Neumann tops Q1 at EOS Finale

Reigning champion Joern Neumann got the season finale of the ‘TLR/Spektrum Euro Offroad Series presented by Horizon Hobby’ off to the perfect start as the Team Durango driver took the opening round of 2WD Buggy qualifying in Dortmund, Germany, ahead of Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp and his own team-mate Hupo Honigl.  For reigning World Champion Ryan Cavalieri, his first experience of racing on a European style carpet surface offroad track netted the American the 9th fastest time.

Running as part of Europe’s largest consumer hobby show ‘Intermodellbau Dortmund’, the fourth & final round of the 2012/13 EOS has started off pretty much business as usual for Neumann. Setting the pace over three rounds of 2WD practice the German secured the honour of top seed for qualifying which he duly backed up with an opening qualifying time of 19 laps in 5:11.086.  Pleased with his Speed Passion powered DEX210, the winner of Round 1 & 3 of the series said he changed nothing on the buggy so far and for the 2nd qualifier, which takes place tomorrow, the only change he is considering is trying dBoots Blockpass front tyre which he said the rest of the field appear to prefer over the Nanobyte he has run so far.

Better known for his touring car exploits, a class in which he has been a World finalist and a winner in the EOS’ sister series the Euro Touring Series, Krapp was delighted with his run to the second fastest time.  The only other driver to run 19 laps, the German said his Orion powered RB6 is exactly the same as he ran it on his previous EOS outing at Round 2 in Langenfeld and it feels ‘brilliant’.  Putting a lot more effort into offroad this year as Kyosho push their new RB6 and the fact it is a World Championship year, which he will attend, Krapp said he hopes he can continue his opening form for the rest of the weekend.  Planning to stick with the same set-up for Q2, he will just rebuild the gearbox as he felt the rear of the buggy start to get a little loose at the end of the 5-minute qualifier.

Describing his third fastest time in Q1 as a ‘safety run’, Honigl was pleased with how his DualSky powered DEX210 performed and like the two drivers ahead of him he plans to run everything as is for Q2.  Running in the second fastest heat Durango team-mate Michael Orlowski set the fourth fastest time, the young Polish talent just 1.7 seconds off his vastly experienced team-mate.  The Top 6 was completed by Team C pairing of Marcus Lübke and Luxembourg’s Tom Maquel while Sweden’s Otto Ausfelt was the fastest of the TLR runners taking his 22 to the seventh fastest time.

Running a Centro C4.1, factory Associated ace Cavalieri was pretty happy to post a top 10 time on his first run out on carpet.  Having only had 3 practice runs to familiarize himself with the mid motored C4.1 and the high grip traction surface he said he was improving every run and the first qualifier was his best so far except for an error on his final lap which cost him a potential Top 5 run.  Asked what the different challenge was he said ‘the way the car reacts when you get out of shape is the biggest thing as it puts you right out of your rhythm’. He added the key is keeping your driving ‘smooth’.  Happy with his buggy set-up he said he feels he could do with ‘motoring up’ but will talk to Team Orion’s electronic guru Oscar Jansen, who is in attendance this weekend, before making the call as he also plans to adjust his drag brake.

Just behind Cavalieri in Q1 were team-mates and fellow Americans Kody Numedahl and Brent Thielke.  Setting the 10th fastest time, Numedahl said the aggressiveness of the track made it particularly difficult to run alongside another driver but due to all the pre-race hype about the level of traction there is on carpet he was well prepared for the conditions.  Having attended this event last year, AE team-manager Thielke said he thought his run to the 11th fastest time would have placed him higher as overall it felt pretty good.  Running in the second fastest heat along with his star driver Cavalieri he said it was a little bit of a distraction as he was trying to keep one eye on how his driver was doing rather than being 100% focused on his own driving.

While Cavalieri, Numedahl and Thielke are all running the latest chassis technology here in Dortmund, the fourth member of the factory Associated team Craig Drescher his turning back the clocks running a 1993 RC10.  An 11 time European Offroad Champion, the British driver used this model to win the third in a run of 4-consecutive European titles. Setting the 61st fastest time, Drescher said he is running the car after he got the chance to run a ‘classic’ race in France and having enjoyed the experience he decided to set himself the challenge of seeing how he could do against the latest cars.  Having been out of top line competition for sometime now due to a lack of time he said running a new Associated would have only left him frustrated had he not been on the pace and this way he is having a lot more fun adding if he can get the car in the top half of the field that would make his weekend.

The other offroad World Champion competing this weekend, who made his offroad carpet racing debut at the previous round of the EOS, Robert Batlle could only manage the 19th fastest time.  Making the A-Main in 2WD at Round 3, the 1:8 Offroad World Champion said after practice he reduced his throttle exponential but went too far and it was ‘a complete disaster’ over the jumps as he had to over throttle and this result in him getting the landings wrong most of the time.  Setting the second fastest lap of the round, as one of only two drivers to run a 15-second lap, he said his LRP powered Yokomo feels really good and with the radio set-up correctly he is confident he has the pace to run at the front.

Setting the fastest lap of the round with a blistering 15.591 lap, Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk saw his chances of challenging for a TQ run end on the second lap. Rolling his Orion powered RB6 on the corner table top leading onto the straight, the Swede lost 6-seconds as the marshal failed to notice his inverted buggy.  Making the A-Main in both buggy classes on his EOS debut at Round 3 last month, the 17-year-old said his RB6 feels really good and he is confident for tomorrow’s three rounds of qualifying.

Having contested Round 3 of the EOS with 2WD Chassis’ from other manufacturers, Team Xray have come to the final round armed with a prototype of what could be the Slovak company’s first 2WD buggy.  Closely based on their XB4 4WD Buggy, which was only recently released, the prototype XB2 managed the 16th fastest time in the hands of Martin Bayer. One of the stars of the last round of the EOS where he claimed a podium double, the Czech ace said for such a new car the buggy is actually running pretty good.  Having only had one days testing with the prototype at Xray’s indoor test track at their factory prior to traveling to Germany, he said the new project is going to need time so they can learn how it reacts to certain set-up changes.  Team-mate Renaud Savoya said they didn’t have enough time to test the various set-up combinations on the new car but already he has a better feeling with the buggy than he did with the Kyosho he ran on his EOS debut at Round 3.  Suffering three costly crashes, the 3-time European 1:8 Offroad Champion set the 21st fastest time of the 117 car field but feels the set-up they went with for Q1 is going in the right direction and while he is no where near where he wants to be in terms of pace he is confident they can improve with each run.

2WD Buggy Qualification Round 1
1. Joern Neumann – Team Durango – 19/5:11.086
2. Christopher Krapp – Kyosho – 19/5:14.468
3. Hupo Honigl – Team Durango – 18/5:02.281
4. Michal Orlowski – Team Durango – 18/5:04.042
5. Marcus Lubke – Team C – 18/5:04.590
6. Tom Maquel – Team C – 18/5:05.800
7. Otto Ausfelt – TLR – 18/5:06.489
8. Oliver Speith – Team Durango – 18/5:06.627
9. Ryan Cavalieri – Associated – 18/5:06.978
10.Kody Numedahl – Associated – 18/5:07.989

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