‘From Race Control’ – Day 3, Finals

A much warmer start to the day than yesterday, it is Day 3 of the Euro Nitro Series at the Hockenheimring with Finals making up the schedule. In a change to the format of Rounds 1 and 2, drivers in the lower finals will now race just a single 20-minute main with the top 2 finishers bumping up to complete  the 10 car grids. For the two A-Main finals the grid will feature 12 cars, the B-Main offering the last opportunity for 2 drivers to be in contention for the overall win in Germany. For the 10 direct A-Main qualifiers there will be a 10 minute practice session after lunch with the 200mm A-Main due to start at 14:27 followed by the 1:8 A-Main, both races being 45-minute encounters.

Kurzbuch claims home TQ for Shepherd at German ENS

Shepherd’s Simon Kurzbuch claimed a home TQ for his team at Round 3 of the Euro Nitro series this evening at the Hockenheimring in Germany.  With its headquarters not too far from the track, the Swiss driver secured the manufacturer’s second overall TQ of the season when he topped the penultimate round of qualifying, team-mate Oliver Mack having secured pole position at Round 2 in Aigen last month.  His fourth TQ run of the weekend, the championship points leader will start tomorrow’s 45-minute Main in front of the Mugen of his main title rival Robert Pietsch with Shepherd team-mate Lars Hoppe third and BMT’s Daniele Ielasi fourth.

Happy to be on pole position for tomorrow’s encounter, Kurzbuch said he had achieved his first goal of the weekend which was to add the TQ bonus championship point to his tally which now gives him a four point advantage over Pietsch.  Having been very comfortable with his Novarossi powered Velox V8 all day, leaving it unchanged between runs, on securing the overall TQ he planned to use the final heat to test a possible set-up for tomorrow’s final but a rear belt failure in the warm-up would put amends to that.  Asked about his strategy for the final, he wasn’t giving much away saying he would decide all that after the A-Main practice.  Asked who he expected to the strongest challenge to come from he said Pietsch was the important one as he was his main title rival.

Pulling off after a mistake in Q5 which ended his quest for a second overall TQ of the season, Pietsch said second on the grid was in fact ‘really good’ as he can follow Kurzbuch, let him set the pace, and make adjustments to his strategy accordingly just like Lamberto Collari did to him in Melzo. Second fastest in the final qualifier, the former World Champion said a spring change on his Picco powered MRX-5 worked really well but also changing to an old engine for the run he said it was ‘broken’ at the end of the 4-minutes.   Planning one tyre stop, Pietsch said his fuel run time has been very good, the 1:8 field running 16% nitro, and he hopes to take advantage of that over the 45-minutes.

Hoppe was very happy to secure third on the grid.  Second fastest in Q5, a change to the front droop on his Sonic powered Velox V8 left the rear very loose in the final qualifier leaving him only 13th fastest.  Admitting that Kurzbuch and Pietsch had a small edge over the rest of the field, he said by reverting his car back to its Q5 set-up he should be strong and to get a podium at the end of the 45-minutes ‘would be great’.

Using the last two qualifiers to work on a set-up for the final, Ielasi said this took the edge off his earlier pace but in the end he was happy to get 4th on the grid.  With high tyre wear, he said was able to reduce this with set-up changes in Q5 & 6 but at the cost of his RB powered BMT984 developing understeer.  Planning further adjustment to try lessen this for the final, the Italian believes he has a good chance for the final.

Making his return to Mugen this weekend, Vrielijnck said fifth on the grid was ‘OK’.  Having got his Picco powered MRX-5 a lot more consistent for the last two qualifiers he said the wind was still a bit of an issue for him but overall he feels he has a good set-up for tomorrow. Aiming to do just one tyre stop, the Dutch National Champion said his car is better on new large diameter tyres which is good for the final. Should the wind be less tomorrow he said his car is good enough for a podium but if its windy it is going to be tough.

‘I can still do it’ was Michael Salven’s reaction to his TQ run in the final qualifier.  Having struggled and had no confidence in his car, the Serpent driver said input from Mark Green really helped him find his way again.  Trying some set-up idea the British driver said wouldn’t make the car faster but would give him confidence to be able to push it more the multiple European Champion said it worked.  Making the changes for Q5 he said his pit crew called him in a lap too early messing up that run but in Q6, when he also switched to the hardest rear anti rollbar they have for the 977, the set-up and him getting his confidence back all came together for a great finish to the day.

Claiming seventh on the grid Motonica’s Robin d’Hondt declared himself ‘quite happy’ adding it could have been better. Struggling to keep a good rhythm in Q5 he ended up only 11th fastest but working on his concentration for Q6 he he said it was a much better run apart from the wind which like Vrielijnck effected his P81 a lot leaving to to post the 7th fastest time.  Also like Vrielijnck he said his car is ‘really good’ on new tyres but having have not run on smaller tyres he could be in for a little bit of a surprise during the final.  Behind d’Hondt, Shepherd driver Timo Schröder lines up 8th followed by the Serpent of Patrick Gassauer with Maximilian Vogl making Shepherd the best represented manufacturer in the Main.

1:8 A-Main Grid
1. Simon Kurzbuch (CH) – Shepherd/Novarossi – 465 pts
2. Robert Pietsch (DE) – Mugen/Picco – 461
3. Lars Hoppe (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 458
4. Daniele Ielasi (IT) – BMT/RB – 455
5. Rick Vrielijnck (NL) – Mugen/Picco – 455
6. Michael Salven (DE) – Serpent/Picco – 451
7. Robin d’Hondt (BE) – Motonica/Picco – 450
8. Timo Schröder (DE) – Shepherd/XRD – 450
9. Patrick Gassauer (DE) – Serpent/Sonic – 450
10.Maximilian Vogl (DE) – Shepherd/Sonic – 446
(2 more drivers to bump up from B-Mains)

View the complete results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Video – 1/10th Qualifying Rd6

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXTNbxE5A8U[/youtube]

Greiner is Top Qualifier at ENS Round 3

Dominic Greiner is Top Qualifier for tomorrow’s 200mm A-Main at the Euro Nitro Series in Germany. The factory Serpent driver claimed his first pole position with a TQ run in the sixth & final round of a thrilling qualifying that would go down to the final lap.  Topping the time sheets for the first time in Q4, the Aigen race winner would go on to produce a hat trick of TQ runs to secure pole position at the Hockenheimring ahead of HB’s Teemu Leino and new Mugen recruit Ronald Volker, both of whom had a shot being the No.1 car for the 45-minute final.

Joint leader of the championship standings, Greiner was clearly relieved to take the final qualifier describing the run as ‘very difficult’.  Delighted to take the bonus championship point from his key rivals, both Eric Dankel & Dirk Wischnewski not having a good run in qualifying, the German said his tyres needed a lot of time to come in and it was only the second half of the race that his Picco powered 748 Natrix reached its optimum. Having to ‘push very hard’ to make up the time, he said in the end the car and the result was ‘perfect’.  Asked about his tyre strategy for the final he replied ‘its going to be a long final but maybe I can go without stopping for tyres’.  The 21-year-old said the risk of such a strategy is that the last 10-minutes the car would be running very low and with the track quite bumpy it would make it difficult to drive.  Describing his car as having a good final set-up with it ‘very easy to drive’ he said one option he will consider is changing just the outside tyres but he said he will make the final call after tomorrow’s A-Main practice session.

Top Qualifier at the season opener in Melzo, Leino said ending up 2nd was OK adding he really enjoyed how close the battle for the TQ was even though he lost out on the last lap when Greiner put in the fastest lap of the round.  Testing different shocks in Q5 ending up 4th fastest, the Finn said he didn’t like the feeling they gave his R10 and they reverted back to his original ones for the last round.  Happy that he has a good car for the final, the World Championship Top Qualifier said he just hopes he gets a good set of tyres for the final.  Very happy with the run time of his Novarossi engine, on the subject of tyre stops he said they would look at this after the A-Main practice.

Making his ENS debut and having not raced a nitro car for over a year & a half, electric touring car ace Volker described his 3rd on the grid as ‘not bad’.  Starting out Day 2 of the event with a TQ run, the German who is running a prototype of Mugen’s all new MTX-6 said Q5 was the best his car has been all weekend but unfortunately a cracked manifold caused by an off during the warm-up for Q4 caused his engine to go of towards the end of the run.  Despite this, newly crowned 4-time ETS Champion took second for the run launching his car across the finish line making heavy contact with the pit wall.  With no time to fully look over the car before the final qualifier Volker reported the car edgy to drive through the long corners with its designer Robert Pietsch believing the impact tweaked something.  Looking forward to the long final, being more used to the 5-minute dash of electric racing, Volker will depend very much on his mechanic Freddy Sudhoff and Pietsch for advice on a strategy.  A former 200mm European B Champion, Sudhoff said the car together with Volker’s electric driving style is giving ‘super good tyre wear’ with the front to rear tyre wear very even which is good for the final.

Describing the field as ‘so close’ Serpent’s Mark Green was ‘happy’ to secure fourth on the grid.  The long time Serpent team driver said ‘for sure (he has) a good car for the final’ adding he believes he has a good chance at battling for the win.  The winner of the 1:8 Main here last year at the ENS Pilot Race, the British driver said it is very close to being able to run the final with no tyre change but a lot depends on the weather.  Should the hot temperatures of yesterday’s practice day return he said he suspects one stop will be necessary but if its cool again like today it will be a close call. With the field so evenly matched he said he expects a lot of mistakes to be made in the pits as driver’s mechanic try to make up time during fuel and tyres stops.

Top Qualifier & winner here last year, a rather dejected Dankel lines up 5th on the grid.  The Capricorn driver, who won Round 1 of the championship, described his car as a ‘nightmare to drive’.  ‘On full lock to get around every corner’, he said starting 5th in the final was not his goal.  Having found a softer front diff to work well in the cool conditions of last night’s opening qualifier he said today it was ‘horrible’.   Asked about the final he said in such a long race anything can happy but continued that he had ‘huge work to do’ if he was to even challenge for a podium.  Asked about tyre strategy he said he planned to go the entire race on one set but said this was only possible if you don’t push too hard at the beginning.

Completing the top half of what will become a 12 car grid when the top two from the B-Main bump up, KM Racing’s Silvio Hachler wasn’t too happy with the result saying there was plenty of room for improvement.  Only his second ever 200mm race, the 1:8 Worlds Finalist said with this in mind the 6th position was not too bad and overall he feels he is headed in a good direction with the HK-1 ‘Meen Version’ which is still very new to him.  Switching engine for the final two qualifiers the 22-year-old said his second Novarossi engine was not as good but he wanted to save his first engine for the final.

Sharing the championship points lead with Greiner and Dankel, Wischnewski lines up a disappointing seventh at his Shepherd team’s home race. The former European Champion said in the last qualifier he pushed too hard resulting in a DNF but the problem is still his quest to find a good set-up.  Qualifying in the same spot at the season opener and managing to end that race on the podium, the German said he hopes he can repeat that performance again tomorrow.  Behind Wischnewski, Alexander Hagberg is the top Xray lining up 8th with the Top 10 being completed by the Serpent of Toni Gruber, making them the best represented car so far in the final, and the Xray of Euro B Champion Thilo Alexander who was also in the A-Main at Melzo.

1:10 200mm A-Main Grid
1. Dominic Greiner (DE) – Serpent/Picco – 465 pts
2. Teemu Leino (FI) – HB/Novarossi – 463
3. Ronald Volker (DE) – Mugen/LRP – 461
4. Mark Green (GB) – Serpent/Novarossi – 456
5. Eric Dankel (DE) – Capricorn/Maxima – 452
6. Silvio Hachler (CH) – KM Racing/Novarossi – 451
7. Dirk Wischnewski (DE) – Shepherd/Orcan – 449
8. Alexander Hagberg (SE) – Xray/Orcan – 447
9. Toni Gruber (DE) – Serpent/Novarossi – 445
10.Thilo Alexander (DE) – Xray/Orcan – 441
(2 more drivers to bump up from B-Mains)

View the complete results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Chassis Focus – Lars Hoppe

Chassis – Shepherd Velox V8 EC
Engine – Sonic
Fuel – Maxima
Tires (handout) – Enneti
Radio/Servo – KO Propo/Graupner
Body – Blitz TS 030

Remarks – Running the full line of Shepherd products, Lars Hoppe is in attendance here at the ENS Round3 in Hockenheim running a pretty standard version of the V8 “EC” edition powered by Sonic engines. Some parts that differ from the kit are a complete set of titanium screws, an aluminium ackermann plate and lightweight pivot balls on the front end.

Image Gallery

Video – 1/8th Qualifying Rd4

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HTHhNiDeFc[/youtube]