Neumann heads Durango 1,2,3 in Q1

Joern Neumann headed a Durango 1, 2, 3 in the first round of 2WD Qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series season opener in Poland this morning, the German topping the times ahead of team-mates Hupo Honigl and Benni Gröschel.  EOS debutant Patrick Hornum was best of the rest taking his Team C to a surprise 4th fastest ahead of the Kyosho of David Ronnefalk and Yokomo of Björn Prümper.

Taking the 5-minute qualifier by over 4-seconds, defending Champion Neumann said it was a clean run and he was happy to kick off the event with a TQ run.  Setting the fastest lap the German said he plans to leave everything as is for Q2.  Honigl said he took his normal approach of putting in a safe opening run but seeing that he was able to keep pace with his team-mate he started to push but this was ‘a mistake’. With three laps to go the Austrian crashed his DEX210 costing him 3-seconds.

Having last raced in March of this year, Gröschel said his opening qualifier was ‘a lot better than expected’.  Having broke his buggy a number of times in yesterday’s practice rounds the German, who finished on the 4WD podium here last year, said his buggy was much better today following a shock set-up change he made last night.  For Q2 he said he will leave his DEX210 as is and hope he can put in a repeat performance.

More used to racing electric touring car, Danish driver Hornum was happy with his qualifier but feels there is room for improvement. Having only raced offroad twice before, he said he went for a safe run making just two minor mistakes over the five minutes.  Planning another safety run in Q2, he plans to push a little harder in Q3 & 4 when he will also make some set-up changes on his TM2.  Team C lead driver Oliver Scholz took his example to the 7th fastest time while team-mate Tom Maquel finished the round 9th.

Ronnefalk said the ‘result (was) actually better than the driving’.  The Swede said he made too many mistakes reckoning he lost around 15-seconds in total due to poor driving. Apart from his driving he said his RB6 did not feel as good as yesterday with the buggy inparticular not jumping as good as it did in the practice rounds.

Elsewhere Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill would end the round 11th fastest.  Breaking a front shock tower in the warm-up which he changed with impressive speed, he just missed the starting clock and so the computer timed out before he completed what would have been a Top 6 run.  Breaking the shock tower at the double he said after ‘I told you it was Big Risk, Big Reward’.  Really happy with the performance of his car setting the second fastest lap of the round he joked ‘with a good driver the car can win’.

For Xray it was Czech driver Jiri Mara who was fastest in 10th.  His big name team-mates both crashed in their runs with Martin Bayer opting to pull up just after the 1-minute mark to save tries.  Renaud Savoya said he tried to drive a save run but ended up with three big mistakes leaving him well down the order.

View the complete event results here.

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2WD Buggy Q1 times

1. Jörn Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – 13/5:09.882
2. Hupo Hönigl     (AT) – Team Durango – 13/5:13.958
3. Benni Gröschel (DE) – Team Durango – 13/5:19.926
4  Patrick Hornum (DK) – Team C – 13/5:22.036
5. David Ronnefalk  (SE) – Kyosho – 13/5:22.138
6. Björn Prümper (DE) – Yokomo – 13/5:23.698
7. Oliver Scholz (DE) – Team C – 13/5:23.859
8. David Poulter (GB) – TLR – 13/5:24.060
9. Tom Maquel (LU) – Team C – 13/5:24.257
10.Jiri Mara (CZ) – Xray – 13/5:24.997

Neumann also fastest in 4WD at EOS

Having set the pace in 2WD Buggy practice at the Euro Offroad Series earlier in the day, Joern Neumann repeated the feat in 4WD this evening in Poland.   Taking his Durango to the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the fourth & final practice, the German will be the top seed for qualifying ahead of Xray’s Martin Bayer.  Hupo Honigl posted the third fastest time while unable to improve on his P3 time Renaud Savoya end the day fourth ahead of Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk and Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill.

Neumann said driving his 4WD it didn’t feel like carpet racing but more like racing outdoor on dirt.  Describing his DEX410 as ‘loose’, the 4WD World Championship Top Qualifier said he has had to adapt his driving to the ‘weird feeling’.  While very different to what he is used to for carpet racing, he said overall its not a huge problem and for tomorrow he plans to just check over his buggy for the opening qualifier.

Bayer was happy with his XB4 describing it as ‘pretty good’.  Together with team-mate Renaud Savoya who set the fastest lap of practice, the Xray pairing were the only drivers to run 20-second laps of the track.  Looking for more steering in the slow corners the European Champion said they should be able to figure that out for the opening qualifier.  Savoya said for P4 he didn’t have a proper feeling with his XB4 after he tried running a shorter wheelbase.  The 3-time 1:8 Offroad European Champion, who is a relative newcomer to 1:10 electric offroad, said he will revert to his P3 set-up which should leave him good again for tomorrow.

Running Kyosho’s prototype 4WD chassis which made its debut at the Worlds in Chico last month, Ronnefalk said the buggy has the speed and he just needs to stay consistent without mistakes.  Fitting a new set of tyres for the final practice, the 17-year-old said the first few laps where difficult but once the tyre bedded in the rest of the run was ok, him running a number of laps alongside Bayer.

Completing the Top 6, Cockerill said he struggled to get a good tyre balance in the early practices with his CAT having loads of steering yet not grip rolling.  Feeling he improved his set-up in the first two runs, he said having used just the one set of tyres for the four rounds this left him with a lack of overall traction.  Looking forward to qualifying he said with a fresh set of tyres on his buggy he ‘hopes’ all should be fine.

Behind the British driver young Polish talent Michal Orlowski took his Durango to the seventh fastest time followed by Team C’s Oliver Scholz. Also driving a Durango, young Czech racer Kaja Novotny was ninth with British driver David Poulter completing the Top 10 to book his place in the top heat of qualifying.

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Neumann tops 2WD Practice at EOS Season opener

Defending Champion Joern Neumann set the pace in 2WD practice at the opening round of the Euro Offroad Series which is taking place in Poznan, Poland.  The Team Durango driver set the fastest three consecutive laps to top the reseed for qualifying ahead of team-mate Hupo Honigl and Xray’s Martin Bayer third with Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk fourth.

Declaring himself happy with his final practice run in which managed a time of 1:10.303, he said the only big change he made over the four practice rounds was to his shocks.  Starting off with his ‘regular shock set-up’, the German tried a different set-up for his next outing. Reverting back to what he ran in the morning he said combined with a fresh set of the new Proline tyres, this season’s official controlled tyre, he said his Orion powered DEX210 felt much more comfortable to drive.  Asked about the track the European Champion said the layout, which had to be altered after the first practice round due to issues with drivers seeing their buggies go under the crossover section, he said it was good. Commenting on the double he said it was ‘not so easy’ adding that 95% of the time he was able to execute it.

Honigl was pleased with his final round as he posted a time of 1:10.448 over three laps.  Switching to a short servo on his DEX210 which allowed him to add more weight to the front, the Austrian said it improved the handling a lot.  Also playing around with the width to which he cut his front rims, he felt he found a good a good solution which optimised the performance of the controlled Proline Wedge front tyres.

Running Xray’s soon to be released XB4 2WD, Bayer said considering they only started their indoor testing this week he was happy with his practice pace of 1:11.272. Together with his French team-mate Renaud Savoya, the Czech ace has been at the Xray factory since Monday testing before making the 8-hour driver yesterday to Poland for the EOS.  Commenting on the double, Bayer said with new tyres he was able to pull it off every lap but due to the wood surface of the jump faces on used tyres it was much harder.  Posting the 10th fastest time, Savoya said he got better and better each run.  Admitting he doesn’t have the same outright pace of his rivals he said over 5-minutes he is able to run without any crashes.  Describing the test track Xray built for the testing this week as very tough he said the track he now seems easy although the double has caused him trouble.  Going for it in the first two practices he broke his buggy on both occasions.

Ronnefalk said his day started off terrible as he had the wrong set-up on his RB6.  Changing to the same swaybar set-up that he ran when he made the final at the recent World Championships, he said he was happy with where he was at for the final practice. In the previous run he broke on the warm-up lap losing out on valuable track time. Described the track as ‘really good’, the Swede believes the layout will make for good racing.

Yokomo driver Bjorn Prumper set the 5th fastest time.  The older brother of touring car ace Yannic Prumper, he said at the beginning of the day his B-Max 2 felt strange to drive. Making a few small set-up adjustments, the 23-year-old said these worked well and the buggy was now to his liking.  Asked about the double he said he did manage it but not every lap and so for the first 2 qualifiers he will play it safe by going single single. If those runs prove successful he said for Q3 & 4 he might go for the riskier option.

Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill said his prototype Cougar, which is due for release by Christmas, was really good.  The British ace ended up 6th at the end of practice after he broke at steering block trying to do the double in the final round.  Describing the jump as ‘big risk, big reward’, he really likes the track layout ATA have come up with adding its got a nice flow to it with plenty going on.  Like Ronnefalk he feels it should make for good racing come the finals.

Driving his Team C buggy for the very first time today, newly crowned Belgian National champion Nicolas Risser set the 7th fastest time.  Describing the Poznan track as the EOS’ best yet, the 17-year-old declared himself very happy with his new buggy making just a spring change over the 4 practice rounds.

Fellow Team C driver Oliver Scholz was next fastest with the eight best 3-consecutive laps.  Breaking a rear arm in the last practice after a ‘driver error’, the German National Champion said he focused mainly on front tyre inserts and rim widths today. Getting better steering from running cut rims he said overall he was happy with how the buggy is working.  Feeling there is too much risk doing the double he said for qualifying he will start off with the safe option but for the finals he said at the start there will be no option but to go for the double.

Drivers will now switch their attentions for the rest of the day to the 4WD buggies again with the 3rd and 4th rounds being used to determine the seeding for qualifying.

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Track Focus – ‘Hobby’ Show Poznan

Host – ATA
Country – Poland
Location – Poznan
Track type – Temporary
Surface – Carpet/Wood Jumps
Direction – Anti-Clockwise
Previous key events hosted – EOS/ETS

The third season of the Euro Offroad Series returns to the city of Poznan in Poland where once again the event is part of the ‘Hobby’ event being held at the vast Miedzynarodowe Targi Poznanskie exhibition centre.  This is the third time that race hosts ATA have managed to get an international r/c event held at the MTP venue.  In 2012 a round of the the Euro Touring Series ran as part of a major motorshow while later that year the EOS made its debut at the ‘Hobby’ event which covers all aspects of r/c and model building. Proving a huge success with show goers last year, the track has moved to a different hall where it is now the central attraction of the show.  The construction of the track itself features a new system by a Polish company called AzetX.  Still in prototype form, around 50% of the track has been constructed from the click together system which AzetX plans to market to clubs & race organisers as a complete temporary track building solution.  Race Director Scotty Ernst believes the track is the nicest EOS track yet.  Describing it as technical and challenging he said the double section is the key to the track.  Faster to double, the margin for getting it right is very small. Also featuring a ‘Xray’ wall section a lap of the track is 164 metres with early lap times for 2WD being in the 23 seconds.

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