Matsukura looking untouchable
Naoto Matsukura is looking untouchable in 4WD Buggy at the Euro Offroad Series season opener in Poznan, Poland, as having already wrapped up the overall TQ in Q3 he went on to top all five qualifiers at the ‘Hobby’ exhibition hosted event. With pole position decided early, Q4 & 5 was all about how the rest of the other would line-up behind the Yokomo driver. Claiming a second in Q4, defending Champion Joern Neumann, who has been winner of this event for the past two years will carry the number 2 on his Durango. Despite two rough closing qualifiers, a ‘string of P3s’ earlier in the day will see Lee Martin line up third. A good final qualifier from Martin Bayer, the Xray driver setting the second fastest time, will see him line up fourth ahead of Schumacher’s Carson Wernimont.
While happy to salvage second on the grid, Neumann said mistakes are still his biggest problem. Conceding that Matsukura is ‘very fast’, he said he needs the Japanese driver ‘to make a mistake or (he) can’t do anything’ about trying to beat him. Starting between the two Yokomos he said while the ‘finals are always different’, Martin is a ‘little slower’ so he shouldn’t have too much worries from behind.
Hitting an out of place piece of piping in Q4 resulting in him breaking his B-Max4, the run already gone due to a crash on his opening lap, Martin said Q5 was looking good for a Top 2 until a mistake with 2-minutes to go. Ending up 5th, the British ace said changes to his car had made it better in some areas and worse in others with the overall performance much the same as it was in the opening three qualifiers when he was lacking just a little. With Shin Adachi working on a new set-up for the first A-Main, he said the two key areas that need improving are the cars forward drive and how it absorbs the flat landings.
With Xray designer Juraj Hudy joking they are improving ‘step by step’, Bayer said he now had a much better car than what he started out the day with. Having looked to make his prototype XB4 more aggressive, he has ended up getting more steering into it as well as getting it to rotate better all while still keeping it easy to drive. Planning to leave it unchanged for A1 they will wait and see how that goes before doing anything further.
Changing his shock position and moving his batteries more forward in his CAT, Wernimont said this created quite a bit more corner speed. Describing the car are ‘quite easy to drive’, the 17-year-old American believes he has a good car for the final.
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