Coelho takes opening 1:10 qualifying at ENS France

Bruno Coelho took the opening round of qualifying at ENS France, heading an Xray 1-2 ahead of new for 2017 team-mate Alessio Mazzeo. Opening the fourth season of the ENS by topping the morning’s two rounds of seeding practice from former champion Jilles Groskamp, Coelho would be almost 3-second quicker than Mazzeo over the 4-minute qualifier. Preventing an Xray Top 3 , Capricorn driver Kyle Branson would set the third fastest time just ahead of the Xray of Mulhouse track resident Leo Arnold.   With Groskamp completing the Top 6 behind the Serpent of Mark Green to be the quickest of the Infinity drivers, for team-mate & reigning champion Teemu Leino it was not a good first round. Posting the 12th fastest time, the Finn said, ‘I was just making donuts.  When I hit the gas I would just spin so we need to figure something out’.

‘It was a very good round’ was Coelho’s summary of Q1.  The Portuguese driver, who is a huge fan of the track layout, continued, ‘the last practice we tried different stuff and it was not good so we went back to our normal set and for the 4-minutes it was very consistent’.  Top Qualifier at last year’s season opener, held in Bologna, he would also make an engine change for the first of the four qualifiers.  Not happy with the feeling of the engine, he said they opted to change everything engine related with bad fuel tubing suspected to have been the issue.  Setting the fastest lap, a 17.717, he will leave his Max powered NT1 unchanged for Q2.

Mazzeo described his first heat as ‘not so bad’ adding ‘but we must still work on the set-up’.  Pointing out it is his first ENS encounter with Xray, the friendly Italian feels he is a little behind in getting his new car set-up due to weather limiting running – yesterday having been rained off. Looking to ‘learn the car more’, the World Championship podium finisher and former ENS race winner said, ‘the problem is the car is loose in the rear under braking so we will try changing the down stops for the next one and see’.  Asked about the track layout, this the ENS’ first visit, he replied, ‘it is one of the best 1:10 tracks in the World.  I really like it’.

While summing it up as a ‘good first run’, Branson was somewhat disappointed with his pace. The British driver, who returns to Capricorn after briefly departing the Italian manufacturer, said, ‘the car is ok but it needs more steering and more on power traction. I just drove around.  This was the best I could do, its consistent but not quite fast enough’.  Referring to Coelho, ‘as one of the best in the World’ adding ‘Bruno is Bruno’, he hopes to get closer to him in Q2 by changing the rear swaybar and ‘maybe a rear roll centre change’.

On his P4 Arnold said, ‘It was OK but my car was loose on the rear’.  Also losing some time having to open to let Coelho passed, he plans to make a spring set-up change for Q2 to get more traction.  A driver who knows the track better than anyone else having start in the sport here, when asked about traction levels following Friday’s rain he said they were already back to Thursday’s levels with him predicting that the traction would remain ‘stable’ for the rest of the day.

‘I’m quite happy. My car and engine are quite good’, was Green’s reaction to posting a P5 run, adding, ‘I’m trying to improve my driving more than anything’. The veteran British driver continued, ‘as normal I’m struggling with my braking points, I’m inconsistent but everything else is OK’.  Finishing half a second up on Groskamp, behind them new Shepherd recruit Thilo Todtmann would be P7 ahead of former Champion Eric Dankel who was the quickest Mugen.

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Track Focus – Mulhouse

Track Name – Mulhouse
Club – Mini Car Club de Mulhouse (MCCM)
Country – France
Location – Mulhouse (close to the Swiss and German borders)
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Asphalt
Previous ENS hosted – None

New on the calendar for 2017, the Euro Nitro Series season opener at Mulhouse marks the first international event to be hosted by the long established Mini Car Club de Mulhouse.  Built on government provided land in 1988, the club of around 40-members, is in for a busy 2017 going from none to 2 international events in the same year, the European Championship’s coming here later in August. In preparation for the arrival of the international visitors, the club has been busy investing in the facility including a brand new kitchen to cater for drivers and their teams.  The biggest entry the mainly nitro club has had to cater for, they have also extended the area of asphalt on which to set-up pit spaces.

In terms of the track itself a lap covers 305 metres and the surface is still the original asphalt that was laid 29-years ago.  One change the track has undergone is new curbing. Explaining the change top French racer Leo Arnold, who learnt his trade at Mulhouse as it is his local track, said, ‘the original curbing was higher and particularly high at the chicane and the beginning of the straight and it was super hard especially if you got your line wrong now the curbs are lower and its much better’.

In terms of the track all drivers agree its more challenging that traditional nitro track layouts with Bruno Coelho going as far as saying, ‘its one of the best tracks I have driven on to date, I really like the track’. Looking strong in both 1:10 & 1:8 practice, the Xray driver continued,’It has fast parts and super difficult parts, its not an Italian style full throttle track.  You need really to work and not just pull the throttle’.

With 1:10 Champion Teemu Leino calling it one of the most difficult tracks he has ever driven on, 1:8 Champion Simon Kurzbuch described it as having a ‘special layout’. The Shepherd driver continued, ‘It more technical than other 1:8 layouts but it is exciting to drive’.  Asked the most challenge sections, he highlighted the end of the straight chicane saying it was possible to go ‘full gas’ through it but only if you are on the right line.  He said how you take the chicane will then determine your entry into the infield which he said if you miss the apex of one corner is hard to get correct lines for the following corners.

Image Gallery

Day 1 of ENS France rained off

Day 1 of the 2017 Euro Nitro Series has been rained off. Waking to overnight rain, the organisers waited until lunch to make the call to cancel Friday’s official program with weather conditions looking far more favourable for the rest of the weekend. With Thursdays traditionally an open practice day run by the host club, with official timing having been in place the decision was made to use those times to seed the heats for qualifying. While drivers will provisionally get two practice runs in the morning, due to today’s conditions these two rounds will be purely for drivers to familiarise themselves with the track again before going into qualifying. Getting four rounds of practice yesterday afternoon, the track having been wet up to lunch time, there was a particular surprise in 1:8 as Bruno Coelho leads the times for Xray ahead of the Shepherd of reigning champion Simon Kurzbuch, the Infinity of Takaaki Shimo and Mugen of Robert Pietsch. Coelho was also, more expectedly, up there in the 1:10 times setting the third fastest time. The Top 3 separated by just 8/100ths of a second, it was the Mugen of Eric Dankel which was fastest ahead of the Xray of Leo Arnold. Reigning champion Teemu Leino would post the 9th fastest time with former Champion Jilles Groskamp the fastest Infinity driver in P6.