Action-packed finals crown Austrian winners
Three incredibly exciting finals took place under more wonderful weather on Sunday afternoon in Austria. Here’s how things played out in the long races!
1/8 Scale
Greiner Victorious in Aigen
Dominic Greiner took an impressive victory in Aigen this afternoon, in a straight fight with top qualifier Simon Kurzbuch. The first and second starting cars opened up a gap at the front of the field almost immediately, with third place starting Toni Gruber failing to get off the line properly, promoting Thilo Diekmann instantly into third, and Lars Hoppe into fourth. The two lead cars lapped at similar times during the first fuel stint, with Kurzbuch pitting after about four minutes, and Greiner able to stretch his fuel to just after 4:30. Greiner emerged from this first stop narrowly ahead of Kurzbuch, which ended up setting the story for the rest of the race.
On the second stop, Kurzbuch already took two new outside tyres on his car, giving Greiner a bigger lead. However, at the 15-minute point, Greiner stopped and changed all four tyres, which put Kurzbuch back to the lead. However, Kurzbuch was clearly being harder on his tyres, and shortly after stopped for a 4-tyre change of his own. The two drivers were generally able to match lap times with each other, even on the differing tyre strategies. With the lead Greiner had built up, he could then manage the race, taking victory at the end by nearly a lap, ending Kurzbuch’s run of seven consecutive victories at the Aigen track. Greiner reacted after the race:
I’m super happy to get the win and this result, especially on the track which Simon always goes so well at. I think the factor was I was better on my tyres compared to Simon, as most of the race we were very equal on lap times. My pit crew did a great job throughout, even one time when I was close to a flame out and just managed to get the car back to the pits and they kept it running. So overall, it was just perfect for me, I’m super happy.
Dominic Greiner – Capricorn
A clearly dejected Kurzbuch, who still leads the championship going into the finale in Apeldoorn, was still a bit unsure as to where they came up short this time when we spoke to him:
At the end, it’s only 10 seconds, and we almost matched his [Greiner’s] pace throughout. I had a small issue on the first stop, where I hit another car in the pitlane and damaged the body a bit which wasn’t helpful. My team did a great job in the fuel stops, but I think we lost out in the tyre stops. I couldn’t have made any other strategy – we knew we had high tyre wear so had to make the extra stop for tyres. So our strategy was right, this is just the gap that we have at the end.
Simon Kurzbuch – Shepherd
Behind the top two, Diekmann and Hoppe looked to battle for third place, but Hoppe hit problems around one-third distance leaving Diekmann in a slightly lonely race for the remainder. Toni Gruber had got himself back into the mix, but later engine troubles pushed him down the field. This left Shasa Lackner and Timo Shroeder to fight for fourth, which eventually went the way of Schroeder, his best ever ENS result. Marco Weigerding rounded out the top six, after bumping up from the B-Final.
1/8 Scale A-Final Result
1 Dominic Greiner (DE) – Capricorn/ONE
2 Simon Kurzbuch (CH) – Shepherd/Hasi Tuned
3 Thilo Diekmann (DE) – Capricorn/Ielasi Tuned
4 Timo Schroeder (DE) – Shepherd/OS Speed
5 Shasa Lackner (CH) – Infinity/EET Hasi Tuned
6 Marco Weigerding (DE) – Shepherd/OS Speed
7 Merlin Depta (DE) – Serpent/OS Speed
8 Toni Gruber (DE) – Shepherd/Ielasi Tuned
9 Tobias Sutrich (AT) – Xray/Ielasi Tuned
10 Oliver Kraehemann (CH) – ARC/Hasi Tuned
11 Lars Hoppe (DE) – Shepherd/Reds
12 Nejc Mihelic (SI) – Xray/Max Power
Link to the results on MyRCM: https://www.myrcm.ch/myrcm/report/en/63770/287270?key=203
1/10 Scale
Groskamp Takes ENS Title With Closest Ever Win
Jilles Groskamp was confirmed as the first 2022 ENS Champion this evening after he won the 1/10 Scale final. However, it was far from easy, with the margin of victory thought to be the closest in ENS history – just 1.048 seconds after 45 minutes of racing!
As was somewhat expected, the top four on the grid (Milan Holthuis, Melvin Diekmann, Teemu Leino, and Groskamp) led the final away, with Holthuis soaking up the pressure as each of the other three challenged for the lead early on. What was perhaps less expected, was that sixth-starting Juan Hidalgo, making his first ENS start of the season, also ran with the leaders after Quentin Leroux rolled his car off the track in the early laps.
As the fuel stops cycled through, the drivers remained closely matched on laptimes and it looked like it would come down to tyre strategies. Holthuis seemed to remain in control, with Diekmann constantly applying pressure, looking like he had a slightly faster car but unable to find a way past. When it came down to the tyre stops, the picture became clearer – Diekmann needed to stop twice for a full four-tyre change, whilst Holthuis and Groskamp managed just a single change.
Groskamp eventually moved to the front of the race late in the running, by being able to go longer on fuel stops and thus save vital seconds over his rivals. A late flame out for Diekmann left an Infinity 1-2-3, but then late issues for Leino put Diekmann back up to third. Out front, Holthuis was doing all he could to close the gap, forcing Jilles to drive flat out for the final 10 minutes of the race, but the more senior Dutchman held on for the win by the smallest of margins, and later checking of the championship standings confirmed Groskamp as the 2022 Champion too. An elated Christoph Rohrmoser, a member of the host MAV Aigen-Schägl club, took full advantage of the later issues to move up to fourth place at the finish to cheers from his home supporters.
Jilles told us:
The car was good today. I felt early on I could stay with the group [the top four] and after the first fuel stop I realised I had a good chance. I had great pace also on small tyres too, so through the race I could control my own pace which was important to make my [fuel and tyre] strategy work. I wasn’t perfect in the pitlane, sometimes coming in too fast, but very happy I could then make up for these mistakes on the track. I’m also really happy for Milan to be so close to the win, for sure his first win will come soon too!
Jilles Groskamp – Infinity
1/10 Scale A-Final Result
1 Jilles Groskamp (NL) – Infinity/OS Speed
2 Milan Holthuis (NL) – Infinity/Ielasi Tuned
3 Melvin Diekmann (DE) – Capricorn/FX
4 Christoph Rohrmoser (AT) – Xray/ONE
5 Juan Hidalgo (ES) – Serpent/Orcan
6 Jakub Rozycki (DE) – Xray/FX
7 Gerhard Kandelhart (AT) – GK Racing/Ielasi Tuned
8 Patrick Fankhauser (CH) – Xray/FX
9 Michal Abrahamek (CZ) – Capricorn/OS Speed
10 Teemu Leino (FI) – Infinity/OS Speed
11 Quentin Leroux (FR) – Capricorn/ONE
12 Dennis Weihert (DE) – Infinity/FX
Link to the results on MyRCM: https://www.myrcm.ch/myrcm/report/en/63770/287268?key=203
1/8 +40 Masters
Manten Returns To Winners Circle
It’s amazing to think it has not been since 2018 that Arie Manten has taken an ENS Masters win, but that run was ended today as his famous gold-coloured car crossed the finish line first.
In what was an incredibly close race, which often saw as many as five cars within two seconds of the lead, Manten led home fellow Dutchman and pole position starter Roy Bakker at the end of the 30-minute race. Throughout the run, these two drivers also traded the leading places with Alex Piperato, Remy Hasler and Rudi Scherer. Issues for Piperato and Hasler left Scherer to complete the podium, whilst Martin Wenger came through to fourth place – and with that took the championship lead too as very different results at all three events so far leaves things wide open.
Manten, always a popular figure in the pits, reacted immediately after the race with a huge smile on his face:
Wow, what a great race. It’s so great to people able to race four or five people for all of 30 minutes. It’s such a great feeling to have us all so close and we have so much fun in races like this. Of course it’s great I could win, but I think it’s just as important that we all made such a great and fair race here!
Arie Manten – Infinity
1/8 +40 Masters A-Final Result
1 Arie Manten (NL) – Infinity/OS Speed
2 Roy Bakker (NL) – ARC/OS Speed
3 Rudi Scherer (AT) – Shepherd/Max Power
4 Martin Wenger (CH) – Mugen/Ielasi Tuned
5 Olaf Engelmann (DE) – Infinity/Kabuto
6 Alain Levy (FR) – Shepherd/Picco
7 Bo Nielsen (DK) – Infinity/OS Speed
8 Remy Hasler (CH) – Mugen/OS Speed
9 Franz Engel (AT) – Shepherd/Novarossi
10 Alex Piperato (DE) – Capricorn/OS Speed
11 Michael Eisele (DE) – Serpent/Revo
12 Toni Forne (ES) – Infinity/Ielassi Tuned
Link to the results on MyRCM: https://www.myrcm.ch/myrcm/report/en/63770/287269?key=203
Titles To Be Decided In Apeldoorn
The results means that just the 1/10 Scale title is decided at this point, and so everything is to play for at the final round of the series. With a few weeks off to focus on the European championships or summer holidays, the ENS will conclude at the end of August in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. Join us then!