January 28, 2018

4WD victory for Orlowski at EOS Daun

Michal Orlowski has taken the overall 4WD victory at Round 2 of the Euro Offroad Series in Germany.  The Schumacher driver claimed only his second ever 4WD win when he once again took advantage of a mistake from Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho in the second of the A-Main encounters. Taking the win from Coelho in A1 following a late mistake from the reigning champion, this time the mistake came on the opening lap allowing Orlowski to lead at the end of the first lap, a lead he wouldn’t relinquish despite Coelho’s best efforts.  Posting the fastest lap of the race by 3/10th over Orlowski’s best, three more errors from Coelho prevented him from catching his rival.  With the large track at the new venue seeing no one manufacturer having a distinct advantage, like the result in 2WD, the podium was made up of drivers representing all different manufacturers with Yokomo’s Lee Martin filling the final step in Daun.

‘No words’, was Orlowski’s reaction to what is his fifth EOS win, three of which the reigning 2WD Champion took in 2WD.  He continued, ‘I was fast all weekend but qualifying didn’t start like I wanted and I was worried I might not even make the A-Main.  I got my confidence this morning (final two qualifiers) and my strategy for the final was to just stay behind Bruno.  I remembered from Warsaw (last season) that he can make mistakes’.  Orlowski’s maiden 4WD win came at his home race in 2016 when he also started behind Coelho who had taken the TQ but made mistakes in the finals.  Running a prototype CAT, the 16-year-old said, ‘using 3D printed parts with the big jumps here was risky but the car worked all weekend.  I am so happy to show the car works and to win after 2WD being so close is great.  It was almost a double, maybe next time’.

Finally managing a win in A3, Coelho summed up his 4WD performance, ‘the track was quite difficult this weekend and we struggled a little with the car.  Yes I made many mistakes but these came from how the car was.  All the time I was forcing to be on the top and pushing led to mistakes that cost me many seconds on the track.  Orlowski was one step higher than both me and Lee (Martin) here. Our car was not on point this weekend and we need to work harder for the next one’.  Retaining his lead in the championship standings, on his A3 performance, having lost the lead in A1 and A2 through mistakes, he said, ‘it was a good final. I made no mistakes.  Lee forced a little but I was able to pull away’.

‘That was the most fun race I had all weekend’, said Martin on finishing 2nd in A3 to secure his first podium of the season.  The former Champion continued, ‘I was just starting to catch Bruno a little and then messed up in the triple.  I took too long to get going at the start so that let him get away and he drove well out front but I’m still happy because I think we now have a good set-up for the next round’.  Summing up the weekend, he said, ‘Obviously I want to win but I’m happy get back onto the podium having missed it at the last round.  The car is still new and it only the 4th time to race it on carpet so we are learning all the time’. Behind Martin and also having his best race in A3, David Ronnefalk would finish 4th ahead of Hupo Honigl and Joern Nuemann.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.



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