with money raised from local businesses whose banners line the 290 metre long track. With around 70 active members the club is predominantly a nitro club although it does also regularly attract around 30 electric racers. Host of two European B Championships, the track’s biggest event has been the 2008 Kyosho World Cup. With a very welcoming staff looking after the ENS racers needs this weekend, club President Martin Mayrhofer was keen to highlight that the track is always open and visitors are always welcome to come and avail of the track for testing.

Featuring a 65 metre long straight in terms of the layout which rises by 5 degree, Mugen/Picco team driver Robert Pietsch said the biggest challenge of the track is the gearbox set-up. A previous race winner at Aigen-Schlägl, the German said with the gearbox good up the hill on the downhill it changes too early but he said its impossible to get a good balance. He said driving the downhill section you feel you can carry more speed than you can and its important to get off the throttle in time or it leaves you wrong for the chicane.  He added the line through the chicane is key to a good lap as getting it wrong leaves you slow for the following two corners. Describing it as a fun track to drive, he said on a dry track, something we will hopefully get to see this weekend, the traction levels are medium but with the asphalt rather abrasive he said tyre wear is pretty high.

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‘From Race Control’ – Day 2, Qualifying

Unfortunately there has been no let up in the rain that caused the cancellation of Day 1 of the Euro Nitro Series but today the decision has been made that racing will go ahead albeit with a much reduced programme with just 2 qualifiers making up Day 2’s action. With the first of those qualifiers getting underway at 13:00 local time, the morning will see the running of two rounds of optional controlled practice. The knock on effect of the weather is that tomorrow’s schedule will see two further qualifiers, 2 of 4 to count, followed by reduced length Mains.

Rain forces cancellation of ENS Day 1

The organisers of the Euro Nitro Series have opted to cancel Day 1 of the second round of the championship in Aigen, Austria, due to rain. A dry but cold track greeted drivers this morning but just after the 1:8 drivers took to the track for the first of their rounds of open practice, the 1:10 racers having got to complete their run, the first shower of the day arrived.  Waiting to let the rain pass the weather was to further deteriorate with the Race Director making the call at lunch time to cancel today’s programme and give racers the time to prepare wet cars for tomorrow.  With most of the racers having enjoyed plenty of dry running yesterday, Day 2 will start irrespective of it being a wet or dry track with the first of four rounds of qualifying.  The track remains open today for an drivers wishing to get in some wet practice but the majority of racers are retiring to their hotels.