Coelho does the double at EOS Poland
Bruno Coelho has opened the new season of the Euro Offroad Series in the best way possible with the Xray driver doing the double in Poland adding the 4WD win to yesterday’s 2WD victory with another faultless performance in A2. Also securing the bonus point on offer for the TQ, the reigning 4WD Champion finds himself already three points in the lead of both the 2WD & 4WD standings. Having secured his first ever EOS double at the penultimate round of last season’s championship, today’s 4WD victory marks the World Champion’s 7th win in the class setting him up perfectly to become the first driver to do equal Joern Neumann record of 3-consecutive EOS title wins. Behind Coelho the 4WD podium would be, as it was in 2WD, an all Xray affair with Bayer winning A3 to secure second overall with Daniel Kobbevik having a great weekend to claim his first EOS podium. Ty Tessmann would claim 4th on his EOS debut with David Ronnefalk best of the rest, the HB Racing driver being the top non Xray driver with 5th, having been in contention for a podium placing before a coming together with Tessmann in A3.
Summing up his weekend in Warsaw, the opening round taking place as part of a Travel and Camping Show at Ptak Warsaw Expo, Coelho said, ‘I’m super happy for sure to start the season like this. I was not expecting this but we did come here 110% ready also having Ty here and that shows in the result of the whole team’. He continued, ‘Everything worked perfect and it was only my own mistakes that were a problem. Now we have to prepare for the next race when I hope things stay the same’. Asked about his A2 performance, he replied, ‘Again I just forced for the first 4 or 5 laps to get a gap and then after that I drove a controlled race to keep the lead in the hand’.
‘I’m super happy, 2nd time second is amazing for me’, was Bayer reaction to repeating his 2WD result. He continued, ‘I know I can’t beat Bruno but I have the feeling I can do better but I can’t take the pressure anymore from the young guys behind me, the competition is super high’. As head of Xray’s offroad programme, he said, ‘It been a super amazing result for the team. We made huge domination and to win all four classes was amazing but we need to keep working hard. We can’t sleep or we will not be there next race’.
Marking his first EOS outing as an Xray team driver with his first podium of the championship, a very pleased Kobbevik said, ‘I am super happy. This is the best result I have had. Starting fifth and getting a podium is a great start and I hope I can continue in this way for the rest of the season’. Having taken a second in the opening A-Main, the 12-year-old showed no nerves mixing it with some of the World’s best drivers and backing up that result with third place in both A2 and 3.
Just missing out on a podium double, having finished 3rd in 2WD yesterday, Tessmann summed up his first EOS weekend by saying, ‘It was cool to do but I don’t know I would want to do the whole season. I still prefer dirt’. He continued, ‘It was definitely a challenge to come from dirt to here. It’s completely different to what I am used too. It would be nice to come back and do it now and again’. On his A2 and A3 performances, the Canadian said, ‘I had second run tyres for both so the car was good but in the last one something was wrong with the power. It felt like it was cogging or slipping and I limped around the last lap and lost second’.
‘Unlucky I would say’ was how Ronnefalk described his fifth place finish. Returning to the EOS after more than a 2-year absence he said, ‘I was putting pressure on Ty but he didn’t have the power to get over the double so I went for it but his car came up and touched the underneath of my car and that cost me a podium. He continued, ‘I knew 2nd in the last one would get me 3rd overall. I just had to beat Kobbevik’s time. 5th overall doesn’t show the result of the car. I am happy where the car is at we just didn’t have some luck today plus we lacked a little experience with the new car but we will get that’. Behind Ronnefalk, Lee Martin would complete the Top 6. Running Yokomo’s new YZ4-SF, it was a disappointing debut for the car with Xray looking to have raised the bar they set last year even higher.
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