Kobbevik takes opening qualifier at EOS Daun

Daniel Kobbevik has backed up his Top 3 practice form at the Euro Offroad Series in Germany taking the opening round of 2WD qualifying in Daun.  The Xray driver produced a clean 5-minute run around the large high speed track layout to top the times from Lee Martin by one and a half seconds.  Despite a 3-second error after he had just went by Kobbevik, who started the heat in front of him, Bruno Coelho come out of the round with a P3.  Another to suffer costly mistakes was Top Seed Michal Orlowski, the Schumacher driver twice making errors that cost him a total of 6-seconds leaving him fourth ahead of an under the weather Martin Bayer.  Finding himself in the second fastest heat after a disappointing controlled practice, Jörn Neumann completed the Top 6 despite a blotch on his run when he crashed twice on the same lap that added 4-seconds to his time.

‘I’m super happy’ declared Kobbevik on reacting to his TQ run.  The Norwegian’s first race outing in over 2-months, he added, ‘I was struggling a bit at the start because of being on new tyres and this made the car difficult to drive but then I got faster and faster but it was making no mistakes that gave me the TQ’.  Having delivered a podium finish at the season opener in 4WD but chasing that same honour in 2WD, looking to Q2, the teenager said, ‘I will just try to do the same. I hope it will be easier at the start now that the tyres are broken in’.

Martin summed up his Q1 performance with ‘it was fine’.  The Yokomo lead driver continued, ‘the car got a little soft in the end and I couldn’t push the last minute’.  The former Champion added, ‘I went relatively clean and there isn’t much else to report really’. For Q2 he will, ‘stiffen up the car to make it better at the end of the run’.

Explaining his P3 run, Coelho said, ‘I started behind Daniel and once I felt comfortable with the tyres I started to push.  When I caught Daniel he let me by but just after I passed him I crashed at the table top and lost 3-seconds’.  Chasing a second 2WD win of Season #8, the overall title still eluding the 2-time 4WD Champion, he concluded, ‘I am happy with our car. Daniel was 1st and I was third with a 3-second error showing it’s working well’.

Orlowski said, ‘The car felt good. We moved the battery back to forward position but I made two errors and lost a lot of time. Otherwise everything was very good’.  The reigning champion added, ‘I jumped the last roller on the inside and got caught in the pipe and then I got the double double wrong and ended up out on the straight. They were two costly mistakes but I know I have the pace so I will go back out and do my own thing’.

‘For how I feel 5th was not a bad result’, was Bayer’s reaction after Q1.  The head of Xray’s offroad programme, continued, ‘Since I arrived yesterday I having been feeling sick and all my reactions are slower. When I need to correct the reactions are not there’.  With the race attracting a record entry, Bayer said he was also not happy having to start 11th in the fastest heat saying it was an extra distraction’.  The Czech driver concluded, ‘hopefully I feel better tomorrow but for now I will just try to survive the rest of the day’ – Day 1 not set to conclude until just after 22:00 local time.

‘Sixth was actually a good opening round.  I crashed once, well twice on the same lap so it could have been quicker’, was how Neumann summed up Q1.  The Schumacher driver added, ‘the car is driving good but if I could get a bit more off power steering it would be perfect. I will discuss with Trish (Tristram Neal) what we can change to get this for the next one’.

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