Chassis Focus – Lee Martin

Chassis: Yokomo B-Max4 III
Motor: Yokomo 5.5
ESC: Viper
Batteries: Protek Rc
Radio/Servo: Sanwa/Xpert
Remarks – Now in his third international race with Yokomo, the British driver is running his B-Max4 III with the rear arms from the previous model of the Japanese 4wd buggy, the B-Max4 II, to have a slightly wider rear end. Not yet fully satisfied with his performance, he said there is room for improvements and will continue to look at setup options as the weekend progresses. As usual, his car is sporting an LMR Avior wing, chosen not only by Lee but by the whole Yokomo team.

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Q2 Update – Matsukra fastest

Naoto Matsukura has taken the second round of 4WD Qualifying at the EOS, the Japanese driver topped the times from Joern Neumann with a time that was almost 3-second faster than the Q1 TQ time of Martin Bayer.  Setting the fastest lap of the round and the only driver to do a 22 second lap, Bayer completed the Top 3 in Q2.  Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk made it four different manufacturers at the top of the time sheets.  One notable performance for the round was that of 14-year-old Danish racer Frederik Hovgaard who posted the 7th fastest time behind Lee Martin and ahead of Oskar Levin.  Fourth fastest in Q1, Hupo Honigl would DNF his second run after suffering a drive shaft failure.

4WD Buggy Q2 times
1. Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo – 13/5:05.759
2. Joern Neumann – Durango – 13/5:07.695
3. Martin Bayer – Xray – 13/5:10.228
4. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho – 13/5:13.378
5. Miguel Matias – Xray – 13/5:15.525
6. Lee Martin – Yokomo – 13/5:16.933
7. Frederik Hovgaard – Durango – 13/5:19.571
8. Oskar Levin – Team C – 13/5:19.864
9. Bjorn Prumper – Yokomo – 13/5:22.071
10.Robert Battle – Yokomo 13/5:23.404

View the complete event results here.

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Video – 4wd Qualifying Rd1

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCYfnUwx7vE[/youtube]

‘From Race Control’ – Day 2 Qualifying/2WD Finals

Day 2 action at the Euro Offroad Series gets underway with the first of the four rounds of 4WD qualifying before switching back to the final two rounds of 2WD qualifying, the first two rounds having been run yesterday.  With the main table top causing the major difficulty in 2WD, once 4WD is completed the Hudy Arena staff will amend the jump to remove the dip in the centre that is catching out both the clubman driver and the Pros. Following 2WD qualifying the day will conclude the opening leg of 2WD Finals, all drivers getting to run triple Mains.

Bayer fastest in 4WD Practice

Martin Bayer has set the pace in 4WD practice at EOS Round 3, the Team Xray driver running the fastest 3-consecutive laps in both timed runs which brought official proceedings on Day 1 of the Slovakian event to a close.  Chasing his first EOS victory, the European Champion topped the times at his home track over the Yokomos of Lee Martin and Naoto Matsukura and will be top seed for tomorrow’s four rounds of qualifying.  Having had a disappointing day in 2WD, reigning 4WD EOS Champion Joern Neumann’s day didn’t improve much, the unbeaten driver who is chasing win number 10 this weekend ending up only 11th fastest.

‘Really awesome’ was how Bayer described his 3-lap time which left him 9/10th of a second clear of his nearest rival.  While pleased to top the times the Czech ace said in terms of his LRP powered XB4’s set-up the buggy is ‘not really easy to drive’.  Happy that the speed is there he will work on a better set-up for tomorrow to make the buggy more comfortable for a 5-minute run but overall he added he is feeling ‘pretty confident for tomorrow’.

Martin described his B-Max 4 performance over the two practices as ‘pretty good’ saying today the buggy was working.  Having availed of yesterday’s open practice day at the Hudy Arena, the British driver said they started out with a completely wrong set-up.  Not finding a really good solution over the day, he said it was only changes made today just ahead of the official practice that they found a good way with the buggy.  With the buggy ‘good now’ he said thats all that matters and he is happy to run it as is for the morning’s opening qualifier.

Matsukura, who started off the day with a TQ run in the opening 2WD Buggy Qualifier, was only a tenth of a second off his team-mate with his first timed practice time.  Changing his set-up for the second run he said it didn’t work so well.  Struggling with the buggy bottoming out on the bigger landings he said he must make changes for tomorrow but he first wants to discuss his options with his mechanic and the teams head of development Shin Adachi.

Having posted the 7th fastest time in second round of 2WD qualifying having only built his 2WD Buggy overnight and ran it for the first time this morning, top Portuguese racer Miguel Matias was back in familiar territory with his 4WD.  Joining Xray for the 2014 season, he described his practice having gone ‘very good’.  Setting his best time in first practice, he changed to a lighter front diff oil for the second and while it was ‘maybe faster’ it was ‘not as consistent’.  Planning to go back up for Q1 he also plans to try a different shock geometry.

Feeling this is the best prepared he has come into an EOS event, having been able to test with the championships hand out Pro-Line tyres back in Sweden, David Ronnefalk was pleased with his practice. Posting the fourth fastest time the Kyosho driver said his prototype buggy felt good although by the end of the run he did have an issue with it going soft. Planning to go up in his shock oil for tomorrow he said he is feeling pretty confident & looking forward to qualifying getting underway.

Running an identical set-up to his older brother, Ales Bayer posted the 6th fastest time.  Struggling to find his rhythm in the first practice, he said he was ‘very very happy’ with how the second run went.  Looking to tomorrow he plans to make a small change to his shock set-up but overall he said he is very happy with where he is currently at.

Another driver to improve in the second practice was fellow Xray driver Renaud Savoya. Suffering a broken rear diff in the first run, the French ace went for a heavy oil then fitted a new diff but he said it was a little too much.  Happy with the balance of his Orion powered XB4 he said going up in oil had created oversteer on power.  While reverting back to a lighter oil will give less traction he said overall it should give a better feeling with the steering.

Team C’s Hupo Honigl, who TQ’d Q2 of 2WD Buggy, posted the 8th fastest time followed by the Schumacher of Tom Cockerill and the Tamiya of former European Champion Marc Rheinard.  Normally the man to beat from the first lap of 4WD, Neumann said he struggled for traction.  Running used tyres on his DEX410 he said he struggles even though the tyres pins still look perfectly good.  Not sure why this is he said for the opening qualifier he will run new tyres on which he knows the buggy has no problems being competitive.

View the complete event results here.

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Honigl TQ’s second EOS qualifier

Hupo Honigl has TQ’d the second round of 2WD qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia, the Team C driver being the only driver to run 13 laps of the difficult Hudy Arena the second time of asking.  Improving on his Q1 time by over 4-seconds, the Austrian topped the round from Q1 pace setter Naoto Matsukura with an improved run from the Japanese driver’s team-mate Lee Martin seeing him complete the Top 3.

Having felt his car would be better on its second run on the controlled Pro-Line tyres, the winner of the season opener in Poland said the difference was ‘ridiculous’.  Making one mistake early on in the heat which cost him about 2-seconds, he said he was forced to push hard but with his rivals making more mistakes for the second half of the qualifier he was able to let off somewhat.  ‘Super happy’ with his Dual Sky powered TM2 V2 he said with confidence he wont be touching the set-up for tomorrow’s remaining two qualifiers, the action now switching over to 4WD practice for the remainder of today’s schedule.

Matsukura, who is this weekend chasing three overall wins & TQ’s from three EOS appearances, summed up Q2 with ‘me not good’.  Winner of Round 2 in Berlin in January, he had a ‘bad first 2-minute’ but getting his act together he was pleased with his pace for the rest of the run when he again posted the fastest lap of the round.  While the track will see a lot of 4WD action before Q3, he said he doesn’t plan to change his B-Max 2 set-up as it had the speed and he just needs to stop crashing.

Having got Shin Adachi to rebuild his shocks for Q2, Martin said the run started off good with him managing to run the TQ pace just before the halfway mark.  Believing new o-rings had helped with his understeer issues of practice & Q1 he said as the freshly built shocks settled during the run his Viper powered B-Max 2 dropped in ride height making it difficult for the second part of the heat.  For now the multiple European Champion said the only change he plans for Q3 is to readjust his ride height.

Another good run from Martin Wollanka saw him post the fourth fastest time be top Xray ahead of team-mates Renaud Savoya, Martin Bayer and the EOS returning Miguel Matias.  Savoya said other than an early bobble when he had to check-up to avoid hitting the rear of Bayer he was happy with his run.  Admitting that he doesn’t have high expectations for 2WD, 4WD being the 3-time 1:8 European Champion’s preferred class, he said he would be really happy with another such run as this would lock him into his first ever EOS 2WD A-Main.  Bayer said his 5th fastest time was down to ‘just me’ as he started the run with ‘too many stupid mistakes’.

Elsewhere David Ronnefalk once again threw away a potential TQ run.  The Kyosho driver was on the TQ pace for three laps before he ‘screwed it up again’, a mistake on lap-7 which the marshal was slow to notice costing him 4-seconds.  Following this up with three further single lap crashes he ended up 11th behind fellow countryman Oskar Levin.  Describing his car as ‘amazing’ and unlike the previous rounds having had the chance to test on the controlled Pro-Line tyre he said the speed is there and he just needs to ‘keep it clean’ for the full 5-minutes.

Having broke three times, defending champion Joern Neumann finally completed a run albeit in only the 12th fastest time just ahead of Team Associated team-mates Juho Levanen and Peter Pinisch.  While Pinisch is building one of Associated’s new B5M chassis, Levanen’s having arrived in Finland just after he left for Slovakia, the former European Champion is unlikely to run it due to having no gear diff or spare parts.

2WD Buggy Q2 times
1. Hupo Hönigl – Team C – 13/5:20.003
2. Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo – 12/5:01.042
3. Lee Martin – Yokomo – 12/5:02.588
4. Martin Wollanka – Xray – 12/5:02.884
5. Renaud Savoya – Xray – 12/5:02.932
6. Martin Bayer – Xray – 12/5:05.760
7. Miguel Matias – Xray – 12/5:07.110
8. Torben Højfeldt – Team C – 12/5:07.622
9. Ronald Volker – Yokomo – 12/5:10.648
10.Oskar Levin – Team C – 12/5:11.084

View the complete event results here.

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