November 22, 2015

Coelho gives Xray home TQ at EOS Slovakia

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Bruno Coelho has claimed Xray a home TQ at Round 2 of the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia, a faster time in the fourth & final round of 4WD qualifying giving the World Champion the tie breaker over reigning EOS Champion Lee Martin.  With Martin’s Yokomo having topped Q1 and 3, the pressure was on Q2 pace setter Coelho to deliver the fastest qualifying time of the event and he did albeit just by 3/10ths of a second better than Martin’s Q3 time.  The final qualifier would be ‘not (the) most successful qualifier’ for Martin as an error at the corner table top would cause his bodyshell to get stuck in the spur gear requiring him to stop to have it fixed.  A second P2 run from Martin Wollanka would secure the Xray driver 3rd on the grid ahead of the event’s winner for the last two season’s Martin Bayer with multiple EOS champion Joern Nuemann completing the front half of the 10 car A-Main grid.

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Coelho said ‘finally I put in a run without mistakes’, him challenging for the TQ the first and third qualifiers only to throw it away with mistakes.  Top Qualifier of 2WD on his EOS debut at the season opener at the Nurburgring, the Portuguese ace added his Q4 performance ‘was perfect’ but added there is ‘no time to relax’.  Expecting a hard race with Martin he said ‘Wollanka is also super strong so I cant just drive safe in the final, I will have to push’.  Running new tyres in Q3 he said his XB4 was ‘aggressive’ but having run the tyres again in Q4 he said the car should be easier to drive in the final.

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Asked about maintaining his 100% EOS Season #5 winning streak from second on the grid, Martin said ‘it is going to be hard being in the Xray Quarter Pounder’. Winner of the season opener from pole position he said ‘Bruno is World Champion and this is his playground’ so it going to be a tough to beat him.  Commenting on his Q3 performance he said after Coelho’s mistake he let up a little to keep it safe when in hindsight he should have kept pushing but added ‘You cant reflect on the past in racing’.  Happy he has the car to challenge Coelho for the win he said getting three car in the final at Xray’s home track was proof of the strength of the YZ4.  Joining Martin in the final are team-mates Marc Rheinard who starts 6th and Japanese teenager Kaito Kodera who lines up 8th.

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‘Third (on the grid) is good but it’s not good enough’, that was Wollanka’s view of his qualifying performance.  P2 in Q3 & 4, the Austrian said Coelho and Martin are two of the best drivers in the World and while he wants to win he feels that is only going to be possible if something happens between them. Encouraged by the fact he was able to close the gap to Coelho over the last 3-minutes of the final qualifier he said for the final he would ‘see what happens’.

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A driver who won this event last year from 3rd on the grid beating Top Qualifier Naoto Matsukura, Bayer said ‘the track as we’ve seen from the 2WD final is very challenging and everything can happen’.  The Czech ace tried different front caster blocks for the final qualifier but ‘didn’t like it’ and will revert back to the standard block for A1.  Joining Bayer in the final will be his younger brother Ales who will start 7th.

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Repeating his qualifying result of the Season #4 finale the Hudy Arena, Neumann was happy with fifth on the grid.  The Serpent driver said after lowering his ride height for Q3 the car was ‘decent’.  Lowering it further for the final qualifier he would also fit new tyres but this caused the SRX4 to push but with the rear tyres now broken in he said they should be good for the final.  The 3-time EOS 4WD Champion said in ‘4WD there are many crashes and hopefully I can come out the right side of them’.

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