Neumann finally ends EOS 4wd winning drought
Jorn Neumann has emerged victorious in 4wd at the 5th round of the Euro Offroad Series in what turned out to be a very straight forward race, as main competitor Michal Orlowski clipped the curb on the exit of the front chicane before the double, the ensuing tumble causing him to drop back down the field and out of contention. The German’s first win in 4wd since 2015, when he ran his last race for Durango, he led home a Schumacher 1-2 in the final overall results with Bruno Coelho, who took the runner up spot in A3 completing the podium. Obviously ‘very happy’ to take the win after such a long time he said the new tires had made it much easier to drive, aided by the lack of pressure with the German having a 4 second margin back to 2nd place already on the 2nd lap. Able to control the race from the start he said he could maintain the gap back to Coelho and react if needed, knowing he just needed to stay ahead of the Xray driver to take the overall win.
A somewhat disappointed Michal Orlowski simply said ‘it wasn’t mean to be, I gave everything’, continuing ‘Jorn was better this weekend, I now have to win in Austria’ the Polish star needing to come out on top at the next round to be able to retain his 4wd title. Looking to the next race at ERT Steyregg, which is a new track for the EOS, the Schumacher driver said ‘we know our car is better than our competitors, we will be well prepared. 2wd is sealed up, I will give full punch in 4wd’.
Bruno Coelho really enjoyed his A3 final saying ‘it was very intense, I hit the pipe on the 2nd lap and lost 4 seconds to Jorn’ before saying ‘I enjoyed to drive the car, it was a lot of fun’. Feeling that the deficit to Schumacher this weekend has been an eye opener, he believes that his team need to be better prepared for upcoming races, their rivals having done a considerable amount of testing on this surface prior to the event and with rain on the first day it meant they were on the back foot all weekend. For the next round of the series the plan is to ‘work hard and bring home the championship’.
Joona Haatanen took 4th in A3 and finished in 4th overall, the Finnish driver trying a different front kick-up on his Associated B74 which meant he needed the first part of the race to get used to it. Having dropped back to 7th at one point due to mistakes, he was able to get those spots back when those ahead of him made similar mistakes. Daniel Kobbevik would come home in 3rd in A3 to seal 5th overall just in front of Wesley van Helmond, with Hupo Honigl, Martin Bayer, Adam Izsay and Bartlomiej Zambrzycki completing the top 10.
View the complete event results here.
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