Martin claims first EOS title with Wels victory

Lee Martin has claimed his first Euro Offroad Series title with victory at the penultimate round of the championship today in Wels, Austria.  Driving for defending 2WD champions Yokomo, the British driver secured his second win of Season #4 when he took a tone to tone win in A2 putting the 2014/15 EOS title beyond the reach of his rivals.  Top Qualifier just as he was at Round 2 in Berlin, Martin’s win maintain’s Yokomo’s domination of the championship with outgoing champion Naoto Matsukura having won for the Japanese manufacturer at the season opener in Poland.  Behind Martin a win in A3 would see HB’s David Ronnefalk finish second with Joern Neumann marking his EOS debut with Serpent by completing the 2WD podium.

‘I’m really chuffed for me and Yokomo’, was Martin’s reaction to his championship success.  The multiple European Champion & World Championship runner-up, added this is one of the titles I have always wanted to win but never thought I would because I’m shit on carpet’.  ‘It is awesome to defend the title for Yokomo and today’s race win also means our new car is still undefeated in the EOS’.  Commenting on A2, having been handed the A1 win when Michal Orlowski’s Schumacher had an electric shutdown, Martin said his buggy was a joy to drive.  Changing nothing he said ‘everything felt just right that time’.  He said while there is pressure with every race from ‘the young lads’ once they made a few mistakes he was able to control the pace of the race through to the finish.  Thanking Shin Adachi and Naoya Kitagawa for their support throughout his EOS campaign, he said also added the YZ-2 has been a huge step forward for the team both in terms of quality and how easy it is to drive and he is already looking to defending his EOS title next season.

Making it two podium finishes from 2 races, the Swede missing the season opener due to his pending switch from Kyosho to HB, Ronnefalk said considering how things started out in A1 he was very happy with finish second overall.  Claiming a 3rd in A2, he opted to gamble on running a new set of the championship pre-mounted Schumacher tyres for A3.  Leading away the field, Martin sitting out the leg, he said he was a little nervous due to the new tyres but his Red Workshop B52 Associated conversion would turn out to be the best it had been all weekend.  Helped by the rapid No.3 starting Schumacher of Michal Orlowski dropping back at the first corner due to a mistake, the 1:8 European Champion said he was able to run his own race with him particularly pleased that he ran the fastest time of the three finals.  Having used a Team C in Berlin and the Red Workshop conversion here in Wels, he said he might use the EOS finale at the Hudy Arena to try another car to build up knowledge as he waits on HB’s 2WD buggy, hinting at the use of a Yokomo.

A driver used to winning EOS races having a combined 2WD & 4WD tally of 17 race wins, Neumann was ‘really happy’ with his third.  Having contested Round 2 with a Durango as a privateer, the European Champion who only last month signed for Serpent said today’s podium was ‘the maximum result they could have expected’.  Having had little time to test on carpet due to a busy racing schedule he said for a normal mid motor car and its first race on carpet the car ran really good.  He said with some testing he is confident they can improve their pace by finding a better set-up for the configuration they have but added they may also need to take a look at producing an alloy chassis for the car.

Justing missing out on the podium having finished tied on points with Neumann, Simon Moss would finish fourth as the top Schumacher driver with the British manufacturer having a very good showing getting three cars in the A-Main.  Unfortunately for Orlowski, 5th overall was a disappointing reflection of what started out as such a promising encounter for the 13-year-old.  A bad start to A3 and then two clashes with Xray’s Martin Bayer as he tried to work his way back to the front ended his quest for his first podium finish of the season with him finishing the leg 4th behind team-mate Moss. Behind the two Schumachers, touring car ace Yannic Prumper would complete the Top 6 overall.

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