Bayer & Matsukura complete 4WD Podium

Team Xray’s Martin Bayer and Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura completed the 4WD Buggy podium after finishing 1-2 in the closing race at Round 2 of the EOS in Berlin.  With Team Durango’s Joern Neumann seeing off a strong challenge from Bayer in A2 to wrap up his 9th straight overall win in the series, A3 was all about deciding who would be runner up to the German.

With the No.1 Durango sitting out the final encounter, it was Yokomo’s Lee Martin that led away the high qualilty field but Bayer, starting from 3rd, quickly found a way passed the British driver.  Once out front, the Czech driver started to pull clear in what looked like being only a formality in him securing the overall runners-up position.  Setting an almost identicial time to Bayer’s fastest lap of the race, Matsukura though would set about a mid race charge pulling in the European Champion and setting the stage for yet another exciting climax to what was an entertaining day of finals.  With 1-minute to go the Japanese driver was all over the Xray forcing Bayer to overshoot the run up to the Xray Table top.  Coming off side by side they touched with the yellow Yokomo coming off worst allowing Bayer to go on to take the leg by almost 4 seconds.

Just seeing of Euro Touring Series Champion Ronald Volker, Team C’s Hupo Honigl completed the Top 3 for the leg to secure 4th overall ahead of Martin.

In Short Course,  Neumann took the 4WD win ahead of Honigl and Denmark’s Torben Højfeldt who earlier wrapped up 2WD in the truck class.

4WD Buggy Overall Result
1. Joern Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – 2 pts
2. Martin Bayer (CZ) – Team Xray – 3
3. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 5
4. Hupo Honigl (AT) – Team C – 7
5. Lee Martin (GB) – Yokomo – 9
6. Ronald Volker (DE) – Yokomo – 11
7. Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 12
8. Renaud Savoya (FR) – Team Xray – 12
9. Robert Batlle (ES) – Yokomo – 15
10.Peter Pinisch (AT) – Team Associated – 16

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 3 Result
1.(3) Martin Bayer (CZ) – Team Xray – 16/5:09.834
2.(5) Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 16/5:13.783
3.(6) Hupo Honigl (AT) – Team C – 16/5:17.264
4.(4) Ronald Volker (DE) – Yokomo – 16/5:17.348
5.(8) Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 16/5:18.353
6.(7) Renaud Savoya (FR) – Team Xray – 16/5:19.735
7.(2) Lee Martin (GB) – Yokomo – 16/5:20.637
8.(10)Peter Pinisch (AT) – Team Associated – 15/5:04.206
9.(9) Robert Batlle (ES) – Yokomo – 15/5:06.059
10.(1)Joern Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – DNS

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Matsukura takes thrilling A3 for overall EOS victory

Naoto Matsukura has taken overall victory in 2WD Buggy at Round 2 of the Euro Offroad Series in Berlin, Germany.  Only his second appearance in the series, the Team Yokomo driver took the EOS victory after a last lap mistake in A3 by Round 1 winner Hupo Honigl, the Austrian looking to have been on target for a repeat of his Polish victory.  Taking the win by less than half a second over Honigl to back up his A1 victory, the Japanese ace was joined on the podium by defending Champion Joern Neumann, winner of A2, with Honigl completing the Top 3.

‘Lucky’ was how Matsukura summed up his win.  Having suffered from understeer in A2 changes to the set-up of his B-Max 2 had made it more difficult to drive.  This resulted in an early mistake that dropped the 3 x time 1:12 World Champion back to fourth.  Having to adjust his driving style, his recovery was impressive with him putting in a blisteringly 20.666 second fastest lap of the race.  Getting passed Lee Martin and Neumann, he set about closing the gap to race leader Honigl but then looked to throw it away when he got out of shape coming off the wall with just three laps to go.  Still he was again able to close in on Honigl forcing the Austrian into an error at the Xray corner table top.  Trying to defend the corner Honigl cut it too much and his Team C buggy got hooked up and spun allowing the Yokomo to slip through.  Commenting on his win Matsukura said his first error was a result of him getting caught out by his buggy having a lot more steering adding his moment on the wall was due to a ‘little too much throttle’.  Repeating again how lucky he was with Honigl’s mistake he was very happy at achieving ‘2 wins from 2 races’.

‘Second again’ was Neumann response after the race.  Taking over the race lead after Matsukura’s error, the Team Durango driver would lead for four laps before an error of his own resulted in him getting hit by former team-mate Honigl.  Describing the race as ‘super close’, he said he clipped the pipe which slowed his DEX210 and Honigl had nowhere to go.  Not apportioning any blame on Honigl he said his race was over after the contact. He would rejoin in fourth but drop to sixth on the final lap his 3rd in A1 and win in A2 securing him second overall.

A driver who has been totally rejuvenated since his Round 1 EOS win and switch to Team C, Honigl said it ‘hurt’ to hit Neumann but when he clipped the pipe he was already on the power and had no way to back out of it.  Coming so close to a debut international win for Team C, he said he knew that the ever spectacular Matsukura would make a move at the table top and the only way to prevent that would be to keep as tight to the the corner as possible.  Unfortunately he went too tight.  With a second in A2 and needing to win A3 in a faster time than the previous two winning times what was more frustrating for the former European Champion was that even with his last lap moment his time was quicker.

Making his first race appearance for new team Yokomo, Lee Martin had a strong run to third in A3 but missed out on the podium claiming 4th overall.  Learning a lot about his new cars this weekend, the British ace is sure to be right in the mix when he travels to the Hudy Arena for Round 3 of the EOS in early March.

2WD Buggy Overall Result
1. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 2 pts
2. Joern Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – 3
3. Hupo Honigl (AT) – Team C – 4
4. Lee Martin (GB) – Yokomo – 7
5. Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 9
6. Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 10
7. Yannic Prumper (DE) – Yokomo – 12
8. Martin Bayer (CZ) – Team Xray – 14
9. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho – 18
10.Kev Lee (GB) – Team C – 18

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 3 Result
1.(1) Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 15/5:02.486
2.(4) Hupo Honigl (AT) – Team C – 15/5:02.960
3.(5) Lee Martin (GB) – Yokomo – 15/5:03.720
4.(9) Yannic Prumper (DE) – Yokomo – 15/5:13.269
5.(7) Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 15/5:13.633
6.(2) Joern Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – 15/5:20.733
7.(3) Martin Bayer (CZ) – Team Xray – 14/4:53.654
8.(8) David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho – 14/5:11.960
9.(10)Kev Lee (GB) – Team C – 14/5:27.632
10.(6)Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 8/2:49.257

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Neumann wins A2 of 2WD in Berlin

Joern Neumann has won the second leg of the 2WD Buggy A-Main at the Euro Offroad series setting the stage for a three way battle for the overall win in Berlin going into the third Main.  The Team Durango driver took the win ahead of Team C’s Hupo Honigl and Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura, benefiting from a mistake by the latter on lap 3 that dropped the A1 winner from the lead to fifth.

Running used tyres today on his Orion powered DEX210, defending series champion Neumann said while his buggy was better he put his improved performance down his own driving being better today.  Having been unable to do anything about Matsukura who easily pulled clear of the field in yesterday’s race, the German said he pushed ‘over the limit’ this time round to try and keep with the Top Qualifier and pressure him into a mistake.  Posting a fractionally faster race time than that of A1, this could prove crucial for Neumann should a tie break end up deciding the overall winner.

‘Happy with second’ was how Honigl summed up his performance.  The winner of Round 1 of the series in Poland, the Austrian said he ‘tried really hard’ to take the fight to Neumann who he said was a lot faster today than he was in the opening leg. Confident he had the pace to attempt a move on his former team-mate he made a mistake and although he was able to start catching back up to the leader he ‘ran out of time’.  Really happy with the performance of his TM2 V2, he said its that good he would not know what set-up changes to make to improve it and with the race ‘still wide open’ it is just down to him making the most of it.

Winner of his only previous EOS outing, also in Germany, Matsukura said he got his line in the lead up to the double too tight and clipped the pipping which unsettled the car causing him to come short on the jump.  Lacking the same level of steering he had in A1, he will change the set-up for A3 making the front end of his B-Max 2 softer.  Team-mate Lee Martin could only manage 6th in the race.  The British ace ran a fresh set of tyres which he said just took too long to come good.

Running in a strong Top 3 position but eventually finishing fourth Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp was happy with his speed but clearly upset with the driving standards of Matsukura who twice made contact with his RB6.  Closing in on 2nd placed Hupo, the German said his race was ruined when ‘Naoto just jumped on (his car)’ for ‘no reason’.  An EOS podium finisher and ETS race winner he said his car is really good and he hopes in A3 he will get to enjoy a clean race.

Despite setting the fastest lap of the race, Team Xray’s Martin Bayer would again finish seventh having been holding second half way into the race.  The Czech driver who quailified third, said his development XB4-2 was ‘pretty difficult’ to drive.  A ‘work in progress’ with the car featuring a number new parts this weekend he said the car has too much chassis flex making it ‘twitchy’.  Needing to ‘work a little on the car’ he said he was happy to post the fatest lap as it shows the speed is there.

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(2) Joern Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – 15/5:03.036
2.(4) Hupo Honigl (AT) – Team C – 15/5:05.072
3.(1) Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 15/5:07.785
4.(7) Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 15/5:10.226
5.(6) Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 15/5:13.169
6.(5) Lee Martin (GB) – Yokomo – 15/5:14.970
7.(3) Martin Bayer (CZ) – Team Xray – 15/5:15.612
8.(9) Yannic Prumper (DE) – Yokomo – 15/5:15.894
9.(10)Kev Lee (GB) – Team C – 15/5:20.758
10.(8)David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho – 15/5:21.282

View the complete event results here.

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‘From Race Control’ – Day 3 EOS Berlin

It is the third & final day at the second round of the Euro Offroad Series with things kicking off with the continuation of last night’s opening round of 2WD Finals.  With two rounds of finals to be run this morning, following the 2WD podium presentations the afternoon’s action will switch to 4WD with three rounds of finals for each of the record entry the Berlin event has attracted.

Matsukura is 2WD Top Qualifier at EOS

Team Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura is Top Qualifier for 2WD Buggy at the Euro Offroad Series after a ‘safe run’ in the final qualifier became the second TQ run of the day for the Japanese ace. With six drivers in with a chance of claiming pole position for the second round of the championship it was all to play for in Q4 but it was Matsukura who was seeded in the second fastest heat that came out on top.  Running in the top heat Hupo Honigl would post the second fastest time ahead of Lee Martin and Joern Neumann.  Having TQ’d the opening qualifier yesterday, fourth would help defending champion Neumann to secure second on the grid in a four way tie break with Bayer getting third, Honigl fourth and Martin fifth.

Only his second EOS outing, his first last year resulting in a TQ & win, Matsukura gave a fist pump on the confirmation that he was the overall Top Qualifier. With a non finish in Q1 and a poor Q3, the pressure was on the 19-year-old.  Having said the plan for Q4 was to put in a safe run he said that’s exactly what he did with the approach working out better than planned.  With his B-Max 2 suffering with a small amount of understeer he said for the first leg of the final he will make a small set-up change.

Neumann, who has only been denied victory in the EOS three times, said while his Durango was better for the final round, it still was not as good as yesterday when he took Q1.  Reverting to his opening qualification set-up he said the rear is very loose adding he needs to find something for the finals.

Losing a screw from the steering block on his Xray XB4-2, Bayer was unable to repeat his impressive Q3 topping run finishing 10th for the round. ‘Really happy’, he said to qualify 3rd on the grid was better than he expected for 2WD and he is pretty motivated to push for a good result in the final.

A driver who has found a new lease of life since moving to Team C,  Honigl was clearly pleased with his day’s work.  The winner of the season opener in Poland, then driving for Durango, he expects three very hard finals.  With so many different configurations of cars in the final with each being strong at dfferent parts of the track he said it will be tough to pass.  Describing his TM2 V2 as ‘amazing’ through the sweeper he said on his own he can make up time there but stuck behind another brand of buggy he can not make use of that advantage.

‘A little gutted’ was how Martin summed up his 5th place on the grid despite two 2nd fastest time runs.  The World Championship runner-up said he had the pace for a TQ run in the last round but threw it away on the very first corner when he rolled his new B-Max 2.  With the good run over the rest of the 5-minute run he finished only 9/10ths off his team-mate’s TQ pace.  For the finals the previous EOS race winner will make a rear piston change copying the set-up used by Matsukura.

Starting directly behind Martin will be fellow countryman Tom Cockerill.  The DHI Cup winner will inturn line up ahead of Kyosho pairing Christopher Krapp and David Ronnefalk.  ETS race winner Yannic Prumper lines up 9th giving Yokomo the bragging rights to the most cars in the main event. Unfortunately team-mate Ronald Volker made a mistake in a ‘touring car section’ of the track meaning he ended as BQ. The grid is completed by EOS debutant Kev Lee, the British driver at the controls of a Team C buggy.

2WD Buggy A-Main Grid
1. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 310 pts
2. Joern Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – 306
3. Martin Bayer (CZ) – Team Xray – 306
4. Hupo Honigl (AT) – Team C – 306
5. Lee Martin (GB) – Yokomo – 306
6. Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 304
7. Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 302
8. David Ronnefalk (SE) – Kyosho – 299
9. Yannic Prumper (DE) – Yokomo – 298
10.Kev Lee (GB) – Team C – 295

2WD Buggy Q4 times
1. Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo – 14/5:00.713
2. Hupo Honigl – Team C – 14/5:01.674
3. Lee Martin – Yokomo – 14/5:02.081
4. Joern Neumann – Team Durango – 14/5:02.496
5. Christopher Krapp – Kyosho – 14/5:04.475
6. Yannic Prumper – Yokomo – 14/5:05.149
7. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho – 14/5:06.876
8. Renaud Savoya – Team Xray – 14/5:07.113
9. Tom Cockerill – Schumacher – 14/5:07.397
10.Martin Bayer – Team Xray – 14/5:08.448

View the complete event results here.

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Neumann fastest from Martin in opening EOS qualifier

Joern Neumann has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at a highly competitive second round of the Euro Offroad Series in Berlin, Germany.  The Team Durango driver was the only one to record 15-laps of the 21-second average lap track in the 2WD qualifier with new Yokomo signing Lee Martin, who topped the morning’s three rounds of practice, second fastest. Making a return to the series having finished runner-up at year’s season finale, Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp completed the Top 3 ahead of Round 1 winner Hupo Honigl.

Coming off the back of finishing runner-up in 2WD Buggy at last weekend’s DHI Cup where he struggled to get to grips with the low traction, Neumann was pleased with how his DEX210 V2 is running on the high traction saying he is getting more and more comfortable with each run.  Complimenting Proline on the new ‘Wedge Squared’ hand out tyre design they have created for this weekend following driver feedback from the opening round of the series, the German ace said he still needs to improve his buggy.  Running a hard shock set up to give the buggy good stability in the fast high traction corners he said this is resulting in it not being very good on the flat landings which need a softer shock to absorb the impact of landing.  For Q2, which takes place tomorrow as drivers have now switched over to 4WD for 3 rounds of practice, he said he will change his rear shock set-up and try to find a better balance between the two ends of the spectrum he needs.

Making his debut for Team Yokomo,  Martin described his first qualifier as ‘not bad’.  The British ace, and one of only three drivers to have denied Neumann victory at an EOS event, he said the B-Max 2 felt pretty good.  Really happy with its slow corner speed he said at high speed it suffered a little understeer but he is confident he can sort that for Q2 and take the fight to the ‘carpet guy’. This being a reference to Neumann.  After a ‘tentative start’ to the 5-minute qualifier leading him to not hit his lines perfectly Martin said once he settled down everything was fine.  Making the comment that the track so far doesn’t seem to give an extra advantage to the ‘front motor cars’, he is confident about the weekend ahead.

‘Really good’ was how Krapp summed up his opening qualifier.  The German said he did a lot of testing prior to the event and other than changing from the angled rear arms to the straight versions he has done nothing to his RB6 since arriving. Not expecting to be as fast as he was having hit traffic in the last 2-minutes of his qualifier he said for Q2 the plan was to just leave the buggy set-up as is and just ‘push a lot harder’.

A total rejuvenated Honigl, said he was ‘pretty happy’ with his Q1 run, him running in the second fastest heat.  The Austrian is really pleased with his new TM2 V2 buggy saying he has touched nothing since putting it on the track this morning.  Suffering one bad lap which broke his concentration he said it was good to know he has the pace to run at the top of the most competitive EOS field yet and he is very confident for the rest of the record entry event.

Heading the Team Xray Challenge was Martin Bayer who would take his XB4-2 to the 5th fastest time.  The Czech ace, who is a lot more at home driving 4WD Buggy, called it was a ‘solid run’ adding it was ‘good start’ against so many drivers. For Q2 he said he needs to find a little more speed from the buggy and will focus his attentions on changing the front end set-up.  Team-mate Renaud Savoya could only manage the 36th fastest time.  The French star described his Q1 as ‘terrible’ adding he ‘could not do one lap without crashing’.  Having had understeer in practice he said he changed set-up for qualifying but it made the buggy worse.  For his next qualifier he will revert to his practice set-up along with running less weight in the rear.

Better known as one of the worlds fastest electric touring car drivers, Yannic Prumper completed the Top 6 times.  Describing his qualifier as ‘pretty good for offroad’, it could have been even better but for a late mistake by the 2 time ETS race winner.  Asked if he would make any changes to his Yokomo for Q2 he said the plan was to ‘just drive it as is’.  Fellow touring car ace and Yokomo team-mate Ronald Volker took his example to the 17th fastest time.

Yokomo have by far the most talent laden team this weekend and while Q1 went well for Martin his main offroad team-mates hit problems.  Winner of the second round of the EOS last season, Japanese ace Naoto Matsukura failed to finish Q1 after he broke the rear shock tower off his buggy.  He said prior to that the buggy was ‘working pretty good’ and so he plans to stay with the same set-up for his next outing.  1:8 Offroad World Champion Robert Batlle was also happy with his buggy until the steering servo came loose and he started to lose steering.  Posting the 15th fastest time despite this, the Spaniard said he should be ok when 2WD qualifying resumes tomorrow.

Fresh from his win at the DHI Cup, Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill posted the 7th fastest time.  The British company’s designer, who TQ’d the EOS season opener in Poland, said he was caught out by the amount of grip he had, adding it was taking time to get the car sorted for that.  Only 5 seconds off fellow Brit Martin’s pace he said it will be a lot better for the next one.

Making the UK the best represented nation in the Top 10, EOS debutant Kev Lee took his Team C to the 8th fastest time.  He said his TM2 ‘would not naturally turn’ but apart from that the run was ‘alright’.  For Q2 he will add weight to the front which he said should help improve his steering.

Having missed the opening practice round 1:8 Offroad European Champion David Ronnefalk would end up 9th fastest.  The Swede was unable to travel to German yesterday due to a driving lesson, which if cancelled would have taken 3-months to rebook, and so flew into Berlin this morning.  Despite just 10-minutes to set-up his Kyosho he said his buggy was easy to drive.  One mistake lost him a number of positions but running a ball diff as he did at Round 1 of the series, the teenager said with more 180 degree corners this weekend he will most likely change to a gear diff for tomorrow’s resumption of 2WD qualifying.

2WD Buggy Q1 times
1. Joern Neumann – Team Durango – 15/5:21.005
2. Lee Martin – Yokomo – 14/5:01.882
3. Christopher Krapp – Kyosho – 14/5:03.506
4. Hupo Honigl – Team C – 14/5:04.349
5. Martin Bayer – Team Xray – 14/5:05.051
6. Yanic Prumper – Yokomo – 14/5:05.699
7. Tom Cockerill – Schumacher – 14/5:07.064
8. Kev Lee – Team C – 14/5:08.570
9. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho – 14/5:09.312
10.Benni Groschel – Kyosho – 14/5:10.757

View the complete event results here.

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