March 25, 2018

Coelho leads unexpected Xray 1-2 in A1

Bruno Coelho led a somewhat unexpected Xray 1-2 in the opening A-Main of 4WD at the penultimate round of the Euro Offroad Series.  Starting behind the Schumachers of Michal Orlowski and Joern Neumann, the pair gifted Coelho the win with both drivers making early mistakes.  While Orlowski would come back at the reigning champion, contact in the air between them would see Orlowski damage his car with the Pole limping home in third, his car down to three wheels as a result of a broken hub.  Behind Coelho a clean drive from Daniel Kobbevik would see him get second, it looking like an Xray 1-2-3 at one point until Martin Bayer made a late mistake allowing Orlowski to slip back through for third.

Summing up his A1 win Coelho said, ‘I was not expecting two mistakes from them’, them being the two Schumacher drivers. He continued, ‘Neumann had a mistake on the first lap and I got by and then I forced to catch Orlowski and managed to close. Then he had a mistake at the table top and I got by.  He touched me in the single but let me go and then he had a problem because he dropped a lot’.  He concluded, ‘I hope for something similar (more mistakes) in the next one’.

‘I’m very happy with that’, said a very pleased looking Kobbevik, the result a repeat of his opening 2WD A-Main.  The 13-year-old add, ‘I drove my own race and stayed clean but this time I was very fast because I was on new tyres’.  Looking to make his second EOS podium of the season, he said, ‘I hope I can do the same in the next one’.

Orlowski looked to take his problem in his stride, the EOS Slovakia 4WD winner impressed that he managed third with ‘only 3 wheel drive’.  On his tumble that cost him the lead he said, ‘It was just a mistake, I was too short on the table top’.  Catching back up to Coelho at an impressive rate following the error which cost him 2-seconds, he said, ‘the speed is there, I just need to make no mistakes.’  Regarding the broken hub he said it was as a result of the landing after he touched Coelho in the air, both cars tumbling down the track and with only the bearing holding everything in place his car got slower and slower as the bearing began to fail.  Still with his extra set of tyres permitted to A-Main drivers at his disposal, he said, ‘I have another set of new tyres so we should be good for A2 & 3’.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.



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