Euro Offroad Series

February 1, 2019

Orlowski fastest in practice at EOS Daun (2WD)

Practice for Round 3 of the Euro Offroad Series in Daun, Germany, saw reigning champion Michal Orlowski set the fastest time in controlled practice. The Schumacher driver set the 2WD pace with his time from the first of the two practices from Lee Martin, the Yokomo driver putting in his best three consecutive laps in the second of the runs. Young Norwegian star Daniel Kobbevik would complete the Top 3 ahead of Xray team-mate Bruno Coelho. Having claimed his maiden EOS victory at the event last year Neil Cragg was fifth fastest with Associated team-mate and joint championship points leader Joona Haatanen rounding out the Top 6.

Summing up his controlled practice pace, having started the day 4th fastest in the single round of free practice, Orlowski said, ‘It was really good and I’m glad the car works very good now’. Explaining his fastest time coming in the first controlled round, the Pole said, ‘I moved battery position from back to front between the rounds and preferred how it was before. I will go back to the position it was in the first qualifier’. Going into the weekend searching his first 2WD win of the season, he concluded, ‘I think I have learned the track already. The key to the TQ is going to be no mistakes’.

‘Pretty good’, was how Martin described practice. The British driver added, ‘the car is consistent and the lap times are pretty good but it’s going to be quite difficult being punched on this track for 5-minutes I think. A pipe or ripple in the carpet can catch you out.’ One of a number of drivers who came into the event directly from racing on dirt at the Reedy Race of Champions last weekend in California, he said, ‘It’s a little different from last week but the car is pretty good. We’ll tweak it throughout the day and try make it easier to drive but I think it’s the track that can catch you out especially the double double’.

Describing the track as a ‘cool layout’ and liking its ‘high speed’ flow, Kobbevik said, ‘I’m happy with how it’s going so far. I haven’t raced since the last EOS (Poland back in November). The car is working well and the only thing I’ve done was change the battery for each run’. Looking to the first qualifier, all four rounds on today’s schedule, the 14-year-old said, ‘I will leave the car as it is and just try to drive more smooth for the 5-minutes’.

The 2WD winner at Round 2 in Warsaw, Coelho said, ‘Controlled practice didn’t start too good. I hit a board and broke the steering so I missed the first run. I suffered from missing that track time in the second run and could only make 3 or 4 consecutive laps without mistakes’. The Portuguese driver added, ‘the car is very good and for the first qualifying I will work on trying to make no mistakes’. Asked about the track layout, he replied, ‘It is very fast. The table top is quite difficult to get the landing right but overall I like it (the layout)’.

‘I am really pleased with the 2nd practice’, was how Cragg summed up controlled practice. The former World Champion continued, ‘we made a few changes to the car after the first one and it was much better’. He explained, ‘the car was decent before but we did some work on the shocks for the flat landings and that improved it a lot’. Asked if he planned more changes for Q1 he replied, ‘I’ll probably leave it for the first one and see how it goes’.

Winner of the season opener, claiming his first EOS victory at the Nurburgring back in September, Haatanen said, ‘After the Reedy Race I am just getting used to being back on carpet but I think it’s going not too bad’. The Finn added, ‘the car feels OK so I just need a little more time to learn to drive on carpet again. We are getting there’.

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February 1, 2019

Track Focus – Daun

Venue – Sporthotel & Resort Grafenwald
Race Hosts – EOS
Country – Germany
Location – Daun (180km West of Frankfurt)
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Carpet
No. of EOS Races hosted – 1

After successfully debuting on the Euro Offroad Series calendar last season, Daun has quickly established itself as a venue favourite with this season’s third round attracting a record 380 entries. Situated at the Sporthotel & Resort Grafenwald in Daun, Germany, the holiday resort in the German countryside offers the perfect setting for a weekend of racing with the track located in the venue’s 2,600 square meter sports hall with racers able to set-up home for the event in the resort’s cabins at the back of the main hotel. Covering an area of 830 square metres, the track features a unique layout that creates the longest lap of the EOS Championship. An inverted layout of the track and pits greeted drivers this year with the pits now on the entry side of the hall with the the track to the back side. With a 45 metre long straight, the track takes advantage of the hall’s courts layout with the centre of the track stretching to 30 metres in depth in the centre section.

Last year’s Daun encounter would see Neil Cragg claim his first ever EOS victory taking the TQ and win while in 4WD, double champion elect Michal Orlowski took the win. Commenting on this year’s layout Cragg said, ‘It’s a little different. It’s massive. Really big’. He continued, ‘It was my favourite track last year. It helped that I won it, but I’m enjoying practice so far. The layout is big and open so there is not much in it to get around but to get a good lap there are lots of little things to get right’. Asked his thoughts on the track Orlowski replied, ‘I like it. It’s much better than the previous rounds this season. It’s open and has a good flow’. He added, ‘It still has weird bumps in the carpet like last year but it’s not a big problem’. Asked the main challenges of the very lengthy lap he said, ‘the corner table top is hard to judge pace going into it. Sometimes you’re too fast or too slow. The double section doesn’t need much speed and if you jump too far the car pancakes which could cause you to crash’.

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September 16, 2018

Orlowski ‘makes up for 2WD’ with 4WD victory at Nurburgring

Reigning double Euro Offroad Series Champion Michal Orlowski has won 4WD at the season opener at the Nurburgring in Germany, the Schumacher driver saying ‘this makes up for 2WD’ in which he finished 3rd yesterday. Orlowski secured his 5th EOS career win of 4WD when he again managed to stay ahead of second place qualifier Bruno Coelho, the Xray driver only coming into contention in the final round of qualifying. Top Qualifier, after taking 3 of the four rounds of qualifying, Orlowski again came under pressure from Coelho in A2 but got a break when his rival got caught up on the wall. Handing the Pole a comfortable lead, two laps later he would have his own mistake allowing Schumacher team-mate Joern Neumann to close right in for a challenge on the lead but the tight track would catch the German out allowing the recovering Coelho back into 2nd. From there he was closing down the leader but another error gave enough breathing space for Orlowski to take the final by more than a second & a half, his first 4WD victory from the TQ starting position. Winning A3, new rules for Season #8 prevented Orlowski from racing the third A-Main, Coelho would finish 2nd with Daniel Kobbevik, 2nd in A3, rewarded for a great performance with the final step on the podium.

‘A big thanks to Trish, Jurgen, my Dad and Robin for supporting me. This makes up for 2WD’, said Orlowski on taking maximum 4WD points from the first of the extended season’s six rounds. He continued, ‘I was on new tyres and felt I had the pace to keep a small gap between me and Bruno but I like to make things hard for myself. When I had a small cushion I had a crash and then had Joern pushing me’. Leading the 4WD points table and 3rd in 2WD, he said, ‘its a positive start to the season. We now know that we have pace on tight tracks which we were not normally fast on. I am looking forward to the rest of the season’. He concluded, ‘it doesn’t matter how you start but how you finish’.

Commenting on the deciding A2 race, Coelho said, ‘Orlowski was on new tyres and I was on used so I had to push and pushed a little too much and got stuck up on the wall’. He continued, ‘others made mistakes and I could get back to second but the problem this weekend was we arrived on the right set-up too late. The wheel problem delayed us from working on set-up and I hope they can sort this for the next race’. Summing up his 2nd place overall the former champion said, ‘for sure second is a good start. There are six races this season and only 4 count. We didn’t end last season so well and the Schumacher was very good. We have not raced on carpet together for a while so nobody was sure where everyone was at but the pace we are leaving here with compared to the others I’m happy’.

Despite racing A3 with a broken front right bearing, Kobbevik was delighted to again open the season with a podium finish as he had done last year. The 13-year-old said, ‘it the same as last year but this time we went better in 2WD, I got a 5th and 3rd from the weekend so I’m very happy’. Going into A3 battle for the final podium position with multiple champion Joern Neumann he said, ‘I made a mistake at the start but tried to stay calm. I knew I need to beat Joern and knew it would be a long 5-minutes so anything was possible and in the end it worked out for me. I’m very happy’. Behind Neumann in fourth Lee Martin would end a tough day 5th ahead of Martin Bayer.

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September 16, 2018

Orlowski holds off Coelho to win A1

Michal Orlowski has won the first A-Main of 4WD at the EOS opening round at the Nurburgring. The Schumacher driver came under intense pressure from Xray’s Bruno Coelho, who momentarily took the lead at the end of the straight before coming off worst when the two buggies touched. Giving Orlowski a huge break, the reigning champion would make a mistake half way through the race, which now 2nd placed Joern Neumann emulated, allowing Coelho a second go at his rival. Having just put in the fastest lap of the race, 3/10ths better than that of Orlowski, he would make a mistake at the centre table, allowing Top Qualifier Orlowski to take the win. Behind, Daniel Kobbevik completed the Top 3 just ahead of the recovering Neumann.

Reacting to the race, Orlowski said, ‘I was on my set of tyres from Q4 but forgot to make a change to my car for this. I knew straight away in the warm-up that the car didn’t feel as I wanted it’. Eventually winning by half a second, the Polish ace said, ‘It was a good battle with Bruno. I got lucky at the end of the straight that he rolled over but then made a stupid mistake after the corner table top which let him catch back up but I was able to keep ahead’. Looking to A2, he concluded, ‘now I will be on new tyres so I hope to be to pull away’.

‘It was a good final. I had a little bad luck with Orlowski. I got down his inside but we touch and I ended up in the wrong direction’, commented Coelho. Winner the last time the EOS ran at the Nurburgring, he continued, ‘he then had a mistake and I got back with him. I tried to overtake at the table but touched the board’. For A2 the Portuguese driver said, ‘the car is working very nice after some changes so I will make pressure on him to get a mistake and hope I have more luck next time’.

‘Stable but not fast’, was Kobbevik’s reaction to his P3. The 13-year-old Norwegian talent said a change of tyres was the reason the car lacked the same speed as earlier but with new tyres planned for A2 he feels ‘the next one should be fast’ as he ‘wont need to push’ as hard as he did in A1. The Xray driver said, ‘I had a good race with Bruno and Joern at the end but I’m looking for better on the new tyres’.

Neumann was pleased with his opening race saying, ‘It was very good. At the start I could make some good passes and got up to second but then I saw Michal crash and crashed also. The rest of the race I was behind Daniel Kobbevik and there was no way to pass him, it is very difficult on this layout’. On tyres the German said he ran new tyres adding he is happy with his performance as he likes more running on used tyres reporting his Schumacher on used tyres is ‘at the end much faster than the beginning (of the 5-minutes)’.

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September 16, 2018

Coelho TQs final qualifier to line up 2nd Nurburgring

Having had a fraught 4WD qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series season opener at the Nurburgring, former Champion Bruno Coelho came good in the final round to post a TQ run and secure 2nd on the grid behind Top Qualifier Michal Orlowski. While Orlowski wrapped up pole position in the penultimate round, the fourth & final qualifier was crucial for Coelho who needed a good result just to make the A-Main after wheel issues in Q1 & 3. The second most successful 4WD winner of the EOS behind Joern Neumann, he delivered the perfect run with the fastest TQ of the weekend ahead of Orlowski, Daniel Kobbevik and Joona Haatanen. The result means he demotes team-mate Kobbevik and the Associated of Haatanen one spot on the grid and is right back in contention for career win no. 9. Despite retiring from both of this morning’s qualifiers, Joern Neumann completes the top half of the grid ahead of Martin Bayer and Lee Martin.

‘It was a good clean round without a big mistake. I just had a small touch with the board but the main thing was I was able to finish with 4-wheels’, was how Coelho summed up his TQ run. The newly crowned Touring Car World Champion continued, ‘the car feels good but it is not 100% there. Orlowski is very strong. I am struggling a little bit at the table but that’s his best bit of the track there. The track is very small and easy to make mistakes so I will try to bring it home’. Asked about his wheel issue, he said, ‘for that one we put the front left wheel on with thread lock and it stayed on so that seems to be a solution for this EOS. I hope for the next one they find a solution to the problem. They say the mould is the same but I think the plastic is softer and that’s why we and the other teams have had problems. It looks worse for Xray but that is because we have the most drivers using our car’.

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September 16, 2018

Orlowski Top Qualifier at the Nurburgring

Michal Orlowski is the 4WD Top Qualifier for the opening round of the Euro Offroad Series at the Nurburgring. The Schumacher driver claimed only his second ever 4WD TQ when he topped qualifying for the third time in Germany this morning despite it been a rough 5-minutes by the Pole. With a fastest lap that was 3/10th faster than his closest rival, the reigning champion lost 6-seconds with two significant errors but still had enough in hand to top the times from fellow teenagers Daniel Kobbevik and Joona Haatanen. Behind them Martin Bayer would enjoy his best run so far collecting a P4 for his efforts but for team-mate Bruno Coelho the promising P2 he produced in Q2 last night came to little as he retired after losing a wheel, the same issue hampering him also in Q1. Running in the second fastest heat Kája Novotný posted the fifth fastest time with the Sworkz of Micha Widmaier completing the Top 6 ahead of Lee Martin.

‘It wasn’t a good run. All of us were having bobbles and made mistakes’, was Orlowski’s reaction to his Q3 performance adding, ‘My time was 6-seconds slower than my Q2 (TQ) time and I even had a mistake on that run’. He continued, ‘That was my 3rd run on the same tyres and while the car is going good so far we might use the last heat to do some changes as we have some ideas to improve the car’. Asked about starting from the TQ, he replied, ‘we’ve been there before last season and it didn’t start out a good race. We will concentrate on trying to get the full championship points from the race’. Claiming his debut TQ in 4WD last season in Austria at the end of the finals he only came away with a 4th place.

Kobbevik said, ‘it was a good run overall. I was a decent clean run until I had a big mistake at the last minute’. The 13-year-old continued, ‘I’m looking good for the front of the grid. I think already I am safe for the Top 3’. On his car, the Xray driver said, ‘it is pretty good to drive and it is fast so I will make no changes, just put on new tyres for the next one’.

Winner of 2WD, Haatanen said, ‘at the beginning my own mistakes caused a couple of crashes but I still got 3rd out of it. I was stupid because without the mistakes it could have been a TQ’. The 15-year-old Team Associated driver added, ‘the car feels like so much steering at the start but by the end it gets comfortable and feels easy to drive. I need to be more calm at the beginning of the next one’. Asked if he planned to change his car for the final qualifier he replied, ‘I will keep it the same and just get more comfortable with it for the finals’.

Bayer described the penultimate qualifier as ‘a good run with no mistakes’ adding ‘I surprised myself I didn’t crash’. The Xray team manager continued, ‘My car is very easy to drive and I am able to drive with no mistakes. I just had two bobbles’. Holding fifth on the grid going into the final qualifier he concluded, ‘I have secured the A-Main so I’m happy’.

View the complete event results here.

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