Coelho stamps authority opening 4WD qualifiers

With the action switching over to 4WD qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series it was Bruno Coelho who stamped his authority on the opening two qualifiers in Germany.  In the first round the World Champion lead an Xray 1,2,3 ahead of Martin Bayer and Hupo Hönigl with Serpent’s Joern Neumann best of the rest with the fourth fastest time.  Having struggled in Q1, it would be Scumacher’s Michal Orlowski who would get closest to Coelho in Q2 albeit 4-seconds off with Martin Wollanka completing the Top 3.  Having enjoyed all the spoils in 2WD, it was a tough start to 4WD for Team Yokomo with Marc Rheinard getting a best run of a P5 in Q1 and Lee Martin a P6 in Q2.

Securing his first EOS victory at Round 2 when he took the 4WD win in Slovakia, Coelho described both his runs as perfect. Posting the fastest lap in each qualifier, the Portuguese driver said his XB4 is ‘super good’ pointing out having topped practice that he ‘didn’t change anything’.

Making a big improvement between rounds, finding over 8-seconds, Orlowski said having struggled in practice they made a change that didn’t work.  Only 9th in seeding, the reigning European Champion went from a 1.2 to 1.0 front swaybar for Q1 but this left his CAT K2 lifting a wheel in the corners.  Changing to a standard kit front deck, having been running a stiffer version, and adding longer rear camber links for more rotation he said this transformed the car.  At the beginning of Q2 however, not expecting the car to be so good, he said he did not push too hard but as he got the feel for the new set-up he was ‘very surprised’ at how much he could push it. With two more qualifiers in the morning, 2 of 4 counting, the 14-year-old said he is feeling positive about tomorrow.

Having been running second to Coelho in Q2 before a mistake and ending up 7th, 2WD winner Rheinard said ‘the car is fine. I was just driving bad and made too many mistakes’ adding ‘tomorrow should be better’.  Team-mate Martin said his YZ-4 was lifting a wheel all the time making it easy to flip, which he did twice on the straight, if he pushed hard.  A long day for all racers due to the record entry in Muelheim-Kaerlich, the newly crowned back to back 2WD Champion said, ‘I’m tired and over it for today’.

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Rheinard get 1st win as Martin retains EOS title

Team Yokomo enjoyed the perfect day at Round 3 of the Euro Offroad Series in Germany where Marc Rheinard claimed his first win ahead of team-mate Lee Martin, 2nd enough for Martin to successfully retain his 2WD Championship title with one round of the 2015/16 season still to run.  With Rheinard & Martin going head to head in A3 for the overall win in Muelheim-Kaerlich, the Top Qualifier’s impending win would be assisted by Martin when, 5-laps in, the British driver made a mistake coming onto the straight.  With this handing the Tamiya Touring Car ace a comfortable lead he could, despite some bobbles and a late charge from Martin, cruise to claim his first offroad win since joining Yokomo’s Offroad team last May.  With Martin’s charge resulting in a second mistake on the last lap Orlowski would go by for 2nd, a result that would maintain the Schumacher driver’s run of podium finishes this season.

A driver who has been a regular of the EOS for the past number of season, having previously raced alongside Martin at Tamiya before the Japanese manufacturer dropped its offroad programme, Rheinard was happy to finally register a win.  A former European 4WD Offroad Champion, the German was particular pleased with the fact that his win came with a standard YZ-2 with him joking with Martin that ‘even with a prototype car you still couldn’t beat me’.  A driver who holds the honour of the most winning driver of the Euro Touring Series, today’s win sees him become only the 7th 2WD winner in the EOS’ 18 race history.

‘A round early again, I’m pretty happy with that’, was Martin’s reaction to his second & Yokomo’s third consecutive EOS 2WD title. Having also won the title at the penultimate round last year, he said while he would have liked to have taken a third win of the season ‘at the end of the day the goal this weekend was on securing the title’.  His first EOS outing with new electric sponsors RC Concept he said it was nice to start the new relation by lifting the title. Commenting on A3, he said ‘I was pushing to catch Marc and knew that coming onto the straight was one place if you get it right you can make up time but I was too tight and hit the piping.  I knew I was guaranteed 2nd so tried to catch him towards the end and knew I needed to try something big but just too far.  It was actually a fun race’.  Having spent the weekend slagging Rheinard for finishing 28th at last week’s Reedy Race of Champions in California, the British ace didn’t miss the opportunity to remind him of the embarrassing result saying ’28 to 1, Well done Marc’ adding ‘you were just super lucky today’.

A somewhat relieved Orlowski summed up his 2WD performance with ‘I got my podium’.  Coming into the event as the main challenger to Martin in the title chase finishing 2nd to him in the opening two rounds, the 14-year-old said ‘after a bad qualifying with so many mistakes from my side I am happy with third’.  He continued ‘we have a really good car especially on this surface and we showed that by racing for the win at the first two races so I’m frustrated that my driving was the weak link this weekend’.  Behind Orlowski, Martin Wollanka would end up the best Xray in the final with fourth. Unfortunately for Hupo Honigl, Xray’s highest qualifier in 4th, his strong showing didn’t translate into a good debut result with the Austrian ending up 8th, two places behind Joona Haatanen and new team-mate Bruno Coelho.

Securing fifth overall with 5th in A3, Team Associated’s Neil Cragg summed up his EOS debut with ‘It started promising but kind of faded towards the end’.  Qualifying 3rd, the former World Champion said ‘we were trying different things in the finals and ended up tying ourselves in a knot but for a first effort fifth is not too bad’.  Looking to the EOS season finale in Austria, the British driver said ‘We now know what to expect and know the carpet so we will be a little more prepared for the next one’.  Travelling to Germany to support their star driver, Team Associated’s Craig Drescher was pleased with the progress made on the debut.  An accomplished racer himself with eleven 1:10 Offroad European Championship titles won, he said ‘We did a good job. We knew it would be tough as the other drivers are Pros in the series.  Finishing in the Top 5 we can’t be disappointed and we have got stuff to go back with and come back stronger for the next round’.

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Martin handed A2 win

Lee Martin has won A2 of 2WD at Euro Offroad Series, the Yokomo driver handed the lead after mistakes by both Top Qualifier & A1 winner Marc Rheinard and Neil Cragg.  Taking the win ahead of Xray’s Martin Wollanka and Cragg, the result means that the overall Round 3 winner will be decided in A3 with three drivers, Martin, Rheinard & Wollanka in contention.

‘Marc gave up the lead and Neil rolled over when I needed him too’, was how Martin summed up his move to the front for the win.  The reigning champion & current points leader, he said ‘after that I just cruised to the finish’.  Starting second on the grid, the British driver would fall to third behind compatriot Cragg after a mistake on the opening lap but within 4 laps had been gifted the race lead.  Making a front link change on his YZ-2 to get more steering, he said this made the car more reactive and it took most of the race to get used to it hence the reason why he didn’t try to better Rheinard’s A1 winning time.  Having lost out on the TQ in qualifying on the tie break he is hoping the A3 result wont require the fastest time to be factored in.

Rheinard, who would drop to 7th and recover to 4th, said ‘after Lee crashed I took it easy but it was too easy and I missed the landing at the big jump’.  Running a new set of the championship handout Schumacher tyres he said this made the bad landing worse and he rolled as a result of the extra traction.  Expecting the tyres, now that they are broken in, to be better for A3, he said following his mistake ‘it was too hard to come back’ and hoping for mistakes from Cragg and Wollanka they didn’t make any.

Qualifying 9th, Wollanka was clearly pleased to come out with a second.   Having struggled with his XB2 in qualifying, the Round 1 podium finisher said set-up changes for A2 had improved the car by half a second a lap.  Describing the car as now being ‘perfect’, he said while ‘it will be difficult’ he will be trying to repeat the result in the closing 2WD encounter.

‘First time all weekend two guys in front of me have made mistakes and I can’t capitalise’, was Cragg’s reaction after the race.  Having struggled in A1 after changes to his car’s front end and a motor change, the Team Associated driver said the car was better after reverting back to his qualifying set-up but added his B5M was ‘stilling missing something’. Commenting on crashing out of the lead which he held for 4-laps he said ‘I was not under real pressure from Lee and I still had a silly roll’.  Sandwiched in the battle for second he said with Rheinard so close behind him he ‘couldn’t have a real go at Wollanka’ adding ‘I’m annoyed at least not to get second’.  For A3 his plan is to try and get a podium which he added ‘would be a good start to the EOS for me’.

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Rheinard takes easy A1 win

Marc Rheinard took an easy win in the opening 2WD A-Main at the Euro Offroad Seres in Germany. Having claimed his first TQ of the championships earlier in the morning, the Yokomo driver would take a tone to tone win over team-mate Lee Martin, a brushing with the piping on the first lap the German’s only blemish in an otherwise perfect race.  Behind the two Yokomo’s, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski would benefit from crashes by Hupo Honigl and Neil Cragg to complete the Top 3 from fifth on the grid.

Commenting on his win, Rheinard said, ‘Lee had a rough lap at the beginning that let me pull out a gap.  After that I could drive a controlled the race’.  While Martin would make a late charge getting to within 9/10th by the finish, the 4-time onroad World Champion said ‘Lee was getting close at the end as he was pushing but he never got close even for me to need to take any risks so all was OK.’  Asked about his early moment he said, referring to the roller after the main straight, ‘that jump is scary. Its not straight so it tricky but I survived’.

Getting his RC Concept powered YZ-2 on two wheels on the second lap, Martin said he couldn’t do anything about his team-mate after that.  The British ace said ‘our cars are so evenly matched you can’t make back the time and we were just turning laps together’ his best lap a 19.234 compared to Rheinard’s 19.289.  With the jump that almost caught out Rheinard at the start, and which he himself had trouble with in qualifying, was the only place he said it was possible to make any time but even taking that risk ‘it still wasn’t enough’.

‘A good first final’ was how Orlowski summed up his 3rd place finish.  Starting behind Honigl, he said he knew he needed to get by the Austrian early if he was to stick with the leaders.  This was made all the easier when on lap 2 Honigl crashed on the corner table table.  Now chasing Cragg a mistake by the former World Champion on the next lap would promote the European Champion to 3rd. Next lap around however Orloski would made a mistake himself and while he didn’t lose position he said the time lost ended any chance of challenging Martin and he drove the rest of the race safe to maintain his third.

Behind Orlowski, 12-year-old Joona Haatanen would have a great race.  Starting 10th on the grid, Team Associated’s rising star would go on to finish 4th ahead of Honigl and Round 2 podium finisher Martin Wollanka.  For Haatanen’s senior team-mate Cragg it was a rough first EOS final as he finished 9th after starting 3rd.  Having motored up to a 6.5T motor, the former World Champion said the extra power made his B5M too aggressive in areas with the car also struggling for brakes.  Making front end set-up changes, he said that also didn’t work out and he will go back to his final qualifying set-up for A2.

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Rheinard claims first EOS TQ in Germany

Marc Rheinard has claimed his first Euro Offroad Series TQ, the Yokomo driver taking the final 2WD qualifier at Round 3 in Germany to become the third different pole sitter of Season #5.  Going into Q4 as the only driver capable of denying team-mate & reigning champion Lee Martin the overall TQ,  Rheinard’s quest was made easier following an early mistake by the overnight TQ holder.  Seeing off an early challenge from Neil Cragg, Rheinard would go on to set a new fastest TQ time by a 2.3-second margin over Cragg with former champion Joern Neumann completing the Top 3 for the round.  Ending the final qualifier 9th, Martin, who having topped Q1 & 3 lost out on the faster time tie breaker, will start 2nd a position which if he can maintain over the finals will see him successful defend his 2WD EOS title with one race remaining.

Becoming only the 8th different 2WD Top Qualifier over the 5 seasons of EOS, Rheinard was pleased to claim his first EOS pole position joking ’28 to 1′. Having endured a day of slagging yesterday over his embarrassing performance at the Reedy Race of Champions when he finished 28th out the 30 invite drivers, the touring car star added ‘I have redeemed my offroad career’. On his Q4 TQ, he said, ‘I have a near miss on the first lap when I got up on two wheels on the landing of the big jump but after that it was a good run. When Lee crashed I just had to keep Neil behind me with him close at the start after my slow first lap but I could seee the gap and could control things’.  Looking to the final, the former 4WD Offroad European Champion said ‘I will just try to keep it clean. I don’t want to mess up and hand Neil the win’.

Commenting on his error which came just after the minute and a half mark, Martin said, ‘I messed up at the same place my car is a bit shitty’. Getting the roller at the end of the straight wrong his YZ-2 bounced off the piping and needing to be marshalled he lost an unrecoverable 5-seconds.  Chasing a third consecutive win this weekend having won at the Nurburgring and the Hudy Arena, the British ace said starting behind his team-mate the plan for the finals is to ‘just drive in a line til something happens’.  One win away from sharing the honour of being the championship’s most winning 2WD driver with Joern Nuemann, he added ‘If we can gap the rest of the field then I can make an attack on Marc for the win’.

Lining up third for his EOS race debut, Cragg described his P2 run in the final qualifier as ‘pretty good’. While he didn’t have any errors over the qualifier he did have ‘two scrappy laps’.  Changing to a Pro-Line front wing on his B5M, the factory Team Associated driver said this was an improvement with ‘the car 99% there’.  Asked if he planned any changes to find the missing 1%, he replied ‘Craig (Drescher) has been telling me the car is not fast enough but I think its fine but as we are lacking a little time at the end we are going to motor up to a 6.5 for the finals’.  In terms of the racing he said ‘third is pretty much where I have been throughout but we’ll see what happens in the final’.

Securing his first 2WD A-Main appearance since Round 3 of the championship last year in Wels, Austria, just scraping in on that occasion with a 10th, Hupo Honigl’s Xray debut sees him line up an impressive 4th.  The Austrian summed up his return to form with ‘It feels good again’.  Still finding his way with his new team & cars, the former 2WD race winner said, ‘the 3 guys ahead are a little faster but we’ll see what happens’.  Two places behind, team-mate and Nurburgring Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho will start sixth with compatriot Martin Wollanka also putting his XB2 in the final with ninth on the grid.

Completing the top half of the grip, the final qualifier again containing ‘too many mistakes’, Michal Orlowski is targeting a podium finish.  Having been Martin’s main challenger in the opening two races of the season, the Schumacher driver has struggled with his driving this weekend.  Second in the standings coming into the weekend, the 14-year-old said he has the speed to run at the front as his KF2 is ‘very good’ but with ‘everyone on the same pace’ he expects it will be difficult to pass in the final so his plan is to stay with the lead group and wait for mistakes.  Elsewhere Neumann will take up his best starting position of the season with his Serpent lining up 7th ahead of American Carson Wernimont with Reedy Race Open Champion Joona Haatanen completing the grid in Muelheim-Kaerlich.

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Martin holds overnight TQ at EOS

Lee Martin holds the overnight TQ at Round 3 of the Euro Offroad Series in Germany after posting a second TQ run in the third & penultimate round of qualifying.  The Yokomo driver can now only be denied from becoming 2WD Top Qualifier for a second time this season by team-mate Marc Rheinard.  Having taken the second qualifier in Muelheim-Kaerlich, Rheinard had a bad Q3 after opening his run with mistakes on the first two laps ending up 8th.  Behind Martin it was season opening Nurburgring Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho who would be second fastest with a rejuvenated Hupo Honigl third.  Having started the run on TQ pace, Neil Cragg would end up fourth after losing three & a half seconds when he rolled his Associated on the fifth lap.

Describing his YZ-2 as ‘really good’, while Martin was happy to add a second TQ he was frustrated at losing out on the doing so in the fastest time.  On the penultimate lap the British ace, in an attempt to avoid a crashed car, ended up hitting a marshal’s foot resulting in the loss of almost 2-seconds with his time ending up being 1.4 off Rheinard’s Q2 topping pace.  A 5-time 2WD race winner, Martin said losing out on the time ‘could be shit tomorrow’.  With the advantage of the fastest time, a TQ run tomorrow irrespective of his time would give Rheinard his first overall EOS TQ.  Rheinard said while he had a bad Q3, the important thing was that Cragg didn’t TQ the round meaning Yokomo is guaranteed pole for the Final.  Feeling he is still adapting to the feel of running the soon to be released 3-gear transmission in his car, Martin said you can push it harder and drive it more on the throttle with his 19.3 fastest lap set in Q3 proof he is getting more from the pending YZ-2 CA edition kit release – CA standing for Carpet Astro.

Completely changing the set-up on his XB2, Coelho said this led to a very big improvement in the car.  Easy to drive in the previous qualifier, he said while more difficult to drive after the changes it was now ‘quite fast’ so overall ‘much better’.  Having to run a safe Q2 after ending up 19th in the opening qualifier, the Portuguese driver said even with one mistake he could now finish second with him feeling confident that tomorrow’s final qualifier can help him greatly improve his grid position.

‘A very good day’ was Honigl’s reaction to his third qualifier, the Austrian running in the second fastest heat.  Describing Q3 as a ‘super clean run’ he said racing was now ‘so much more fun than before’ with his confidence growing with every run he puts on his new Xray.  Changing his set-up ‘quite a bit’ and liking the improvement he also ran new tyres which he said are traditionally better on their second run which he said should give him the chance of a very strong final qualifier.

‘One big crash again’, that was Cragg’s reaction to Q3.  The English driver said ‘it was pretty close at the start but then I picked a bad place to crash.  I took the corner too tight and hit the dot which rolled me over’.  Needing to be marshalled the English driver, who is having his first EOS outing this weekend, said at least the 4th puts him in the A-Main.  Very happy with the performance of his 3-gear transmission fitted B5M, he said the aim for the final qualifier is to ‘try for 3rd on the grid and go from there’.

Coming into Round 3 of the EOS having finished second to Martin in the opening two rounds, Q3 would see Michal Orlowski lay down his best run with a P5.  The 14-year-old Schumacher driver, who last week raced at the Reedy Race of Champions, said it had been a frustrating day. Struggling with jet-lag, he said he had a car capable of the TQ each round but made mistakes due to being over tired.  Happy to at least end the day with a 5th he said hopefully with a good night’s sleep he can get a Top 3 in the final qualifier and put himself high enough up the grid to be able to fight for the win. Behind the Polish driver, Martin Wollanka completed the Top 6.  Running in the same heat as former team-mate Honigl, Serpent’s Joern Nuemann was looking on target for a potential Top 3 time until he suffered a battery failure over the final laps, the battery swelling up inside in the car leaving him with a P7.

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