September 6, 2019

Kurzbuch from Balestri in 2nd Ettlingen qualifier

With an engine failure stopping him in his tracks in the opening qualifier at ENS Ettlingen, Simon Kurzbuch bounced back to take the second round ahead of his great arch rival Dario Balestri.  Also having a troubled Q1, Balestri would finish 6/10ths of a second off the Shepherd driver’s TQ pace in a heat that would see Q1 TQ man Carmine Raiola have his turn of bad luck. Struggling with a rich engine his race came to an end when he stripped a gear with a minute to go.  While Dominic Greiner would set the 3rd fastest time in the top heat, it was to be John Ermen who completed the overall Top 3, the ARC driver’s time in the second fast heat demoting the Serpent driver to fourth with Lars Hoppe rounding out the Top 5.

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September 6, 2019

Raiola TQs opening 1:8 qualifier at ENS Finale

Carmine Raiola has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the ENS Season Finale in Germany, the Infinity driver cutting things ultra close and running out of fuel crossing the loop.  Fourth fastest in practice, the Italian looked to be battling for second position with Dominic Greiner in the first of the four qualifiers as already crowned champion Simon Kurzbuch set the pace out front. However with less than 20-seconds on the clock, Kurzbuch would suffer an engine failure allowing Raiola to secure a TQ run by 1/10th of a second from Greiner.  Having topped seeding ahead of Merlin Depta, last year’s race winner Dario Balestri hit problems before the run had even started. Coming down pitlane after completing his warm-up, the Infinity driver hit the bottom of the lowly held Shepherd of Toni Gruber which pulled the trim tab from the body.  While his mechanic tried to fix it back into position the body was ripped and it came undone again causing Balestri to have a high speed off on the entry to the main straight while holding P2.  In the end he would finish 4th behind Depta, who completed the Top 3 with the fastest lap of Q1.

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September 6, 2019

Groskamp takes super close Q1 at ENS Finale

Jilles Groskamp claimed a super close opening qualifier at the Season Finale of the Euro Nitro Series in Ettlingen Germany.  Racing for the newly crowned champions Infinity, the 2019 1:10 Champion Teemu Leino opting to focus on 1:8 this weekend, Groskamp swapped the lead at the top of the timing screens each lap with Shepherd’s Thilo Tödtmann, with the former champion just doing enough on the final lap to take it by 0.054 of a second.  With rain on the horizon for Sunday forcing an early start to qualifying, all four rounds to be run today, behind Groskamp & Tödtmann it was practice Top Seed Melvin Diekmann who completed the Top 3, 1.3-seconds further back, just ahead of Shepherd team-mate Patrick Nähr. Second fastest in practice, Infinity’s young Dutch talent Milan Holthuis posted the 5th fastest qualifying time.

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July 22, 2019

Kurzbuch secures 4th ENS title with another Aigen win

Simon Kurzbuch has secured the 2019 Euro Nitro Series title after claiming his fifth consecutive win at the hillside Aigen track in Austria.  Travelling to the third round of the Euro Nitro Series on the back of his first win of the season at Round 2 in the Netherlands, the Shepherd driver collected maximum points taking the TQ and win ahead of reigning champion Dario Balestri.  With the demise of Dominic Greiner, who came into the weekend just 1-point off the Swiss ace, Kurzbuch becomes Champion of the ENS for a fourth time.  In the Round 3 encounter, it was the Infinity pairing of Balestri and Carmine Raiola who were the only ones to trouble Kurzbuch in the 45-minute Saturday night final.  Raiola was to lead for a time until he hit traffic, literally, and had to pit for body repairs.  With Kurzbuch and Balestri having the same tyre strategy but in reverse order, the latter going for all four tyres in the first stop and just the outside in the second, as the race came to a close it looked like we might see a repeat of the thrilling finish to the 1:10 A-Main.  In the end Kurzbuch calculated things perfectly crossing the line 9/10ths of a second in front of his long standing rival while Raiola came home third to complete the podium.  Off the podium, Toni Gruber would finish 4th ahead of Merlin Depta with Rick Vrielijnck rounding out the Top 6.

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July 22, 2019

Leino lifts ENS title with 3 out 3 wins

Teemu Leino is the 2019 Euro Nitro Series Champion, the 2016 champion securing back to back 1:10 titles today for Infinity with a thrilling win over team-mate & outgoing Champion Jilles Groskamp.  Securing the TQ in Austria with a dominant performance in all four qualifiers, the Finn looked like he was going to continue that form in the final but in the final 5-minutes Groskamp made an impressive charge for one of the closest finishes in ENS history.  With Leino holding a steady 2-second gap for much of the race, last year’s Aigen winner hunted him down bringing the gap down to 2/10th as they crossed the line.  Having won the opening two rounds of the Championship in Italy and the Netherlands, Leino third consecutive win secures him the title with the perfect campaign.  While the two Infinity drivers the class of the field, it was Shepherd’s Melvin Diekmann who completed the Round 3 podium after battle with team-mate Thilo Tödtmann ended when he hit gearbox issues.  France’s Quentin Leroux had a good race coming from P8 to 4th over the 45-minutes ahead of Rico Kröber who had bumped up to the 12th and final spot on the A-Main from the B-Final.

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July 20, 2019

Kurzbuch on Pole at ENS Austria

Simon Kurzbuch will start Round 3 of the Infinity Euro Nitro Series on pole position, the Shepherd driver taking all three of today’s qualifiers in Austria.  Missing out on the TQ in the opening qualifier yesterday to Dario Balestri, Kurzbuch would open Saturday’s action with a comfortable TQ run over Carmine Raiola.  Q3 was to be a closer affair with the former World Champion snatching the fastest time from Balestri on the final lap.  With Q3 the rocket round this effectively sealed the deal for Kurzbuch with the hotter conditions of the final qualifier making it an impossible task for Balestri.  In the end it was Kurzbuch who topped it ahead of Balestri, albeit over 2-second slower than his previous effort.  Brought forward to tonight due to the bad weather being forecast for tomorrow, Balestri will line-up second for the A-Main ahead of Raiola, Silvio Hächler, Toni Gruber, Oliver Krähemann and ENS Italy winner Dominic Greiner.

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July 20, 2019

Leino Top Qualifier at ENS Austria

Teemu Leino is the Top Qualifier at ENS Austria, the Infinity driver putting in a dominant performance to take all four rounds of qualifying at the Aigen track.  A two time winner up in the Austrian hills, the Championship leader will start ahead of team-mate Jilles Groskamp, the reigning Champion unable challenge to match the Finn’s blistering pace.  Claiming his best ever ENS qualifying result, Jakub Rozycki will start from 3rd on the grid for the 45-minute encounter, which, due to inbound rain has been rescheduled to run tonight.  Matching his 2017 qualifying result at the track, Melvin Diekmann will start 4th ahead of Milan Holthuis and 2017 podium finisher Thilo Tödtmann.

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July 20, 2019

Kurzbuch takes Q2 in Austria

Simon Kurzbuch has taken the second round of qualifying at ENS Austria this morning on what is going to a be busy day for drivers.  With rain forecast for tomorrow the schedule has been revised to include the running of all finals tonight following the conclusion of the four rounds of qualifying.  Having just missed out on the TQ in yesterday evening’s opening qualifier to Dario Balestri, Kurzbuch would take Q2 by over a second from Carmine Raiola with Balestri just 3/100ths further off in third as the only drivers to 17-lap runs of the Aigen track.  New to the Shepherd team for the 2019 season, Toni Gruber posted the 4th fastest time ahead of Silvio Hächler with Merlin Depta the top Serpent after ENS Italy winner Dominic Greiner had an off while running on a Top 3 pace.

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