Cockerill is 2WD Top Qualifier at EOS opener
Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill is Top Qualifier for the opening round of the Euro Offroad Series taking place this weekend in Poland. Claiming his & Schumacher’s first pole position, the British driver becomes only the fourth driver to claim the honour in the 2WD class. Topping the fourth & final qualifier Team Durango’s Hupo Honigl will start second with team-mate & defending champion Joern Neumann set to line-up third. Despite breaking in Q4, young Team Durango talent Michal Orlowski will start his home event from 4th on the grid.
‘Really happy’ to secure the TQ honours, joining Neumann, Lee Martin and Naoto Matsukura as the only drivers to top 2WD qualifying, Cockerill said his prototype buggy, which has just been named the Cougar KF, is working extremely well since he arrived in Poznan. Taking both his TQ runs that secured him the pole position on new tyres, he said he was not expecting too much from the final qualifier as he was on used rubber. Going up in the rear diff oil and running a shorter wheelbase to account for being on the tyres he said the changes worked really well which is encouraging going into tomorrow’s finals. Still not doing the double after he broke his front shock tower attempting it this morning, he said for the finals he is sticking to the safe option adding he hopes at the start his rivals will be forced to do the same as they follow him. With many of the finalists having one of their three allocated qualifying tyres left over, he said he will be at a disadvantage in one of the final legs but on used tyres he is confident his buggy is better than his rivals. He plans to use the extra set of Proline tyres allocated to the A-finalists in the first of the 5-minute mains.
The only driver to TQ a round on used tyres, his Q4 time the fastest of qualifying, Honigl said unlike his rivals his Durango feels better on used tyres. Having looked at the other drivers tyres after one run he said his own don’t seem to be as worn and this might be part of the reason he can run better on the second run. Looking to the finals the former European Champion said on new tyres his buggy is harder to drive but he will have to run new tyres twice as on a third run the tyres would be too worn.
Neumann said he is struggling with a lack of overall traction. The European Champion feels his rivals are using their tyres better than he is with his tyres ‘done’ after one run. Starting third on the grid, the German said with two new sets of tyres for the finals he should be able for two competitive legs but feels the double section is going to make it hard to do much passing as you cant run too close to the buggy in front for fear of colliding with them at the high risk jumps.
After struggling to get to terms with this season’s new controlled tyres, 12-year-old Orlowski was clearly pleased to be starting fourth. Another driver to have saved a set of his qualifying tyres for the finals, he said the starting position gives him a good opportunity to repeat the podium finish he took here last year. With the double expected to trip up a number of drivers in the finals, Orlowski said he plans to stay safe and stick with his single single approach.
Racing offroad for only the third time, touring car driver Patrick Hornum is the top Team C qualifier lining up an impressive 5th on the grid just in front Oliver Scholz. Back to back German National, Scholz said after a bad start to qualifying he was pleased with his performance in Q3 & 4 adding the improvements came from better driving. The 18-year-old said his goal for the season opener was to make the main and now with that pressure lifted he will just see what happens in the finals.
Making Durango the best represented manufacturer in the final, last year’s 4WD podium finish Benni Gröschel will start 7th thanks to his Q1 run to the third fastest time. Behind him Belgian National Champion Nicolas Risser starts 8th. Running his Team C chassis for the very first time this weekend, the 17-year-old said he was ‘very happy’ to make the final after a bad start to the day when he broke a servo in Q1. Fifth fastest in Q4 this booked his spot in the main event.
Scrapping his way into the final, David Ronnefalk will start 9th ahead of the Dutch Yokomo driver Bryan van Bijnberk. Changing to softer shocks with more pack, the World Championship finalist said his Kyosho RB6 was now really good. Needing a good final qualifier the Swede was on for a strong run until he hit the foot of Xray boss Juraj Hudy who was marshalling a stranded buggy. Costing him 3-seconds, luckily Ronnefalk was able to savage 9th for the round to secure his place in the in final.
Unfortunately for Xray and their new XB4 2WD they didn’t have a much needed good final qualifier meaning both Martin Bayer and Renaud Savoya will line-up for the B-Final tomorrow.
2WD A-Main Grid
1. Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 310 pts
2. Hupo Hönigl (AT) – Team Durango – 308
3. Jörn Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – 307
4. Michal Orlowski (PL) – Team Durango – 303
5. Patrick Hornum (DK) – Team C – 303
6. Oliver Scholz (DE) – Team C – 301
7. Benni Gröschel (DE) – Team Durango – 297
8. Nicolas Risser (BE) – Team C – 297
9. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho – 296
10.Bryan van Bijnberk (NL) – Yokomo – 296
View the complete event results here.
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