Orlowski takes opening qualifier at EOS

Michal Orlowski has taken the opening round of 2WD qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series, the Schumacher driver having the upper hand on top seed Bruno Coelho over the 5-minutes.  With both Orlowski and Coelho the only drivers to manage 22-second laps of the Hudy Arena track, the duo were clearly on a different level to their rivals despite both drivers having multiple mistakes in the first of the four rounds of qualifying.  Behind it was championship points leader Lee Martin who was best of the rest, the Yokomo driver almost 6-seconds off the TQ pace.  Third fastest in seeding, Martin Bayer got a 4th from Q1 followed by Daniel Kobbevik with 12-year-old Polish driver Bartosz Zalewski pulling off an impressive Q1 to complete the Top 6.

Reacting to his TQ run, Orlowski said, ‘It started off very good and I was able to put pressure on Bruno and he had a small error.  Then I did a small one but he had another mistake and after that I could drive nice and easy’.  The reigning Champion, who has a good track record in Slovakia, added, ‘I was very happy with my driving for the 5-minutes as I had a couple of mistakes but I was the driver with the fewest mistakes’.  Happy with his car and planning no changes for Q2, the Pole did flag the extra tyre wear drivers are experiencing saying, ‘the tyre wear is quite high here and I think that will be a major factor in the qualifying but I plan to stick to my normal tyre strategy’.

Coelho said, ‘It was an OK qualifier. I started slowly as normally in 2WD with new tyres my car is aggressive. I did a mistake, then Orlowski did a mistake, then I did another mistake and he passed me.  It looks easy but you need to take risks to make the difference. I will try to do less mistakes the next round’.  Pleased with his car saying it has the same pace as Orlowski’s, when asked how he was finding tyre wear, the Xray driver replied, ‘tyre wear is a little higher than normal. This is because there is a lot more speed in the layout. You have two big sweepers but in the end I think it will be the same and we will do three runs on the first set’.

‘It was not the best run in the world but it was not a bad first run’, was how Martin summed up Q1.  The Yokomo driver continued, ‘I had a few driver error. They did not cost me a huge amount of time but they threw me off my rhythm a bit.  Third was the best I could have done given the speed of the first two’.  Asked about changes for Q2, the British driver said, ‘the car feels pretty good so obviously it’s lacking corer speed so we will try to find more of that for the next one’.

Bayer joked, ‘when the clock starts it’s different but 4th place is OK’.  The Czech driver added, ‘Like I said before I am not the fastest. Michal and Bruno are very quick but I think the rest are much closer and I will try to fight in that battle’.

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Coelho tops 2WD seeding at EOS Slovakia

Bruno Coelho is the top seed for 2WD qualifying at the fourth round of the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia.  The Xray driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps on a tighter than usual Hudy Arena track layout in the 2nd of the two controlled practices run to top the seeding from Michal Orlowski and Martin Bayer, with championship leader Lee Martin sixth fastest.  It was a somewhat controversial start to the weekend when it was discovered a high number of laps were completed on the track yesterday. On EOS race weekends the track is not open until the first free practice on Friday morning kick starts the weekend for all drivers in order to create a level playing field.  On investigation of the laps and transponder numbers, it was discovered the car completing the greatest number of laps was that of Daniel Kobbevik.  Race Director Scotty Ernst raised the issue with Xray team manager Martin Bayer who explained that Kobbevik’s car was being used to finalise the layout of the jumps and was driven by a number drivers including Xray boss Juraj Hudy but none of the team’s championship contenders.  The other cars were driven by non EOS competitors.  With Bayer confirming Kobbevik still drove approximately 30-laps in total, albeit not on the final race layout and many in the opposite direction, the decision was taken that the Norwegian would be forced to sit out CP2 – the matter still having been under investigation during CP1.

‘All is good. The car is looking good and I also like the layout’, was Coelho’s reaction after practice.  The Portuguese driver added, ‘I just now need to try do 5-minutes without mistakes.  The pace is there but it’s super close with Orlowski’.  Asked how much of challenge running a clean 5-minutes was going to be, he replied, ‘the table (top) you can jump it or not.  With a perfect landing you can make 2/10ths (of a second) but you can also easily make a mistake there and flip.  You also need to pass super close to the curbing so 5-minutes without any kind of mistake is going to be super hard’.

Chasing his third consecutive win at the home of Xray, summing up his practice Orlowski said, ‘we came here with the set-up we created at last weekend’s XRS race (held at Hudy Arena) but had to make some minor changes for the tighter layout.’  The Schumacher driver continued, ‘I broke in the first (free) practice after the first lap which wasn’t a great start but the car is good now and I will probably not change anything for Q1. The pace is there. Bruno is a little quicker on 3-laps but I feel confident about my 5-minute pace’.

Summing up his P3 seeding Bayer said, ‘I managed to make 3-laps but it is very difficult to do 5-minutes’.  A former winner of his team’s home event, the Xray Offroad Team Manager said, ‘the layout is easy and this allows you to go to the limit but then the problems come and you hit the boards.  As always I am not the fastest but I hope I can do 5-minutes with no mistakes’.

Runner-up at Round 3 in Daun, Kobbevik reported his car as feeling ‘difficult to drive’.  Setting the fourth fastest time, the teenager explained, ‘it’s stable but has no steering but I think I will play safe for the first quali and then maybe for Q2 we can try changing the set-up’.  Behind Kobbevik, young team-mate Max Götzl took his XB2 to the 5th fastest time.

A multiple winner at the Hudy Arena and having achieved his first EOS win in more than 3-years at the previous round in Germany, reacting to his P6 seeding, Martin said, ‘the 5-minute feeling is ok. I’m just a little too slow on my best lap’.  The Yokomo driver continued, ‘I need more steering but the car is eating front tyres.  I have a few ideas to try but I don’t want to change it for Q1 because it’s got 5-minute pace.  Maybe it’s not TQ pace, Orlowski is very fast over 5-minutes, but I think I’d be close.’

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Track Focus – Hudy Racing Arena

Name – Hudy Racing Arena
Country – Slovakia
Location – Trencin (120 km North East of Bratislava)
Direction – Clockwise
Surface – Carpet tiles
Previous key events hosted – 5 X EOS rounds, 6 X ETS rounds

Extended to six rounds for this the 8th season, the second half of the Euro Offroad Series season kicks off this weekend at the Hudy Arena in Slovakia with Round 4.  The venue for the 1:10 Offroad World Championships later this year on its new indoor dirt track, this is the fifth time the home of Xray has played host to the EOS on its indoor carpet track.  In terms of this year’s track layout, Michal Orlowski, 2WD winner on the last two occasions here, described it as ‘quite technical’ adding ‘but I like it, it has some nice jump sections’.  Asked what was the key feature of the track, the reigning champion said for him it was the table top, ‘I’m not sure about the table top. I can jump it but its more risk. I can do both lines but I have two more runs to decide what is my best option’.  Winner of Round 2 in Daun and leading the 2WD standings from Joona Haatanen and Orloswki by a point, Lee Martin described the track as ‘a lot tighter than it normally is at the Hudy Arena because the right hand side is closed in’.  With the track reduced in overall width, the 2016 Hudy Arena winner added, ‘I like the tight layout but I wish it had a nice jump section.  All the jumps are angled and into corners.  ‘Cause of the extra height of the driver stand here it is hard to judge the jumps right underneath.’ Martin concluded, ‘otherwise everything is to be as expected, the layout of the boards is quite square and there are a lot of right angles and it is presented well as expected’.

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