Orlowski to start home event from pole position

Michal Orlowski will chase a home victory in Warsaw, Poland tomorrow from pole position having ended qualifying on top, with 3 TQs from an available 4. Bruno Coelho who managed to reign in the mistakes seen in the opening 2 qualifiers took the top spot in Q3 and backed it up with 3rd in the final round to start 2nd on the grid for tomorrow morning’s triple A-mains. Lee Martin will start from 3rd on the grid ahead of Joona Haatanen and Daniel Kobbevik in 4th & 5th respectively, with former champion Jorn Neumann, Neil Cragg, the impressive Jessica Palsson, Paul Crompton and Joel Valander completing the Top 10. Talking to pole sitter Orlowski, who completed the home double two years ago at the same venue, he said of his 3rd and 4th qualifiers ‘it was good in Q3, I went on the 3rd run tires, the carpet is quite old so the tire wear is quite high so to be sure for the last one we went on the new set of tires.’ Continuing ‘the car felt good but slightly understeering so I will think about a small change for tomorrow. But it is going good so far.’

Coelho, who did the double here last year, was able to overcome a difficult start to qualifying to take the 3rd round, thanks in part to running new tires and backed it up with another solid run in the 4th and final round. ‘Q3 was a good round I didn’t make any mistakes, which is impressive’ he joked, continuing ‘everyone is very close so you cannot relax during the round, you need to push but you can’t make any mistakes.’ On his car he said ‘The 3rd round was very good with no mistakes so I could TQ, I ran new tires. In Q4 I ran the tires from the 1st and 2nd round so I was a little bit slower but the pace was OK.’ On tomorrow’s finals the Portuguese ace said, ‘The car is looking good and tomorrow in the finals everything can happen, everybody is doing many mistakes so everything is still open.’

Lee Martin was another who ran a new tire in the 3rd round, saying ‘Q3 was good, I ran a new tire which was better than the other tire, I’m not sure why but it was much better so I wanted to save this tire for leg 1.’ Reverting to the tire he used in the opening two qualifiers for the final round he commented that ‘again it was still a little bit sketchy. Still OK lap times but the front feels really aggressive, it feels strange. You get the same amount of steering but its much more twitchy on the way in, its weird.’ Asked about the final the Yokomo driver said ‘Bruno got in front of me in the grid, I don’t know if that is necessarily a bad thing. Maybe he is going to push Michal pretty hard from the start, he’s a fast starter so you never know, it can create a bit of drama so let’s hope for a bit of luck tomorrow.’

Top Team Associated driver Joona Haatanen will start the final from 4th on the grid, having improved throughout qualifying as the Finnish driver’s search for more steering continued. ‘I had new tires and went more forward with the rear wing, it gave more steering but I’m still looking for more but now it is getting there’ he said. On the final qualifiers he commented ‘I was running the whole 5 minutes with Bruno and Lee. I think had a similar pace at least. Starting 4th is not too bad with this driving so I am looking forward to tomorrow.’

Young Norwegian driver Daniel Kobbevik had a solid qualifying with two 4th places and considering where the Xray driver was following practice he was very upbeat. ‘Its pretty good. I was 17th after practice so this was much better, it was all because of the shocks’, his team finding they had incorrectly mounted the shock pistons for practice. For the finals he commented ‘I am ready for the final. Maybe I can do something from 5th, it will be difficult but I think it will be chaos in the final as well.’

In the Stock 13.5 class, it was another Polish driver on top as Xray driver Pawel Ntkovca took the top spot with two TQ runs in qualifying to take the overall TQ. He will start the finals ahead of German Team Associated distributor Sven Rudig in 2nd with another German Marcel Röttgerkamp in 3rd, just in front of Xray boss Juraj Hudy who will line up 4th.

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Chassis Focus – Lee Martin

Chassis: Yokomo YZ-2-CAL2
Motor: Scorpion 5.5T
ESC: Scorpion Vanguard
Batteries: Team Yokomo 3500mAh
Radio/Servo: Sanwa/Xpert
Tires: Schumacher (handout)
Body: JConcepts F2

Remarks – Former EOS champion Lee Martin is running a revised version of the YZ-2-CAL2 that is equipped with a number of pre-production parts. The new chassis is stronger – and therefore reduces flex – in the rear section, while the Truck battery mount system is used to confer more flex to the central part of the buggy. The rear gearbox is also new and features a quick access to the differential that can be now adjusted in height so as to vary the roll centre. The shock towers are lower, and the rear shocks shorter. Lee was also using the front bulkhead from the Yokomo Truck which makes the front part of the chassis stronger.

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Orlowski makes hard work of Rd2 TQ

It was more of the same in the second round of qualifying here at EOS Poland, however reigning champion Michal Orlowski had to work hard for the TQ this round having lost a lot of time in a crash at the mid way point while leading. Lee Martin would once again take 2nd for the round, less than one second back, in front of the Team Associated pairing of Joona Haatanen and Neil Cragg in 3rd and 4th, with Swedish Kyosho driver Jessica Palsson completing the top 5. Describing his run, Michal said ‘It started off really good, I looked at my lap times and I had really low 19s, I had a cushion but made a mistake on the wall’. Continuing, ‘I was stuck on the pipe and then after followed Lee around trying to push as hard as possible to put pressure on him and he made a mistake and rolled over before the double so then I just tried to make the gap to go to the lead and it took about 2 laps’. Ending by saying ‘it wasn’t a clean run, it was way tougher than the first one but luckily in the end it was another TQ so looking good so far.’

Yokomo driver Martin led following the incident that saw Orlowski get stuck up on a pipe on the wall ride but still felt the car wasn’t able to match the pace of the young Pole, saying ‘It was pretty much the same as the first one. Michal was a bit faster than me, I didn’t feel comfortable to push it still.’ Commenting on the incident in which he was able to take the lead he said ‘he (Michal) made a mistake coming on the wall, but then I made a mistake, traction rolling coming onto the double in the middle which allowed him back in front.’ While the Schumacher driver was able to pull out a one second lead in the closing laps, the former Champion called the run a ’fair result’.

Winner of the season opener in Germany, Joona Haatanen was finally able to put in a solid run to take 3rd for the round. Describing his 2nd round qualifier as ‘not too bad’, he summed it up by saying ‘a couple of mistakes, one roll and I think I am a bit off the pace, my car is not too good yet so I am looking for more steering but overall not too bad.’

Former World Champion Neil Cragg took 4th for the round but was not happy with his driving describing it as ‘OK, too scrappy, too many crashes, just driving a little too tired, not flowing around the track’. Continuing ’the car’s good, I don’t think its fast enough to win yet, Orlowski and Lee have got a little over us but its mostly down to driving, few too many little crashes’. Ending by saying ‘3 seconds off TQ there and I had to be marshalled. Its not the end of the world but the driver just needs to get his head on.’

Better known for her exploits in 1/8th Offroad, Jessica Pålsson put in a very clean run from the second fastest heat to take 5th for the round having taking 7th in Q1. Asked about her run to 5th, the Kyosho driver said ‘My 2nd round was really good, I’m really happy with the car, the car is new for this year and it has taken some time to find the setup but I am really happy with it now.’ Daniel Kobbevik ended the round as top Xray driver in 6th, having made a big mistake in the closing stages of his run, while Bruno Coelho continued to struggle, making too many small mistakes to end up 7th.

View the complete event results here.

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Chassis Focus – Jessica Palsson

Chassis: Kyosho RB7
Motor: Team Orion 5.5T
ESC: Team Orion HMX
Batteries: Team Orion 5500mAh
Radio/Servo: Sanwa
Tires: Schumacher (handout)
Body: Kyosho lightweight

Remarks – Making a welcome return to EOS here in Warsaw, Swedish talent Jessica Palsson is proving strong at the controls of her Kyosho RB7. Hers is a pretty standard example of the Japanese made car, the only options used being carbon shock towers, a few titanium screws and a lightweight body.

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Orlowski tops Q1 in Warsaw

The opening round of 2wd qualifying at the 2nd round of the Euro Offroad Series in Warsaw, Poland is complete and it was local superstar Michal Orlowski who emerged quickest by some 5 seconds. The Schumacher driver headed the gaggle of former EOS champions, with Lee Martin in 2nd, Jorn Neumann in 3rd, young Norwegian Daniel Kobbevik in 4th, with Bruno Coelho completing the top 5. Speaking with Orlowski after the run he said ‘It was good, the car felt really good we didn’t change anything from practice. Obviously with new tires so the first couple of laps were edgy but then Lee had a small mistake in the first minute, Bruno crashed, so I just tried not to crash’.

Lee Martin, like 3 of the top 5 drivers had just returned from Australia where he attended the Nitro Offroad Worlds, put his Yokomo 2nd for the round. ‘It was ok, the tire felt like it had more grip, it wasn’t as free as in practice and I don’t know why’ said the British driver, continuing ‘I had one mistake, I could have driven faster but thought I would settle for second’. Feeling there is more in the car and tires he remarked ‘Once the tire beds in it’s better, I can get more speed out of myself as well. We can get there but I didn’t want to push everything in the first run and be like 8th and have pressure on me, 2nd is good to start.’

Jorn Nuemann was pleased with his opening qualifier, the Schumacher driver stating ‘The first round was good, not super fast lap times but consistent’. For the next round of qualifying the German said ‘I think we tune some things and get faster, with 2nd round tires it’s always better’.

Not really featuring in Controlled Practice and unusually far off the pace, Daniel Kobbevik came back in the opening qualifier to end up 4th from the 2nd fastest heat. Finding a fairly major issue with the car the Norwegian described the issue, saying ‘We had the pistons wrong in the car, I had one rear piston on the front and one front piston on the rear so it was a big difference’. Only having time to fix the front of the car before going out to qualify, he said ‘Now the car is better, I still had the wrong pistons in the rear. I hope it will be even better in the next run.’

Having a messy start to qualifying Bruno Coelho described his run saying ‘It was ok, I made many mistakes in the round, I think 3 and all I need a marshall so it takes a long time’. On his car he said ‘the car was working very good from the beginning until the end so I try to not do any mistakes next time’, drivers having all 4 of their qualifiers today, starting Saturday morning with finals before moving onto 4wd.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.