March 29, 2015

Martin on target for EOS Wels clean sweep with 4WD TQ

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Lee Martin is on target for a clean sweep at Round 3 of the Euro Offroad Series in Wels, Austria, with the Yokomo driver locking up the overall TQ in 4WD with one round still to run.  Having started off the 4WD action at the ‘Modellbau Wels’ Hobby Show event by taking the opening qualifier, yesterday’s 2WD winner backed that up with two more TQ runs to claim his first Top Qualifier honours in 4WD.  Behind, it was Martin Bayer who again was the British driver’s closest rival in Q2 while in Q3 David Ronnefalk was second fastest with Martin declaring that for the finals he is most worried about the potential challenge of the Swede.

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With track conditions catching out most drivers in the opening qualifier, traction being much higher than when they ran practice Friday evening Martin was happier, with his B-Max III better suited after a slipper adjustment and the removal of pins from the tyres.  Running a fresh set of tyres for Q3, this expectedly made the buggy a little edgy to drive but overall it didn’t present any major problems.  Suffering a roll in Q1, he said both the second and third qualifiers were ‘pretty clean’ adding a shock rebuild for the last one made the buggy land the jumps better.  Planning no changes for the final qualifier and although he already has secured the overall TQ, he said his aim was to try and TQ all four.

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Setting the fastest lap for each of the three rounds of qualifying.  Ronnefalk would set the pace in Q3 but coming up on Yokomo’s Shin Adachi would tangle with the Japanese driver losing a few tenths and on the next lap he would ‘almost traction roll’ losing further time that dropped him back behind Martin.  With his D413 having ‘a lot of steering’ especially on new tyres, he has been making small set-up tweaks to reduce this but added for new tyres he still thinks he needs to do a little more.

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Enjoying his best run in Q3 setting the third fastest time, Martin Wollanka said a change to softer front and heavier rear shock oil on his Xray improved the balance of the XB4.  Having changed very little in terms of his set-up throughout 2WD qualifying, the Austrian said he has decided to make changes every run in 4WD which then should allow him to piece together the best elements for a good set-up for the finals.

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One of the stars of 2WD yesterday only to suffer some cruel luck while leading the opening final, Michal Orlowski would post the 3rd and 4th fastest times in Q2 & 3 respectively after a cautious Q1 run.  The Polish driver, who was only in the C-Main in Berlin, declared himself happy with his pace saying today’s high traction is causing problems for his CAT’s new carbon chassis.  Featuring a more forward mounted motor, he said the carbon has too much flex in today’s high bite conditions and considering this he believes Top 3 is his ‘maximum pace’ but he is hopeful Schumacher can have an alloy option of the new configuration for the season finale in Slovakia should that race also have high traction conditions.

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Having had a mysterious rear end breakage following a normal landing in Q1 while on a very strong run, Patrick Hofer laid down the 5th fastest time in Q3.  Having to run a safe Q2 after his earlier retirement, claiming 7th, the Swiss driver was able to push harder in the third round.  Very happy with how is B44.3 is working, the Berlin finalist will run it unchanged for the final qualifier adding he will try pushing it even more now that he had two solid rounds in place.  Behind Hofer, Yokomo touring car star Yannic Prumper completed the Top 6 for Q3.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.



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