Thursday was as usual a full day of free practice for drivers. With almost everyone taking advantage of some great weather here in Austria they could really fine tune their cars over the six rounds held today.
Champion on top in 1/8 – just!
Multi-time ENS champion Simon Kurzbuch (Switzerland) led the way in the 1/8 scale class, but just one-hundredth of a second ahead of Rick Vreilijnck (Netherlands). Behind Simon (Shepherd) and Rick (Infinity) was a 0.4 gap to the next best – Capricorn’s Dominc Greiner. Kurzbuch’s Shepherd team-mate Toni Gruber, who had been sitting in second until the “happy hour” final round, finished up fourth, with Oliver Krähemann having a fantastic day to put himself into the top five. The top seven were separated by 1 second over the three laps, showing the Simon and Rick will need to stay on their toes if they want to remain at the top in Aigen!
Groskamp from Diekmann in 1/10 Scale
Jilles Groskamp took his Infinity to the best 3-lap time in the 1/10 scale class. With Melvin Diekmann holding the top spot for most of the day, the Dutch driver put in a time of 50.170 in the final round to go fastest. Diekmann (Germany) also improved his time to a 50.244 in the cooler conditions of the last round. Behind Groskamp’s Infinity and Diekmann’s Capricorn, Spain’s Juan Hidalgo was third (Serpent) and Germany’s Patrick Schäfer (Shepherd) fourth to make it four different manufacturers in the top four slots. Thilo Todtmann (Germany) had a busy day running in both 1/10 and 1/8 classes, but was happy to end the day fifth in 1/10 scale with his Capricorn.
Salven leads Masters
Serpent designer Michael Salven set the best time in the 1/8 +40 Masters class with a 46.329, over around four-tenths quicker than former champion Arie Manten (Infinity). Torsten Müller twas third best from the day, with Remy Hasler and Jürg Nydegger completing the top five. Only one second covers the complete top five, so there’s all to play for tomorrow.
Friday will see further rounds of timed practice, before the Controlled (Seeding) Practice takes place in the evening – the weather forecast still looking positive for the next days allowing a lot of racing in Aigen!