Balestri & Groskamp win ENS season opener
The latest season of the Euro Nitro Series kicked off at Minidrom Ettlingen in Germany over the weekend where it was double success for Infinity with Dario Balestri winning 1:8 and Jilles Groskamp winning 1:10. In 1:8 qualifying it was the Mugen Seiki of Simon Kurzbuch that set the pace, the Swiss driver topping all four qualifiers to secure TQ honours ahead of Balestri. Counting two P2 runs it was the Capricorn of reigning champion Toni Gruber who completed the Top 3 on the grid ahead of Serpent pairing Marco Weigerding and Mirko Salemi. In the 45-minute final, Kurzbuch would lead away but with 8-minutes done as the former World Champion exited pit lap after his second stop attempting to keep his lead he and Balestri made contact with the Italian land on his roof. While Kurzbach waited this allowed Gruber to the lead. The German would lead until the 25-minute to go mark when Balestri squeezed passed as the leader exited pit lane after refuelling. Unfortunately just after stopping for new tyres Gruber would suffer a problem retire in pit lane. This left Balestri to lead the race home for the final 20-minutes chased by Kurzbuch. Starting from 11th on the grid, Dutch Infinity driver Robbin Hertong completed the podium ahead Weigerding, Rick Vrielijnck, and ARC’s Silvio Hächler.
With 2026 a World Championship year for 1:10 Nitro Touring, Gubbio in Italy the stage for that race in September, the class attracted a strong quality field. As the defending ENS Champion, Capricorn’s Jakub Rozycki made the perfect start to his season securing the TQ ahead of team-mate Melvin Diekmann with World Champion Groskamp third ahead of British Champion Alex Thurston. In the final, having dropped back to P5 early on, Groskamp would take over the lead with 15-minutes to go as long time leader & team-mate Carmine Raiola made his tyre stop. With Raiola in his shadows, Groskamp took the win with Rozycki completing the podium followed by Thurston and nitro racing returnee & former World Championship podium finisher Kyle Branson.
Images: Infinity [Facebook]
