Martin takes opening qualifier at EOS Austria

Having topped 2WD practice yesterday at the Euro Offroad Series Lee Martin picked up where he left off as he took the first of the the four rounds of qualifying in Austria.  Just missing out on a 16-lap run, the Yokomo driver was almost 3-seconds clear of the field with Xray’s Martin Bayer posting the second fastest time.  Posting the fastest lap of the opening qualifier, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski completed the Top 3 despite two incidents. Also suffering errors, it wasn’t a good start to the day for Berlin podium finisher David Ronnefalk as ‘too many stupid mistakes’ left the HB driver 17th fastest.

Describing his Muchmore powered YZ-2 as ‘really nice to drive’, Martin said he ‘didn’t push hard (and) just kept it on the straight & narrow for the 5-minutes’.  Complimenting Orlowski on his early pace, the British ace expects the Polish star ‘is going to be quick all day’ adding the 13-year-old is ‘obviously enjoying the track layout’.  For Q2, the Round 2 winner who could wrap up his first EOS title with a win today said he will leave his buggy unchanged with the focus to ‘keep doing runs like that’.

Bayer was very happy to open qualifying with 2nd having only been 9th fastest yesterday in practice.  Giving a lot of thought last night to possible set-up options for his new XB2, the Czech driver said he changed a lot on the buggy this morning for Q1.  Taking the ‘everything or nothing’ gamble with that set-up, he said it proved a good decision with the balance change a big improvement.  ‘Still lacking a little stability’ he said he has a few ideas he will try for Q2 to try cure this.

A driver who is clearly very comfortable at the controls of his Cougar KF II, Orlowski would lay down the early TQ pace in the top heat until he had bad luck when he had a coming together with Xray’s Martin Wollanka.  Losing 5-seconds due to the incident he would also have a mistake of his own and considering the time lost he said ‘third is still a very good’.  Running a carbon chassis on his buggy, which his team-mates have now switched to for qualifying, he said he knows the speed is there and his plan is to leave everything as is and instead just drive it without making any mistakes.

Running his Yokomo unchanged as to how he put it on the track yesterday morning for the first practice, touring car ace Yannic Prumper would end Q1 4th fastest.  The German said other than popping a wheelie on the main straight that cost him about a second the rest of the run went well with him describing his YZ-2 as ‘easy to drive’.  Another touring car ace joining the EOS weekend, ETS Champion Ronald Volker would set the 11th fastest time having had a couple of bad laps.

Describing his Cougar KF II as ‘just a little easier to drive’ following the switch to the carbon chassis, Simon Moss opened qualifying with a strong 5th despite getting out of shape due to one of Ronnefalk’s errors.  BQ in Berlin, the British driver was ‘pretty happy’ with his start to the day adding he feels he has Top 6 pace.  Adding he is very happy with his new Tekin electrics, for Q2 he will stay with the same set-up and focus on registering another good round.

‘No mistakes and I finished 6th, I think that’s the fastest I can go’ was how Joern Neumann summed up his performance.  Running his Serpent unchanged from practice, the German said the issue is a lack corner speed something he was unable to cure with set-up changes in practice yesterday.  Planning to discuss the issue with team-mate Hupo Honigl he said he will look at coming up with a set-up change they can try for Q2.

Behind Neumann, young Hungarian driver Barnabas Toth put in ‘a safe run’ to post the 7th fastest time. The 16-year-old Yokomo driver said he was a little cautious due to changing back to 2WD, having finished out yesterday with 5-rounds of 4WD practice, but the transition back was ok.  Planning to push harder for the next one he will also make a front end set-up change to try and find more steering.

Making his first international race appearance with Schumacher Peter Pinisch would run the 8th fastest time.  Following Orlowski in terms of set-up, the Austrian said his buggy is ‘ok’ and its more his driving that needs work as he tries to adapt it to the Cougar KF II having been a long time Associated team driver.  Behind the Austrian Yokomo’s Bjorn Prumper and Team Associated’s Patrick Hofer would complete the Top 10.

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Ronnefalk fastest at the end of 4WD practice

David Ronnefalk has ended Day 1 of the Euro Offroad Series in Wels, Austria, at the top of the times sheets with the HB driver setting the fastest 4WD practice time ahead of Lee Martin who earlier in the day topped 2WD practice. Setting his fastest 3-consecutive laps in the second of the controlled practice rounds Ronnefalk would end up 1/10th of a second faster than Martin who set his time in CP1.  Behind them Martin Bayer would complete the Top 3, the Xray driver making a substantial improvement on his opening seeding pace in the final practice.

Starting out 4WD practice with a combined Cactus/EOS set-up on his D413, Ronnefalk changing the buggy for each of the five runs he ended up back at the same set-up which he used to finish on the podium in Berlin with heavier swaybars the only difference.  Admitting he should have started off with a full EOS set-up, the 19-year-old said he was very happy with how the buggy ran in the final practice and he plans to run it the same for the opening qualifier on Sunday morning.

Martin declared that his B-Max4 III felt ‘pretty good’.  Like Ronnefalk the Yokomo driver started out practice with a different set-up only to end up back at how he ran the car when he finished runner-up at Round 2 in Germany.  Describing the car as ‘super fast’ he said for the second controlled practice he focused on trying to improve the consistency of his driving and while slower over 3-laps he is confident he has a good 5-minutes pace.  Feeling he has a ‘good overall package’ he said they will stay with what they have for now for the opening qualifier.

Moving ‘step by step’ forward with the set-up on his XB4 with each practice Bayer said in the end his buggy was ‘really good’.  Describing it as having good speed for the last practice the Czech driver said the big thing was that even with this it was ‘not difficult to drive’.  While he has ‘a few more ideas to improve the car further’ he said most likely he will stay with the same set-up for Q1 to be safe.

Bayer’s team-mate Martin Wollanka would post the 4th fastest time.  The Austrian described his XB4 as ‘very easy to drive’ and with it having ‘good steering’.  Making no changes to his set-up he said the only thing he tried was running less flex in the rear of the buggy for one of the rounds but he didn’t like it and switched back.

Making his Serpent debut in the EOS this weekend, Joern Neumann would post the 5th fastest time.  He said while the car feels ok and is ‘super easy to drive’ with plenty of steering it ‘just is not fast enough’.  Having playing around with shock set-up and tyre prep he said these didn’t improve the outright pace. The defending champion and current points standings leader said the buggy feels like it needs more weight in the front and this is something he will work on for qualifying.

Having not enjoyed a good outing in 4WD at Round 2 of the championship, Michael Orlowski was very happy to end practice today 6th fastest.  Starting out the day with a regular CAT K1, the Polish driver switched to a carbon chassis version which features a more forward motor mounting as well as the steering servo.  Immediately preferring the prototype conversion, he said after just some small set-up tweaks over the following practices he is feeling pretty happy going into qualifying when he hopes to put the ‘disaster’ that was Berlin behind him.

One of the surprises of Round 2, Patrick Hofer would be the fastest Team Associated driver in 4WD practice taking his B44.3 to the seventh fastest time.  Starting out with a saddle pack configuration he switched to the shorty conversation.  The Swiss driver said while the shorty made the buggy more difficult to drive it was much quicker on lap times.  Changing the shock set-up and adding weight to the rear he said this made it a little easier to drive and feeling his 5-minute pace was good in the final practice he will leave it as is for Q1.  Behind Hofer, Japanese Yokomo pairing Kai Kikuchi and Shin Adachi posted the 8th & 9th fastest times with Serpent’s Hupo Honigl completing the Top 10.

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Martin tops 2WD practice at EOS Wels

Potentially able to secure his first ever EOS title this weekend, Lee Martin got Round 3 of the championship in Wels, Austria off to an encouraging start as he took his Yokomo to the top of the times in 2WD practice.  The British driver, who claimed his first EOS win with defending champions Yokomo at the prevous round in Berlin, set the fastest time over 3-consecutive laps from Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski.  Overall it was a good start to the weekend for Yokomo with the strongly represented Japanese manufacturer getting four cars in the Top 10 with Bjorn Prumper completing the Top 3.

Setting his fastest time of 59.660 in the first of the two controlled practice runs, Martin summed up 2WD practice with ‘everything is good’. Moving the shocks to the front of the rear tower for the CP1 he said this produced the biggest improvement to his YZ-2 during the 5-rounds of practice.  Feeling the buggy was lacking ‘bit’ out of the corner, for the final practice he ran a heavier diff oil but not liking the results of the change he will go back for tomorrow morning’s opening 2WD qualifier, drivers now switching their attentions to 4WD practice for the remainder of today.

Having debuted Schumacher’s new Cougar KF2 at EOS Round 2 back in January and putting it in the A-Main, Orlowski was clearly happy to kick off this weekend just .130 off Martin over the three laps.  Having had the chance to race the buggy on carpet twice since his last EOS outing, one where traction was low and the other where it was high, the 13-year-old said he now has a better knowledge of the car describing it as feeling ‘amazing’ in the final practice.  Standing up the front shocks for the last run the Polish driver said he had more steering improving the overall feel of the buggy.  Having only had use of an alloy chassis in Berlin, Orlowski is running a carbon chassis this weekend.  The only one of the Schumacher team drivers opting to run it today, Simon Moss using the alloy chassis to set the 8th fastest time, Orlowski likes the further rear motor position and running shorty batteries and he will leave his set-up unchanged for the opening qualifier.

Running his Yokomo with the standard kit set-up Bjorn Prumper was happy with his pace in practice.  The only change the German would make over practice was to switch to a softer spring on his YZ-2 which in addition to improving how the buggy jumped also gave him more steering.  Bjorn is joined by his brother and electric touring car ace this weekend with Yannic taking his example to the 5th fastest time.  Having not raced in the EOS since Berlin two years ago, Prumper described his out of the box set-up as feeling ‘fine’ adding the track layout out made things that bit easier for a touring car driver.  Like his older brother, Yannic said his plan for Q1 was to leave the buggy as is and ‘just drive’ it.

Here more in a support role rather than a driver, Shin Adachi was ‘very happy’ to post the 4th fastest time.  Adding it was a ‘big surprise’ to have four of their cars in the Top 10 he said he couldn’t have expected practice to have gone much better.  Starting out the day running set-up changes on his car before getting Martin to try them he said they have ended up with the same set-up with no plans to try anything further for now.  With 4WD practice to run before 2WD resumes with qualifying in the morning he said they would see how that effects the track and then make a decision on whether they need to adapt the cars for Q1.

Setting the 6th fastest time HB’s David Ronnefalk felt he had Top 3 pace but contact with the rear wing of Orlowski’s Schumacher in the final practice resulted in him suffering a break after 3-minutes of the 5-minute run. With HB not yet having a 2WD buggy, Ronnefalk started using a Team C to claim a podium in Berlin but this weekend he is running a Team Associated conversion from French company Red Workshop.  Based on the B5, the car uses a B44 drive train.  Very happy with the car he said compared with Team C while they both have similar speed but the B52 is much easier to drive.  Feeling he improved the car for the final practice the Swede said he will most likely make a small adjustment to his shock package for tomorrow.

Making his EOS debut with Serpent, Joern Neumann posted the 7th fastest time.  Due to a busy race programme with his new sponsors, the EOS’ most successful driver said he has only been able to run 5 batteries with the car on carpet and considering this the weekend has started out ‘OK’.  Feeling his 5-minute pace is stronger than that over 3-laps, the German said for a mid motor configuration on carpet the car is running quite good.  Having played around with weight and battery position through the practice runs he said he finds running the saddle pack inline is working best.  Happy with the progress he has made so far today he said he still needs to find a little more steering for Q1.  Team-mate Hupo Honigl would take his SRX-2 Spyder to the 13th fastest time adding that for the platform they have the pace was ‘quite ok’.

Impressing on the debut of Xray’s new XB2 in Berlin when he finished on the podium, Martin Bayer said the basic set-up of his car which has undergone a number of developmets since Round 2 is ‘good’.  Setting the 9th fastest time from CP1, the Czech driver tried a different spring for the final practice but didn’t like it.  Planning to revert back to the spring used to post his fastest time he said he also needs to change something for Q1 to try and improve corner speed.

Rounding out the Top 10 was Berlin double A-Finalist Patrick Hofer. The Team Associated driver said a change of shock position on his B5M for the final practice made the buggy easier to drive and with it also jumping better he was able to improve his time.  For qualifying he plans to switch to a heavier oil to make the front end a little more stable.  Behind the Swiss Champion, Xray’s Martin Wollanka posted the 11th fastest time followed by Japanese Yokomo team driver Kai Kikuchi.

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