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.

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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.

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Video – 1/8th Qualifying Rd5

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

Pietsch is Top Qualifier at ENS Austria

Robert Pietsch is Top Qualifier for tomorrow’s 1:8 A-Main at Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series in Austria.  The Mugen driver claimed only his second ever ENS TQ when he topped the fifth & final round of qualifying at Aigen-Schlägl track ahead of a much improved Dario Balestri.  Unfortunately for reigning champion Simon Kurzbuch, engine issues in the final two qualifiers meant he was unable to maintain his early dominant form and the Team Shepherd driver will start second on grid in the 45-minute final.  Behind last year’s title rivals, Lars Hoppe will start his first ENS outing of the season from 3rd on the grid ahead of ENS Italy Top Qualifier and race runner-up Dario Balestri.

After a poor result at the season opener in Bologna, which he hopes will turn out to be his dropped round, Pietsch was pleased to get the bonus TQ championship point.  The Mugen designer said the final qualifier was not as easy as it looked. While he knew Kurzbuch was out he said running close to Balestri he could see the Capricorn driver had improved a lot and he was going to have a tough fight with him.  Pietsch’s observation in the warm-up was correct, the separation at the end of the 4-minutes just 0.030 of a second.  Asked about the finals the 2011 World Champion said he planned to test a different chassis on his MRX-5 which he feels will better suit the low grip conditions over the longer race.  Asked about tyre strategy the German said he didn’t think it would be as important as fuel strategy due to high tyre wear as everyone would have to change and it was ‘impossible to go long enough to save 1-tyre stop’.  Describing the run time from his Picco engine as ‘very good’ he said this is were the advantage would be gained over the race.

‘Unlucky Dario didn’t get it’, that was Kurzbuch’s reaction after the final qualifier.  Had Balestri pipped Pietsch it would have handed the Swiss ace the overall TQ but looking to the final Kurzbuch said ‘it is going to be a very exciting race’.  Complimenting both Shepherd and Novarossi for giving him the pace to TQ two of the five qualifiers, he said in the end ‘I just had some bad luck and we missed out on the (overall) TQ’ but he is happy going into the final knowing he has the speed to race for the win.  Having run the set-up on his Velox V8 unchanged throughout qualifying and most of practice, he said he would continue with this for the final highlighting that he would even continue with the same ride height.

Hoppe was very happy with his P3 starting position.  His first big nitro race with ARC, he used the last qualifier to test for the final saying afterwards ‘I think we will have a great car and it should be a nice fight’.  Feeling they are ‘perfectly prepared for the final’ in terms of tyre & fuel strategy he said his Reds Racing engine is very strong having both good power & run time.  Of the 10 direct qualifiers, with the Top 2 from the B-Main set to bump up, ARC are the best represented car with Hoppe being joined by Shasa Lackner in P6, new signing Silivo Hachler P7 and last year’s race winner John Ermen P10.

Having looked somewhat dejected for most of the day, Balestri was rejuvenated after his Q5 performance.  Having struggled to get his Capricorn to react to any set-up changes, raising the ride height of his C802 had transformed the car for the final qualifier with him posting the fastest lap.  An ENS race winner in 1:10, he said the ride height he had been running was what he normally runs everywhere but the bumpy nature of the track here meant the suspension didn’t have enough travel.  While the break through has come late, he said he was happy to know what the problem was adding tomorrow is a new day.  One thing clear from the Italian’s body language was that its now game on in terms of challenging for the win tomorrow.

Having not made the final at the season opener in Bologna, Ielasi was ‘super happy’ with fifth on the grid especially the fact this is also his first race with his new WRC team. Posting the 3rd fastest time in Q4, a performance he put down to having his shocks rebuilt by HB’s Teemu Leino, the former 200mm World Champion said a change for Q5 was not so good.  Planning to revert back to his previous set-up he said tyre tactics would be key to the final, the Italian adding ‘the wear is extreme’.  Completing the direct A-Main qualifiers Serpent’s Merlin Depta will start 8th just ahead of the similar 977 of Tobias Kerler.

View complete event results here.

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Chassis Focus – Dario Balestri

Chassis – Capricorn C802
Engine – Tesla T21
Fuel – Capricorn
Tires (handout) – Contact
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Savox
Body – Protoform R18

Remarks – Top Italian driver Dario Balestri is using a standard version of the C802. The only change to the car is a tungsten battery holder to add weight and lower the CG.

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