Final 4WD qualifier set to be TQ Showdown

The final round of 4WD Buggy qualifying at the season opener of the Euro Offroad Series in Poznan, Poland, is set to be a showdown for the overall TQ honours with each of the opening three qualifiers having been topped by different drivers.  Starting off his title defence perfectly having topped yesterday’s practice Joern Neumann took Q1 from Martin Bayer.  In Q2 Bayer went one better and set the pace taking the round from Xray team mate Renaud Savoya.  The penultimate qualifier saw Hupo Honigl post the fastest time ahead of Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk with 2WD Top Qualifier Tom Cockerill third.  Such is the closeness of the lead drivers just 2/10ths of a second separated the time of the fastest and slowest rounds.

Commenting on his Q3 run, Honigl said he just ‘crashed less’.  The Team Durango driver said his DEX410 felt better in Q2 but he had too much traffic issues.  Running new tyres on his TQ run, the Austrian feels he should be in for a good final qualifier as his 4WD, likes his 2WD, works better on a used set of the Proline handout tyres.

Team-mate Neumann described his opening TQ run as ‘OK’ but said for the second round he just didn’t have enough grip running on used tyres. Combined with ‘too many mistakes’ he ended the round fourth fastest.  Unbeaten in the EOS in 4WD having won all previous 7 events over the past two seasons, in Q3 he was on for a good run until someone stepped on to the track and he hit their foot costing him over 2-seconds.  Having run big bore shocks in all three qualifiers, the German plans to switch to small bore versions for the final round.

Topping Q2, Bayer said he was just relieved at this stage to have locked himself into the A-Main having missed the cut in 2WD earlier in the day.  The European Champion said in the opening two rounds his LRP powered XB4 felt good.  Running a shorter rear camber link for Q3 he said combined with being on new tyres the buggy had too much rotation and was not easy to drive.  Setting the fifth fastest time he said he will revert to a slightly longer link for the final qualifier when he will run used tyres.  Team-mate Renaud Savoya ran the same set-up as Bayer for Q3 and will also return to his Q2 set-up when he was second fastest just .9 off the Czech ace.

Second fastest in Q3 and as a result in contention for the overall TQ honours , Ronnefalk was very happy with the handling of his prototype chassis.  Suffering a slipper shaft failure in Q1, in Q2 he had traffic problems with a coming together with the Durango of Kaja Novotny and subsequent crash on the same lap costing him around 10-seconds.  Having broken his new centre slipper in Q1 which is fixed on one side, the Swede had to use an old version which has springs both sides and he said this improved the buggy a lot.   Smoother to drive and having better traction he said in Q3 with a clear track the buggy felt ‘amazing’.  With the announcement that he was running 2nd, Ronnefalk said he ‘pushed like hell’ for the final two laps as he wanted at TQ run but he just missed out by a tenth of a second.  Delighted with how good the buggy was when pushed to the limited he said the final qualifier is going to be ‘crazy’ with so many drivers in contention for the overall TQ.

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