Neumann wins 2WD at EOS Austria
Joern Neumann has won the third round of the TLR/Spektrum Euro Offroad Series presented by Horizon Hobby in 2WD Buggy despite the impressive efforts of class novice Martin Bayer who swapped the lead of the second A-Main with the Team Durango driver in Leoben, Austria this morning. In the end a last lap attempt by Bayer to repass the Top Qualifier and Leg 1 winner resulted in the Team Xray driver needed to be marshaled allowing Neumann to win by 3-seconds to secure his second overall win of the 2012/13 season. Bayer, who set the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap, was able to hold on to second ahead of 1:8 Offroad rivals Robert Batlle and David Ronnefalk who managed to come through from respective 7th & 10th starting spots on the grid.
Neumann said it was again a very close race with himself and Bayer very evenly matched so he he was happy to be able to back up his leg 1 win yesterday and secure the overall win. Having allowed Bayer through to the lead when he rolled over his Speed Passion powered DEX210, the defending champion said he knew his best opportunity to retake the lead was at the dBoots double and he focused on perfecting that corner eventually pulling off a great pass on Bayer’s TLR22 there. Happy to secure the overall win having lost out to Naoto Matsukura at Round 2, which was his home event his house just 10-minutes from the track, Neumann said he was a little worried about his radio throughout the race. During his warm-up laps he lost control of his buggy which went crashing into the barriers. Luckily his buggy survived the incident and the problem didn’t reoccur in the race itself but as a safety measure he said he will change his transmitter for this afternoon’s 4WD Buggy and 4WD Short Course A-Mains.
‘I tried’ was how Bayer summed up his attempts to make the event go all the way to the 3rd Leg. Only his 3rd time ever to race 2WD Buggy, he said the track had a lot less traction compared to yesterday and he was not very comfortable with his TLR22 which he said was very edgy to drive and suffered badly from understeer. Despite this he said he gave it his best shot and like Neumann he knew the dBoots Double was his best place for him to retake the lead but in his case his attempt didn’t work out. With two second place finishes to his credit he, has already secured himself a podium finish but he said the pressure is still on as a win for either Hupo Honigl and Batlle would demote him to third overall so he needs the win.
Batlle was happy with his third place in Leg 2 which gives him a chance of making the podium on his EOS debut. The Yokomo backed driver said his BMax-2 MR was really good at the beginning of the race and he was able to close in on Neumann and Bayer once he passed Associated’s Peter Pinisch for third. As the race progressed however the 1:8 Offroad World Champion said he started to lose forward traction due to he thinks his slipper loosening but admitting he has a lot to learn he said it could also be due to ball diff. Having only signed with Yokomo last month to race 1:10 electric offroad, the Spaniard is despite his impressive 1:8 CV a novice among the field this weekend but said he is enjoying his 2WD racing.
2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Joern Neumann (DE) – Durango – 14/5:02.045
2.(2) Martin Bayer (CZ) – Team Xray – 14/5:05.038
3.(7) Robert Batlle (ES) – Yokomo – 14/5:06.393
4.(10)David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho – 14/5:10.084
5.(3) Hupo Honigl (AT) – Durango – 14/5:10.551
6.(5) Peter Pinisch (AT) – Associated – 14/5:12.523
7.(4) Oliver Scholz (DE) – Team C – 14/5:13.565
8.(8) Oskar Levin (SE) – TLR – 14/5:15.309
9.(6) Dominic Bauer (AT) – TLR – 14/5:17.504
10.(9)Jiri Mara (CZ) – Team Xray – 14/5:17.643
Complete event results can be found here.
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