April 14, 2013

Neumann wins opening 4WD A-Main

Neumann

Joern Neumann’s domination of the TLR/Spektrum Euro Offroad Series season finale continues in Germany as the Team Durango driver took the win in the opening 4WD Buggy A-Main but it wasn’t the perfect race as a mistake let team-mate Hupo Honigl through to the lead for 2 laps before the Austrian handed it back with a mistake of his own.  In the end Neumann, who is chasing an unbeaten run of seven wins, took the leg by 4.4 seconds from Honigl with Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk seeing off a late challenge from fellow EOS Austria podium finisher Martin Bayer.

Making his mistake three laps into the race, Neumann said he got caught out by the switch from 2WD Buggy, in which he took the overall win earlier in the day, back to his 4WD.  Getting just three warm-up laps to re-adjust from his DEX210 to his DEX410 he said took the landing as he would with his 2WD and it rolled.  Able to steer his 2WD before landing on the flat surface after the jumps he said doing this with his 4WD caused the buggy to grip roll.  Having to get the buggy landed first and then feed in the steering he said once he made the mistake he was able to adapt the right driving style. Setting the fastest lap of the race, a 15.094, which was 4/10ths faster than the next best lap time which was set by Ronnefalk, he said his Speed Passion powered buggy worked perfectly in the race.

Hupo Honigl

Honigl was also happy with his DualSky powered example of the DEX410 and the Austrian was very honest about his mistake saying it was simply down to him ‘focusing on what Joern was doing rather than concentrating on his driving’.  Starting from third on the grid, he was happy to finish second saying even without the mistake he knew he would never be able to hold off his recovering team-mate.  Unfortunately for the team’s 11-year-old star Michal Orlowski an early incident dropped the talented Polish driver to the back of the field from where he would recover to finish 6th.

Kyo Team

Ronnefalk was pleased with third saying he drove a safe opening final.  Happy with how his Orion powered Lazer ZX5 worked over the 5-minute encounter he plans to push a little harder in Leg 2 with an overall podium finish his goal. Claiming his first 2WD EOS podium finish earlier in the day he is confident he can run closer to the front but added challenging Neumann would be a very tall order.  Unfortunately the race didn’t go well for team-mate Christopher Krapp.  A false start to the race saw his ZX5 get collected by the Durango of Oliver Speith resulting in a broken rear arm.  With the start delayed to allow the runner up in 2WD Buggy fix his buggy, the German would retire while running fifth with a broken front diff which he said may have been caused by the earlier heavy impact the buggy got.

Martin Bayer

Lining up 7th on the grid and dropping back to ninth at the start, Team Xray’s Bayer put in a very strong race to finish a competitive 4th ahead of team-mate Renaud Savoya who started the race from 9th. Savoya’s 1:8 Offroad rival Robert Batlle managed to work his way through from 10th on the grid to run 3rd but it was shorted lived, the Yokomo driver tumbling back down the order to finish 9th and the last buggy running.

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Joern Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – 20/5:05.609
2.(3) Hupo Hönigl (AT) – Team Durango – 20/5:10.039
3.(4) David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho – 20/5:11.402
4.(7) Martin Bayer (CZ) – Xray – 20/5:12.022
5.(9) Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray – 19/5:02.026
6.(2) Michal Orlowski (PL) – Team Durango – 19/5:02.224
7.(8) Oliver Speith (DE) – Team Durango – 19/5:04.950
8.(5) Ryan Cavalieri (US) – Associated – 19/5:08.317
9.(10)Robert Batlle (ES) – Yokomo – 19/5:11.115
10.(6)Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 12/3:10.509

View the complete results here.

View our event image gallery here.



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