Schumacher 1-2 as Neumann TQs EOS Finale

Schumacher will start 1-2 on the grid for the Euro Offroad Series championship deciding 4WD A-Main, with Joern Neumann continuing his reign at the EOS’ first ever outdoor event at Arena33.  Top Qualifier and winner of 2WD, the German claimed the 4WD pole with his second TQ run in the fourth & final qualifier while, having TQ’d Q3, title contender Michal Orlowski will start 2nd.  The only other driver with a TQ run but having a fraught Q4, defending champion Bruno Coelho will line his Xray up third ahead of the Associated of Neil Cragg and Yokomo of Lee Martin.

Pulling off an impressive save at the front double in Q4, Neumann said, ‘other than my moment at the double it was a clean run but there is something in the jump since they added the new carpet. I think something might be broken underneath’.  With the race organisers now working on the jump ahead of the finals, he continued, ‘The Schumacher car is super fast and Michal & me are 1-2’.  Asked about tyres, given that it was a factor in 2WD, the former champion replied, ‘tyres are no problem.  I ran third run tyres in qualifying and have one set with one run and one brand new set.  The car is very good on tyres’.  Asked about the finals and the fact his team-mate is vying for the final win he said, ‘I will just drive and if he is faster he (Orlowski) will overtake’.

Commenting on his qualifying, Orlowski said, ‘It was good to get the TQ in the third one, the feeling of the car was much better.  The last one I was very unlucky in the double. I was feeling very good but the car just kicked and I had no chance to save it’.  He continued, ‘many guys are crashing there. The up ramp is not flat and its causing the cars to go sideways in the air’.  Suffering a rip yesterday, a second piece of EOS carpet was placed over the damaged area to allowing racing continue and since then some drivers are having issues.  Asked about the title, the 2WD Champion said, ‘I need a win.  Bruno is starting behind me and I hope he will play fair like I did with Neil (Cragg) in 2WD. Joern is fast but I am too. I got the fastest lap in the last one’.

Pulling up in the final qualifier, Coelho said, ‘that was a disaster qualifying run. I had so many mistakes’.  He continued, ‘Orlowski made a mistake in front of me and I was trying to see where his car was going to end up but ended up crashing and it was game over for me’ – Landing wide he would get stuck behind the track piping.  Asked about the championship and challenge from Orlowski he said, ‘for sure he will force for the win and he has Neumann in front.  I’m not sure if, like we do sometimes, they will play like a team like (Ronald) Volker did last weekend. We will see’.  The reference to Volker is from the ETS in Madrid when the World Champion opened for team-mate Christopher Krapp in A3 to try and help him take the overall win.

‘A pretty outstanding result’, was how Cragg described his P4 starting position.  The British driver continued, ‘the car has been good and the driver has been good.  There is no pressure on me that’s on the other guys going for the championship. Hopefully I pick up the pieces and sneak a podium out of it’.  Posting Top 3 runs in Q1 & 2, on the last two qualifiers he said, ‘I had good pace in the third one but had too may crashes so I got 8th or something.  The pace was decent in the last one and I didn’t crash which got me 4th which was not too bad at all’.

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Coelho tops Q2 at EOS Finale

Bruno Coelho has opened the concluding day of the Euro Offroad Series Season Finale with a TQ run.  The Xray driver topped the second round of qualifying from Neil Cragg after a late error from Q1 pace setter Joern Neumann dropped him back to 4th. After pulling up in the opening qualifier last night, title challenger Michal Orlowski would complete the Top 3 ahead of his Schumacher team-mate.  A close qualifier, with 2nd to 5th all running 5:08 times, Martin Wollanka would take his Sworkz to the 5th fastest time with Joona Haatanen rounding out the Top 6.

‘That was a good run. I tried to drive super smooth and it worked’, was Coelho’s view of Q2.  The defending champion, who can only lose his title if Orlowski takes the win later today, added, ‘the traction is higher now so it is easier to drive than yesterday.  I am not losing the rear at all so I am having more confidence in the car so it all looks good’.

Cragg joked, ‘this is uncharted territory Red RC coming to see me twice in 4WD’.  The Team Associated driver said, ‘It was a pretty good run so I cannot complain.  I know I am not going to be the fastest driver in 4WD, it has been that way for a couple of years but I just kept it on its wheels and let everyone else do the crashing.  We still have work to do on the car to get more out of it and we can get more out of the driver too’.  With the result locking the British driver into the A-Main, and potentially with his best ever 4WD starting position in the EOS, he said, ‘With a 2 and a 3 in the first two (qualifiers) I am in the final which is how I dreamed it last night’.

‘A better run than Q1’, was Orlowski’s reaction after the second qualifier.  The back to back 2WD Champion continued, ‘the car felt very good.  After a strange feeling (in Q1) with the car we went back plus guessed some other other small changes which we tried this morning in free practice and the feeling was very good’.  Having to start Q2 from the back after pulling up last night in the opening round, he said, ‘I made two costly errors because the traction came up today but we will slightly change the car for that for the next one’.

Setting the pace for the majority of the 5-minutes, Neumann said, ‘I traction rolled and went to the other side of the track and it is difficult to get over the pipes because they are huge’.  The German who enjoyed his first EOS win in over 3-years yesterday in 2WD continued, ‘the car was really good. It’s super fast’.  In terms of lap times Neumann ran a new fastest lap of 23.062 which was almost matched by his team-mate Orlowski who put in a best of 23.068 which is an almost half a second improvement on yesterday’s pace.

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Neumann takes opening 4WD qualifier

Joern Neumann has taken the opening round of 4WD qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series season finale in Germany. Despite twice crashing in the same spot, the Schumacher driver would just hold on to TQ ahead of Lee Martin in a round that saw almost all the drivers make mistakes. Having topped seeding Michal Orlowski made a costly error on his second lap losing 7-seconds and following further errors eventually decided to pull off. Coelho was the early pace setter but he too had mistakes which saw him and Neumann swapping positions until he dropped 2-seconds to the German with a mistake on the penultimate lap.  Martin would also run at the top of the timing screens for a time until he had a tumble in front of Neumann all of which played into the hands of 10th seed Neil Cragg who would have a clean run to get a Top 3 finish.

‘The lap times and end time were very good but I jumped to the inside of the back double twice for some reason’, was Neumann’s reaction to his TQ run.  He continued, ‘It was a little more slippery than before and we had made a car for a lot of rotation so maybe that caused it go jump off slightly left’.  On his second error the weekend’s 2WD winner said, ‘I thought it was over after that but then Bruno crashed and I was back in the game’.

Only 8th fastest in practice, Martin said, ‘considering practice was a bit crap Q1 was what I wanted.  Its a shame I missed the TQ by so little but I wasn’t expecting 2nd so I’m pretty happy’.  Changing his Yokomo set-up for qualifying he said the car was now ‘just easier to drive to do 5-minutes’.  With Q2 taking place in the morning, the former champion will leave the car unchanged saying he plans to ‘gain confidence in his driving rather than find time in the car’.

‘Super pleased’, was how Cragg summed up the opening qualifier. The Team Associated driver said, ‘I just kept to myself and had no major incidents.  I was not the fastest but I saw there was a lot of crashes in practice so I just tried yo keep it clean’. Team-mate Joona Haatanen would put in the 4th fastest time. The Finn said, ‘It was pretty good but I had one crash on the back double early on.  After that I jumped it differently and I think without the mistakes I had TQ pace’.

Ending up 5th fastest Coelho said, ‘It started well but after 2 laps my car started to get loose in the rear so I tried to drive more smooth’.  The defending champion continued, ‘I then made a mistake and Joern got by but then he made a mistake I got back the lead.  When he made another mistake I had a good lead but made a mistake and had a roll over. I lost it (the TQ) there’.  Asked about his car’e performance he replied, ‘It feels strange. I am not 100% confident in it. Its difficult to drive so we must change something’.

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Orlowski tops 4WD seeding at EOS finale

Michal Orlowski has got his hopes of doing the title double off to a promising start at the Euro Offroad Series by topping seeding from defending champion Bruno Coelho.  The Schumacher driver, fresh from successfully defending his 2WD title earlier in the day at Arena 33, set the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the first of the two rounds of controlled practice with almost nothing separating him and Coelho. Just 0.067 of a second slower, Coelho also ran his best time in CP1 having set the early pace over the 3-rounds of Free Practice. Taking the 2WD win in Germany, Joern Neumann would complete the Top 3 and while overall a slower run for the majority of drivers would set the quickest time of CP2.  One driver to post his quickest time in CP2 was Martin Wollanka who seeds 5th for qualifying in between youngsters Daniel Kobbevik (P4) and Joona Haatanen (P6).

Summing up practice Orlowski said, ‘we made quite a lot of of set-up changes to the car in free practice.  In the first timed run it was good but we tried something for the last one and it was completely not what we expected so we will go back to the previous set-up for qualifying’.  Needing to win tomorrow’s finals in order to take the title from points leader Coelho, he continued, ‘overall the feeling is very good and going around with Bruno in the first practice just to see his pace and it was very positive’.

Coelho, who like Orlowski has two wins to his credit this season in 4WD, said, ‘we still working on the car and trying to get more steering’.  The former World Champion continued, ‘in the first practice it was super fast but inconsistent so we worked on improving it for 5-minutes but now its too slow.  We are struggling in the 180 corners so still have to figure that out’.

‘Practice was very good’, was how Neumann summed up his P3 seeding.  The former multiple champion said, ‘we kept almost the same set-up as we use on carpet and have just made some very slight changes.  The car immediately ran well on the astro’.  Asked about qualifying he replied, ‘I’m confident but they added an extra layer of carpet to the first double and seems to cause the rear of the car to kick up a bit’.  The extra carpet had to be added for the final practice after a rip developed in the original layer.

Having ‘changed a lot after the first practice’, Kobbevik was happy with his car, running it unchanged since.  The 13-year-old Norwegian said his Xray, unlike team-mate Coelho, ‘has very good steering and is not traction rolling’.  Describing it as ‘stable but still fast’, he said he’s ‘ready for qualifying’ – the first of the four rounds taking place tonight.

Wollanka said tyre preparation has been his main focus in practice.  With his Sworkz buggy the same as he debuted at the last EOS outing Wels, qualifying & finishing 5th, he said the only difference is the shock set-up to deal with the bumps in the astro surface here.  Trying to run tyres with cut pins in CP1 he said this option ‘was not so good’ and going back to the standard tyre that enabled him to set his quickest 3-laps in CP2.

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Orlowski defends EOS title, Neumann takes the win

Michal Orlowski has successfully defended his Euro Offroad Series title. The Schumacher driver retained the 2WD Championship thanks to team-mate Joern Neumann who took the overall victory at the championship’s first ever outdoor event at Arena 33 in Germany.  Coming into the weekend, Team Associated’s Neil Cragg was Orlowski’s only remaining challenger and on the switch to astro turf the British driver had the experience advantage.  In qualifying it was Neumann who got the TQ ahead of Joona Haatanen with the title opponents lining up with Cragg 3rd and Orlowski 4th.  With Neumann claiming A1, a mistake from the German saved by his car being marshalled by Cragg’s car, the second one went to Haatanen ahead of Cragg.  This set the stage for a three way fight for the overall win, Cragg’s title hopes still alive but it was short lived.  At the start, the second corner would catch out Cragg sending him up down the field.  With Orlowski knowing the title was now his, after having two disappointing races in the first two A-Mains, he chased down the lead battle going to the front when Haatanen clashed with Neumann and crossed the line with the A3 win to make his title defence official.  Behind, Bruno Coelho was second ahead of Cragg while Neumann held off Haatanen to secure his first EOS race win since 2015 with Cragg taking second and Haatanen 3rd.  Orlowski would miss the podium on time but that didn’t matter as he got what he came for – the EOS Season#7 title.

Summing up his title winning season Orlowski said, ‘I’m very happy to defend my title.  The season didn’t start out as we planned. My home race in Warsaw was a disaster. It didn’t go well at all. In Daun it went better but we just missed out on the win.  Things turned around at Hudy Arena and we got the win. Getting the TQ there was also important because it cancelled out the one Neil had from Daun.  In Wels we had good pace but missed out in the TQ to Neil by 1/10th, but the last two finals were good and I could get the win’.  An 8 times EOS race winner he continued, ‘Here it started off good but in qualifying it fell apart but I was happy Joern TQ’d because it’s been a long time since he was that high up.  I tried my best in A1 but was unlucky and then had too many mistakes. A2 was even worse.  In A3 I wanted to help Joern win. I knew after the first corner that I had the championship won. I was third behind Joern and Joona but I had to get the championship out of my head. Once I did I drove better, when they had a couple of mistakes I was able to go into the lead.  When Lee got up to second I knew I couldn’t let him win but so much stuff happened behind I just drove my own race.  I missed the podium by a few tenths but that didn’t matter, that wasn’t what we were after.  Also Joona made the podium and he is a good friend and Joern won his first race for Schumacher.  I have to thank Trish, Jurgen & my dad for their help and Schumacher, LRP and all the rest of my sponsors for making this championship win possible’.

‘It was over before it started’, was Cragg’s thoughts after A3 adding, ‘It was a silly mistake at the second corner, I drove straight into it.  I thing I was the only one not to hit it all weekend up to then’.  Ending up with 2nd for the 5th & final round of the championship he said, ‘2nd is another great result but Michal is the deserving champion. He drove the best all season’.  Fifth at the ending of last season’s championship, the former World Champion said, ‘I think we made good gains this season. We went from making the A-Main to fighting for race wins and the title.  I feel we could win every race now’.  He concluded, ‘Once I get over the feeling of disappointment of today I’ll be pretty pleased with our season’.

More than 3-years after he last stepped on to the top step of the EOS podium, Neumann said, ‘I really happy although it was a little chaotic in A3 but I still managed to win overall and that makes me very happy’.  The championship’s most decorated driver continued, ‘I showed everyone I’m still there. I will definitely aim for the title next year and hopefully we can make it a Schumacher 1-2’.

Achieving his first podium of the season today, Haatanen said, ‘Overall it is pretty good to make the podium again so I’m pretty happy with that, but A3 was a disaster’.  In the hunt for his first EOS career win going into the third A-Main, the Finn said, ‘I was behind Joern and tried a number of passes but he blocked and I hit him a couple of times so it was almost impossible to go by’.  On his 2017/18 season having come into it as the one to watch he said, ‘It ended better than it started. For sure our cars were good and I know I had the speed. Overall it was a good year for Team Associated and hopefully next season will be a good one for me too’.

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Haatanen takes A2, winner & title to be decided in A3

Joona Haatanen has won the second A-Main at the season finale of the Euro Offroad Series at Arena33.  After an error on the opening lap of A1, the Team Associated driver put in a very patient drive sitting on the rear wing of Top Qualifier Joern Neumann before a mistake from the A1 winner let him through.  Next it was the turn of title contender Neil Cragg to go by the Schumacher, the British driver not needing to be invited to put a pass on the former champion when he ran wide into a corner.  With Neumann finishing third, it means three drivers have the potential to take the overall win at the EOS’ first outdoor race with the result also set to decide this year’s 2WD champion.  Having tangled with Bruno Coelho in A2, finishing up 5th, Michal Orlowski can’t take the win but will be hoping his team-mate Neumann does, as a win for Cragg would would secure the British driver the overall title.

Summing up his A2 win, Haatanen said, ‘I was driving a long time behind Joern. I wasn’t trying any big moves and even before his big mistake I saw he was making little mistakes so I knew patience would pay off.  I could have tried to pass him, there where places I could have forced a pass but I didn’t’.  Once in front, the Finn said he could control the race saying, ‘I saw Neil wasn’t catching me so I knew I was running a good speed’.  Describing his A1 performance as having had ‘too many stupid mistakes’, the 14-year-old will try to take his first EOS victory by putting in a ‘repeat of A2’.

‘So it goes down to the wire, it will all be decided in the last race’, was Cragg’s reaction.  The former World Champion said, ‘I’m quite pleased with 2nd, I couldn’t bridge the gap to Joona’.  He continued, ‘Michal and Bruno had me under pressure at the start until they had issues. Then Joern opened the door and I didn’t need an invite to go for the pass. It was a block pass and I know he came off worse but it was fair game.’  Having managed to rack up his first ever EOS race win this season in Daun, he said, ‘that’s (today’s points) 2nd in the championship fixed so I can’t complain whatever happens. It’s been a great season but maybe we get a bit of luck in the last one’.

Neumann, who is chasing his first win since Poland in 2015, described the second A-Main as ‘so, so’.  With 17 EOS wins to his credit, he said, ‘Joona was pushing quite hard and I decided to hit the pipe which caused me to traction roll.  I continued in second but at the same spot I traction rolled again.’  Allowing Cragg to catch him, he continued, ‘Neil tried to pass me and it didn’t end up good for me.  There was room to pass but it just didn’t work out for me and I dropped to fifth but he had to go for it’.  He concluded, ‘With a 1st and a 3rd the podium is secured so I can afford to just go for it in the last one’.

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