Chassis Focus – John Ermen

Chassis – Xray RX8
Engine – Reds M7 WCS
Fuel – Tornado
Tires (handout) – Hot Race Tyres
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Savox
Body – Blitz R18 V2
Remarks – ENS Round 2 winner John Ermen is running the latest RX8 from Xray with a number of self made modifications to the geometry. At the rear he has cut the upper a-arm to create more flex which gives the car more on throttle traction. He has also lowered the front upper arm holders by 1mm for less roll and as a result get more steering. He is also using Italian company Project’s 1/8th quick release wheel axles front and rear. The setup he is running is his basic one from the recent German nationals but he has tried to reduce roll by running harder oil in the shocks and opting for softer springs.

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Q3 1:8 Update – second TQ run for Collari

The third round of qualifying in 1:8 was a repeat of Q2, with Lamberto Collari again topping the times for the 85-strong entry from Robert Pietsch, the pair again separated by 3-tenths. Behind the two Mugen’s, Shepherd’s Simon Kurzbuch turned around a tough Q2 to record the 3rd fastest time followed by Daniele Ielasi, the round being the best run so far for the BMT driver. Andrea Pirani and Alberto Picco completed the Top 6.  The round also saw the best run from ENS Round 2 winner John Ermen, the Xray driver taking his Reds Racing powered RX8 to the ninth fastest ahead of fellow countryman Rick Vrielijnck.

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Balestri Top Qualifier at ENS Finale

Dario Balestri is Top Qualifier for the fourth & final round of the Euro Nitro Series.  The Capricorn driver wrapped up pole position for tomorrow’s A-Main with a clean sweep of the opening three qualifiers at the Fiorano event, taking Day 2’s opening Q3 from team-mate Thilo Todtmann.  Dirk Wischnewski completed the Top 3 for the round ahead of Shepherd team-mate Francesco Tironi while ENS race winners Eric Dankel and Dominic Greiner both had issues.

The only driver to run 15-laps this morning, Balestri was pleased to secure his first overall TQ of the ENS, declaring his latest qualifier as being ‘very good’.  Seeking his first ENS race win, the Italian said ‘all is perfect’ in terms of his car and XRD engine but added he was taking nothing for grant going into the final.  Happy that his car is ready for the final, having tested on small tyres in practice yesterday, he planned to use the remaining two qualifiers to test different clutch systems saying that in some situations Capricorn’s old clutch can be better and this is what he will test in Q5.

Although Dankel tried it on his CO3 and didn’t like it, Todtmann on advice from Balestri ran a front bulkhead brace on his car for Q3 and found it to be a huge improvement.  Giving the car more front end traction, the European B Champion said he was able to push harder in the corners especially in the sweepers.  Also helped by having clear track for most of the 4-minutes and benefiting from mistakes by quicker drivers in his heat, the German said he planned to run the same set-up for the penultimate qualifier with his goal being to put in two more clean rounds and improve on his opening two qualifiers.

Wischnewski said the ‘result was ok’ but he ‘did not have a good feeling’ with his car.  Changing to lighter shock oil in the front of his Orcan powered Velox V10, he said the change made the car worse and for Q4 he will go back to what he ran yesterday.  With Balestri ‘super fast’, the former European Champion said he was now working towards the final and improving his car for that.

Describing his Novarossi powered example of the Velox V10 as being ‘quite good’, Tironi said while he is ‘not super fast he is quite consistent’.  The World Championship podium finisher is confident he is headed in the right direction with set-up to have a competitive car for the final.  Planning to make a small change to increase steering he will also go up in the size of his second gear looking to get a better transition from 1st to 2nd gear.

After getting hit in each of the opening two qualifiers, Mark Green managed an incident free Q3 allowing him to post the 5th fastest time.  The factory Serpent driver said his 748 has been working good but twice he found himself pushed off the track yesterday.  Without a Top 10 finish in the first two rounds and 3 from 5 to count, he said he has to just focus on being really careful today something which meant he had to sit behind a slower driver towards the end of the latest run. Needing two more solid runs if he is to directly qualify for the A-Main, the British driver said his focus for now is just on finishing the last two qualifiers.

‘Finally got a good one’, that was the reaction of Shepherd boss Patrick Schafer to his sixth fastest time.  Suffering a mistake in Q1 and slowed by his Sonic engine being set too rich in Q2, the ENS Round 2 podium finisher said his car was a little loose in the rear this morning but he was hopeful a harder rear spring would cure that for Q4.

Having retired with broken exhaust springs in Q1, Champion elect Dankel suffered a stripped second gear in the warm-up for Q3.  While Capricorn owner Patrizio Rossi managed to return to the pits and get a new one by the time it was fitted the German had missed the start.  Running the rest of the round, the Round 1 & 3 race winner said his C03 felt really good but needing two results from the final qualifiers he is going to have to drive safe rounds.

Posting the fastest lap of the round, Greiner said he drove more than 100% trying to take the TQ battle to Balestri but this caught him out.  Running up on the curbing, which following last weekend’s large 1:5 race at the Mini Autodromo Jody Scheckter are very grippy, his Serpent was pulled into the corner ending up on the morning’s damp grass.  The ENS Round 2 winner said his 748 had more understeer this morning and for the next one he will change the rear shock position as well as the camber angle.  While the battle for pole is done, the German is confident he has the pace for the final adding that his car is easier to drive than Balestri’s and that his Max engine has better consumption that the XRD.

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Chassis Focus – Dirk Wischnewski

Chassis – Shepherd Velox V10 Pro
Engine – Orcan GT3
Fuel – Maxima
Tires (handout) – Hot Race Tyres
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Futaba
Body – SRC Spark
Remarks – Former European Champion Dirk Wischnewski is running the basic Velox V10 Pro with some option parts as well as some new prototype parts. Up front there is a new servo saver Ackermann plate which is narrower than the standard version and which helps give the car more steering. There is also a new monoblock engine mount which stiffens the area around the engine to again help give the car more steering. In terms of setup it is based on his European Championship setup from earlier in the year at Valencia with harder front springs and a softer front diff.

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Video – 1/8th Qualifying Rd2

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

Collari fastest in Q2

Lamberto Collari got Day 2 of the Euro Nitro Series in Fiorano underway by posting the fastest time in the second round of qualifying at the championship’s season finale. Q2 saw a reversal of yesterday evening’s opening qualifier order with Collari topping the round from Q1 pace setter Robert Pietsch.  Behind the two ENS race winners Alberto Picco made it an all Mugen Top 3.  Unfortunately for title contender Simon Kurzbuch and Shepherd team-mate Oliver Mack it was not a good morning with Kurzbuch struggling to the 16th fastest time and Mack retiring with a gearbox bearing failure.

Changing to lighter oil in the shocks of his OS Speed powered MRX-5, Collari said his car was ‘better’ and overall he was pleased with his run with no major dramas over the 4-minutes. Happy now that he has got his car dialled in to the handout Hot Race tyres being used for this event, he said now they can work on small details such as weight distribution. Setting the fastest lap of the round, the 9-time World Champion said they will work towards a longer race set-up but this would not involve any big changes.

Pietsch said, ‘yesterday my car was not good in the morning and its the same today’.  Only 0.284 off Collari, he said he lost time at the end of the run with a slower car he could not get passed but overall his main problem was that his Picco powered MRX-5 was a lack of steering.  Trying to get around the problem by adding more brake during the warm-up he said this left the car more difficult to drive.  For Q3 the championship contender will leave his set-up as is opting to wait for the track to come to the car rather than go making changes and ending up with oversteer.

‘Not really clean’ was how Picco summed up his second qualifier.  With ‘a few laps not consistent’, the Italian said this was more his problem than the cars.  Having had a tough practice which left him to be reseeded in the second fastest heat, he said this is also costing him time with it harder to get a clean run.  Describing his MRX-5 as a little nervous he said as the track warms up he will lose steering so rather than change set-up he will wait as the car should for Q3 match the track conditions.

WRC designer and driver Andrea Pirani would take his close to production GTX to the fourth fastest time.  Having struggled in Q1 with a lack of rear traction, a change to heavier oil in the rear shocks, WRC now producing their own shocks, had made the car ‘a lot better’. With traction he said now he needs to work on improving steering.  In terms of his prototype car, Pirani said with 98% of the parts now WRC’s own design the first production kits are set to go on sale in 2-weeks time.

Having made contact with Pietsch in Q1 which cost him 3-seconds, Mirko Salemi had a clean second qualifier to post the 5th fastest time.  The BP Racing team driver ran his RS4 the same as in Q1 and plans to continue with it as is again for Q3. Describing the car as ‘decent’ he said it could be better but with a bad first round he needs another two good runs and making a set-up change now would be a gamble.  Edgy in the cool morning conditions he said it should get better as the day gets warmer.

Completing the Top 6,  Daniele Ielasi said his qualifier ‘was ok’ despite one mistake at the chicane.  The BMT driver said his RB engine was a little too lean and looking for a little more steering he will make a change to the prototype push rod front suspension set-up of his 984.

Behind Ielasi, Rick Vrielijnck posted the 7th fastest time, the Dutch driver struggling after a positive showing in practice.  Having been slow in Q1 and not sure why, the Mugen/Picco driver struggled with consistency this morning and plans to make some front end set-up changes for the next round saying the track is constantly changing and they need to adapt better to that.

Championship leader Kurzbuch said with his Velox V8 lacking steering during the warm-up, he reduced the rear wing and added more brake to try alleviate the problem.  The Swiss driver said the changes were too much and he struggled with the rear end of the car breaking loose under braking.

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