January 17, 2014

Neumann fastest from Martin in opening EOS qualifier

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Joern Neumann has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at a highly competitive second round of the Euro Offroad Series in Berlin, Germany.  The Team Durango driver was the only one to record 15-laps of the 21-second average lap track in the 2WD qualifier with new Yokomo signing Lee Martin, who topped the morning’s three rounds of practice, second fastest. Making a return to the series having finished runner-up at year’s season finale, Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp completed the Top 3 ahead of Round 1 winner Hupo Honigl.

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Coming off the back of finishing runner-up in 2WD Buggy at last weekend’s DHI Cup where he struggled to get to grips with the low traction, Neumann was pleased with how his DEX210 V2 is running on the high traction saying he is getting more and more comfortable with each run.  Complimenting Proline on the new ‘Wedge Squared’ hand out tyre design they have created for this weekend following driver feedback from the opening round of the series, the German ace said he still needs to improve his buggy.  Running a hard shock set up to give the buggy good stability in the fast high traction corners he said this is resulting in it not being very good on the flat landings which need a softer shock to absorb the impact of landing.  For Q2, which takes place tomorrow as drivers have now switched over to 4WD for 3 rounds of practice, he said he will change his rear shock set-up and try to find a better balance between the two ends of the spectrum he needs.

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Making his debut for Team Yokomo,  Martin described his first qualifier as ‘not bad’.  The British ace, and one of only three drivers to have denied Neumann victory at an EOS event, he said the B-Max 2 felt pretty good.  Really happy with its slow corner speed he said at high speed it suffered a little understeer but he is confident he can sort that for Q2 and take the fight to the ‘carpet guy’. This being a reference to Neumann.  After a ‘tentative start’ to the 5-minute qualifier leading him to not hit his lines perfectly Martin said once he settled down everything was fine.  Making the comment that the track so far doesn’t seem to give an extra advantage to the ‘front motor cars’, he is confident about the weekend ahead.

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‘Really good’ was how Krapp summed up his opening qualifier.  The German said he did a lot of testing prior to the event and other than changing from the angled rear arms to the straight versions he has done nothing to his RB6 since arriving. Not expecting to be as fast as he was having hit traffic in the last 2-minutes of his qualifier he said for Q2 the plan was to just leave the buggy set-up as is and just ‘push a lot harder’.

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A total rejuvenated Honigl, said he was ‘pretty happy’ with his Q1 run, him running in the second fastest heat.  The Austrian is really pleased with his new TM2 V2 buggy saying he has touched nothing since putting it on the track this morning.  Suffering one bad lap which broke his concentration he said it was good to know he has the pace to run at the top of the most competitive EOS field yet and he is very confident for the rest of the record entry event.

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Heading the Team Xray Challenge was Martin Bayer who would take his XB4-2 to the 5th fastest time.  The Czech ace, who is a lot more at home driving 4WD Buggy, called it was a ‘solid run’ adding it was ‘good start’ against so many drivers. For Q2 he said he needs to find a little more speed from the buggy and will focus his attentions on changing the front end set-up.  Team-mate Renaud Savoya could only manage the 36th fastest time.  The French star described his Q1 as ‘terrible’ adding he ‘could not do one lap without crashing’.  Having had understeer in practice he said he changed set-up for qualifying but it made the buggy worse.  For his next qualifier he will revert to his practice set-up along with running less weight in the rear.

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Better known as one of the worlds fastest electric touring car drivers, Yannic Prumper completed the Top 6 times.  Describing his qualifier as ‘pretty good for offroad’, it could have been even better but for a late mistake by the 2 time ETS race winner.  Asked if he would make any changes to his Yokomo for Q2 he said the plan was to ‘just drive it as is’.  Fellow touring car ace and Yokomo team-mate Ronald Volker took his example to the 17th fastest time.

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Yokomo have by far the most talent laden team this weekend and while Q1 went well for Martin his main offroad team-mates hit problems.  Winner of the second round of the EOS last season, Japanese ace Naoto Matsukura failed to finish Q1 after he broke the rear shock tower off his buggy.  He said prior to that the buggy was ‘working pretty good’ and so he plans to stay with the same set-up for his next outing.  1:8 Offroad World Champion Robert Batlle was also happy with his buggy until the steering servo came loose and he started to lose steering.  Posting the 15th fastest time despite this, the Spaniard said he should be ok when 2WD qualifying resumes tomorrow.

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Fresh from his win at the DHI Cup, Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill posted the 7th fastest time.  The British company’s designer, who TQ’d the EOS season opener in Poland, said he was caught out by the amount of grip he had, adding it was taking time to get the car sorted for that.  Only 5 seconds off fellow Brit Martin’s pace he said it will be a lot better for the next one.

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Making the UK the best represented nation in the Top 10, EOS debutant Kev Lee took his Team C to the 8th fastest time.  He said his TM2 ‘would not naturally turn’ but apart from that the run was ‘alright’.  For Q2 he will add weight to the front which he said should help improve his steering.

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Having missed the opening practice round 1:8 Offroad European Champion David Ronnefalk would end up 9th fastest.  The Swede was unable to travel to German yesterday due to a driving lesson, which if cancelled would have taken 3-months to rebook, and so flew into Berlin this morning.  Despite just 10-minutes to set-up his Kyosho he said his buggy was easy to drive.  One mistake lost him a number of positions but running a ball diff as he did at Round 1 of the series, the teenager said with more 180 degree corners this weekend he will most likely change to a gear diff for tomorrow’s resumption of 2WD qualifying.

2WD Buggy Q1 times
1. Joern Neumann – Team Durango – 15/5:21.005
2. Lee Martin – Yokomo – 14/5:01.882
3. Christopher Krapp – Kyosho – 14/5:03.506
4. Hupo Honigl – Team C – 14/5:04.349
5. Martin Bayer – Team Xray – 14/5:05.051
6. Yanic Prumper – Yokomo – 14/5:05.699
7. Tom Cockerill – Schumacher – 14/5:07.064
8. Kev Lee – Team C – 14/5:08.570
9. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho – 14/5:09.312
10.Benni Groschel – Kyosho – 14/5:10.757

View the complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.



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