1:8 Scale – Kurzbuch snatches pole from Gruber
As we predicted in our event preview, defending champion Toni Gruber had a fight for the Pole Position with Simon Kurzbuch. Kurzbuch, a former and multi-time ENS champion, now seems to have got on top of his Mugen Seiki cars after switching to the Japanese brand at the start of 2023. It was Gruber who topped the first round with his Capricorn on Friday afternoon, before Kurzbuch returned the favour as the 1:8 Scale cars hit the track on Saturday morning for Q2- the second round initially being scheduled for Friday evening, but having to be delayed until Saturday due to rain as the first group of 1:8 Scale began their run. Q3 was another tight fight between the two drivers, but it was the German who took home the points after Kurzbuch was pushed off the track when passing a back-marker. This set up a Q4 showdown, which was looking like a tight fight, but Gruber had to retire in the last thirty seconds. Kurzbuch took the round and set the best time, to secure the bonus championship point as well as the front starting spot for the final.
Teemu Leino lines up third on the grid, the Infinity driver flying a little under the radar but ending with a third in Q1 and second in Q3. The stand-out performers were Marco Weigerding, who put his Serpent fourth overall, and Oliver Kraehemann who lines up fifth with his Infinity.
1:10 Scale – Diekmann to start up front
In the 1:10 Scale class, Capricorn’s Melvin Diekmann took three rounds of qualifying to win the pole position, but was pushed hard by Jilles Groskamp and Milan Holthuis. Diekmann, the defending ENS champion ran second in the opening qualifier, but clearly had his Capricorn dialled by round two to lead the rest of the four rounds. Groskamp took the opening qualifier just ahead of his Dutch Infinity team-mate Holthuis, but then seemed unable to match Diekmann in the remaining rounds, ending up between 1.5 and 3 seconds behind after four minutes each time.
Capricorn drivers will line up fourth and fifth, with Leon Fuhrmann starting ahead of Quentin Leroux and looking to have a little work to do to challenge the top three.
Masters – Toennessen heads Salven as field closes
Daniel Toennessen was the fastest in the Masters class over the qualifying rounds, but there was a sense that the field got ever closer as the rounds progressed. Toennessen topped Q1 before Michael Salven set the best time in Friday evening’s Q2. Torsten Mueller appeared to recover some of his championship-winning speed by Q4 to move up to third overall, with Luca Martinelli and Rudi Scherer rounding out the top five on the grid.
Sport – Eisele takes hard-fought TQ
Michael Eisele was the best of the Sport class in Ettlingen, topping the first and second qualifiers and had to wait to see if anyone could push him off the top of the rankings. Joachim Grauer was fastest in Q3, then Martin Wenger went fastest in Q4. Wenger will start second on the grid, his next-best result beating out Grauer who will start third. Christian Roenicke will start fourth ahead of US driver (and now firm ENS regular!) Alex Esser.