April 26, 2014

Matsukura is EOS Champion, Neumann wins A2

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Naoto Matsukura is the new 2013/14 Euro Offroad Series Champion despite the overall winner of the season finale having yet being decided.  Winner of A1 in Wels, Austria, the Team Yokomo driver finished second in A2 behind Joern Neumann meaning he will finish the fourth & final round of the championship no lower than second.   So irrespective of the outcome of A3,  with three from four rounds to count, this means he becomes only the second ever driver to be crowned a champion of the EOS ending Neumann dominant reign since the series was created three years ago.

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Having only contest one race last season, Matsukura said he was ‘Super happy’ to win the title on his first full EOS campaign and was quick to thank Yokomo’s Tom Yokobora for giving him the opportunity to travel from Japan to Europe to do the competitive championship.  Also thanking his mechanic Naoya Kitagawa and the team’s head of offroad development Shin Adachi, the 20-year said having messed up A2 he hopes to complete the perfect weekend putting in an error free A3 to claim the overall win for the weekend.   The Top Qualifier had built up a good lead early in A2 but yet another mistake saw him give it all away on lap four when he parked his B-Max 2 nose front into the track barriers.  He said he was just pushing too hard and for the final showdown he plans to take things a little safer which might allow him to complete his first clean 5-minute run of the weekend around the carpet surface track.

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Having pulled off after a clash with Lee Martin at the start of the first A-Main, Neumann was happy his decision to pull off and save his tyres paid dividends.  Describing the start second time round as ‘much better’, the outgoing champion was pleased with his ‘accident free’ run and now in the hunt for his first 2WD win of the season he said he is confident he can repeat the win in A3.  Running a DEX410 with the front drive train removed he said the car is good and all he will do is fit a fresh set of Pro-Line tyres adding that this time round his rivals will also be on their second set of tyres making things a little tougher.

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Disappointed with the outcome of A2 which put him out of the title hunt, Honigl said he still has to focus on the championship as he is set to fight it out with former team-mate Neumann for the runners-up spot.  Commenting on the second A-Main, the Team C driver who took the lead after Matsukura’s mistake said being on used tyres it was also going to be hard to keep Neumann at bay.  With him getting by on lap 8 of 15 he said he tried to push to keep up with the Durango but this resulted in his mistake which sent him back to fourth.

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(3) Joern Neumann (DE) – Durango – 15/5:12.415
2.(1) Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 15/5:13.539
3.(4) Lee Martin (GB) – Yokomo – 15/5:16.576
4.(2) Hupo Hoingl (AT) – Team C – 15/5:20.072
5.(7) Shin Adachi (JP) – Yokomo – 14/5:01.586
6.(8) Michal Orlowski (PL) – Durango – 14/5:02.274
7.(5) Martin Bayer (CZ) – Xray – 14/5:02.974
8.(9) Juho Levanen (FI) – Associated – 14/5:05.992
9.(10)Peter Pinisch (AT) – Associated – 14/5:08.953
10.(6)Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 9/3:28.971

View complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.



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