Wollanka sets early 4WD pace at EOS

With Round 2 of the Euro Offroad Series switching over to 4WD for the second half of the opening day of the Hudy Arena hosted event it was Martin Wollanka who set the early pace.  The Xray driver would post the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second of the 3 rounds of free practice as he suffered braking issues in FP3. Second fastest with a time from the third practice was 2WD top seed Lee Martin, the Yokomo driver 8/10ths of a second off Wollanka who would make heavy contact with the British driver during the round.  Winner of 4WD on the EOS’ previous to visits to the home of Xray, Martin Bayer completed the Top 3 followed by newly crowned World Champion Bruno Coelho.

The only driver to run three consecutive 23-second laps, Wollanka described his pace as ‘OK’, adding it ‘can be better’. Having sorted out braking issues in 2WD, ending up 4th quickest, the Austrian would again report brake problems.  A much bigger problem to deal with due to the extra speeds of 4WD, he believes the issue is due to his motor and switching to an ‘old motor’ for controlled practice he hopes this cures the issue adding in terms of chassis set-up ‘the car is fine’.

Describing his P2 pace as ‘alright’, Martin said they made a few changes to his YZ-4 for the last run which made it a little more difficult to drive but also a little faster.  Going into controlled practice he said they will ‘make more adjustments’ which he hopes will make the car a little easier to drive and faster.  Asked about the new front tyres, the EOS organisers changing the front handout tyre to Schumacher’s Wide Stagger Rib, the reigning champion gave the decision a big thumbs up describing them as ‘way better’ and adding they made the cars ‘much more user friendly’.

Bayer said he really enjoyed practice adding it was ‘super close’ among the Top 3.   Joking that his World Champion team-mate ‘Bruno (Coelho) is not so far behind me so I’m happy for him’,  he said he had no need to make any changes to his XB4 set-up which was the same as how he ran it at the World Championships.  Asked about the new front tyre which was changed from Schumacher’s Minipin, the Czech driver said it made for less work in the pits but it made the car less enjoyable to drive.  With less traction and the car now pushing more he said the previous tyre ‘suited our car better’.  Coelho summed up his performance of P4 as ‘better than 2WD’ saying this could be due to the car suiting his driving style better.  With ‘no steering in the slow corners’ due to the tyre change, the Portuguese driver said he needs to try find a solution for this.

Danish driver Mike Gosvig would take his Xray to the fifth fastest time.  The 21-year-old said with his lack of practice due to racing in other classes and his home country not having a suitable offroad track to test on his early pace was ‘good’.  While his team-mates where less enthusiastic about the new tyres, Gosvig ‘like(s) it’ saying it requires less time to prep and makes the car ‘more easy to drive’.  Happy with his XB4 set-up, he said his plan for the first of the two controlled practice rounds is to ‘just drive as the car is super good’.

Completing the Top 6, David Ronnefalk said things were going ‘good so far’.  The HB driver said he hasn’t got his best three laps together yet but the ‘speed & pace is there’.  Having worked on his speedo and motor, Team Orion’s Oscar Jansen in attendance & working with the Swede this weekend, he said they found a good electrics set-up. Also happy with his D413 set-up, the car’s designer Takaaki Yasui making the trip over from Japan for support, he is planning to try a small shock set-up change in controlled practice.  Another driver who feels the switch to the Wide Stagger Rib is ‘way better’ adding the car is ‘a lot easier to drive’ he said it does however effect slightly how well the car lands.

A podium finisher at last season’s EOS finale at the Hudy Arena, Michal Orlowski’s 4WD practice hasn’t started out well with the Schumacher driver still looking for a good set-up.  Only 7th fastest he said it was ‘not the best start’ as he had no steering in FP1.  Able to find that for the second practice he said while they further improved the car for the last run the car is ‘slow and difficult to drive’ with how the car is landing being the main issue they need to resolve.  Behind Orlowski the Top 10 was completed by Marc Rheinard, Ales Bayer and former 4WD dominator Joern Neumann.

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