Kurzbuch doubles up in Q2 at ENS Germany

Simon Kurzbuch made it two from two in the second round of qualifying at the Euro Nitro Series in Germany.  The Team Shepherd driver backed up his P1 in the opening qualifier with another in Q2, this time ahead of ENS Italy Top Qualifier Dario Balestri.  With last season’s two title protagonists separated by 3/10ths of a second, the real surprise of the round would come from 1:10 title contender Bruno Coelho, the Xray driver completing the Top 3 as he matched Kurzbuch and Balestri with 19-lap runs around the Mindrom Ettlingen track.

Having summed up his Q1 performance as ‘a good morning’, Kurzbuch joked after the second qualifier, ‘now it’s a good afternoon’.  Coming into the event with a single point lead in the standings over Balestri, who must now TQ the remaining two qualifiers to deny his Swiss rival a 3rd career ENS TQ, the 2014 ENS champion said of Q2, ‘It was very good for the first 2 & a half minutes but then I had a little traffic.  After that I had to push really hard to get back out in front’.  Describing his Novarossi powered Velox V8 as ‘again working good’ he said while in the warm-up the track felt a little loose after the rain shower, once the qualifier started there was no big difference to Q1.   Planning to run his car unchanged in Q3, it the only car to run a 12-second lap time, when asked if he planned to start working on set-up for the final he replied ‘the car already has a good feeling for a final’.  Describing the car as ‘really stable’, he added ‘my car is not like last year when my qualifying set-up was not suitable for the final so we are in a good position’.

‘I lost time on the last laps with another driver, I don’t know who’, was a slightly frustrated Balestri’s reaction after Q2.  The Capricorn driver continued, ‘anyway Simon is super fast and I have to adjust small things to improve my car’.  Winner of the race last year from P2 on the grid, the Italian appears determined to find the speed he is missing to ensure Kurzbuch doesn’t start on pole and double his championship advantage by claiming the bonus TQ point.

Coelho was particularly pleased with his P3 especially given he is charged with the development of Xray’s 1:8 Onroad chassis.  Excited by the improvement made to the RX8 for this event, with seventh in practice giving them good hope for the weekend, he said nerves got the better of him in Q1 with him driving like ‘a newbie’.  Settling down for Q2, he said while they had the car running well here at the European Championship last year it was nothing special but now the car is working well adding, ‘I have never had the car like this before’.  Making ‘many little mistakes’, the 1:10 ENS race winner said without these I would have been P2 but after that Simon is super fast’.  Set to leave the car unchanged for the penultimate qualifier he will work on putting in a cleaner 4-minute run.

Posting the fourth fastest time Robin D’hondt described his second qualifier as ‘pretty good’.  Running in the second fastest heat and P8 in the opening heat, the Belgian who joined Capricorn for 2016, said a toe in adjustment cured some of the on throttle oversteer he had in Q1 and this is were the improvement came from.  Planning to make as yet unknown set-up changes for Q3 when asked what he wanted to achieve with the changes he replied ‘A 19-lap run’.

Only 16th in Q1, the ENS’ most winning 1:8 driver Lamberto Collari described the second P5 in Q2 as ‘much better than the first one’.  The 9-time World Champion, who heads a star studded Infinity team, said the problem in Q1 was that having fitted a new engine and gearbox to his car for the final two practices rounds, when they were cancelled due to the rain it meant he went into the Q1 warm-up trying to tune both the engine and gearbox shift point and he ultimately didn’t get it all set right.  With it much better for Q2, he said with the car having ‘not bad speed’ they need to look at ways to make it ‘more consistent’.

Completing the Top 6 was Alberto Picco.  Finding his Mugen ‘a little loose’ in Q1 the engine boss said he ‘had to be very careful on the throttle’ but still got it wrong on the sweeper.  Although it only cost him a few tenths he said on the time sheets it translated to a ‘big error’ as it left him P9.  With a set-up change improving his Mugen for Q2 he would have to deal with traffic at the beginning but was able to push hard at the end.  Describing, ‘conditions of the track (as) not easy’, he plans to make small adjustments saying the are necessary to try and keep up with the ever changing track.  Behind Picco, would be the Italian engine manufacturers lead factory driver Robert Pietsch.  After a badly adjusted brake slowed him in Q1, the Mugen designer said his MRX6 was ‘really good’ but running behind ARC’s Silvio Hachler and then getting caught by Kurzbuch having to move out of the way and repass Hachler he lost his rhythm.

Having starred with P2 in Q1, Jilles Groskamp would, just like in 1:10, have problems in Q2.  Changing the engine in his Infinity he said it was not good.  The Dutchman also said at one point he thought it had started to rain such was his lack of traction.

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Chassis Focus – Kyle Branson

Chassis – Capricorn Lab C03
Engine – Tesla T12
Fuel – Tesla
Tires (handout) – Enneti
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Tesla
Body – Protoform SRS

Remarks – Top British driver Kyle Branson is running a mostly standard version of the Italian Capricorn touring car. Testing some prototype kevlar gear diff cases, the harder material being better resistant to heat and stays cleaner due to the dirt not adhering as easily as with other materials, the car is also fitted with lightweight titanium screws.

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Dankel from Nahr in Q2

Eric Dankel has TQ’d the second round of 1:10 qualifying at ENS Germany, the former Champion putting his Mugen at the top of the time sheets for what would be a slightly slower round than the opening qualifier which was taken by Jilles Groskamp.  With rain showers causing delays throughout the second of the four scheduled qualifiers, when the top heat did come around it was Dankel who after 2-laps took control. Running in the second fastest heat it would be Patrick Nahr would would end up P2, separating two ENS race winners as Teemu Leino completed the Top 3.  Having surprised himself with a TQ run in Q1, reigning champion Groskamp could only manage P7 second time round, the Dutch ace feeling his car had a problem as he finished 2.3-seconds off Dankel.

‘I settled down a little in my driving’ was what Dankel attributed his improved form over 25th in Q1, the German said, ‘I made a stupid mistake, my fault, the car was good’.  Admitting ‘I know the track well’, this being the 2014 Champion’s home track, he said in Q2 his unchanged car was again ‘pretty good’ despite the rain showers reducing the traction from the opening round.  Looking to Q3 he said ‘I will change nothing, just drive, as the track is different every time now’.

Having suffered from ‘too much steering’ in Q1, Nahr said changing to a harder front sway bar had made his Shepherd ‘more easy to drive’.   Giving the former European B Champion ‘better corner speed’, he said he still needs to try to make the car a ‘little better’ and he will make some small set-up tweaks for the next qualifier, which due to the delays could be the final round.  The 24-year-old’s team-mate Dirk Wischnewski, who was P3 in Q1, would retire from the round after he crashed his Velox V10 into the pit wall. While it didn’t break the car, last year’s race winner said it left his bodyshell requiring attention.

Changing to a harder swaybar on his Capricorn after he traction rolled in Q1, Team Infinity’s Leino said he had a somewhat funny incident in the warm-up.  On the first run down the straight he had no steering going straight onto the grass, initially thinking this was as a result of the swaybar change he thought he was in for a difficult run but on further inspection it was discovered he had forgot to connect one of the front shocks.  With his famous pitman Masayuki Miura fitting it back on, the car was ‘much more easy to drive’ however blinded by a marshall one minute into the qualifier he would run into the back of Alessio Mazzeo’s Serpent.  Losing him 1-second he would miss out on a P2 run but it was worse for Mazzeo as his rear tyre was chunked in the impact and he ended up P31 having been P34 in Q1 also due to tyre issues.

Setting a P4 time, Dominic Greiner would report gearbox problems on his Serpent.  Describing the handling of his 748 as ‘OK’, he said the problem was the change point of the gearbox kept changing.  He added ‘I know what was wrong with the gearbox so we will fit a new one’.  Commenting on the ever changing track conditions, the driver with the most number of ENS TQs, said, ‘this time they were good for Eric and difficult for Jilles, they are challenging conditions’.

Traction rolling in Q1 to end up P12, Bruno Coelho would get a clean run to set the fifth fastest time.  Making suspension and geometry changes for the round, his Xray was ‘much better’. Conscious of the threat that rain could cause qualifying to be cut short and that his Q1 performance would leave him in the B-Main, the ETS Championship leader said ‘I had to drive easy to get points’. Describing it as ‘a good run’, he said the plan is to try and repeat it in Q3 leaving his NT1 unchanged.  Just 0.053 of a second off Coelho, Xray team-mate Leo Arnold would back up his P4 in Q1 by completing the Top 6.  The French driver said after the rain ‘traction was super low’ and he again ‘just put in a safe, consistent run’.

‘I ran the same car and tyres but it was super loose’, was Groskamp’s reaction after struggling in Q2.  The Team Infinity driver would spin off on his opening lap saying ‘the car didn’t feel the same’ and adding ‘something must have happened with the diff’.  Running a standard Serpent 748 kit this weekend, as he evaluates cars while waiting on Infinity to produce its first 200mm chassis, he said ‘its a pity it wasn’t the same as the morning run but I will fit a new diff if there is a third one (qualifying).  The reason for the uncertainty of there being a third round is the ominous black clouds over the track.

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Chassis Focus – Jilles Groskamp

Chassis – Creation Model Infinity
Engine – OS Speed R2102
Fuel – Maxima
Tires (handout) – Enneti
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Ko Propo
Body – Protoform R18

Remarks – Dutch Infinity factory driver Jilles Groskamp is running an updated version of the Japanese made car that features a number of new prototype parts. The front body support is now machined out of carbon instead of being plastic, and together with the 3D printed bumper stiffener is meant to help use all of the body’s downforce. The chassis is also new, with a thickness of 5mm, a wider front machined cut out as well as different engine cut outs that provide a different flex.

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Kurzbuch tops first 1:8 qualifier ahead of Groskamp

Simon Kurzbuch has topped the first round of qualifying at the German round of the Euro Nitro Series in Ettlingen.  Top Qualifier last year when the track made its debut on the ENS calendar, the Shepherd driver would post the only 19-lap run over the 4-minutes heading the times from the Infinity of Jilles Groskamp.  With just 1.2 seconds covering the Top 10, Serpent’s Merlin Depta would complete the Top 3 despite running in the third fastest heat.  Top seed for qualifying after open practice times were used to determine the heats when rain forced the cancellation of timed practice, Robert Pietsch would manage only the 10th fastest time. Making an error on the opening lap, this lost time would be compounded by his Mugen having too much brake over the final 2-minutes resulting in it being ‘difficult to drive’.

‘A good morning’ was Kurzbuch reaction to his TQ.  Sporting a new look this weekend, the beard part of a Swiss college tradition for the final semester, the World Champion said ‘everything was really good’ adding ‘only 2nd gear was a little too late but it was nothing much’.  With 1:8 drivers losing the second half of yesterday’s practice day due to rain, he said the extra warm-up time given before the first qualifier this morning was ‘great’ to help get back into the rhythm of the track.  Looking to Q2, the winner of the season opener in Italy said the plan was to ‘just adjust the gearbox and try again’ adding ‘I hope it stays dry’.

Having topped the opening 1:10 qualifier, Groskamp said he was ‘kind of surprised’ to end up second fastest.  The former electric touring car World Champion said ‘I checked the lap times and I’m not the fastest but I’m consistent’.   Adding the times are ‘super close’ he said he had two bad laps as a result of the idle being too high on his OS engine causing him to overshoot his corners a few times.  Switching to a softer spring on his Infinity, he said ‘this made it a lot more stable than before’.  Describing his engine as ‘really aggressive’ on power he said this is due to his clutch being too hard and he will change this for Q2 which should allow for even better consistency.

Runner-up at the European Championships at Minidrom Ettlingen last year, Depta was clearly relieved to be back on the pace.  Only 23rd fastest in practice, the German said, ‘its not a bad feeling to be placed behind two World Champions’.  Describing yesterday’s practice as ‘a mess’, adding he was ‘lucky to make 3 so so laps’ he said his car was ‘not drivable for 4-minutes’. Making a front end set-up change to his Picco powered 977 he said today it was ‘a lot better’.  Asked if he would make further changes for Q2 he replied, ‘I wont change anything as that was the first run the car was working this weekend’.

Finishing 5th in the A-Main at the season opener, ARC’s Toni Gruber looks to have carried that form into this weekend as he set the fourth fastest time.  Running in the top heat, the 20-year-old was setting the early TQ pace saying his R8.0 was ‘really good and easy to drive for the first 2-minutes’.  In the second half of the qualifier the German started to lose grip and looking over the car he said he will try running less camber in the hope its more consistent over the 4-minutes.

Winner of the event last year, reigning ENS Champion Dario Balestri would complete the Top 6.  The Capricorn driver said he lost time in the first part of the qualifier due to his Tesla engine being set rich.  The Italian said by the middle of the run the engine was running as normal and able to set the second fastest lap time to Kurzbuch he said ‘the car was ok’.

New team-mate to Balestri this weekend, Rick Vrielijnck would complete the Top 6.  Having only done a National Championship race with the car prior to this weekend, the Dutch driver said ‘for the first 2-minute the car was very good but then got very nervous’.  Having been in the mix for a TQ time, he said he tried to be consistent as the car got difficult but with it having way too much steering he said it was ‘very hard’.  Having changed to a softer rear spring for Q1 he said he will revert back to the same harder spring he ran in practice yesterday when the car was ‘already good’ allowing him to set the fourth fastest time.  He will also run the front of the car wider.

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