Coelho to start title defence from pole

Bruno Coelho is to start his 4WD title defence from pole with the Xray driving securing the overall 4WD TQ in Warsaw, Poland.  The Portuguese driver went into the fourth & final qualifier with only team-mate Martin Bayer able to deny him from becoming Top Qualifier for a second time at the Euro Offroad Series season opener.  Setting the TQ pace from team-mate Ty Tessmann he however suffered a CVD failure on his final lap allowing Tessmann post his first TQ run of his EOS debut weekend.  Behind, David Ronnefalk would back up his P3 in Q3 with a second for the round.  This result will see the HB Racing driver start as the best non Xray driver in 4th behind Bayer and youngster Daniel Kobbevik, Xray having a total of six cars in the A-Main.

Putting his front CVD failure down to a broken bearing following contact with the boards, Coelho said up to that his ‘car was very good’ and he was just controlling his pace by watching where Tessmann was.  On the finals, the back to back champion who is chasing his 7th 4WD EOS career win said, ‘I know the car is good so I will just try to drive clean runs and not make any mistakes’.

Enjoying a very competitive weekend in Warsaw, Bayer said, ‘I tested a few things in Q3 & 4 but will go back to the Q1 & 2 set-up.  It was much easier to drive’. Winner of the final round of last season’s championship, the former European Champion added, ‘Ty is very fast so we will see, but I feel ok for the finals’.

Tweaking his car set-up and making further speedo adjustments, Tessmann said the changes where ‘all in the right direction’. Running new tyres he said as expected the car was a little bit aggressive but ‘it still felt good’.  Asked of his expectations for the 4WD finals compared to 2WD in which he claimed a podium finish, the Canadian said, ‘I think it should be a little more interesting because everyone can push a little bit harder’.

‘All good’ was Ronnefalk summary of qualifying.  After a slow start yesterday, the Swede said, ‘now today we worked on the shock package and for the last one it was better. We were only 3/10ths behind so its pretty close. With three good drivers with a good car ahead of us I think its been a good result’. Running a prototype of HB Racing’s upcoming new 4WD kit release, he added, ‘there are a few small details we need to work on and we need to gain more experience with the new chassis layout we have here but that will come as we get a few more races under our belt but I hope we can mix it with the Xray’s today’.

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Coelho opens Day 3 of EOS Poland with TQ

It’s the 3rd and final day of racing at EOS Poland and Bruno Coelho has kicked things off by posting his second 4WD TQ run.  The Xray driver again had a distinct advantage topping the times by almost 4 and a half seconds from team-mate Ty Tessmann.  With Xray having filling the Top 3 in yesterday’s first two rounds of qualifying, that domination was finally broken as HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk took the third quickest time.  Having been part of the Xray Top 3s yesterday, taking the opening qualifier, Martin Bayer would have a messy run ending up P11.  Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski not impressed with the Czech’s driving, the Pole classified 32nd for the round after being hit in the rear by Bayer during the qualifier.

Winner of 2WD yesterday, commenting on Q3 Coelho said, ‘It was a very good qualifier, I don’t have much more to say’.  A slightly slower time than his Q2, the fastest of the three rounds with one remaining, he added, ‘the car is working really well as always’.

Trying a different electrics set-up, Team Orion backed Tessmann said, ‘I made some changes to my speed controller. I copied David’s (Ronnefalk) motor/speed controller settings.  I felt I had more power but I got used to it over the run and by the end I liked it’.  The Canadian said he also opted to run his first set of tyres for a third time as a tactical decision for the finals.  Describing the tyres as a ‘bit difficult’ to drive on, he said, ‘I am planning to run my second set in the last qualifier so they will be fresher for the main – A-Main drivers permitted an additional set of tyres for the finals.

With EOS Poland marking his return to the championship after more than a 2-year absence, Ronnefalk described his Q3 run as ‘not perfect but decent’.  The reigning 1:8 Offroad World Champion had a rear drive shaft snap in Q1.  Forced to start last as a result of his DNF, he said he went for a safe run to get points but lost further time as he had to open for the leading group who where fighting for the TQ.  Getting a P9 he was only 2/10ths off a Top 6 time.  In terms of his car, the Swede said, ‘today we changed the set-up a little bit and it felt good.  The car is stable but we still need to work on landings so we will change the shock package for the next one’.

Behind Ronnefalk, Norwegian Daniel Kobbevik would back up two P7 runs yesterday with the 4th fastest time. Running in the second fastest heat, the 12-year-old Xray driver said his ‘car is good’ and he has been running the ‘same set-up all weekend’.

Setting the fifth fastest time, Lee Martin said, ‘I just made too many small errors.  It was the first run of the morning and I think I needed coffee’.  Running Yokomo’s new YZ-4 SF, the former champion said, ‘the car is too soft for the landings and thats where the errors came so we’ll make it stiffer and I’ll go get a coffee’.  Behind Martin, Yokomo team-mate Marc Rheinard completed the Top 6.

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Coelho heads another Xray 1,2,3 in Q2

Once again it was Xray that led the way at EOS Poland with Bruno Coelho making up for his Q1 errors to take the second 4WD qualifier. Having thrown away a TQ run in the opening qualifier with two mistakes, Coelho’s second attempt would be an error free run with him setting the fastest lap on his way to stopping the clock over 3-seconds quicker than Q1 pace setter Martin Bayer.  Making it another Xray 1,2,3, Ty Tessmann would bring Day 2 of the Warsaw event to a close with the third fastest time. In a slight change of order of best of the rest, Lee Martin would take his Yokomo to the fourth fastest time albeit it almost 8 seconds off Coelho’s TQ time.  Xray’s Kája Novotný was next up ahead of the Schumacher of Michal Orlowski who completed the Top 6.  With two of the four qualifier to count, Yokomo, Schumacher and Team Associated will be hoping they can up with something overnight to at least present a bigger challenge to Xray.

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Bayer TQs opening 4WD qualifier at EOS Poland

Picking up where they left off last season, Xray have dominated the first round of 4WD qualifying at the season opener of the Euro Offroad Series in Poland. Fresh from their impressive 2WD podium sweep earlier in the day, it was Martin Bayer who topped the first of the four 4WD qualifiers followed by Ty Tessmann and Bruno Coelho who set the initial TQ pace before the first of two mistakes. As in 2WD, it was Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski who was best of the rest as he posted the fourth fastest with Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen and Yokomo’s Lee Martin completing the Top 6.

‘Again amazing’ was Bayer’s reaction to taking Q1.  Winner of the concluding round of the championship last season, the former European Champion continued, ‘I am not a big fan of the new tyres.  The combination of the new tyre and the (track) layout make it very hard to go 5-minutes without a mistake’.  Having improved his XB4 set-up over the four rounds of practice, ending controlled practice second fastest to Coelho, he said, ‘we now have found a good set-up and the car is very easy to drive and that is how it was possible to do Q1 with no mistake but we will look to make it a little more aggressive for Q2 but still keep it comfortable to 5-minutes’.

Tessmann said, ‘I was on new tyres so I knew it would be a little hard to drive so I just wanted to get a good clean first run. I had a couple of double steers over the run but otherwise it was clean’. Asked how he was finding 4WD compared to 2WD, he replied, ‘Usually 4WD is easier to drive on don’t but that’s not the case on carpet.  I don’t have a preference for one or the other yet’.  In terms of his XB4 set he plans to leave the car unchanged for Q2, the final run of the day, saying ‘it should be better now the tyres are broken in’.

‘The car is working well but I did make a mistake after the double in front of the driver stand and when I tried to come back I had another mistake’, was Coelho’s summary of Q1. The reigning champion added, ‘I will go for a clean round in the next one’.  Asked about the new handout tyre for this season, he said, ‘they have a lot more grip so we need more time to work on what to do with the front tyre. People are trying many different things so we need to work to see what is the best way’.

Orlowski called his Q1 performance ‘an ok run’ adding ‘it was nothing special’.  Winner of EOS Poland last season, he continued, ‘the car feels pretty good but I had a few bobbles. I was able to save it and keep it on four wheels’.  Looking to his next qualifier, the teenager said, ‘I think we will do some changes to the car and hopefully then we will be able to compete in the Top 3’.

‘I was thinking it was going to be very hard to drive with the new front tyre but it wasn’t’, was Haatanen’s thoughts on Q1.  The added, ‘In practice I was not that fast but now the car is easy to drive and pretty fast too’.  Echoing other drivers, he said, ‘we are still learning about the front tyres but it seems everyone is pretty close with what they are doing’.  Having run a centre diff in his B64 he will change to a slipper for Q2. While preferring the diff set-up, the landings are damaging the teeth and having already gone through two diffs they will go to the slipper to be safe.

Running Yokomo’s latest 4WD offering Martin said, ‘This is the first real test with the car.  It is easy to drive but we need to make it faster in the turns.  Overall it feels good but we still have to find more from the set-up.’  Asked about his thoughts on the tyres, the Season #4 champion said, ‘we are testing a few things with the tyre to make the car most settled and I see that’s what Bayer used to TQ so I’ll take credit for that’ – the popular choice being the removal of the centre pins from the front tyre.

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Coelho wins EOS season opener as Xray fill 2WD podium in Poland

Bruno Coelho will leave Poland as a somewhat surprise leader of the Euro Offroad Series 2WD standings after taking the overall win at the Season #7 opener. With 2WD Buggy far from being RC racing’s versatile super star’s favourite category, the Xray driver took victory in A3 to wrap up his third consecutive overall 2WD win of the championship.  Also Top Qualifier in Warsaw, the reigning 4WD champion has registered the maximum points possible. Behind, Martin Bayer and first time EOS visitor Ty Tessmann would make it an all Xray podium denying Michal Orlowski a repeat of his home double victory he took last season.  With the Schumacher driver finishing 4th, his title predecessor Lee Martin would finish 5th with the result highlighting the progress Xray have made with their 2WD.

Reacting after his A3 win, having thrown away the lead in A2, Coelho said, ‘that was a very nice final’.  He added, ‘I just had a small mistake at the beginning when I didn’t jump the double but I was able to build up a lead and then just controlled the race ahead of Lee to the end’. He continued, ‘this is not my class and it was very difficult for me last year to stay in the Top 5 but now we have all cars in the Top 3. The car improved really a lot. Last year Lee and Orlowski were on the top but now it is not just me but also Martin and Ty on the podium and I think this means something about the progress we have made with the 2018 car’. He concluded, ‘the car is faster and more consistent and really comfortable to drive.  I hope it is like this the next race but we are on a good way’.

‘Extremely happy’ was how Bayer summed up his team’s result.  In charge of Xray’s Offroad programme, he added, ‘It’s an amazing result.  The first round and the first time we fill the podium’.  On his own personal performance he said, ‘I’m super happy.  All weekend I have been sick so to bring home second is great. It a great way to start my season and now its time to have fun in 4WD’.  That remark coming off the fact that Xray was the dominant force in the class with him winning the closing race of the season in Austria.

Summing up his first EOS experience, Tessmann said, ‘I’m pretty happy with the result’.  The 2014 1:8 Offroad World Champion continued, ‘For the third (A-main) I ran the same tyres again so I knew it would not be quite as good (as A2) so I tried not to crash because from previous experience I knew there would be a lot of crashes’.  Getting a fourth for the round, which together with his P2 from A2 was enough to secure the podium, he added, ‘I rotated the tyre side to side and they felt fresher and I think the differences between runs I was feeling before was just between new and used tyres’.  Asked if he felt 4WD would be his stronger class, the event now switching over to 4WD, he replied, ‘everyone is telling me the track is going to be very difficult in 4WD so we will see.  I have no expectations as I don’t have much experience (of racing on carpet)’.

‘It is really frustrating how it went’, was Orlowski’s view of A3.  The Warsaw teenager said, ‘Bayer was really slow and I found a place to pass him but then he tipped my rear wheel and my run ended there’.  Crashing on the 3rd double as a result of the contact, on the overall result he said, For sure it was not what I wanted.  Xray had good pace this weekend but I think I could have challenged them for the win but they played team work in the finals so Bruno was more out in front’.  He concluded, ‘At least one positive from today is that we know we have good pace for the next race’.

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Bayer wins exciting A2 from Tessmann

While A1 didn’t provide much entertainment with Bruno Coelho taking an easy win from pole position, the second encounter at Euro Offroad Series would be a much more heated affair with Martin Bayer come out the victor ahead of EOS debutant Ty Tessmann.  While Coelho looked to wrap up a third straight overall EOS victory having opened a gap over his rivals once again, the Xray driver would get things wrong at the double in front of the drivers stand with some questionable marshalling seeing him rejoining in the middle of the 2nd place battle between Bayer, Michal Orlowski and Tessmann.  That battle was reduced to three when Orlowski crashed on landing at the same double Coelho lost his lead, a further mistake then putting Coelho out of the picture.  Showing some restraint, while Tessmann had the quicker car but he couldn’t find a way passed Bayer despite getting alongside him on occasions.  Going an extra lap over the rest of the field, in the end Bayer would take the win by 2/10ths with Coelho third and Orlowski fourth, over 1.5-seconds further back.

Raising his hands in a rattling gesture to highlight he was under pressure from Tessmann, Bayer reacted to his win by saying, ‘I drove without mistakes. I was not the fastest.  It was a very good race’.  Having dropped from his P2 starting position to fourth in A1 due to driver errors, the head of Xray’s Offroad programme said, ‘I still need one more.  Bruno has a win and a third so the last one will be a very hard final but I hope I can still be on the podium’.

Looking to have clicked with the carpet track conditions in A2, Tessmann said, ‘we ran new tyres that time and my car seems to be best on new tyres’.  The former 1:8 Offroad World Champion continued, ‘we made a few changes to the car also because it felt weird and we changed the receiver too to be sure so I don’t know if that helped too but hopefully it is the same for the third one’.  Asked about the difficulty of passing on the carpet surface, the Canadian said, ‘I knew I was faster in the top corner than Martin but the car is light there so I didn’t what to risk a pass and take out my team-mate.  I also had a bad first finish but Martin is in contention still’.

A not too pleased Coelho said, ‘I made a mistake at the double in front of the driver stand. It was my mistake but the marshal was waiting for something. If he had put me back immediately I would have still been leading because I was a lot of time in front. Instead he waited for the others to arrive. It was very bad. I don’t want to know who this marshal was. This marshalling was embarrassing’.

Summing up his race, Orlowski said, ‘This time the start was normal and we stayed 3rd.  Then Bruno had a mistake and then the pack was running really close’.  He continued, ‘I don’t know how or what to say but I felt Bruno touched me in the back wing and I went sideways in the air.  I’m not sure on this but nothing was called and I got fourth’.  Looking to A3 with a chance of the overall victory at his home race still possible he said, ‘I have got a second (from A1) so I have a chance still to win. I have a good set of tyres and a good car so I hope we can make something happen’.

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