Matsukura takes Q2 & 3 at Hudy Arena

Naoto Matsukura took the 2nd and 3rd round of qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series finale at the Hudy Racing Arena.  Having thrown away at TQ run in the opening qualifier when he crashed on his final lap, the Kyosho driver would come back to post two convincing TQ runs leaving the Japanese ace poised to claim the overall TQ in Slovakia.  Behind Matsukura, Q3 would see a repeat of the Q2 Top 3 with Martin Bayer 2nd fastest and Q1 pace setter Lee Martin third.  For defending champion Joern Neumann, the latest two qualifiers would prove challenging.  Suffering a stripped diff gear in Q2, nursing his Serpent home in P12, after rebuilding the diff and fitting all new bearings for Q3.  After just two warm-up laps however one of the bearings would seize leaving the German a non-starter with his hopes a fourth consecutive EOS 4WD title fading and going in the favour of Martin.

Adjusting his camber for Q2, Matsukura said he was a lot more comfortable with his Lazer ZX6 than in the opening qualifier.  The only driver to run 13-laps in the second round, he would go up in his rear shock oil for the penultimate run. While this made the rear of the buggy more stable, the former 2WD Champion said he had less steering and his time was slower, the Top 3 managing 13 lap runs albeit 5-seconds off Matsukura.  For the final qualifier he said his mechanic will try to find a set-up to get him back some of the steering while maintaining the rear stability.

‘Think it was ok’, that was how Bayer summed up his latest two qualifiers.  The lead Xray driver said he is losing time at the start of the run as a result of being over cautious with his opening laps but then is able to pull most of it back as he finds his rhythm. Already looking to the finals and currently third in the ranking he said he hopes he can start ahead of Martin as that way he can take the fight to Matsukura for the win.

‘Difficult’ was Martin’s response.  The Yokomo driver said he is ‘not comfortable enough’ with the car and is ‘holding back so as not to crash’.  Making set-up changes each round he said they are are not taking away the problems.  Set to make more changes for the fourth & final qualifier he is also fitting a fresh rear wing to his B-Max 4 as the original one is ‘pretty beat up’.

Having broke his Xray in the warm-up for Q1, and then started too slowly and had to give way to both Matsukura and Martin in Q2, Miguel Matias said his P4 run in Q3 was ‘pretty consistent’.  Only his third electric race of the year, he declared the result as good for him highlighting that he is getting faster every time he runs.

One of the stars of EOS round 2 in Berlin, Patrick Hofer posted the fifth fastest time.  The Swiss Team Associated driver put his improvement down mostly to better driving but also removing an extra row of pins from his tyres he said this made his B44.3 easier to drive.

AE team-mate Joakim Nicolaisen completed the Top 6.  The 18-year-old, who said 2WD is normally his better class, said freshening up the diff for Q2 seemed to make his B44.3 feel more consistent but added he probably drove it better too.  Also 6th in Q2, he said he would leave his car as is for the last one and ‘see how it goes’.  Changing from a centre diff to a slipper the third qualifier Ryan Cavalieri found the change a big step forward but unfortunately had a DNF as he lost a dog bone.

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