Pietsch completes dream debut for MTX-5

Having won his first 1:8 European Championship title when he debuted Mugen’s MRX-5 in 2009, Mugen designer Robert Pietsch pulled off another dream result for the Japanese company when he lifted his first 200mm European Championship title today in Germany on the debut of the new MTX-5 touring car.  Top Qualifier for the event and starting from pole position for the 45-minute main, having dominated his Semi, the 1:8 World Champion lead every one of the 191 laps with former champion Dirk Wischnewski the only driver with the potential to deny him failing to mount a serious challenge. The Xray driver had to settle for second with team-mate Teemu Leino, who finished four laps down, completing the podium in Ettlingen.

Very proud of securing for a third time a major title for a car he was responsible for designing and bringing to fruition, Pietsch said the race went pretty much to plan and without drama.  Having a small moment when he got spun by Adrian Bernsten while lapping the Norwegian, he said having had issues in the past with the MTX-4 he was really pleased with the reliability of its successor. Having lapped the entire field at one point Pietsch said after an early final stop he started to lift off on the straight to ensure he had fuel to go the full distance which allowed Wischnewski to close back to within half a lap of him. After a week that started off under a cloud of controversy of trying to control the use of tyre additive, Pietsch wanted to pay compliments to the efforts of race organisers for making the tyre impound work and in the end putting on a good & fair event.

Clearly wanting the title he won in 2009 back, Wischnewski said in the end finishing second was ‘OK’.  The German said he struggled with a bad first set of tyres and trying to keep up with Pietsch pushed too hard resulting in a mistake coming onto the straight that lost him four seconds and gave his rival a big enough break to take control of the race.  Pitting on the same lap as Pietsch for his tyre change that gap grew to almost a full lap when his engine flamed out as his car was set down to leave the pitlane.

Having always had trouble in finals in the past, former Top Qualifier Leino was very happy at claiming his first podium finish.  Calculating his tyre wear after the Semi finals the former European electric touring car champion opted to just change his outside (right) tyres during the race.  Hoping the saved time would give him an advantage the Xray/LRP team driver said the car was ‘horrible’ following the change.  Battling with 2009 finalist Biagio Spataro for third position, Leino was eventually able to cruise to third when the Italian teenager retired with fuel in his electrics.

Spataro was the only driver running a two stop tyre strategy and it came close to rewarding him with a podium finish.  Deciding to run the same tyre set-up he used in qualifying allowing him to run just 7/1000ths off Wischnewski’s fastest lap of the race, on his penultimate pitstop his mechanic over filled the tank causing fuel to get into the electrics ending the 16-year-old’s race.  Some consolation for Spataro was that ninth overall was good enough to secured him the European Junior Championship title.

With Spataro out fellow Italian and former two time champion Dario Balestri moved up to fourth.  Having called for 10-minutes after problems with his radio receiver in the warm-up, the factory Novarossi driver started the race from 11th on the grid.  Changing the shock oil and springs on his KM Racing H-K1 having not been happy with it in the Semi, Balestri said it didn’t improve things.  His first major race with the car, he had a heavy off which caused his receiver to come unplugged.  Loosing over a minute as his team got the electric working again he dropped to seventh which was where he would be classified for the race.

Making the final for the first time Germany’s Rico Kröber said he was very happy with finishing fourth. Struggling with the larger tyre diameter at the start of the race, the Xray/Novarossi driver changed tyres one stop later than the rest and with his second set having a smaller diameter he had a better second half to the race.  Behind him Austrian Manuel Huber, a podium finisher in 2009, had a problem with the oil leaking from his rear shocks but said considering this and some issues with his Max engine fifth was ‘OK’.

The only driver to do the full race without changing tyres, France’s Michael Derderian saw any advantage it might bring disappear with his RB engined Xray running out of fuel twice. Another driver making his first European final debut he would complete the Top 6.

One of the driver expected to win the race from third, Eric Dankel suffered two glow plug failures and was the final classified finisher in 8th.  The versatile German racer said his Novarossi powered Xray NT1 felt really good but with his engine problems it just wasn’t to be.  Along with Spataro the only other retirement in the final was talented Norwegian Champion Adrian Bernsten who suffered an engine failure coming up to the 1/3 race distance.

So the eighth running of the European Championships for 1:10 200mm touring cars is in the history books with Robert Pietsch becoming the 6th different champion.  While the use of tyre additive looked set to the dog this event early in the week today’s racing, especially in the 1/4 and Semi finals, showed 200mm at its best and Red RC would like to thank new champions Mugen, Team Shepherd and Matrix tyres for making our coverage of this event possible. With rumours of a new high profile series for both onroad nitro classes doing the rounds in Germany the future of nitro onroad is thankfully starting to look brighter.

View the full event results here.

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Pietsch takes European title on MTX-5 debut

Robert Pietsch has given Mugen’s new MTX-5 the dream debut by convincingly winning the 200mm European Championships in Ettlingen Germany. The race was only ever between Pietsch and Dirk Wischnewski but a flame out during the former Champion’s tyre stop in the middle of the race effectively put the Xray driver a lap down on his fellow countryman.  After a long battle with Biagio Spataro, who retired after fuel got into his electrics, Finland’s Teemu Leino completed the podium.

Pietsch on pole in Ettlingen

Mugen’s Robert Pietsch will start on pole position for this evening’s 200m European Championship final in Ettlingen, Germany after he dominated his Semi Final in which he lapped the entire field.  The winner of the other Semi Final Dirk Wischnewski will line up second followed by Eric Dankel and 5 more Xrays in a grid that sees a total of 8 of the Slovakian cars represented along with just one car each from Mugen and KM Racing.  Having secured the honour of Top Qualifier with Mugen’s new MTX-5, Pietsch said he drove a safe Semi and there were no problems adding he was very happy with his tyre wear after the 20-minutes.

Both of the 20 minute semi Finals saw drivers call for a 10-minute delay. In the Semi B it was former Worlds Top Qualifier Jilles Groskamp who called time as his team made a last minute decision to change to a different Orion engine. As a result of making the call the Team Shepherd driver was forced to start 11th on the grid but worked his was up to a bump position only to loose second gear on his Velox V10 a third of the way into the race.  Groskamp’s team boss Patrick Schäfer, who looked extremely fast, also saw his chances of a bump go when he suffered a plug failure.  The German team were to suffer further bad luck in the second Semi when Ronald Volker was running competitively in the top 4 only to have his car go out of control shortly after his first fuel stop.  The electric touring car ace rejoined but was too far back to recover and finished last.

Dirk Wischnewski looked to have the first Semi under control until he ran wide at the end of the main straight and rolled his Xray across the grass dropping him to sixth.  Working his way back to the front the 2009 German Champion had another moment when his car was hit in the pitlane after his mechanic put the car out into the path of another car.  The error resulted in a Stop & Go penalty but the German keep his head and went on to win by a lap from fellow countryman Rico Kröber and Italian duo Biagio Spataro and Dario Balestri. Unfortunately for Simon Balk who led for much of the race his tyres didn’t last the distance and he finished fifth missing out on bumping up as Adrian Bernsten and former Euro B Champion Top Qualifier Michael Derderian got in as the fastest two finishers outside the Top 4 of each Semi.

The Semi A Final got delayed when Norwegian ace Bernsten called time as he struggled to get his engine to run. Fitting a new plug to the Capricorn motor they got it back on song and the Xray driver was to reward his pit crew with a stunning drive from the back of the field. If starting from the 11th grid spot wasn’t a big enough challenge the 17-year-old put his Xray on the grass on the opening lap and needed to be marshalled. Getting his head down Bernsten said ‘he never gave up hope and drove at 110%’ and it was to pay of as he worked his way up through to finish 5th which sees him line up 6th for the main event.  Up front it was Eric Dankel who got the jump on pole sitter Pietsch at the start but the German National Champion clipped the end of the pit wall on lap six which allowed the 1:8 World Champion into a lead he would never give up.

A-main starting order
1. Robert Pietsch (Mugen/Novarossi)
2. Dirk Wischnewski (Xray/Orcan)
3. Eric Dankel (Xray/Novarossi)
4. Manuel Huber (Xray/Max)
5. Teemu Leino (Xray/LRP)
6. Adrian Berntsen (Xray/Capricorn)
7. Michael Derderian (Xray/RB)
8. Rico Kröber (Xray/Novarossi)
9. Biagio Spataro (Xray/Gi-Mar)
10.Dario Balestri (KM/Novarossi)

View the full event results here.

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1/4 Finals Update

After a morning of many highs & lows the grid for this afternoon’s 200mm European Championship Semi Finals are set.  Having won his 1/8 final to bump up to the first of the 1/4 finals Xray’s Martin Hudy drove a great race to win ahead of Team Shepherd’s Jilles Groskamp.  German Dominic Greiner looked to have control of the race but just before his final fuel stops his Kyosho ran out of fuel ending his chances of moving up to the Semis.  Despite suffering a flame-out at the start of the race, as did Serpent team-mate Michael Salven, Daan Jacobs recovered to take the final bump position.  Along with two time champion Michael Salven, who had a second flame out, the other big casualty of the 1/4 B final was championship runner up for the past two years Alexander Hagberg who could only manage 5th.

In the second of the 1/4 Finals there was hard luck for 2007 podium finisher Alessio Mazzeo. Having bumped up from his 1/8 Final, which he won comfortably, the Italian teenager had a clear lead over fellow Serpent driver Mark Green but coming up to the last round of pit stops his 733 ran out of fuel.  Green, who lost 6 seconds during his first pit stop, as his car got spun twice as he tried to leave the pitlane, fell to sixth but recovered the take the win ahead of French RB team driver Michael Derderian and German Dirk Stammler’s Serpent.  Unfortunately an engine flame out ended European B Champion Patrick Nähr’s event.  Other drivers of note to drop put where former World finalist Francesco Tironi and British Champion Kyle Branson who had bumped up from the 1/8 Finals.

Elsewhere former World Champion Adrien Bertin looked set to bump up from his 1/8 Final but with just a lap and a half to go his Orion powered Kyosho came to a halt.

View the full event results here.

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