Coelho tops practice at EOS season opener

Bruno Coelho has set the pace in practice at the season opening round of the Euro Offroad Series in Warsaw, Poland.  The Xray driver was fastest over the two seeding rounds setting the fastest 3-consecutive laps ahead of team-mate Martin Bayer.  Breaking up the Xrays, Yokomo’s Lee Martin set the third fastest time ahead of EOS debutant Ty Tessmann, the Canadian getting his weekend off to a solid start given his lack of carpet track experience.  Neil Cragg would take his Team Associated to the fifth fastest time ahead of David Ronnefalk, the reigning 1:8 World Champion returning to the championship after a two year absence.  Home favourite and double winner in Warsaw last year, Michal Orlowski would mange only the 9th fastest time.

Summing up his practice, drivers having started the day with two rounds of free practice, Coelho said, ‘I have changed nothing on the car. It works amazing so I just focus on driving making sure to try and put the car on the right parts of the track’.  The reigning 4WD Champion and winner of last season’s concluding two rounds in 2WD, he continued, ‘the time doesn’t mean anything, it’s only 3-laps and it’s 5-minutes that count.  The track is super difficult so making no mistakes is going to be the key and also a big challenge’.

Bayer admitted the track layout is testing his patience.  The Czech driver said, ‘I like more high speed tracks and this is low speed.  It is very tricky and you need to be very patient’.  Describing his 3-lap pace as ‘pretty good’, like Coelho he said it’s what you can do over the full 5-minutes that is going to count adding ‘it is going to be very hard’ to do a full run with no mistakes due to the nature of the track layout.

Martin was content with his practice form saying, ‘We need a little more corner speed but on the jumps the car feels pretty good’.  Describing the track as ‘very tight and technical’ he said, ‘just clipping stuff turns into a big mistakes because there is no margin for error’.  In terms of improving his YZ-2’s corner speed, the former back to back Champion plans to ‘loosen the rear end up a bit’.  Winner of last year’s season opener, Martin’s team-mate Marc Rheinard would set the 8th fastest time with Atsushi Hara recording the 18th quickest time on his EOS debut.

‘Alright, I broke the car pretty early in the first (controlled practice) so had to go for a safe second run’, was how Tessmann summed up seeding’.  Having travelled to the Hudy Arena to test with the rest of the Xray team ahead of travelling to Poland, he continued, ‘I’m running the same set-up as I had at the Hudy Arena and have just been getting used to the track’  He said, ‘It’s definitely challenging and very different to what I am used to.  Getting used to the driving style is the hardest thing’.

Commenting on his P5 pace Cragg said, ‘we are making improvements all the way through and I’m getting used to carpet racing again’.  The Brit continued, ‘the car is quite safe out there, it’s not the fastest but we are doing OK’.  Making a change to his front shocks for CP2, he said while he likes a ‘low rider’ the front was ‘a little low’ and so for the first qualifier he will ‘raise it a smidge’.

Reacting to setting the sixth fastest time, Ronnefalk said, ‘It’s going good but we are still trying stuff’.  Running a prototype car, the Swede continued, ‘the carpet must be new as there feels to be a lot of grip and the layout is a bit small so we have had to change a few things compared to what I was running at home’.  While suffering a crash in the second run resulting in a broken rear arm, he said, ‘the car felt fast and easy to drive’ but he was keen to highlight he was ‘here to learn’ and there was ‘no pressure for a result after a 2-year break’ before adding ‘but of course I want to be up there’.

Breaking his Schumacher in the first controlled practice, Orlowski said, ‘it was not the best start but we made a lot of changes to the car and it felt good’.  On his time he said, ‘I didn’t get get my fast laps in my 3-consecutive laps but the car feels good so it looks good for qualifying’.  The EOS running a new rear tyre, the Pole added, ‘the new tyres are a big improvement on last season’.

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