Martin tops practice at Hudy Arena

Lee Martin has kicked off the third round of the Euro Offroad Series at the Hudy Arena at the top of the times, the Yokomo driver setting the fastest 2WD seeding time ahead of British compatriot Neil Cragg in Slovakia. With the EOS organisers taking over the building of the track at what is the home of Xray, the layout is one of the busiest to feature in the championship will all drivers enjoying the greater level of difficulty which is expected to throw up some surprise results.  One such surprise already is young Daniel Kobbevik who took his Yokomo to the third fastest time ahead of the quickest Xray in the hands of Hupo Honigl. Having come into the event in confident mood following his EOS Round 2 and DHI Cup form, Michal Orlowski’s weekend has not started off well with the championship leader unable to get 3-laps together leaving him 21st fastest and out of the top heat for qualifying.

Reacting to his fastest time, which he set in the second of the two seeding rounds, Martin said, ‘that was a really good run, not just three laps’ adding, ‘this layout is pretty cool’.  Winner on the championship’s last visit to the Hudy Arena, the reigning 2WD Champion continued saying his car ‘just felt nice’ and was ‘a joy to drive’ after they added more droop and went to a softer shock oil for the final practice.  Running a new rear end on his YZ-2 which takes parts from the dirt version of the car, he said the fitting of the currently 3D printed parts had made the car ‘easier to drive’.  He concluded while the track presented a high risk of crashing he was feeling good heading into qualifying.

‘I’m pretty pleased with my pace and pretty happy with my car’ was Cragg’s reaction to his practice.  His first time to travel to the Hudy Arena, the Team Associated driver said, ‘the track is dialled and it’s an amazing facility’.  Joking ‘I’m going to enjoy winning on enemy territory’, he described the track as ‘difficult’ continuing ‘we’ve been running onroad layouts for so long we have forgot how to do jumps’.  Having claimed his first EOS podium finish at the previous round, ahead of the four rounds of qualifying which all take place today the former World Champion said ‘I have a good 5-minute car so we’ll take it from there’.

Also running the new rear end parts on his Yokomo, Kobbevik said his car was working ‘very good’.  The up & coming Norwegian talent is also enjoying the track layout and the fact it has ‘many jumps’.  The 12-year-old would make a shock oil change during practice liking the harder set-up more and he is confident of backing up his practice pace with strong qualifying runs.

Coming straight from the Nuremberg Toy Fair, where his business Hoeco has a stand, Honigl said, ‘I think my car is awesome but I need more sleep tonight’.  The Austrian said he is ‘feeling really tired’ due to the preparation that had to go into getting ready for the Toy Fair and today he is ‘feeling 30-years older than I am’.   Feeling he ‘could drive it better’ after some sleep, while he will have no chance of that for qualifying he does have to look forward to a good nights sleep before the morning’s finals.

Setting the 5th fastest time would be Serpent’s Joern Neumann.  The former champion said while the track is ‘really challenging’, he ‘really like(s) it’.  Used to tracks with ‘higher corner speeds’, he said this weekend’s track ‘has many sections you can lose or gain time’ adding ‘5-minutes will be very different to 3-laps’.  In terms of his car, the German said having been a little nervous to drive at the beginning of the day a shock set-up change has now left the car ‘very good’ .

Setting the 6th fastest time, Bruno Coelho said ‘my car works very well but I had bad luck with traffic’.  The Xray driver continued, ‘the pace is there and its consistent so its all very well for qualifying’.  On the track he said, ‘Its super difficult.  You need to be super patient and feel the jumps, you can’t just drive it flat out, you have to be super smooth but I like it’.

Asked about his disappointing time, Orlowski said, ‘the driver just can’t get around the track’.  The Schumacher ace expanded by saying, ‘The car is really good, I have the pace and all what is needed to be a the top but just need to concentrate more to get around the track’.

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