March 27, 2015

Martin tops 2WD practice at EOS Wels

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Potentially able to secure his first ever EOS title this weekend, Lee Martin got Round 3 of the championship in Wels, Austria off to an encouraging start as he took his Yokomo to the top of the times in 2WD practice.  The British driver, who claimed his first EOS win with defending champions Yokomo at the prevous round in Berlin, set the fastest time over 3-consecutive laps from Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski.  Overall it was a good start to the weekend for Yokomo with the strongly represented Japanese manufacturer getting four cars in the Top 10 with Bjorn Prumper completing the Top 3.

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Setting his fastest time of 59.660 in the first of the two controlled practice runs, Martin summed up 2WD practice with ‘everything is good’. Moving the shocks to the front of the rear tower for the CP1 he said this produced the biggest improvement to his YZ-2 during the 5-rounds of practice.  Feeling the buggy was lacking ‘bit’ out of the corner, for the final practice he ran a heavier diff oil but not liking the results of the change he will go back for tomorrow morning’s opening 2WD qualifier, drivers now switching their attentions to 4WD practice for the remainder of today.

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Having debuted Schumacher’s new Cougar KF2 at EOS Round 2 back in January and putting it in the A-Main, Orlowski was clearly happy to kick off this weekend just .130 off Martin over the three laps.  Having had the chance to race the buggy on carpet twice since his last EOS outing, one where traction was low and the other where it was high, the 13-year-old said he now has a better knowledge of the car describing it as feeling ‘amazing’ in the final practice.  Standing up the front shocks for the last run the Polish driver said he had more steering improving the overall feel of the buggy.  Having only had use of an alloy chassis in Berlin, Orlowski is running a carbon chassis this weekend.  The only one of the Schumacher team drivers opting to run it today, Simon Moss using the alloy chassis to set the 8th fastest time, Orlowski likes the further rear motor position and running shorty batteries and he will leave his set-up unchanged for the opening qualifier.

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Running his Yokomo with the standard kit set-up Bjorn Prumper was happy with his pace in practice.  The only change the German would make over practice was to switch to a softer spring on his YZ-2 which in addition to improving how the buggy jumped also gave him more steering.  Bjorn is joined by his brother and electric touring car ace this weekend with Yannic taking his example to the 5th fastest time.  Having not raced in the EOS since Berlin two years ago, Prumper described his out of the box set-up as feeling ‘fine’ adding the track layout out made things that bit easier for a touring car driver.  Like his older brother, Yannic said his plan for Q1 was to leave the buggy as is and ‘just drive’ it.

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Here more in a support role rather than a driver, Shin Adachi was ‘very happy’ to post the 4th fastest time.  Adding it was a ‘big surprise’ to have four of their cars in the Top 10 he said he couldn’t have expected practice to have gone much better.  Starting out the day running set-up changes on his car before getting Martin to try them he said they have ended up with the same set-up with no plans to try anything further for now.  With 4WD practice to run before 2WD resumes with qualifying in the morning he said they would see how that effects the track and then make a decision on whether they need to adapt the cars for Q1.

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Setting the 6th fastest time HB’s David Ronnefalk felt he had Top 3 pace but contact with the rear wing of Orlowski’s Schumacher in the final practice resulted in him suffering a break after 3-minutes of the 5-minute run. With HB not yet having a 2WD buggy, Ronnefalk started using a Team C to claim a podium in Berlin but this weekend he is running a Team Associated conversion from French company Red Workshop.  Based on the B5, the car uses a B44 drive train.  Very happy with the car he said compared with Team C while they both have similar speed but the B52 is much easier to drive.  Feeling he improved the car for the final practice the Swede said he will most likely make a small adjustment to his shock package for tomorrow.

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Making his EOS debut with Serpent, Joern Neumann posted the 7th fastest time.  Due to a busy race programme with his new sponsors, the EOS’ most successful driver said he has only been able to run 5 batteries with the car on carpet and considering this the weekend has started out ‘OK’.  Feeling his 5-minute pace is stronger than that over 3-laps, the German said for a mid motor configuration on carpet the car is running quite good.  Having played around with weight and battery position through the practice runs he said he finds running the saddle pack inline is working best.  Happy with the progress he has made so far today he said he still needs to find a little more steering for Q1.  Team-mate Hupo Honigl would take his SRX-2 Spyder to the 13th fastest time adding that for the platform they have the pace was ‘quite ok’.

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Impressing on the debut of Xray’s new XB2 in Berlin when he finished on the podium, Martin Bayer said the basic set-up of his car which has undergone a number of developmets since Round 2 is ‘good’.  Setting the 9th fastest time from CP1, the Czech driver tried a different spring for the final practice but didn’t like it.  Planning to revert back to the spring used to post his fastest time he said he also needs to change something for Q1 to try and improve corner speed.

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Rounding out the Top 10 was Berlin double A-Finalist Patrick Hofer. The Team Associated driver said a change of shock position on his B5M for the final practice made the buggy easier to drive and with it also jumping better he was able to improve his time.  For qualifying he plans to switch to a heavier oil to make the front end a little more stable.  Behind the Swiss Champion, Xray’s Martin Wollanka posted the 11th fastest time followed by Japanese Yokomo team driver Kai Kikuchi.

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