Lee Martin denies Coelho to TQ at Hudy Arena

Lee Martin has denied Bruno Coelho & Xray a home TQ at the Hudy Racing Arena, the Yokomo driver taking the final round of 2WD qualifying at the third round of the Euro Offroad Series to secure his first pole of the season. With Coelho looking on target for the overall TQ having taken Q1 & 3, it was all or nothing for Martin in the final round.  After an issue in the penultimate round, the reigning champion would deliver the perfect run to end the day, his cause boosted by an early mistake from Coelho that would leave him to post the 6th fastest time in the decider.  With two TQ’s a piece, it was Martin’s Q2 topping time that determined it would be Martin on pole with Coelho having to settle for second, albeit a much better starting position than his last EOS outing when he failed to make the A-Main.  While championship leader Michal Orlowski went into the final round looking for a TQ run hoping to secure second on the grid, the Schumacher driver couldn’t improve on his Top 2 times of the previous two qualifiers posting a P4 as his final attempt. None the less he was pleased to end up third given how is day started out.  Ending his day with his first 14 lap time to get a second for the round, Neil Cragg would make it four different manufacturers at the front of the grid with Team Associated lining up fourth ahead of former event winner Martin Bayer.

‘I’m happy to TQ here especially’, was Martin’s reaction to his first TQ since achieving the same result last season at the Hudy Arena en route to his second consecutive 2WD title. He continued, ‘It was an all or nothing run really although I didn’t drive it like that.  I put my better tyres back on and while they’re now slicks they worked and the other set didn’t’.  Describing his RC Concept powered YZ2 CA, which features some new rear end parts as ‘really good’, he said his performance was also down to the fact he is ‘enjoying the track’.  A track which all the drivers have said is difficult, on tomorrow’s finals he said his approach was a very simple one with the sole goal ‘don’t crash’.

Giving his reaction to the qualifying outcome Coelho said, ‘Overall it has been a very good day.  We improved our 2WD a lot and I’m happy to get 2nd. With three finals ahead we are still in for the win tomorrow’.  Commenting on his final qualifier, the reigning 4WD Champion said, ‘the tyres were on their third run and the car was a little difficult to drive.  This caused my mistake at the beginning and trying to make back the time I made more mistakes’.  Set to follow Martin off the start as he chases his first 2WD win of the series he said, ‘on this track you can’t force too much but with so many braking points it going to be interesting, or not’.

Orlowski said, “I’m happy with Top 3 as that was my aim after Q2′. Starting out with 8th in the opening qualifier, a P2 in Q2 came as a much needed confidence boost as he had struggled in practice with his driving.  Able to repeat his rediscovered form in Q3, he said when it came to the final qualifier the relief that Q3 result brought in securing him a grid position at the sharp end of the grid may have caused a slight ‘lack of concentration’.  Very happy with the performance of his new Cougar KC on its EOS debut, looking to the finals he said, ‘I know I have the pace to win so I will try to do that’.

‘Getting there’ was Cragg’s view on the final qualifier.  He added, ‘we made a few changes and it definitely improved the car.  We couldn’t TQ but I’m pretty pleased to be honest’.  The reigning European Champion continued, ‘Fourth overall is a good save after the shitty start we had to qualifying. I’m pretty happy.  We also learned some new things about the car which is positive’.  Having earlier predicted ‘chaos’ in the finals he said again he doesn’t think the racing will be pretty.

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Coelho on target for home TQ after taking Q3

Bruno Coelho is looking on target for a home TQ for Xray after he posted a second TQ run in the third round of qualifying at EOS Slovakia. After errors in Q2 left with him with a P3, the Portuguese ace put in a clean consistent Q3 to top the times despite Joern Neumann setting the pace for a time before crashing and eventually going out due to a broken C-hub.  Behind Coelho, Michal Orlowski would put in another strong result despite his heat, again tenths off the TQ pace. For Lee Martin an early crash put an end to any chance of him repeating his Q2 TQ as a rear spring got knocked out of his mounting, the compressed spring leaving the Yokomo a struggle to drive and he ended up 20th.  The penultimate qualifier would see a big improvement for Neil Cragg, the Team Associated driver completing the Top 3 thanks to a ‘steady round’.

‘After the previous round I just tried to drive without mistakes, I was super careful’, was how Coelho summed up Q3.  He added ‘even when Neumann was in the lead I just tried to keep a safe pace and with this I was able to TQ when he crashed’.  Describing the track as ‘super difficult’, he continued, ‘it is possible to go super fast but not every lap’.  With this in mind and going into the final round looking best poised to secure the overall TQ he will ‘take the same approach’ as he did in the last heat – be super careful.   Asked about tyres, he said he was experiencing ‘a lot of tyre wear’ and they would need to look at a strategy for the finals but with two TQ runs, the tyre wear was more of an issue for his rivals than him.

Reacting to his P2 for the round, Orlowski said, ‘again just a few tenths so actually I’m a little disappointed’.  Setting the fastest lap of the round, the factory Schumacher driver continued, ‘I want to try take second on the grid so I need to TQ the last round, we’ll see how it goes’.  Running a new set of tyres on his new Cougar KC, the Polish driver said he was lucky to not break the car in the warm-up after the new tyres caught him out at the end of the straight.  After that warning he said he had to be very careful at the start of the qualifier but that shouldn’t be an issue for the fourth & final qualifier.

‘It was a steady round so I can’t complain’, was Cragg’s reaction to getting 3rd ahead of Xray’s Martin Bayer and Martin Wollanka.  Having made a breakthrough with his first EOS podium at the previous encounter in Poland, the European Champion said they have been ‘improving the car every run’ but they ‘need to find a little magic somewhere’.  He added ‘we are stuck in the middle, it’s not fast enough to win but it’s decent. We’re not quite there yet’.  Aiming for another Top 3 to end out the opening day to better his grid position, his prediction is the ‘finals will be absolute chaos’ and he’e hoping to be there to pick up the pieces.

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Martin comes good in Q2

Lee Martin came good on his practice topping form to TQ the second round of qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia.  Opening qualifying at the Hudy Arena with an almost immediate mistake and ending up with a P4 for Q1 behind an Xray 1-2, this time the Yokomo driver put in a strong drive with the heat containing nothing more than a few bobbles.  Behind the reigning champion, current championship leader Michal Orlowski turned around a terrible practice to post the 2nd fastest time despite having to run in the third fastest heat.  Having made it look like he might dominate qualifying with his drive through the field to TQ the first of the four qualifiers, Bruno Coelho would trip himself up with a number of mistakes including one like Martin in the previous round on the first lap.  He would manage to get 3rd for the round but the deficit to Martin’s TQ time, the faster of the two rounds, was almost 5-seconds.

Commenting on his 14-lap run, Martin said, ‘I had a couple of bobbles but nothing crazy.  I didn’t push too hard, it was a nice run’.  Having felt his YZ-2, which is running a new 3D printed rear end, had lost pace between practice and Q1, he would change to his second set of tyres for Q2.  This resulted in the a car that ‘felt good again, but the Brit said he couldn’t be sure it was down to the tyre or a change in the track conditions.  Planning to stay the same in terms of the car set-up, he said he will consider switching back to the first set of tyres to check if this was actually his issue adding with drivers having just two sets of the handout Schumacher tyre he might also be wise to save the second set if it turns out to be a good set.

Getting an 8th in the opening qualifier, Orlowski said ‘after the bad practice I wasn’t so upset with that but after a rough start to the heat I knew I could improve on it’.  While getting a better start to Q2, the EOS Poland winner said, his pace was a little slower than normal as he dealt with traffic something he said is always one of the issues of ending up in a slower heat.  Finishing only 35/100ths off Martin’s TQ time he said another problem he faced was ‘it is difficult to pace myself and know whether to push or not and in the end it was very close’.  Describing his all new Cougar KC as being ‘really good’ even for practice, he said finding himself in the heat he is in is ‘completely my own fault’.  Looking to the remaining two qualifiers, the former Hudy Arena race winner said, ‘I think this (his Q2 result) was a good confidence boost’.

‘Just too many mistakes, my car is very good’ was how Coelho summed up Q2.  Setting the fastest lap of the qualifier, such was the 4WD World Champions pace that his team-mate Bayer opened up to let him passed but again the speed was undone with two further bad laps. Having got second on Q1, Bayer would get a 5th in his second qualifier ahead of the Yokomo of Marc Rheinard, the latter still struggling to show signs of his EOS Nurburgring winning form.  Behind the 3-time Touring Car World Champion, who has yet to announce who he will race Touring Car for in 2017, Neil Cragg was the best of the Associated drivers improving slightly on his P9 for Q1.

A crash on the last double of the lap would prevent Joern Neumann from another Top 3 result.  The Serpent driver started out good but midway through landed the jump wide and flipped his car eventually getting a P4 for his efforts. Hoping to get rid of the mistakes, the German will also make a small set-up adjustment to get more rear grip.  The former champion feels the tyre wear for him is a little more than that of his rivals and he needs to adapt his set-up for that.

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Coelho opens qualifying at EOS Slovakia with impressive TQ run

Bruno Coelho opened qualifying at EOS Slovakia with an impressive TQ run dealing a blow his rivals who in practice looked to have had the slight upper edge over the Xray’s on their home grounds.  Rolling off the start line 6th, Coelho would work his way through the field with apparent ease to head an Xray 1-2.  Surviving a significant late mistake, the Portuguese ace end up almost 4/10ths quicker than Martin Bayer with Serpent’s Joern Neumann completing the Top 3 some 2-seconds off.  Having set the pace in seeding practice Lee Martin could only manage fourth ahead of his impressive young Yokomo team-mate Daniel Kobbevik while Team Associated’s young star Joona Haatanen completed the Top 6.

Admitting that he had even impressed himself with his TQ run, Coelho said, ‘the track is really difficult so I started slowly because my goal is first to make the A-Main because I missed it last time’. Having 2 mistakes over the 5-minutes, putting the bigger of the 2 down to being over-safe with his driving.  Jumping short his Hobbywing powered XB2 cased the jump with the lost time temporarily resulting in Bayer moving to the top of the timing screens.  Setting the fastest lap of the busy layout with a time of 22.583, he said his car was perfect and the only thing he need to change for Q2 was to cut out the mistakes, a task that is admittedly easier said than done on this particular track.

‘Excellent’ was how Bayer summed up his opening qualifier adding, ‘as a team you cant get a better start so I’m very happy’.  Having moved to Trencin to fulfil his role as Xray’s Offroad Team Manager, making this even more a home for the Czech driver, he said ‘I wasn’t the fastest, I was cruising and had no mistakes and that worked out perfect’. The only driver to have given Xray a win in 2WD of the EOS, that winning come at the Hudy Arena, he said he is ‘really comfortable with the car’ adding ‘this track is about self control, you can’t push’.

‘Third is a really good start’ was Neumann’s reaction to what has been his most competitive start to 2WD qualifying since the days of his reigning as champion in the early days of the championship.  Despite losing close to 3-seconds when he landed sideways on the table top causing his car to flip, he is confident ‘that there is room to push a little harder’ and with this he ‘should be fine’ in terms of getting on pace with the Xrays.

Lee Martin said, ‘I made myself nervous at the first corner when I hit the pipe and that had me scared for a few laps’. While his driving for the early part of the qualifier was not up to scratch he felt overall he had ‘lost time compared to practice’ adding ‘I don’t know why’. Looking to Q2 the reigning champion said, ‘we’ll have another go and try not to be so stupid’, the stupid a reference to him driving his RC Concept powered YZ2 into the piping at the first corner.  Kobbevik said he was very happy’ with his start to qualifying feeling that refreshing the diff oil had made the car ‘a little faster.’ Set to leave his car unchanged, he said his goal for Q2 is to eliminate some of the driver errors.

Haatanen was content with his P6 result but said his car not 100% to his liking. Describing his B6 as being ‘super edgy all day’ he said adding weight for the first qualifier had made it more easy but it was ‘still hard for me to drive’.  While the car is ‘getting better all the time’ the 14-year-old said they don’t know if adding more weight would further improve the current level of edginess.  Haatanen’s senior team-mate Neil Cragg, having had a good practice to end up second fastest, would finish 9-seconds off the TQ pace something the British driver said was the result of ‘too many crashes’.

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Martin tops practice at Hudy Arena

Lee Martin has kicked off the third round of the Euro Offroad Series at the Hudy Arena at the top of the times, the Yokomo driver setting the fastest 2WD seeding time ahead of British compatriot Neil Cragg in Slovakia. With the EOS organisers taking over the building of the track at what is the home of Xray, the layout is one of the busiest to feature in the championship will all drivers enjoying the greater level of difficulty which is expected to throw up some surprise results.  One such surprise already is young Daniel Kobbevik who took his Yokomo to the third fastest time ahead of the quickest Xray in the hands of Hupo Honigl. Having come into the event in confident mood following his EOS Round 2 and DHI Cup form, Michal Orlowski’s weekend has not started off well with the championship leader unable to get 3-laps together leaving him 21st fastest and out of the top heat for qualifying.

Reacting to his fastest time, which he set in the second of the two seeding rounds, Martin said, ‘that was a really good run, not just three laps’ adding, ‘this layout is pretty cool’.  Winner on the championship’s last visit to the Hudy Arena, the reigning 2WD Champion continued saying his car ‘just felt nice’ and was ‘a joy to drive’ after they added more droop and went to a softer shock oil for the final practice.  Running a new rear end on his YZ-2 which takes parts from the dirt version of the car, he said the fitting of the currently 3D printed parts had made the car ‘easier to drive’.  He concluded while the track presented a high risk of crashing he was feeling good heading into qualifying.

‘I’m pretty pleased with my pace and pretty happy with my car’ was Cragg’s reaction to his practice.  His first time to travel to the Hudy Arena, the Team Associated driver said, ‘the track is dialled and it’s an amazing facility’.  Joking ‘I’m going to enjoy winning on enemy territory’, he described the track as ‘difficult’ continuing ‘we’ve been running onroad layouts for so long we have forgot how to do jumps’.  Having claimed his first EOS podium finish at the previous round, ahead of the four rounds of qualifying which all take place today the former World Champion said ‘I have a good 5-minute car so we’ll take it from there’.

Also running the new rear end parts on his Yokomo, Kobbevik said his car was working ‘very good’.  The up & coming Norwegian talent is also enjoying the track layout and the fact it has ‘many jumps’.  The 12-year-old would make a shock oil change during practice liking the harder set-up more and he is confident of backing up his practice pace with strong qualifying runs.

Coming straight from the Nuremberg Toy Fair, where his business Hoeco has a stand, Honigl said, ‘I think my car is awesome but I need more sleep tonight’.  The Austrian said he is ‘feeling really tired’ due to the preparation that had to go into getting ready for the Toy Fair and today he is ‘feeling 30-years older than I am’.   Feeling he ‘could drive it better’ after some sleep, while he will have no chance of that for qualifying he does have to look forward to a good nights sleep before the morning’s finals.

Setting the 5th fastest time would be Serpent’s Joern Neumann.  The former champion said while the track is ‘really challenging’, he ‘really like(s) it’.  Used to tracks with ‘higher corner speeds’, he said this weekend’s track ‘has many sections you can lose or gain time’ adding ‘5-minutes will be very different to 3-laps’.  In terms of his car, the German said having been a little nervous to drive at the beginning of the day a shock set-up change has now left the car ‘very good’ .

Setting the 6th fastest time, Bruno Coelho said ‘my car works very well but I had bad luck with traffic’.  The Xray driver continued, ‘the pace is there and its consistent so its all very well for qualifying’.  On the track he said, ‘Its super difficult.  You need to be super patient and feel the jumps, you can’t just drive it flat out, you have to be super smooth but I like it’.

Asked about his disappointing time, Orlowski said, ‘the driver just can’t get around the track’.  The Schumacher ace expanded by saying, ‘The car is really good, I have the pace and all what is needed to be a the top but just need to concentrate more to get around the track’.

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Track Focus – Hudy Racing Arena

Name – Hudy Racing Arena
Club – Private Track
Country – Slovakia
Location – Trencin (120 km North East of Bratislava)
Direction – Anti-Clockwise
Surface – Carpet tiles
Previous key events hosted – 3 X EOS rounds, 4 X ETS rounds

Round 3 of the Euro Offroad Series is making its fourth visit to the World Famous Hudy Racing Arena and having traditionally attracted one of the smaller entries of the season this year’s event has attracted the 6-year-old series’ second biggest ever entry, the snow not putting off the drivers who make up the 300 plus entries.  The home hunting ground for Xray, their impressive factory part of the 25,000 square metre facility, this year the EOS organisers took over responsibility for the build of the track in response to rivals teams feeling that, while the Arena changed the track layout for the race weekend they still had an unfair advantage. While not affecting the EOS competitors, one noticeable change at the Hudy Arena is the progress made on the dirt track with the separate building it is housed in now fully clad having been just a steel frame on the previous visit. For the future the facility might present the opportunity for the EOS to include dirt. One change for the weekend that will affect drivers is the new timetable structure with the entire event separated between 2WD and 4WD.  Previously Friday was a mixed practice day with Saturday for 2WD and 4WD taking place on Sunday.  Now drivers with start with 2WD practice and continue with qualifying through to the Finals before the switch to 4WD practice on Saturday.  The new format is already proving very positive with racers as they can focus on one car rather than switch between classes.

Built in an area 34 metre long by 28 metre deep, the track layout has been created by Gerd Strenge, a regular contributor to EOS track layouts, with input from Race Director Scotty Ernst.  A much busier layout than in the previous years, reigning 2WD Champion & last year’s race winner Lee Martin described the layout as ‘testing’ adding ‘there is a lot going on’.  The Yokomo driver said one of the challenges of the track is that the jumps are at different angles to each other and the corner dots are presenting a bit of a challenge as contact tends to flip the car. He also said getting around traffic was hard as ‘not every driver is confident with their lines’. 2WD standings leader Michal Orlowski said while the track is ‘fun to drive’ he doesn’t feel it will make for good racing.  In practice, the Pole found other drivers mistakes made it hard to complete clears laps, making cars cross lanes when they crash.

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