Bayer again in Q3

Martin Bayer posted his second TQ run of the day at the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia when he backed up his fastest time from the morning’s opening 4WD qualifier with another pace setting run in Q3.  Chasing his first overall EOS TQ this weekend at the third round of the championship, the factory Xray driver took the penultimate heat ahead of defending champion Joern Neumann, who, since the creation of the EOS, has never been outqualified nor beaten in the class.  Having TQ’d the second qualifier, Team Yokomo’s  Naoto Matsukura would complete the Top 3 for the round some 8-seconds adrift of the European Champion.

On target early on in the 5-minute encounter to become the first driver to run 14-laps on the difficult track, Bayer said he was very happy with his speed.  With Hudy Arena staff modifying the table top ahead of the start of Round 3, mainly in preparation for the final 2 rounds of 2WD Qualifying, the Czech driver said the change made no noticeable difference for him with his 4WD jumping clear over the dip that has caused drivers a lot of problems.  Running a fresh set of tyres on his LRP powered XB4, Bayer said it was really good and for the final deciding qualifier the only plans he has ‘is to have a good lunch’.

Neumann said he is just too slow.  The German who would normally have locked up the honour of Top Qualifier at this stage of proceedings said for him the track appears to have ‘less & less grip’ each run.  Describing his DEX410 as both edgy and loose he said he has a normal set-up that usually works pretty much everywhere he races but not here.  Set-up changes so far havent done much and he said he needs to think what options he has left to try.

Setting the fastest lap of the round and the only driver who can deny Bayer the overall TQ at his home track,  Matsukura blamed his failure to back up his Q2 TQ run squarely on himself saying  the ‘driver was shit’.    Still finding the track ‘super difficult’ even after the table top modification, he said overall his B-Max4 was ‘OK’ although for the final qualifier he will make a rear shock change to try to make it more stable on the landings.  Otherwise he said his main focus for the fourth & final qualifier is to reduce the number of driver errors.

Setting the fourth fastest time Team C’s Hupo Honigl described his 3rd qualifier as a ‘super safety’ run, him needing a second points haul having retired from Q2.  Making one mistake over the 5-minutes he was pretty pleased with the run which helps lock him into the A-Main.  With that goal achieved the Austrian said the plan is to be ‘more aggressive’in the final round.

Another driver to secure himself an A-Main grid position, Team Xray’s Renaud Savoya posted the 5th fastest time.  The multiple former 1:8 Offroad European Champion was on target for a Top 3 run but came short on one of the jumps resulting in him losing 3-seconds half way through the qualifier.  Running the same set of tyres for a third time in the heat, for the final qualifier he will fit a fresh set of the championship control Pro-Line  Pin Point tyres as he looks to try and better his starting position so as to improve his chances of challenging for a podium at his teams HQ.

Completing the Top 6 was Marc Rheinard.  Running Tamiya’s TRF511, the former European Champion said he just cruised around and kept his line with the buggy easy to drive albeit some way off the pace of the front runners.  Much happier with the revised table top, which he said ‘you can now at least drive on’, for the final round he hopes he can repeat a similar run but this time with a 29-second – one mistake leading to another which combined cost him almost 6-seconds.

4WD Buggy Q3 times
1. Martin Bayer – Xray – 13/5:03.555
2. Joern Neumann – Durango – 13/5:09.773
3. Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo – 13/5:11.551
4. Hupo Honigl – Team C – 13/5:13.289
5. Renaud Savoya – Xray – 13/5:14.355
6. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 13/5:15.278
7. Oskar Levin – Team C – 13/5:16.076
8. Robert Battle – Yokomo 13/5:16.266
9. Bjorn Prumper – Yokomo – 13/5:20.239
10.Ronald Volker – Yokomo – 13/5:20.557

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.