May 20, 2017

Kurzbuch claims first point of new season with ENS France TQ

Simon Kurzbuch has notched up the first championship point of his title defence by securing the overall TQ at the Euro Nitro Series season opener in France.  The Shepherd driver went into the final qualifier up against unexpected TQ challenger Bruno Coelho with the Xray driver needing to take the round. A super close encounter at the end of the 4-minutes however it was Toni Gruber that would post the TQ run ahead of Naoto Matsukura confirming Kurzbuch’s 5th ENS career TQ.  For Gruber, his TQ run will result in him starting in the position he finished up in last season’s overall standings as he demoted ENS debutant Matsukura to a still impressive 4th on the grid.  Former champion Robert Pietsch would make for a very diverse line up of cars at the front of the grid as his Mugen will occupy 5th on the grid ahead of last year’s vice Champion Dario Balestri.

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May 20, 2017

Kurzbuch & Coelho to battle it out in final qualifier

Simon Kurzbuch and Bruno Coelho are set to battle it out for the first TQ of the new season at ENS France.  Having taken the opening qualifier, engine trouble for Kurzbuch would see Coelho post his first ever 1:8 TQ in the second round bettering the class master’s Q1 time.  With the fastest time the deciding factor should qualifying come down to a tie breaker, Kurzbuch would fight back in the penultimate qualifier with a second TQ run that improved on Coelho’s pace by 6/10ths. For Coelho mistakes in the round would leave him with a P3 with Naoto Matsukura just pipping him by 0.003 of a second, the 1:12 World Champion looking to have taken to 1:8 Onroad like a duck to water.  On current form the Japanese driver is on target to start tomorrow’s 45-minute Main at the difficult Mulhouse track 3rd on the grid although a TQ in the final round could see him split Kurzbuch and Coelho.

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May 20, 2017

Escandon TQ’s 2nd qualifier at ENS season opener

Eduardo Escandon has TQ’d the second round of qualifying at the season opener of the Euro Nitro Series in France.  The Spaniard, who had transponder issues in Q1 but was later credited with a P5, topped the Q2 times from Leo Arnold with Kyle Branson once again completing the Top 3.  With Q1 pace setter Bruno Coelho get hit by Eric Dankel on the last lap while on a target for a second TQ run, it was the Shepherd of Escandon who had the best pace to take advantage of the incident to finish just 7/100th up on Arnold.  Having opened his ENS account as an Xray driver backing up Coelho for a 1-2 in Q1, like his team-mate it looked like another good run but half way through the Italian would make a ‘stupid mistake’ hitting the curbing in a slow corner and flipping his car.  After a tough opening round, Q2 would prove more positive for reigning champion Teemu Leino as the Infinity driver posted the 5th fastest time behind Dankel.

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May 20, 2017

Kurzbuch takes Q1 ahead of Matsukura at Mulhouse

Simon Kurzbuch has taken the opening 1:8 qualifier at the season opener of the the Euro Nitro Series in France but its his closest challenge Naoto Matsukura who is the biggest surprise.  With seeding practice throwing up a bit of a surprise as Bruno Coelho posted the fastest 3-consecutive laps ahead of Matsukura with Kurzbuch third, the 1:8 World Champion resumed his more regular position when he TQ’d the opening round of qualifying.  The Shepherd driver would top the time by 7/10ths of a second from the 1:12 World Champion with 1:10 Offroad World Champion Coelho completing the Top 3.  Behind the assortment of World Champions, ENS debutant Takaaki Shimo would post the fourth fastest time with Lars Hoppe and 1:10 World Champion Dominic Greiner rounding out the Top 6.

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May 20, 2017

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’.

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May 19, 2017

Tomas Liptak successful at Czech IC Track Nats Rd1

The opening round of the Czech Nitro On-road Nationals was held recently and it was Tomas Liptak (Xray) who set the TQ in the 1/8th on-road class. Right after the start of the main final Tomas opened a gap on the field that was as large as five seconds before the first round of pit stops. Some 18 minutes into the main light drizzle made things interesting as the track was partly damp and partly dry but it soon started to fully dry up again and the final stages saw a dry track and a dominating Tomas Liptak who took the win some three laps in front of the Shepherd duo of Martin Zvara and Miroslav Jurenka.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]

May 19, 2017

Max Gotzl wins Nitro Buggy class at Czech Open

A round of the Czech Open series was held at the Horni Jeleni track recently. Xray’s Max Gotzl would hold the TQ until the third round when in the fourth and final qualifier Xray team mate Kaja Novotny, who struggled in the opening rounds, out-qualified him for the overall TQ. In the semifinals Kaja secured himself the pole position for the A-main and on lap three a small mishap of Kaja allowed Max to take the lead that he would extend after the first pit stop. About mid-race rain started to fall which made conditions tricky. Max lost some ground but ultimately he was able to bring home the win from Kaja, who had to make an additional fuel stop, in 2nd while Ales Bidovsky (Xray) had to settle for 3rd overall.

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May 19, 2017

2017 ENS opens with first French encounter

A new season of the Euro Nitro Series and it is a new destination for the high profile onroad nitro championship as the first encounter of Season #4 takes drivers to France this weekend (19-21 May).  With all previous seasons of the ENS having started at Italian locations, the addition of the Mulhouse track is certain to mix things up but only time will tell if it is enough to end the domination of reigning 1:8 Champion Simon Kurzbuch.  Also the reigning World Champion, the Shepherd driver completed a perfect 2016 campaign winning all four races having started his run of success the previous year when he won the season finale.  In 1:10, reigning Champion Teemu Leino claimed two victories on the way to wrapping up his first ENS title.  Like Kurzbuch, the Finn comes into the weekend, the ENS’ 13th championship race, looking to get started on becoming the first back to back ENS Champion.

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