Cragg heads B6 1-2 in opening EOS qualifier

Neil Cragg led a 1-2 for Team Associated and their new B6 in the opening qualifier at the season finale of the Euro Offroad Series at the Nurburgring. Only his second EOS outing, the British driver outpaced his team-mate Spencer Rivkin by just 0.240 of a second with Ryan Cavalieri making it a very encouraging start for the new car as he posted a P4 run.  Leading the challenge to the AE team, who would get 5 cars in to the Top 10, qualifying top seed Lee Martin would take his Yokomo to third almost a full second off his fellow countryman Cragg.

‘A solid 5-minutes’ was how Cragg summed up his TQ run, adding ‘I had one moment but got away with it’.  With it ‘nice to get back to 2WD’ which he described as being ‘a 1000% better than 4WD’, he said Q1 was ‘a good start to the day’. Starting behind Martin having been second fastest in practice, the former World Champion said ‘I was running behind Lee’ knowing he was up on the reigning champion when ‘Spencer seemed to come from nowhere’. Forced to respond to the current World Champion, he said he ‘pushed on’ adding it was nice to end up with a 1-2 for the new car.  Planning to leave his LRP powered B6 unchanged for Q2, if he can post another strong run he plans then to try Rivkin’s set-up for the third round.

Making his EOS debut this weekend, Rivkin said his first qualifier ‘went well’ and ‘better than (he) thought’ it would.  Not happy with his driving in practice yesterday when he ended up 5th fastest, he would suffer 2-3 flip overs in which his Reedy powered B6 managed to land on its wheels from which he was ‘happy to be able to come back to finish 2nd’.  ‘Happy to get 2nd from the first round’, the 17-year-old continued ‘I know the car is fast as my team-mate got the TQ’.  Expecting to be ‘better the next one’, the American who posted the fastest lap will ‘back it down 10%’ with his aim being a secure a ‘Top 3 start’ in the A-Main.

‘Close but no cigar’ was Martin’s reaction to his P3 adding ‘Q1 of 2WD is always a nervous run after doing 4WD practice’ continuing ‘Neil (Cragg) didn’t do much 4WD’.  Like Cragg, the winner of the previous visit to the Nurburgring was a little surprised by Rivkin’s pace saying, ‘Spencer was fast from the mid point (of the qualifier)’. Suffering from a ‘few traffic issues’ when he had to ‘dodge a few rogue cars’, he said ‘on this track that can cost a lot of time’.  On his YZ-2 he said it ‘felt fine and was doing everything it was supposed to’ but on his driving he added ‘it was a little too pedestrian’.

Cavalieri summed up his opening qualifier as ‘not too bad’.  Surviving ‘one little bobble’ he said ‘we are all really close’.  Looking for his Orion powered B6 to ‘get into the corners a little better’, the multiple World Champion will make ‘a small adjustment’ for Q2 which he hopes will help him ‘pick up some time’.

Laying down the early TQ pace, Bruno Coelho would open proceedings with a P5.  Top Qualifier at the Nurburgring back in September when he made his EOS debut, the Xray driver would touch a dot and flip his Hobbywing powered XB2.  Describing the car as ‘pretty good’, the straight talking Portuguese driver continued ‘the only problem was my stupid mistake’.

Completing the Top 6 ahead of former back to back champion Joern Neumann, Michal Orlowski described Q1 as being ‘not so bad’ before continuing ‘but I hope we can improve’.  Losing 1-second when he ‘crashed once’, the Schumacher driver said he is still looking for more rotation from his buggy.  Suffering from ‘too much rear grip’ he said hopefully they can make the Cougar KF2 easier to drive for Q2.  Behind Neumann’s Serpent, Team Associated young guns Joona Haatanen and Joakim Nicolaisen would be 8th & 9th fastest respectively with Xray’s Hupo Honigl completing the Top 10.

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