Orlowski gets his win, only just
Michal Orlowski has finally registered a win in his Euro Offroad Series 2WD title defence but only just. Having secured his third consecutive TQ of the season at the fourth round of the championship yesterday at the Hudy Arena, the Schumacher driver duly delivered victory in A1. Looking on target to wrap things up in A2 after main challenger Bruno Coelho came off worst when he made contact with his out of shape Schumacher, the Pole threw away that win on the last lap handing it to Lee Martin. This set-up a 3-way fight for the win in A3. Under pressure from Coelho, Orlowski cracked on lap 5 allowing the Xray driver to take the lead but now it was going to come down to a race against the clock. Orlowski’s A1 winning time was the target and while Coelho pulled clear at the end he was 0.143 of a second shy meaning a very relieved Orlowski becomes the season’s fourth different winner. Finishing A3 in second, Martin would also tie on points but with his time the slower of the three A-Mains, he had to settle for the final step on the podium.
With his third consecutive win at the home of Xray moving him into the lead of the championship for the first time this season, Orlowski said, ‘I made it hard for myself but this time I guess luck was on my side compared to the previous three rounds’. The 17-year-old continued, ‘I got the win not how I wanted to do it. Everyone makes mistakes and it is what it is. We showed the car has amazing speed but didn’t show it could win, today we did. I can’t wait for people to get their hands on this car’. Asked when he expected the British company’s new kit to be available he couldn’t be any more specific than ‘soon’. On his A3 performance, he said, ‘I tried to make a gap and maintain it but this time Bruno put a lot of pressure on me and I cracked under it. I tried to recover but was counting in my head to see if Bruno was going to beat my time so it was not the best run for me’.
Summing up his A3 win, Coelho said, ‘I know I could not only finish 1st. I had to have a quick time. Orlowski made a mistake and I got through but I was not really able to keep the pace like I wished. After a while I was doing good speed again but in the end it was not enough for the overall win. Congrats to Orlowski for the win’. The former 4WD World Champion added, ‘overall I’m happy with the car which is working well. It was my mistakes in qualifying that cost me’. With today’s 2nd place replacing one of the two 7th place finish the EOS Poland winner is carrying, the 25-year-old believes the final two races are going to require extra effort saying, ‘we race on astro for the next race so we need to work hard to prepare for this so we can can fight for the title’.
Ending up with 3-points just like Orlowski and Coelho, Martin said he was, ‘unlucky not to be second I guess but also lucky to get a good leg 2 result’. The Yokomo driver added, ‘I’m happy with the podium but I’m always gutted to lose on a tie break’. The former back to back 2WD Champion continued, ‘the grid around the corner hurt my overall time but the two guys ahead were really good this weekend’. Claiming a TQ at the opening round and a win in Daun, Martin said he is ‘gutted’ this is his last EOS outing of the season. The 8-time EOS race winner explained, ‘Unfortunately I can’t attend the last two because my schedule does not allow. I have to race the British 1:8 Nationals in order to qualify for the Worlds next year. I’m gutted I’m not able to race because they are on astro and I’m normally good on astro’.
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