Martin claims 2nd in 4WD & first Yokomo podium

Lee Martin has won the closing race at the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia to claim second overall and with it his first podium finish for his new Yokomo team. A former 2WD race winner in the series, Martin won A3 from team-mate Naoto Matsukura with the Yokomo pairing completing the podium at the Hudy Arena behind overall winner Martin Bayer. Finishing third in the final A-main, having had his record run of 9-straight wins in 4WD brought to an end in A2, defending Champion Joern Nuemann would not even make the podium, the Durango driver leaving behind a difficult weekend with the 4th place trophy.

Pleased at securing his first podium, his A3 win giving him the tie breaker over Matsukura who ended the finals on the the same points, Martin paid tribute to his team for their hard work over the weekend.  With the Japanese manufacturer’s new head of offroad development Shin Adachi making the trip to the Hudy Arena, Martin said for the final main they found a good set-up.  Admitting that it was still not perfect the former multiple European Champion said it was a lot closer to that of their rivals.  With the car having been fast but hard to drive, he said they now made it much easier to drive.  The next stage he said is to make it a little faster in ‘safe mode’ but overall he said the team is working well together and he is glad to come away with a podium for their efforts.

Matsukura was expected to take the win in A3 but a coming together with Neumann just after the start left him with too much work to do to challenge Martin.  Setting the fastest lap of the weekend in A3, he did pull back in the No.3 B-Max4 but Martin held on to take the win by 1/2 a second with Neumann a further 1.2 seconds behind.  In with an outside chance of the podium, Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk, who started 8th on grid, would retire with a broken front wishbone having ran second for the first 6 laps.

4WD Buggy Overall Result
1. Martin Bayer (CZ) – Xray – 2 pts
2. Lee Martin (UK) – Yokomo – 4
3. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 4
4. Joern Neumann (DE) – Durango – 5
5. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho – 8
6. Hupo Honigl (AT) – Team C – 9
7. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Xray – 11
8. Oskar Levin (SE) – Team C – 12
9. Miguel Matias (PT) – Xray – 16
10.Robert Batlle (ES) – Yokomo – 16

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 3 Result
1.(4) Lee Martin – Yokomo – 13/5:02.802
2.(2) Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo – 13/5:03.378
3.(3) Joern Neumann – Durango – 13/5:04.851
4.(6) Hupo Honigl – Team C – 13/5:12.502
5.(5) Renaud Savoya – Xray – 13/5:16.775
6.(9) Oskar Levin – Team C – 13/5:25.731
7.(7) Miguel Matias – Xray – 12/5:07.804
8.(10)Robert Batlle – Yokomo – 12/5:13.602
9.(8) David Ronnefalk – Kyosho – 9/3:34.118
10.(1)Martin Bayer – Xray – DNS

View the complete event results here.

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