European 200mm title up for grabs in Ettlingen
In the build up to all major championships the person to beat is the defending champion but at this year’s 1:10 Nitro Touring European Championships this is not the case with last year’s title winner Martin Christensen missing from the 121 car field here in Ettlingen, Germany. The eighth running of the EFRA event, three of the five 200mm Euro champions are present with Team Xray’s Dirk Wischnewski, the man who lost his title to Christensen in Sweden 12-months ago, and fellow German Robert Pietsch the men everyone else is trying to match as the third day of free practice is completed.
Unfortunately on our arrival at the Ettlingen track the use of tyre additive was the big talking point. A problem that dogged the 1:8 Onroad World & European Championships this year, doing great damage to the Formula 1 class of rc racing, the matter now looks like it may overshadow the 1:10 200mm event. Having been caught out at the 1:8 Euros in Luxembourg 3-weeks ago, the sports ruling body EFRA have come to Germany a lot better prepared to deal with the matter. A tyre impound area comes into effect from tomorrow with drivers having to present their tyres a minimum of 1 hour prior to their run. In this time the tyres will be tested using a sniffer device but aware that this is unable to detect some of the newer chemicals known to be used in additive a Spectro Analyzer will also be used. This procedure will see one of the tyres placed in water and a sample of that water tested in the Analyzer. Due to the testing process it has been recommended that drivers present 6 tyres to impound.
EFRA 1:10 200mm Section Chairman Frany Noens demonstrated the procedure and the results of an untreated and treated tyre to representatives of the various manufacturer present in Ettlingen who praised him for his efforts to try and eradicate the problem. Noens also made it very clear to both the manufacturers and the Team Managers that EFRA was taking the matter very seriously and anyone found using treated tyres would be sent home with their tyres sent to a lab for professional analysis so EFRA could proceed with having that driver banner from competition for 5-years.
With the matter of tyre additive hopefully put to rest, tyres will still play a big part with drivers reporting very high tyre wear which should make for interesting finals. Unlike previous years the Top 4 at the end of qualifying will no longer qualify directly for the Main final instead all 10 finalists will have to bump up from the Semi finals. The new format, which takes away a little from the honour of being Top Qualifier, meaning drivers first target will be on setting a qualifying time that puts them inside the Top 14 and a direct Semi final position.
A specialist of 200m racing, Wischnewski was happy with how the opening three days of practice had gone. Having done a number of days pre-event testing, he described his Orcan powered NT1 as ‘perfect’ during Monday and Tuesday but said today’s blisteringly hot conditions had made for very different conditions and he had to work a little harder on his set-up. Asked about the simple looking track layout the German said while it may not look a difficult track to drive it was actually quite hard to go fast around.
Debuting the new Mugen MTX-5, the car’s designer Pietsch said he is pretty happy with how things have been going so far. The 2010 World Championship Top Qualifier using the new car predecessor, he said while he has tested his latest creation a lot, coming to a race situation is very different and they still have a lot to learn about how the new chassis reacts to various conditions. Echoing Wischnewski regarding the track being more difficult to drive than it looks, the 1:8 World Champion said it was easy to overdrive and lose a large chunk of time. Mugen have just three MTX-5 competing with Dutch ace Rick V and Italian 200mm specialist Francesco Tironi the other two drivers. A podium finisher at last month’s 1:8 Euros, Rick V hasn’t run 200mm for two years and has used practice to reacclimatise to the class. A day behind the rest of the field having only arrived yesterday, he said the new car is very stable to drive and he hopes he will be more up to speed come qualifying which gets underway tomorrow afternoon after two rounds of controlled practice.
For German manufacturer Team Shepherd this is very much a home race with their factory less than 30-minutes from the track. Team boss Patrick Schaefer who is competing himself is very upbeat admitting he has a lot of knowledge of the track. The winners of the European B Championships in May with Patrick Nähr, Shepherd have brought in Electric Touring Car top guns in former champions Ronald Volker and Jilles Groskamp who came to Germany directly from making the final at the electric Euros in Austria last Sunday. Groskamp is an experienced nitro driver being Top qualifier at the 2008 Worlds while for Euro Touring Series Champion Volker nitro is still a relatively new experience. Groskamp said for him the track does not offer much of a challenge and is more about car & engine rather than driver ability. Volker said he is still trying to adapt to nitro but with former World Champion Daniele Ielasi as his pit man he is sure to be one to watch for.
In addition to Wischnewski current World Champion manufacturer Xray have two more potential winners in Alexander Hagberg and Eric Dankel both of whom were pleased with their pace in free practice. Hagberg has been close to winning his first EC title for the past two years finishing runner up in both Italy and his home country of Sweden. The world class electric touring car driver said he found the track quite easy and although he struggled a little today after fitting a new engine he feels all should be fine for qualifying.
Elsewhere the winner of the inaugural 200mm EC in 2003, which he successfully defended in 2004, Michael Salven said he struggled a little today as did the other double champion Dario Balestri. The co-owner of Serpent, Salven said he went from having understeer yesterday to oversteer today while everyone else complained at loosing steering due to the hot conditions. Team-mate Mark Green was very happy with his 733 saying everything has been running really well. Using Serpent’s new SL6 gearbox the multiple British Champion said the new unit is far more consistent that the previous version.
While today drivers got baked in the sun it is not looking too good for Friday with the forecast predicting the arrival of heavy rain tomorrow evening. Our coverage, which is supported by Team Shepherd, Matrix Racing Tyres and Mugen Seiki, will get up to full speed tomorrow when we will have updates after each of the two control practices and opening two qualifiers.
View our event image gallery here.