Coelho opens title quest with TQ run

Bruno Coelho got his quest for a maiden Euro Offroad Series title off to the perfect start by TQ’ing opening round of 4WD qualifying at the Nurburgring.  The Xray driver , who can wrap up the title with the overall TQ in Germany, was fastest from his only remaining title rival Lee Martin who was 1.1 seconds off.  Following a full day of 2WD action, the first of the four 4WD qualifiers brought cold conditions with Michal Orlowski taking his Schumacher to third.  Having just achieved his best 2WD finish of the season with 4th, Serpent’s Joern Neumann would open 4WD qualifying in the same position.  Behind the former Champion Martin Wollanka and Hupo Hönigl completed the Top 6. Having set the pace in practice yesterday, Marc Rheinard’s would only manage the 13th fastest time with the Yokomo driver hoping tomorrow brings better form after enduring a disappointing 2WD qualifying and finishing 10th.

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Cavalieri gives B6 debut win at EOS Nurburgring

Ryan Cavalieri has claimed a debut victory for Team Associated’s new B6 on its competition debut as he took victory at the season finale of the Euro Offroad Series at the Nurburgring.  A race that was wide open going into the third A-Main,  Cavalieri would take his first EOS victory with a late second place behind back to back champion Lee Martin, the final winner having to be decided by the fastest race winning time which Cavalieri would have from his A2 win.  With Martin having to settle for second, the podium in Germany would be completed by young star of the future Joona Haatanen who before a clash with his team-mate Cavalieri would have taken the overall win.  For Top Qualifier Neil Cragg, things didn’t improve after the disaster that was A1 and 8th in A3, that is where he would finish up overall on a weekend that started out so well for the Team Associated driver.

Becoming the first American driver to claim a buggy win in the EOS, Cavalieri said, ‘The new car was good and consistent all the time and the only problems were a few errors on (his) part’.  ‘Happy to get the win’ on the car’s maiden event, the former World Champion said the ‘first race was a bad incident and I was upset with myself for what happened’.  Having ‘bounced back in A2’, which he won from Martin, the Californian driver said in A3 he got ‘super lucky’ when team-mate Cragg had an mistake on the opening lap before going to the front when Haatanen got the landing on the left side double wrong.  With his ‘car ‘clearly good’ he said it was all going good until a mistake ‘with a couple of laps to go’ which would hand Martin the lead and for a moment allow Haatanen through to second.  Commenting on the incident with Haatanen which drew some booing from onlookers, Cavalieri said ‘after my mistake the marshal was going to get my car but I managed to get back on track but then the marshal was blocking my view and I didn’t see what happened.

Having been listed for a time as the winner, the computer using the incorrect race time to determine the tie breaker, Martin said he was still pleased with second overall adding ‘4th to 2nd is good’.  Second in the opening two finals, the Yokomo driver described the start in A3 as something unpublishable and that it was this that cost him the overall win as he lost around 2 seconds which would have given him the faster winning time.  While losing out today to the new B6, the World Championship podium finisher said the arrival of the car forced them to push harder and look for an extra 1/10th they didn’t know they needed before because the car was slightly faster. Wishing to point out that there can only be one original he went on to highlight the new B6 is based the design concept of the YZ-2.   With it not until A2 until ‘that (they) got it right’, he continued ‘it is good for the future and particularly the opening round of next season’s EOS’ when his quest for 3 titles in a row begins.

A driver who continues his impressive rise up the sport marking himself out this weekend as a future champion, Haatanen was understandably upset to lose out on his first international success when it was within his grasp.  Only 12-years-old the Finn was unable to talk as he came to terms with A3 but the experience is sure to help with the development of this ultra cool operator who all weekend upheld Finland’s motorsport champions tradition of keeping any race comment short and to the point.

Achieving his best finish of the season with 4th, former champion Joern Neumann said ‘I knew I needed to win to get on the podium so I went for it’.  Admitting to be surprised by Cavalieri’ mistake saying he ‘normally makes no mistakes’ he said he pushed hard to catch Martin but ended up flipping and the challenge was over.  The German who has had struggled over the last season and a half continued, ‘it’s not a problem, at least the speed is there now and with some fine tuning we can fight for wins again next season’.

Summing up his weekend, Cragg said ‘qualifying was good, racing not so good’.  On the finals he continued, ‘they started out bad and just got worse’.  Still in with the chance of a podium finish going into A3, he said after his steering problems that forced him to retire from A2 he fitted a new servo but the car ‘just didn’t feel right’ and he ‘knew from the start he was up against it’.  Only his second EOS outing and his first weekend with the new B6, the British driver said ‘I’m really happy with the car and the TQ & win is a good start for the car’ adding ‘I’m looking to the new season of EOS’.

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Cavalieri wins A2

Having caused a pile up at the start of A1, Ryan Cavalieri had no such problems in A2 with the Associated driver taking victory over Lee Martin and Joern Neumann.  Starting second behind team-mate Neil Cragg, Cavalieri took advantage of a bobble by the Top Qualifier on the third lap to go to the front and despite a sterling effort by Lee Martin he held the lead to the finish for a comfortable win.  Unfortunately for Cragg his race would end prematurely as he encountered steering problems on lap 6 which left his car undriveable, it afterwards found that the splines on his servo had twisted.

Happy with his win, Cavalieri said the race started out good but ‘it seemed like the slipper got hot’ causing him to ‘start missing (his) lines’.  While ‘this allowed Lee to close up’, the American said he was able to ‘gather it back up and not make mistakes off that (problem)’.  Set to rebuild the slipper on his Orion powered B6 for the third & deciding A-Main, he said after his 9th in A1 the win ‘gives (him) a chance and (he) will ‘go for it in A3’.

With Martin looking like he was only biding his time once he caught Cavalieri, he said it took ‘just a small bobble on the jump’ to throw away the opportunity.  Continuing ‘I don’t normal make mistakes on jumps but twice here they have caught me out’.  Feeling they have now got good pace with the YZ-2, the British driver said ‘we just need to win the last one’.  Sitting with a pair of second place finishes,  he said ‘two 2s could turn out to be great or they could turn out to be shit’ and he ‘would be happier if (he) had a win’ to his credit going into the decider.

Switching to lower profile Orion battery in his prototype Serpent, which features the rear end of their new 4WD offering, Neumann said the change made the buggy ‘more responsive’.  Starting from seventh on the grid after losing out a good final qualifier when he crashed on the last lap,  the former multiple EOS champion said by the time he got into third Cavalieri and Martin were too far ahead although he was encouraged by the fact he could reduce what started out as a full straight length advantage to Martin down to just half the main straight.  Behind Neumann, A1 winner Joona Haatanen would finish fourth, the young Finn reporting a clean and uneventful race.

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Haatanen keeps AE reign going with A1 win at Nurburgring

Joona Haatanen took somewhat of a surprise win in the first 2WD A-Main at the Euro Offroad Series heading home champion Lee Martin in a race that was turned on its head at the second corner.  Having dominated qualifying topping all four rounds, Team Associated filled the first three spots on the grid but just after the start the number 2 B6 of Ryan Cavalieri would get in to the rear wing of Top Qualifier Neil Cragg causing a pile-up that seemed to build on the buggy of 3rd place starter Spencer Rivkin.  Lee Martin and Haatanen would come off best from the pile up and subsequent chaos at the first double that promoted Rivkin back to third.  Leading for a lap, that same double would then catch out Martin, allowing Haatanen in a lead he would keep despite intense pressure in the closing laps to take a popular win, Martin in turn fending off pressure of Rivkin.  Behind the Top 3, a frustrated Cragg would manage to recover to fourth.

While his senior team-mates were left slightly embarrassed by their race, Haatanen summed up his faultless drive to victory by saying, ‘ I was so nervous but I’m really happy’.  The 12-year said once he got by Martin and had a bit of a lead he tried to drive safe but the pressure was intense as both Martin and Rivkin ‘started catching me at the end’.  Delighted with the performance of his B6, he said the result means ‘any position is now possible’ and the only thing he will do different to his ‘no plan’ approach to A1 is fit new tyres for the second encounter.

‘I had a dream start and then screwed it up at the double’ was Martin’s reaction to the race.  The Yokomo driver who would like to cap off his title winning season with a third win, said while he was eventually able to make up the lost ground to Haatanen ‘it was too little too late’.  Coming under attack from Rivkin he said that challenge was ‘pretty intense’ adding ‘the youngsters are getting fast’.

Watching back video footage of the start, Rivkin agreed that he has used up all his luck for the day, as he came from being all but last to third within the space of one jump.  The 17-year-old said battling with Martin they were able to catch Haatanen but the track layout meant there were ‘not many places to pass’ adding he was ‘grateful to finish 3rd’.  Looking to A2 the American said ‘the next one will be better’.

‘Cav jammed into my rear wing’ was Cragg’s view of the start, softening his statement with ‘it happens when the track is so tight’.  Trying to put the incident behind him he said, ‘we will get it right for the next one’.  Cavalieri summed up the start by saying ‘I got into the back of Neil’ but quickly added ‘it didn’t even feel like I was pushing’.  Behind Cragg, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski would complete the Top 5.

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Cragg claims first EOS TQ on B6 debut

Neil Cragg has claimed Team Associated’s first ever TQ of the Euro Offroad Series marking a successful debut for the the American manufacturer’s all new B6 buggy which will fill the first 3 spots on the A-Main grid at the Nurburgring.  Posting his third TQ of the event in the fourth & final round of 2WD qualifying at the EOS season finale, making it a clean sweep for the B6, Cragg will start ahead of team-mates Ryan Cavalieri and Spencer Rivkin.  Reigning Champion Lee Martin would be the best of the rest finding himself in the Associated sandwich with his Yokomo set to start 4th ahead of the B6 of young Finnish star Joona Haatanen.  Top Qualifier when the season opener took place last September at the iconic 1:1 scale race circuit, Xray’s Bruno Coelho will start the very evenly matched field from 6th on the grid.

Summing up his TQ performance, Cragg said ‘it been a good start for the new car.  We TQ’d every round so we couldn’t have done any better.’  Looking to the final, the former World Champion said, ‘everyone is the same pace, aren’t they but with three cars at the front hopefully one of our cars will get the win’.  Very happy with his car which he described as ‘easy to drive’, he said the big thing for the final was going to be getting over the first jump and then keeping it on it wheels for the rest of the race’.

The only driver who could have denied Cragg the overall TQ, Cavalieri ‘tried something’ for the final qualifier but it wasn’t the right direction to go.  Posting a TQ run in Q2 for A1 he will revert to that same set-up declaring the finals ‘should be fun’.  With ‘everyone pretty close’, the 2011 World Champion said, ‘there are few spots that if someone gets wide you will be able to get down the inside’, but the key to passing was going to be to ‘force a slight mistake’ from the driver ahead.

Making his EOS debut as part of surprise unannounced invasion by Associated’s American A-team,  Rivkin said his last qualifier was ‘OK’ and for the finals he ‘need(s) to be extra extra disciplined’.  The World Champion also feels his car is good enough to get the job done.  With his Reedy powered B6 ‘easy to drive’ he just needs to ‘back it down’ in terms of his driving adding the new car has already shown it is a ‘killer machine’ with its qualifying performance.

Trying a rear roll-bar in the final qualifier, Martin said it ‘did some good things but was nervous’ adding ‘it is something to go away and work on for the future’.  With the ‘pace of everyone pretty similar’ he joked ‘I just have the three road blocks in the way of me winning’.  Expecting a tough race, the 5 time 2WD race winner, said ‘there are a few jumps its easy to get it wrong which should create opportunities’ adding he will also ‘be hoping to pressure a few people into making mistakes’.

Completing the top half of the grid with a great P2 run in the final qualifier, Haatanen was very happy with his speed, new tyres giving his B6 the extra pace.  Asked about his approach for the world class final line-up, he replied in typical Finnish straight talking style that he will ‘just drive, there is no plan’ adding ‘I will leave the car the same’.

Coelho said his Hobbywing powered XB2 was ‘much better’ and ‘very nice’ to drive in the final qualifier but he made ‘too many mistakes’.  Making some geometry changes as well as a diff change, the 4WD title contender said ‘first is almost impossible’ from his starting position ‘but we will see as now the car is very good’.  Behind Coelho, Joern Neumann will start 7th ahead of Martin Wollanka with Michal Orlowski 9th.  Winner of the previous EOS encounter, Marc Rheinard is unlikely to repeat that result today as he completes the grid by lining up 10th.

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Another TQ run for Cragg in Q3

Neil Cragg has posted a second TQ run at the Nurburgring repeating the Associated 1-2 achieved in the opening qualifier when he also finished ahead of Spencer Rivkin.  The fastest of the qualifiers to be run, Cragg would outpace his team-mate by over 6/10ths of a second with a much improved Joern Neumann completing the Top 3.  Having TQ’d the second qualifier, Ryan Cavalieri would managed only a P6 behind EOS Champion Lee Martin and Xray’s Martin Wollanka.  Wollanka’s team-mate Bruno Coelho who was second in Q2, would get a DNF as he broke half way through the qualifier.

Despite suffering one crash off the side of the table top, Cragg said it was a good run.  Running ahead of Cavalieri and Martin on the track, the British driver said it looked like he was miles ahead and he start to take it easy but that wasn’t the case forcing him to push as hard as he could later in the run.  Planning to ‘just push’ the entire 5-minutes in the final qualifier, with only team-mate Cavalieri able to deny him claiming Associated’s first EOS overall TQ, he was happy to have been able to a ‘couple of fast laps that matched Spencer’s pace’.  Rivkin was pleased with his run after having to deal with traffic after starting last due to his DNF in the previous qualifier.  Looking to the final qualifier, the 17-year-old said ‘while nobody has got the perfect run yet, that’s what I am shooting for (in Q4)’.  Complimenting how well the entire Associated team have been working together on the debut of the B6, he said ‘its great to see we’re all doing so well’.  Cavalieri said after a ‘dumb mistake’ which left Martin on his rear wing he never drove as good for the rest of the run.

Neumann was pleased to find himself mixing it at the front of what is one of the most competitive 2WD entries of the season.  Running a prototype car that is made up of the rear end of Serpent’s new 4WD and the front of the 2WD, the former champion said the car is a big improvement.  Having missed the first two practice runs yesterday, the German said they have ‘improved the car each practice run and qualifier step by step’ and having been 7/10ths to a second off at previous races he is ‘almost able to match the pace now’.

Fitting a different front roll bar to his YZ-2, Martin said the car was ‘better to drive’ but ‘if (he) missed the corner he struggled with understeer’.  ‘Very good on the racing line’, he will for Q4 fit a rear roll-bar.  Not normally running a rear roll-bar he said with the Associated team, Cragg the exception, doing well from having one fitted the will try it for the final qualifier.

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