Bayer tops 2WD practice at Hudy Arena

Martin Bayer is the top seed for 2WD qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series third round taking place at the Hudy Arena in Slovakia.  The Xray driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps around a difficult track to outpace Round 2 winner Naoto Matsukura who in turn was quicker than Round 1 winner Hupo Honigl.  Breaking his buggy in each of the two timed practice runs, defending champion Joern Neumann posted the 5th fastest time.

Essentially the home event for Bayer, the Czech ace doing the vast majority of his EOS preparations at the Arena, he described both his practices as ‘solid runs’.  Making small adjustments to his XB4-2 each run he said his focus was on consistency over 5-minute rather than outright pace and so he was particularly happy to top the times.  Really confident for the event, he said the buggy is easy to drive and ‘pretty fast’ although it ‘pushes a little more than (he) wants’.  For Q1 he said the plan is to continue with just small adjustments to the set-up in the hope of gradually finding the little steering he is lacking.

Matsukura, who didn’t have the best start to the day when he got some superglue in his eye, described his practice run as ‘good’.   Pleased with the performance of his Yokomo he said ‘car is good, track is difficult’.  Planning to leave his set-up the same for Q1, only fitting a new set of the rear controlled Pro-Line Pin Point tyres, he said the biggest challenge for qualifying is going to be to avoid crashing, something he expects is going to be ‘hard’ to achieve.

Running his car ‘99% the same’ as he did in Berlin where he came so close to securing a second win of the season, Honigl described his TM2 V2 as ‘very good’.  In the second practice the Austrian broke just before 3-minutes when he pulled off a ball cup, but he is confident about his car’s pace going into the first qualifier.

Team C had a strong showing in practice with Oskar Levin posting the fourth fastest time and Torben Hojifeldt completing the Top 6.  Levin said he had nothing to complain about and he was just enjoying driving on what he described as a ‘fun track’.  The 19-year-old Swede  has done little by way of set-up change saying like team mate Honigl that his TM2 V2 is pretty much the same as he ran it in Berlin.

Hojifeldt said the biggest change he made in practice was motoring down from a 6.5 to 7.5 T motor.  The Danish driver said this made the buggy much smoother to drive and also reduced wheel spin.  Having ‘basically touched nothing else on the buggy’ and just focused on his driving he said he is ‘pretty comfortable’ with the track including the centre table top that is causing many drivers issues.

Breaking a C-Hub in the first timed practice and pulling a screw from his servo arm in the second, Nuemann said when his Durango was on the track it was ‘OK’.  Suffering ‘a little understeer’, the German said he would like to improve this for qualifying but with the steering at is maximum mechanically he isn’t sure what he can change but overall he said its not a major issue.

Posting the 7th fastest time Lee Martin also reported understeer but for the Yokomo driver its seems more of an issue.  Running an ‘almost same set-up’ as Matsukura, who is not experiencing the problem, the British driver said he doesnt have an specific cure for the lack of steering but has a few ideas he will try for Q1.  He added one of the main reasons for both drivers experiencing a different level of steering from the same set-up is mostly down to their driving style with him describing his Japanese team-mate as having a ‘harder driving style’.

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