Collari opens ENS 1:8 qualifying with TQ run

After some rain delays, 1:8 qualifying at the opening round of the new Euro Nitro Series saw Lamberto Collari top the first of the four qualifiers in Melzo, Italy.   Driving a privately entered Mugen/OS combination the 9-time World Champion topped the round from the BMT of Daniele Ielasi with Mugen’s Robert Pietsch completing the Top 3 of what was an extremely competitive affair with the first 8 drivers covered by just 1.8 seconds.

After a 3-hour delay to proceedings this morning at the Mini Racing Ayrton Senna track due to overnight rain, light rain having already caused the postponement of Q1 of 1:8 yesterday evening,  when the drivers did take to the track the general feedback was that conditions were loose.  Having been some what under the radar for most of yesterday’s practice runs, Collari said a change of shock oil and springs on his MRX5 for Q1 had improved the feeling of his car even though conditions were ‘loose from (the) rain’.  Pleased with his run, the ENS  running point qualifying rather than Fastest time, the Italian legend will make a few further changes to his OS powered chassis in anticipation of  improved track conditions, the sun now shining at the track.

Having only driven his new BMT984 for the first time on Thursday, former 200mm World Champion Ielasi said he was ‘really really happy’ to start his qualifying with a second.   Switching to RB engines for the 2014 season, he said his engine was set a little too lean on the bottom end with this costing him some time – his separation from Collari over the 4-minutes being just 1/10th of a second.  In terms of his chassis set-up he said the feeling he has with the car is good and so for Q2 he will leave it as is.

‘A solid run’ was how Robert Pietsch described his opening qualifier.  The former World Champion said his MRX5, on which he is running a prototype chassis, the same as Takaaki Shimo & Atsushi Hara ran at the World Championships in Japan, was good but his engine was a little down on power.  For Q2 the German will fit a new Picco engine leaving everything else as is.

Having pre-run tyres in yesterday’s timed practice run in preparation for qualifying, with the track conditions a little off Alberto Picco ran his opening qualifying on a brand new set.  Describing the run as ‘very conservative’, the Italian still managed to post the fourth fastest time.  On the large diameter tyres he said his was unable to push but feels saving the tyres for the later qualifiers is a good call.  Looking to get more grip for Q2 he moved the position of the bodyshell on his self modified MRX4 along with changing the rear upright geometry.

Making his race debut for KM Racing this weekend, World finalist Silvio Hachler said he went for a safe run and overall he was pretty happy with 5th.  Having to learn a lot about the Novarossi powered K8, and not having another competitive driver to work with, the 22-year-old Swiss driver said under braking the rear end of the car is a little loose but he isn’t exactly sure what is the best changes to make to rectify this.

Driving a prototype chassis from WRC, the number of new manufacturers an encouraging development for 1:8 Onroad,  Anrea Pirani was pleased with his car’s performance but maybe not his own driving.  In contention for a TQ run a late mistake left the Italian 6th as he lost 1-second when he got out of shape through one of the tracks high speed corners.  Having arrived on Wednesday for testing last night he gave the car a full rebuild saying that this improved the feeling of the chassis, the three days of track time having taken its toll.  Planning to leave the car as is for Q2 he said he will instead wait for the track to improve.

British driver Kyle Branson used a fresh set of tyres for Q1, Matrix being the handout tyres for ENS Round 1, saying that this cost him a lot of time early in the run with him ending up 7th fastest.  With his Capricorn improving over the run he plans to run the same set of tyres in Q2, drivers having to leave tyres they wish to reuse in a controlled area before leaving the pitlane after their runs.  Looking to make the C801 a little easier to drive for Q2 he will add toe out to the front as well as adding a 1mm shim to the top of the rear hub.

‘Not so bad, not so fast’ was how Oliver Mack summed up his run to 8th.  With the times ‘so close’, he said a lean bottom end on his Sonic engine meant he twice suffered from it starving for fuel costing him precious time.  While his Shepherd Velox V8 was ‘not so easy to drive’ compared to yesterday he is putting this down to the track conditions and will leave it as is for Q2.

Having topped yesterday’s practice Mack’s Shepherd team-mate Simon Kurzbuch would post the 9th fastest time despite not finishing the 4-minutes.  On a TQ run with a lap to go his Novarossi engine stopped, a broken fuel tank having afterwards being discovered to be the cause of the problem.  With the engine damaged the 2011 World Championship Finalist will fit a new engine but having run it yesterday he said its good so everything should be fine for Q2.  Just missing out on 14-laps BP Racing’s Mirko Salemi completed the Top 10 ahead of Francesco Tironi and 200mm Q1 Top Qualifier Teemu Leino.

1:8 Q1 times – Top 10
1. Lamberto Collari – Mugen/OS – 14/4:16.691
2. Daniele Ielasi – BMT/RB – 14/4:16.804
3. Robert Pietsch – Mugen/Picco – 14/4:16.883
4. Alberto Picco – Mugen/Picco – 14/4:17.164
5. Silvio Hachler – KM Racing/Novarossi – 14/4:17.266
6. Andrea Pirani – WRC/OS – 14/4:17.791
7. Kyle Branson – Capricorn/XRD – 14/4:18.142
8. Oliver Mack – Shepherd/Sonic – 14/4:18.278
9. Simon Kurzbuch – Shepherd/Novarossi – 13/3:57.386
10.Mirko Salemi – BP Racing/Novarossi – 13/4:00.635

View the complete results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Chassis Focus – Oliver Mack

Chassis – Shepherd Velox V8 EC
Engine – Sonic 21X
Fuel – Maxima
Tires (handout) – Matrix Tyres
Radio/Servos – Futaba
Remarks – Having not driven since the World Championships in Japan Oliver Mack was surprised with his pace in controlled practice and really happy with his Edo prepared Sonic engine. Unlike some other drivers the German said his car actually handled better with the controlled batch of tires compared to those he used in free practice. Still running the EC version of the Velox V8, Shepherd have a new car coming in the next 2 weeks but due to some critical parts missing he wasn’t able to run it, he chose to use the rear lower wishbones with their pivot ball ARB link and bumper from the new car. In terms of setup its stiff all the way around especially on the front saying if he goes softer for more steering he will end up losing the rear end.

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Chassis Focus – Andrea Pirani

Chassis – WRC GTX
Engine – OS Speed 2101
Fuel – MLC
Tires (handout) – Matrix Tyres
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/Futaba
Remarks – Andrea Pirani is running the soon to be released (May) and provisionally names GTX from Italian company WRC Racing. Only the 5th time driving the car and one of the first using a majority of production parts he is pleased with the car saying it has a lot of traction and with the drive train giving more rotation to the front and less to the rear. Another unique system is the rear braking system which mounted to the rear axle uses magnets to release the brake pads from the disk. Since arriving in Melzo, like most drivers he has gone to a stiff setup, at least in the rear, while making it softer in the front compared to his home track of Bologna. Pirani is also making his race debut with his new OS engine and pleased with his speed and consumption, able to make 5 and a half minutes, helped by the use of 16% fuel.

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‘From Race Control’ – Day 2, Qualifying/Lower Finals

Unfortunately its a damp start to the second day of the Euro Nitro Series in Melzo, Italy.  With light rain arriving during the opening round of 1:8 qualifying yesterday evening forcing organisers to cut short the day’s programme.  The rain would get worse into the night leaving the track unraceable this morning at the original 08:00 start time.  Postponing the start by an hour, officials have since extended that by a further hour as they wait for the sun to break through the grey morning skies.  The good news is the forecasts for the area shows it will be a sunny day so it is just a matter of playing the waiting game for the track to dry.  On the schedule for Day 2, which is now somewhat provisional, is all four rounds of 1:8 qualifying, the cut short Q1 being fully rerun for all drivers, the remaining 3 rounds of 1:10, the weather having been perfect for their opening qualifier, followed by the first leg of the lower finals.  Unlike the traditional fastest time qualifying format used in road nitro racing,  for the ENS qualifying is done by points per round with 2 of 4 to count meaning a change in conditions should not effect too much the outcome of qualifying.

Video – 1/10th 200mm Qualifying Rd1

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWRxNFEj9Lg[/youtube]

Leino TQs opening qualifier at ENS

Despite having not raced 1:10 200mm nitro since the World Championships in Thailand in 2012, HB’s Teemu Leino got his return to the class off to an impressive start as he TQ’d the first qualifier at the opening round of the all new Euro Nitro Series in Melzo.  Having set the pace in practice at the Italian event earlier in the day, the Finn completed a perfect first day posting the fastest time over the 4-minute qualifier by .638 of a second from World’s podium finisher Francesco Tironi with Serpent’s Dominic Greiner completing the Top 3.  Having posted the second fastest time in practice, Dario Balestri would fail to complete a single lap in Q1 suffering a throttle servo failure in his Capricorn on his out lap.

‘Still think it can be better’ was how Leino summed up his TQ run.  The World Championship Top Qualifier said he had not yet found a ‘super set-up’ for his R10 but added his Novarossi engine was ‘crazy good’. Under braking he does not have the steering he would like to have and he said ‘when or if’ they figure this out he can be a lot faster.  With the car’s designer Takashi Miyashita as his pitman, Leino said because they do not have a lot of experience with the car and of running on such a large track he said the plan is to make changes to the car every qualifier as they try to work towards a good set-up for the finals.  Racing also in 1:8 here at the Mini Racing Ayrton Senna track, he said switching back & forth between the two classes is challenging as the driving styles required for each car are so different.

Having ended practice sixth fastest, Tironi said 3-consecutive laps have never been his strong point but he knew he had the consistency for a good qualifying run.  Moving the position of the bodyshell on his Novarossi powered Shepherd for Q1, he said this gave the Velox V10 more steering.  Admitting he is not the outright fastest driver over a single lap, he is pleased with his overall pace and plans to continue with the car although with light rain causing the postment of the opening round of 1:8 qualifying to tomorrow morning he said he must wait to see what weather greets racers in the morning – currently the forecast show the rest of the weekend to be ideal for racing.

While still looking to get more steering from his Serpent 747, Greiner said the car was easy and consistent to drive and overall that was more important.  Having reverted back to a gear diff in the front having tried a solid axle, the German said this made the car feel ever so slightly better under braking.   Suffering from his engine dropping off power after 5-laps, he will fit a new Picco engine for Q2 adding that hopefully with a good nights sleep he can also come up with a solution as to how to find more steering.

Posting the fourth fastest time was Luca Redaelli, the Xray driver saying a problem with traffic on the last lap cost him a Top 3 run.  Switching to a set of shocks from Italian company Black Tarmac, the 22-year-old said they improved his NT1 over how it ran on the standard shocks giving him more overall traction.  For the second of the four scheduled qualifiers he plans to run the car as is.

Having had gearbox issues in the final practice, Dirk Wischnewski said he had to use the warm-up to adjust the gearbox but still it did not feel right for the qualifier.  Setting the 5th fastest time he said considering this it was an ok result.  Planning to fit a new gearbox for Q2 he said he will also make some set-up changes but these will depend on the morning’s track conditions.

Capricorn’s Eric Dankel posted the 6th fastest time, the Top 6 covered by just 2.3 seconds.  The German said he didn’t want to be making excuses but felt he had bad luck with the set of tyres he was issued with for the run.  With the German describing his car good through right turns he said it suffered from understeer when turning left.  Despite this he said things are ‘super tight’ and he is looking forward to Q2.

Posting the 7th fastest time, Adrien Bertin was pleased with his run despite losing time after contact with the Shepherd of Patrick Nähr.  His debut race with HB, the former World Champion said he is enjoying working with Leino & Miyashita and overall his focus is learning the R10.  Looking to get a better feeling with the car through low speed corners he said for a first outing its working good but if he could get the car to rotate more it would be much easier.

Martin Lissau took his Shepherd to the 8th fastest time despite having to deal with some ‘hectic traffic’ at the start of the qualifier.  The Danish driver said switching to a stiffer shock set-up improved the overall feeling of his Velox V10 but added he may have taken the wrong direction with a harder front anti-roll bar and for Q2 he will switch to a softer rollbar.  Behind the former 1:5 Touring Car World Champion Xray’s Rico Krober and Serpent’s Mark Green completed the Top 10.

1:10 200mm Q1 times – Top 10
1. Teemu Leino – HB/Novarossi – 13/4:16.194
2. Francesco Tironi – Shepherd/Novarossi – 13/4:16.832
3. Dominic Greiner – Serpent/Picco – 13/4:17.631
4. Luca Redaelli – Xray/Picco – 13/4:17.819
5. Dirk Wischnewski – Shepherd/Orcan – 13/4:18.107
6. Eric Dankel – Capricorn/Maxima – 13/4:18.536
7. Adrien Bertin – HB/Orion – 12/4:01.113
8. Martin Lissau – Shepherd/Reds – 12/4:02.124
9. Rico Krober – Xray/Orcan – 12/4:02.565
10.Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi – 12/4:03.034

View the complete results here.

View our event image gallery here.