Video – 4wd A-Main Leg 2
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nox6ax1LlY4[/youtube]
Video – 4wd A-Main Leg 1
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOJO-dC730U[/youtube]
No surprises as Matsukura cruises to A1 win
In a rather processional opening 4WD A-Main at the Euro Offroad Series, there was little surprise as Naoto Matsukura cruised to an easy win over defending Champion Joern Neumann. The Top Qualifier immediately made his mark on the race pulling quickly pulling clear of the rest of the 10-car field of which the Top 3 finished as they started. The biggest movement of the race came from Martin Bayer. Starting 4th on the grid, an over jump caused the Xray driver to crash on lap 3 and drop to the back of the field. The beneficiary of this was Carson Wernimont, who despite giving Martin some attention, finished fourth 4-seconds off the Yokomo driver.
Matsukura summed up his unchallenged race as a ‘safety run’ adding he had ‘no problems’. Despite being the current 2WD EOS Champion, the Japanese ace has yet to win in 4WD. His second time to TQ the class, the 21-year-old said he hoped to finally crack the winners circle in A2 with a repeat of performance of the opening final. Neumann, who has only ever been denied victory in 4WD once before, summed up his racing as ‘boring’. ‘Too slow’ he said there was nothing he could do about the gap to Matsukura and behind he had a comfortable gap over Martin. Happier with his Yokomo compared to qualifying, Martin said he ‘drove around at his own speed’ in what was an uneventful 5-minutes of racing. Recovering from his earlier error to finish 6th behind team-mate Martin Wollanka, Bayer said he messed up the race himself by over jumping the jump at the loop and he hoped for a better run in the next one.
View the complete event results here.
View our event image gallery here.
Chassis Focus – Jorn Neumann
Chassis: Team Durango DEX 410 V4
Motor: Orion
ESC: Orion
Batteries: Thunder Power
Radio/Servo: Futaba
Remarks – Reigning 4WD EOS Champion Jorn Neumann is defending his title with a completely stock version of his trusty 410 V4, the only options being to the car’s aerodynamics with a Pro-Line rear wing and a custom front spoiler attached to the original bodyshell.
Image Gallery
Matsukura looking untouchable
Naoto Matsukura is looking untouchable in 4WD Buggy at the Euro Offroad Series season opener in Poznan, Poland, as having already wrapped up the overall TQ in Q3 he went on to top all five qualifiers at the ‘Hobby’ exhibition hosted event. With pole position decided early, Q4 & 5 was all about how the rest of the other would line-up behind the Yokomo driver. Claiming a second in Q4, defending Champion Joern Neumann, who has been winner of this event for the past two years will carry the number 2 on his Durango. Despite two rough closing qualifiers, a ‘string of P3s’ earlier in the day will see Lee Martin line up third. A good final qualifier from Martin Bayer, the Xray driver setting the second fastest time, will see him line up fourth ahead of Schumacher’s Carson Wernimont.
While happy to salvage second on the grid, Neumann said mistakes are still his biggest problem. Conceding that Matsukura is ‘very fast’, he said he needs the Japanese driver ‘to make a mistake or (he) can’t do anything’ about trying to beat him. Starting between the two Yokomos he said while the ‘finals are always different’, Martin is a ‘little slower’ so he shouldn’t have too much worries from behind.
Hitting an out of place piece of piping in Q4 resulting in him breaking his B-Max4, the run already gone due to a crash on his opening lap, Martin said Q5 was looking good for a Top 2 until a mistake with 2-minutes to go. Ending up 5th, the British ace said changes to his car had made it better in some areas and worse in others with the overall performance much the same as it was in the opening three qualifiers when he was lacking just a little. With Shin Adachi working on a new set-up for the first A-Main, he said the two key areas that need improving are the cars forward drive and how it absorbs the flat landings.
With Xray designer Juraj Hudy joking they are improving ‘step by step’, Bayer said he now had a much better car than what he started out the day with. Having looked to make his prototype XB4 more aggressive, he has ended up getting more steering into it as well as getting it to rotate better all while still keeping it easy to drive. Planning to leave it unchanged for A1 they will wait and see how that goes before doing anything further.
Changing his shock position and moving his batteries more forward in his CAT, Wernimont said this created quite a bit more corner speed. Describing the car are ‘quite easy to drive’, the 17-year-old American believes he has a good car for the final.
View the complete event results here.
View our event image gallery here.
Chassis Focus – Naoto Matsukura
Chassis: Yokomo B-Max4 III
Motor: Yokomo
ESC: Yokomo
Batteries: Yokomo
Radio/Servo: Sanwa
Remarks – Despite being noticeably faster than his competitors on the Polish carpet, the 2WD season opener winner is running a pretty stock car, the only options used being the new Yokomo springs, longer rear wishbones and the optional Yokomo wing. He is also using a thicker swaybar in the rear end of the car.
Image Gallery
