Cuypers makes 1st A-Main along with Hächler

Steven Cuypers will line up for his first Euro Nitro Series A-Main this evening, the Mugen driver doing so by winning the B-Main at Round 2 in Ettlingen, Germany. Starting from 5th on the grid the former European B Champion would win the quarter hour final by just 8/10ths of a second from the ARC of Silvio Hachler who led for most of the early part of the race. A well loaded race after the rain shortened qualifying meant the grid was determined by a single round, drivers having got to only complete 2 qualifiers between the rain showers. Battling for a bump up position, one casualty of the race would be Robert Pietsch, the Mugen designer retiring after an off with one and a half minutes to go. The race would also mark the end of the event for Francesco Tironi, the Infinity driver only 1.9-seconds off Hachler at the finish.

After the rain yesterday Cuypers said he ‘wasn’t confident about (his) set-up’ for the race but the conditions and his MRX6 ‘all fell into place’ with his car ‘very good’. Considering the risk of trying to get 5-minutes from his Picco engine he said it was safer to go 4-minutes as he could also push for the entire race with this strategy adding ‘it worked out’. Looking to his first A-Main appearance, the Belgian said he is aiming to finish in the Top 5. No stranger to A-Main finals at the ENS, Hachler said he had a lot of pressure from Pietsch until the former World Champion touched the curb adding ‘after that it was easy’. Admitting to being ‘a little surprised by Cuypers (pace)’, the 24-year-old said first place didn’t matter and now that he is in the Main event ‘a podium finish would be cool’.

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Hagberg & Kragefski bump into A-Main

Just as he did at the season opener, World Champion Alexander Hagberg has booked a place in the Main event at Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series by winning the B-Main. The Swede, who found himself 14th at the end of the truncated qualifying, would start 4th on the grid for the shortened 15-minute encounter but it was his team-mate Tom Krägefski’s fuel strategy that would allow the Xray/Orcan pairing into the A-Main. Starting from pole, Rene Püpke initially led from Infinity driver Andy Moore until a mistake dropped the German out of contention. Moore would now lead but with an extra stop to do this played into Hagberg’s hands. While Hagberg would pull clear at the front, Moore now had to contend with Krägefski but a slight bobble would be enough to let the German passed for second spot. While the British driver would fight back over the closing laps, Krägefski had enough in hand to book his place in the final.

After the race, Hagberg said, ‘we had good fuel consumption and having to do only two stops gave us the upper hand’. Posting one of the slowest laps of the race, he added, ‘I was not the fastest but did enough to bump up and now we need to make changes for final. Let’s see how it works out’. Krägefski said ‘we were not sure about the fuel strategy. It was a gamble but it paid off’. He continued, ‘When I had a gap I had to be very smooth. We had the engine very lean, I don’t think we can run the same way in the final’.

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Q3 scrapped, 1/8th grid set

The Top 10 direct qualifiers for the 1:8 A-Main at Round 2 of the Euro Nitro Series have been set, organisers attempts to complete the third round of qualifying thwarted by a damp Ettlingen track greeting competitors this morning. With conditions not comparable to yesterday when they got all but the last three heats of Q3 complete, the entire round was scrapped and the grid determined by each driver’s best result of the two completed rounds.  While this didn’t effect the outcome of the Top Qualifier, that honour already secured by Team Shepherd’s Simon Kurzbuch who TQ’d both rounds, it did change the rest of the grid. Capricorn’s Dario Balestri will start second thanks to a quicker time than Infinity driver Jilles Groskamp, both drivers counting a P2, but one of the biggest benefactors of the single counting round is Bruno Coelho. With a DNF in Q1, the Xray driver was third in the second round and will line-up P4 ahead of Serpent’s Merlin Depta.  With 2 cars set to join the A-Main from the B-Main, it is Capricorn’s Robin D’hondt who completes the top half of the grid followed by ARC’s Toni Gruber and Infinity’s Lamberto Collari.  Securing the final two direct grid spots for 45-minute encounter in 9th & 10th are new Capricorn signing Rick Vrielijnck and Picco engines front man Alberto Picco.

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Kurzbuch Top Qualifier in German as qualifying cut short by rain

Simon Kurzbuch is Top Qualifier for tomorrow’s second round of the Euro Nitro Series after rain cut short qualifying in Germany.  With four runs of qualifying originally planned, the arrival of rain towards the end of Q3 left the already under pressure timetable unable to fit in a fourth round, a 20:00 curfew on the running of engines at Minidrom Ettlingen adding to the difficulties of running a full schedule.  With Kurzbuch TQ’ing the opening two qualifiers and Q4 scrapped, the Team Shepherd driver can’t be denied pole position for tomorrow’s 45-minute A-Main and the important bonus championship point it carries.  Running up as far as the third fastest 1:8 heat run before ran brought Day 2 to a premature finish, the organisers hope to complete Q3 in the morning by running the remaining three heats in order to have two from three rounds determine the grid.  If that doesn’t prove possible then 1 of 2 will count which would leave Dario Balestri second on the grid followed Jilles Groskamp and Bruno Coelho.

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Chassis Focus – Dominic Greiner

Chassis – Serpent 748 ‘Natrix’ TQ
Engine – Novarossi Mito .12 C
Fuel – Runner Time
Tires (handout) – Enneti
Radio/Servo – Futaba
Body – SRC Spark

Remarks – Top qualifier here in Ettlingen last year, German Serpent driver Dominic Greiner is running the TQ version of the 748 Natrix. His car features a brass suspension bracket that adds weight to the front end, aluminium roll bar ball studs and titanium screws, while the big bore shocks are taken from the electric Serpent touring car.

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Dankel claims first ENS TQ

Eric Dankel has secured his first overall TQ of the Euro Nitro Series.  Having posted a TQ run in the second qualifier at the German round, the Mugen driver backed that up with another in Q3 leaving only Jilles Groskamp as a rival for the 1:10 pole position.  However with rain interrupting the third round of 1:8 qualifying at the Ettlingen track, the latest rain delay left the organisers with little option but to cancel the fourth & final round of qualifying meaning the grid will be based on two of the three run qualifiers.  With Dankel achieving a perfect score with his two TQ’s, Teemu Leino would secure P2 on the grid thanks in his P2 in the third qualifier with last year’s Top Qualifier Dominic Greiner, despite an gearbox issue in Q3, completing the Top 3.  Having opened the day with a TQ but struggled somewhat in the next two, reigning champion Jilles Groskamp will line-up fourth with Patrick Nähr and ENS Italy Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho completing the Top 6.

‘I’m very happy to claim my first TQ’, said Dankel continuing ‘I have been practicing a lot this year’.  Winning his 2014 title without topping qualifying, he continued ‘I am much more focussed this year as I know I lacked time and it feels good to be competitive again’.  Making the switch to Mugen for his 2016 campaign, the German qualified 5th in Bologna but with a lack of time to prepare a wet car he would sit out the final.  Starting and finishing 7th at his home track last year, then driving for Capricorn, looking to tomorrow’s final he said, ‘Robert (Pietsch) has made a very good car for me, I like driving it and I’m confident for the race’.  Asked about a set-up for the final, he said ‘I had the choice yesterday to go with a soft or harder set-up and I opted for the harder.  It worked for qualifying and I think it will also be good for the final as it will better suit my aggressive driving style’.

Having not raced 1:10 at the season opener, Leino was happy to qualify P2.  A driver with two 1:10 ENS TQs to his credit, the Team Infinity driver said the Capricorn he is running is ‘easy to drive’ adding ‘if I don’t hit my typical problems I should have a good final’.  Confident he has good fuel mileage from his Novarossi engine, the Finn, who took a P2 in Q3, said while there is ‘really low wear’ he feels it will be necessary to ‘still change some tyres’ based on the A-Main going the full 45-minute distance should rain not cause more interruptions tomorrow.

Greiner was content with P3 given his gearbox issues saying ‘from P3 the win is always possible’.  With an inconsistent change in Q2, in Q3 his car got stuck in 2nd gear, but the Serpent driver is hopeful they have found a solution for the problem saying, ‘we hope we have found the problem’. Set to fit a complete new gearbox, he said the A-Main practice should let them get it set for the final.  Running Novarossi engines like Leino, he too felt he has good mileage saying ‘the run time is good’.  Asked about tyres he replied ‘it could be possible to run the final on one set’ but the reaction of his mechanic indicated otherwise.

If there was one driver who could manage such a strategy successfully it would be Groskamp.  Having struggled with a diff issue in Q2 & 3 in his Serpent, the intervention of the car’s designer Michael Salven may set the ‘thinking driver’ up for a potential first ENS race win.  Taking his standard kit 748 to a TQ run in the opening qualifier in the next two after starting out well the car would get loose leaving him to struggle to the finish.  Suspecting it was diff related, fitting a new one between rounds, the Dutchman has been given a diff from the older 733, which features larger gears, to run in the car for the final.

With ENS Round 1 winner Dirk Wischnewski struggling following a P3 in the opening qualifier leaving him 9th on the grid, Patrick Nahr will be the best place Shepherd on the grid in P5.  Winner of this race last year,  it wouldn’t be right to discount Wischnewski from a good result as his win in the wet in Bologna was from 8th on the grid and rain is expected to appear at some stage tomorrow.

Posting his best qualifier at Minidrom Etttlingen in Q3, when he was fourth fastest behind his Xray team-mate Marco Kaufmann, Coelho said the run was perfect but going into the final he feels he has a good ‘long distance’ package.  Asked about tyres he said ‘Jilles could do it on one set but with a sweeper onto & at the end of straight it would be difficult to not at least change the outside tyres’.

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