Rheinard is Top Qualifier at EOS Season opener
Marc Rheinard is Top Qualifier for the season opener of the Euro Offroad Series at the Nurburgring in Germany. The Yokomo driver, who secured his first and so far only EOS TQ at the third round last season, claimed his second ever pole position on a tie breaker with Xray’s Martin Wollanka. Topping both Q2 & 3, it was Rheinard’s Q3 time that would give him the top spot on the grid as Wollanka backed up his Q1 TQ with a second one in the fourth & final round leaving them equal on points. Behind them Lee Martin will start third on the grid, the reigning champion only able to get third in Q3 behind a much improved drive from Neil Cragg. Having looked like the Top Qualifier of last season’s final round might not even make the A-Main, his P2 was enough to put the Team Associated driver 5th on the grid behind Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski.
Only P4 in the final qualifier, Rheinard put that down to the fact he was using third run tyres but with the result not affecting the grid for him the gamble could be an advantage to the Touring Car ace. With tyre wear proving high, Rheinard opted to save the new set of tyres he used to take Q3 saying ‘if it comes down to the third A-Main I will have a set of tyres with one less run than the others’. Asked about the final, he said, ‘I will just try to drive around with no mistakes’ adding ‘we are all pretty much on the same pace so I hope I do a good 1st lap and it’s clean from behind too’.
Having given his best shot at trying to secure his first EOS TQ, Wollanka said, ‘I did what I had to do but the time just wasn’t fast enough’. Having felt he lacked speed in the penultimate qualifier, he said redoing the oil in the diff had helped improve his car for Q4. Planning to leave the his XB2 2017 unchanged for A1, when asked about his approach for the race he replied, ‘I’ll just see what happens but the big thing will be to try and make no mistakes and hope others do’.
Aiming for a TQ in the final round in order to put himself directly behind team-mate Rheinard on the grid, Martin would make ‘too many mistakes’. Stiffening the front end of his YZ2 he said it felt ‘very much the same’ as Q3 and missing the TQ was down to ‘driver’s errors’. Looking to the final, which he won last year from second on the grid, he said his plan is to ‘start, wait for mistakes, try not to mess up the table top and see what happens’.
On new tyres for the final qualifier, Orlowski would traction roll on his second lap losing almost 5-seconds leaving him with a P23 time. Vice Champion for the past two seasons, he said the run was not helped by the fact he was ‘making lots of mistakes’ adding ‘I need to improve my driving for the finals’. Happy that he has a car capable of challenging for the win, the teenager said ‘I think no mistakes rather than racing will give you the win but there are places to pass’.
A rather relieved looking Cragg said, ‘I had to go out to the car and give myself a good talking too’ continuing ‘I finally drove good’. With this the start of the reigning European Champion’s first full EOS campaign he said, ‘it’s been disgraceful how I have been driving. I am really disappointed with my driving so far so I am pretty pleased with 5th (on the grid) as it was looking like I wasn’t even going to make the A-Main’. Having changed the rollbar set-up on his LRP/Reedy powered B6 he said this has also helped with it now ‘easier to drive’. Looking to the final the former World Champion said, ‘it can still happen from 5th with a bit of drama up front’. Behind Cragg, his young team-mate Joona Haatanen will start 6th with the rest of the A-Main line-up being completed by last year’s Round 1 Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho, Hupo Hönigl, Martin Bayer and young Dane Frederik Hovgaard.
View complete event results here.
View the event image gallery here.
