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.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

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.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

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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July 19, 2019

Reigning Champions TQ first qualifier at ENS Austria

The Euro Nitro Series three reigning Champions got their weekends off to the best possible start in Austria this evening as they each TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at Aigen-Schlägl.  Having topped 1:10 seeding, Teemu Leino would start a dominant evening for the Infinity team as he TQ’d the first of the four scheduled qualifiers from team-mate Jilles Groskamp with Jakub Rozycki third.  Next it was the turn of the 1:8 40+ class to run their opening qualifier with 4th seed Arie Manten taking the TQ with one & a half seconds in hand over top seed Klaus Köwenig.  It was however 1:8 that delivered the closest finish, as Dario Balestri just held off Simon Kurzbuch for the TQ by 0.024 of a second!  Having been in the mix for the TQ before an error, a recovering Carmine Raiola completed the Top 3 followed by Oliver Krähemann, Toni Gruber and Dominic Greiner, the latter lacking the pace he had shown in the final practice.

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July 19, 2019

Kurzbuch & Leino top seeding at ENS

Simon Kurzbuch and Teemu Leino are the top seeds at ENS Austria in Aigen.  Second fastest to Carmine Raiola in free practice, Kurzbuch produced a new fastest 3-consecutive laps in the first of the two controlled practices to secure the top seeding ahead of Dario Balestri, the World Champions split by 9/100ths of a second.  Topping CP2 ahead of Kurzbuch, this time would leave Dominic Greiner 3rd overall ahead of Riola who also was unable to improve on the time he set in CP1.  Last year’s race runner-up Toni Gruber will be seeded 5th ahead of Silvio Hächler with Jeffrey Rietveld being the only other driver in the Top 10 to improve his time in CP2 ending up 7th fastest.  In 1:10 Leino was able to remain at the top as he had done in free practice.  Topping both his runs, the Finn’s closest challenger was again team-mate Jilles Groskamp with Shepherd’s Melvin Diekmann stepping into the Top 3.

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July 19, 2019

Raiola sets free practice pace at ENS Aigen

Carmine Raiola has set the pace in free practice for the third round of the Infinity Euro Nitro Series in Aigen, Austria.  The Infinity driver would conclude the 12 rounds of free practice run over the past two days with a best 3-consecutive laps that was 1/10th of a second faster than the unique track’s winner of the last four years Simon Kurzbuch.  Completing the Top 3 would be Serpent’s Dominic Greiner who like those ahead of him ended free practice with his fastest run.  Unable to improve on his time from the 10th round, the second run of today, reigning champion Dario Balestri found himself 4th fastest.

Continue reading this report here or view our complete event coverage here.

July 16, 2019

Atsushi Hara appointed Neidhart Asian sales manager

Neidhart has announced the signing of 2-times IFMAR World Champion, Atsushi Hara as their Asian sales manager. Hara, who won the 2008 1/8th scale Off-Road IFMAR World Championship title with the Neidhart brand HB Racing, will now take over the position as sales manager for Asia. As such, he will be responsible for the sale of all Neidhart brands in the Asian market. Interested dealers and distributors can reach Hara at atsushi@neidhart.com. Besides his job as sales manager Asia, he will also be involved in the development of new vehicles and electronics for the HB Racing, Team Orion and Performa Racing brands while also attending select local and international events. Atsushi has the following to say about the deal:

I would like to say thanks so much to Mr. Philippe Neidhart, Oscar Jansen and Adrien Bertin for giving me this great opportunity. Also, I am very happy to come back to HB Racing as my “Home.” When I left HB Racing in 2013, I didn’t think I could come back. But now I am back with the Neidhart SA family so I have big motivation, and I’m looking forward to the future of our RC industry.

Source: Neidhart [neidhart.com]

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