Coelho fastest from Orlowski in Q3
With 4WD qualifying resuming after yesterday’s 2WD action at Round 2 of the Euro Offroad Series in Poland, it was Bruno Coelho who set the pace in Q3. Having topped the opening qualifier on Friday, the reigning champion was fastest from 2WD race winner Michal Orlowski. Over 4-seconds off the TQ pace, Lee Martin would complete the Top 3 just ahead of Martin Bayer who took the TQ in the second qualifier on Friday. Having suffered spur gear failures in the first two rounds, Malin Karlsen would finally go the full 5-minutes to post an impressive P5.
Winner of the season opener in Germany, Coelho summed up the switch back to 4WD as ‘very good’. He added ‘it took a 4 or 5 laps to get used to double the steering and double the speed but once the heat started I was able to drive without any mistake. The car is working very good’. Looking on target to claim the TQ, Bayer needing to TQ Q4 with a faster time, the World Champion said, ‘I might try something new on the car for the last one to try to make it even faster’.
Commenting on his badly needed P2, his opening qualifier ending in retirement, Orlowski said, ‘I had a steering problem being loose but adapted my driving to the car as I needed this run to make the main’. Explaining the issue, Schumacher designer Tristram Neal said, ‘there is too much flex in the front deck but we will stiffen it up for the next one’. With the P2 locking him into the A-Main for his home event, the 15-year-old said, ‘hopefully I can improve on my starting position in the last one’, the Warsaw driver currently sitting 7th in the quali ranking.
‘Two other guys were a little faster’ was Martin’s reaction after the penultimate qualifier. Runner-up in 2WD last night, he continued, ‘I felt different from 2WD obviously and I couldn’t really go much faster’. His third P3 run, the Yokomo driver said, ‘We’ll make a set-up change and see what we find’. For team-mate Marc Rheinard Q3 would end in retirement as he lost a screw from the front arm of his YZ4.
Bayer was pleased with his P4 describing it as a ‘good run’ with just ‘small bobbles from touching the boards’. Running his XB4 unchanged from Friday, the former EOS race said he opted to run used tyres. Looking to save new sets for the finals, the Czech driver added, ‘new tyres are faster for me’.
Having been on a Top 5 pace in the opening two qualifiers, Karlsen was relieved to finish Q3. After stripping three spur gears in a row, final practice, Q1 and Q2, the problem was found to be his Xray having too much flex. Stiffening up the car, the gear would hold and while the 11-year-old felt the car was better with more flex she said it was still good to drive, a fact highlighted by his P5 time. With two of the four qualifiers counting, the Norwegian said she ‘need(s) to put together another run to make the A-Main’ something she achieved at the last season’s finale.
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