May 21, 2017

Coelho unassailable as he takes ENS France win

Bruno Coelho was unassailable in the opening round of the Euro Nitro Series today in France, the Portuguese ace leading an Xray 1-2 on the championship’s first visit to the Mulhouse track.  Top Qualifier for the 45-minute encounter, Coelho was quickly able to establish a lead and taking control of the race, the lack of pressure meant he could even switch from his originally pit strategy after the first refuelling.  His second ENS career win, Coelho would finish over two laps up on new team-mate Alessio Mazzeo, the Italian having a battle over second with the Mugen of Eric Dankel for a time with the German having to settle for third in the end.  Unfortunately for Leo Arnold he couldn’t pull off a home podium finish, tyres issues at the start of the race dropping up from his P2 starting position to 10th.  Once on new tyres however he would do well to recover to fourth.  For reigning champion Teemu Leino his weekend wasn’t to improve in the final with the Infinity driver crashing out at the 20-minute mark leaving him 12th in the final classification.

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May 20, 2017

Coelho on pole for ENS season opener

Bruno Coelho will again start a new season of the Euro Nitro Series from pole.  Having TQ’d Round 1 in Italy last year, the Xray driver is the 1:10 Top Qualifier on the championship’s first visit to Mulhouse in France. The Portuguese driver was somewhat helped by his team-mate Leo Arnold, as the French driver took the fourth & final round of qualifying ahead of the Shepherd of Eduardo Escandon.  Having TQ’d the second qualifier, the Spaniard was the only one who could deny Coelho the overall TQ and he came close to jumping position at the top of the timing screens with Arnold. Setting the fastest lap of the heat, Arnold would get the job done to secure second on the grid for his home race with Escandon third.  Behind, Kyle Branson, Eric Dankel and reigning champion Teemu Leino complete the top half of what will become a 12 car grid once the Top 2 in the B-Main get bumped up.

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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]

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