Neumann takes first EOS title with 4WD SCT victory

Team Durango’s Joern Neumann has wrapped up the first title of the Euro Offroad Series pilot event by securing overall victory in 4WD Short Course with another convincing winning performance in the second A-main here in Tomelilla, Sweden.  The Top Qualifier, Neumann found himself at the tail of the field at the end of the opening lap after he got spun around by the Associated of Ryan Cavalieri but such was the blistering pace of the German he soon worked his DESC410 back to the front.  Setting the fastest lap of the race he headed a Durango 1-2 for the Leg with Hupo Honigl second followed closely by Cavalieri with Dustin Evans fourth.  Evans also secured himself an EOS winners trophy as he repeated his dominantion of the first 2WD Short Course final.

In 2WD Buggy Cavalieri made up for his Leg 1 mistake by putting in a faultless drive to take his Associated B4.1 to a tone to tone victory over Leg 1 winner Evans.  Oskar Levin completed the Top 3 with his Losi TLR22, the local teenager doing a good job to see off the attentions of Joern Neumann.  Neumann’s Durango team-mate Honigl who was third in the opening final retired with a seized motor bearing while Tamiya’s Lee Martin struggled after an early mistake and was again 8th.

Full results can be found here.

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Evans take first 2WD Buggy A-Main

Dustin Evans has taken the opening A-main in 2WD Buggy at the Euro Offroad Series in Sweden heading home Top Qualifier Ryan Cavalieri and Hupo Honigl.  Mixing it with fellow American Cavalieri for much of the race, the Team Losi Racing driver eventually took to the front when Cavalieri came short over the double into the Kyosho corner.  Evans tried an earlier move just after the large Durango double and ended up tangling with Cavalieri, a move the Reedy Race of Champions winner said himself was a little too aggressive.  The incident almost gave 16-year-old local talent Oskar Levin the chance to lead the quality field in front of the home crowd but the marshal attending the two Americans got his foot in the way holding up the Losi driver.

Cavalieri, who set the fastest lap of the race on the last lap, said his B4.1 was really good but there was nothing he could do after his mistake but follow Evans. Team Durango’s Honigl, who started 5th on the grid said he just tried to run a clean race and that approach paid off as he came home third, a result the Austrian said was the best he could have expected.

Starting from third on the grid Lee Martin had a disastrous race finishing up 8th.  The Tamiya driver got tagged by Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk on lap 2, an incident that the 16-year-old Swede took full responsibility for, but admitted he was never going to be in a position to challenge the Top 2 due to a lack of traction.  The British driver found a problem with the diff on his TRF201X afterwards and hopes this might have something to do with it.  Ronnefalk who fell to last after his coming together with Martin recovered well to finish 5th behind Losi driver Otto Ausfelt who took the honour of being the best placed Swedish racer.

In 4WD Short Course Joern Neumann converted his pole position into a dominant victory but the Team Durango ace was headed briefly by Cavalieri.  The Team Associated driver passed the German on the opening lap but a lap later got his SC10 4X4 out of shape at the end of the straight putting the truck on its roof.  Neumann luckily opened up a gap over the over the pack because with three laps to go a wire came off his speedo causing a drop off in power but he was able to hold on to take the win from Cavalieri by 5-seconds.  Durango team-mate Honigl completed the Top 3 after a very close battle with TRF driver Viktor Wilck who is running a Losi truck.

In 2WD SCT Evans took his Losi XXX-SCT to an easy win over team-mates Martin Bayer and David Spashett who enjoyed a superb battle swapping position a number of times throughout the 5-minute race.

Full results can be found here.

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Cavalieri takes penultimate 4WD Buggy Qualifier

Ryan Cavalieri set the pace in the penultimate round of qualifying for 4WD Buggy taking the round from Lee Martin and 4WD Short Course Top Qualifier Joern Neumann.  His second TQ round the result means that it will be an American who will start on pole for tomorrow’s final.  Cavalieri needs to run a third TQ round in the fifth and final qualifier and needs to do so in a time better than 5:14 if he is to deny Dustin Evans from becoming the Top Qualifier.

Setting a new fastest lap for the event, Cavalieri said his B44.1 was better following a switch to Losi Pink Taper but lost time in the later part of the run when his slipper started to back off.  The factory Associated driver is fitting new pads to the slipper as he knows he is going to need to produce the perfect run if he is to take his second TQ honours of the day. Evan’s could only manage fifth saying he pushed too hard and this resulted in him throwing away the chance of a third straight TQ run when he made a mistake on his second lap.

Finishing second, Tamiya’s Martin said he is lacking something but he’s not sure if it is him or the buggy. 4WD Short Course Top Qualifier Joern Neumann was again able to set the pace but once again made a mistake and ended up third.  The Durango driver switched to Losi BK-Bar tyres on the front of his DEX410 but will switch back to Taper for the final outing of the day as they gave better steering in the 180 degree corners.  Swedish 4WD National Champion David Ronnefalk enjoyed his best run so far to post the fourth fastest time with his Kyosho Laser.

Full results can be found here.

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Evans takes Q2 & Q3

Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans has TQ’d the first two of today’s 4WD Buggy qualifiers heading home Lee Martin in Q2 and 2WD Buggy Top Qualifier Ryan Cavalieri in Q3. The Reedy Race of Champions winner set a new fastest lap of the weekend in the third qualifier taking his XXX4 around in a blistering 21.838, Team Durango driver Joern Neumann the only other driver to go sub 22 seconds.  With just two more qualifiers to run here in Tomelilla time is running out for the European’s to try topple the American’s from claiming a clean sweep of the Buggy class qualifiers.

Full results can be found here.

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Cavalieri Top Qualifier in 2WD Buggy

Team Associated have taken the honour of being the first manufacturer to TQ a Euro Offroad Series race after Ryan Cavalieri produced a clean sweep of fastest runs on Day 2 of the Pilot event in Tomelilla, Sweden.  The American outpaced yesterday’s Q1 top qualifier Dustin Evans in all four of today’s rounds of heats with European Champion Lee Martin third on each occasion and this is how they will line up for tomorrow’s A-Main. Cavalieri described the day as perfect having had to do nothing with the set-up on his Orion powered B4.1 all day but the 2 time World Champion says he expects a good race with Evans.

Driving Losi’s new and distinctively narrow TLR22 Evans said he has the same pace as Cavalieri but just needs to stop making mistakes.  Setting the fastest lap of the final round of qualifying, the Reedy Race of Champions winner who is racing outside the US for the first time this weekend is confident he will be able to take the challenge to his fellow countryman in the finals.

Tamiya Racing Factory’s Lee Martin will be trying to stop the American’s taking home the inaugural EOS’s top prize and based on lap times has the pace to do so.  The British driver said he is losing all his time to his rivals in the opening two laps but is confident if he can stick with the Top 2 from the start he will be able to mix it for the win.

Having topping timed practice, local ace Oskar Levin got a huge round of applause when he was confirmed as the fourth qualifier. Driving a Losi TLR22 the 16-year-old said the car is so easy to drive it feels slow but the laps are fast.  His first time to race among such big names he says he is a little nervous about tomorrows finals but hopes he can do a good job.  Levin is one of four Swedes to make the final with David Ronnefalk qualifying 6th, Otto Ausfelt 8th and National 2WD Champion Mikael Johansson taking the final spot on the grid after a tie break with Kyosho’s Shin Adachi.

Team Durango got both of their prototype 2WD buggies into the final with Hupo Honigl lining up 5th and Joern Neumann 7th.  Wearing the biggest smile after qualifying is Czech 1:8 Offroad ace Martin Bayer who is delighted to make the A-Main on his electric racing debut.

While Cavalieri dominated 2WD buggy it was Europe’s Joern Neumann who dominated today’s 4WD Short Course truck qualifiers.  Driving Durango’s DESC410 he was the only driver to record 14 laps around the indoor clay track doing so in the fifth and final round.  TQ’ing the opening heat yesterday Cavalieri will line up second to the German for what all the drivers are predicting will be the best final of the event. Posting his best run in the final qualifier Evans said he has his Losi Ten SCTE really dialed in now and he will start third.  Honigl, who was on another potential TQ run until he rolled, starts fourth followed by Swedish driver Henrik Nilsson and TRF team driver Viktor Wilck who is running a Losi truck.

In 2WD Short Course Evans is the Top Qualifier despite sitting out the final two rounds which were taken by Sarah Ernst who will start here Associated SC10 second on the grid.  Bayer and multiple 1:12 World Champion David Spashett will start 3rd and 4th respectively.

2WD Buggy A-Main grid
1. Cavalieri Ryan (US) – Associated – 0pts
2. Evans Dustin (US) – Losi – 2pts
3. Martin Lee (GB) – Tamiya – 6pts
4. Levin Oskar (SE) – Losi – 7pts
5. Hönigl Hupo (AT) – Durango – 8pts
6. Ronnefalk David (SE) – Kyosho – 9pts
7. Neumann Jörn (DE) – Durango – 9pts
8. Ausfelt Otto (SE) – Losi – 11pts
9. Bayer Martin (CZ) – Losi – 12pts
10.Johansson Mikael (SE) – Kyosho – 14pts

4WD SCT A-Main grid
1. Neumann Jörn (DE) – Durango DESC410R – 0pts
2. Cavalieri Ryan (US) – Associated SC10 4×4 – opts
3. Evans Dustin (US) – Losi Ten SCTE – 5pts
4. Hönigl Hupo (AT) – Durango DESC410R – 5pts
5. Nilsson Henrik (SE) – Losi Ten SCTE – 6pts
6. Wilck Viktor (SE) – Losi Ten SCTE – 9pts
7. Nicklasson Christoffer (SE) – HongNor SCRT10 – 13pts
8. Hassel David (SE) – Hobao Hyper 10SC – 15pts
9. Olsson Roger (SE) – Durango DESC410R – 16pts
10.Cederberg Fredrick (SE) – HongNor SCRT10 – 18pts

2WD SCT A-Main grid
1. Evans Dustin (US) – Losi XXX-SCT – 0pts
2. Ernst Sarah (US) – Associated SC10 – opts
3. Bayer Martin (CZ) – Losi XXX-SCT – 4pts
4. Spashett David (GB) – Losi XXX-SCT – 4pts
5. Hansson Kristofer (SE) – Kyosho Ultima SC – 6pts
6. Rheinard Uwe (DE) – Losi XXX-SCT – 8pts
7. Orrung Maria (SE) – Kyosho Ultima SC – 15pts

Full results can be found here.

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Third qualifier a repeat of Q2

The third round of qualifying was a repeat of Q2 with Ryan Cavalieri topping 2WD Buggy, Joern Neumann fastest in 4WD Short Course Truck and Dustin Evans keeping his clean sweep of 2WD SCT going.  Cavalieri’s Associated B4.1 once again outpaced Evans’ Losi TLR22 and Lee Martin’s Tamiya.  Enjoying his best run so far Hupo Honigl made it four different cars in the Top 4 with his Durango.

In 4WD Short Course it was another super close-run round of qualifying but Neumann again got the better of Cavalieri. His Durango team-mate Honigl took third after Evan’s made a mistake on the penultimate lap which cost him 6 seconds.  In 2WD Evans, the only driver doing all four class that make up the EOS race programme, posted another easy TQ run ahead of Losi team-mate Martin Bayer and birthday boy David Spashett.

Full results can be found here.

View the event image gallery here.