Bayer Top Qualifier at EOS Slovakia

Martin Bayer is the 4WD Top Qualifier at the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia.  The Xray driver secured pole for his home race with his 3rd straight TQ run in the penultimate round of qualifying this morning at the Hudy Arena.  Leading away the field, Bayer’s chances of wrapping up an early TQ were helped on the opening lap when his main challenger Michal Orlowski put his Schumacher on its roof.  It wasn’t to be the 2WD winners morning as his run would last little over a minute, a broken top deck causing his belt to come loose and leaving him with no drive.  Bayer would have one mistake over the 5-minutes which put Lee Martin on the TQ pace but within two laps the Yokomo driver also made an error reinstating the original order. Daniel Kobbevik would complete the Top 3 for the third qualifier with Neil Cragg enjoying a good run to record the 4th fastest time.

‘I’m really proud of myself that I didn’t throw away the first run of the morning, its a very good morning’,  was Bayer’s reaction to claiming his second EOS career TQ.  A 3-time 4WD race winner, he continued, ‘the car feels very good now and I am getting more confident with it every run.  Maybe I will test some ideas in the last one but the car feels really good’.  Looking to the finals, he said, ‘I’m strongest at the end of the run and Michal is stronger at the start so I just need to get through the first few laps and I should be OK’.

Commenting on his best qualifier so far Lee Martin said, ‘I crashed that one, it was driver error.  I ran a slightly older battery that one and it didn’t have enough punch for me’.  Making progress with his car set-up, asked if he would make any changes for the final qualifier the former champion replied, ‘I’ll just run new tyres and a newer battery. I’m afraid to change anything in case it only makes the car worse. I will also try to drive a little better’.  Team-mate Marc Rheinard, whose set-up Martin copied after struggling in practice, would post the 5th fastest time of Q3.

Claiming his maiden podium finish at the season opener in Poland,  Kobbevik said, ‘I tried to have a clean run, my car was difficult to drive because I was on new tyres’.  The 13-year-old Norwegian added the run was ‘smooth with not so many mistakes’.  Holding 4th on the grid after 3 of the 4 qualifiers, he hopes to capitalize on his second run on the tyres saying, ‘I hope for better result in the next one.’

‘I don’t think I have been 4th before in 4WD’, was Cragg’s reaction to his much improved Q3 run.  The Team Associated driver said, ‘It is tough going out there to be honest.  2WD was a lot easier than 4WD’.  Registering his first EOS win in 2WD at the previous round of the championship, he continued, ‘the car was just OK but I drove as good as I could, no crashes, nothing crazy.  I was not that far off so we will change a few other things to see if we can get more speed for the last one’.

View complete event results here.

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Bayer again in Q2

Having opened 4WD qualifying with a TQ run, Martin Bayer has backed it up by topping times again in Q2 to end Day 2 of EOS Slovakia as the provisional overnight TQ holder.  Bayer would control the heat from start to finish to again top the times from Michal Orlowski, only this time with double the size of margin.  Having run ahead of Orlowski, passing the Schumacher driver on the track but getting retaken by the Pole, Lee Martin would complete the Top 3 just under 3/10ths off.  With Marc Rheinard having a rough round, Joel Valander put in another strong run to go one better than Q1 and get a P4 ahead of Xray team-mate Daniel Kobbevik who registered his first complete run having retired from the opening heat.

View complete event results here.

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Bayer TQs opening 4WD qualifier

Martin Bayer has TQ’d the opening round of 4WD qualifying at the EOS in Slovakia. Second fastest in practice, the Xray driver topped the first of the four qualifiers from top seed Michal Orlowski, the pair having a distinct advantage over the rest of the field at the Hudy Arena with Marc Rheinard the only driver to join them in posting 23-second fastest laps.  The third seed Rheinard would open qualifying with a P4, team-mate Lee Martin improving his car from practice to go 2/10ths faster and complete the Top 3.

‘Really good’ was Bayer’s reaction after taking Q1 by 6/10ths over Orlowski.  He said, ‘I changed the shock set-up and made it a little harder.  Before it was twitchy. Now it is not as good on the landings but it is better on the flat stuff.  In the beginning it (the shock oil) was cold but once it warmed up it got better and better and at the end the feeling was very good.  I will leave it the same (for Q2) and see how it goes.’

Orlowski summed up his qualifying performance with, ‘It was good and I led most of the heat but I had a couple of small bobbles, one too many’.   He continued, ‘Overall the car feels good but I struggle in the corners because it wants to flip and I can’t push as hard as I want.  We will work on that for the next one’.

‘It went better than practice’, that was how Lee Martin described his run to P3.  The British driver said, ‘In practice it was just too hard to drive so I copied Marc and went very close to his set-up. It was pretty easy to drive and at the start I was just getting used to it. It took a while to figure out’.  He continued, ‘we still need to improve it (the car) to catch up to the other two but I know I can find time from driving better now that I am more used to the set-up change’.

Rheinard described his opening qualifier as ‘a pretty nervous run’.  The German continued, ‘I just want to get points so 4th is not a bad start.  I was on new tyres and on second run tyres it is easier (to drive)’.  He concluded, ‘I can push more in the next one’.  Behind Rheinard, Xray’s Joel Valander was fifth fastest in front of Jörn Neumann and Joona Haatanen.

View complete event results here.

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Orlowski top seed for 4WD at EOS

Having won 2WD earlier in the day at Round 3 of the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia, Michal Orlowski is the top seed for 4WD qualifying after he topped the two rounds of timed practice.  Having had some issues in free practice, with him only totalling 11-laps, the Schumacher driver would top both timed runs with almost identical times for his fastest 2-consecutive laps, the final practice slightly quicker by 0.018 of a second.  Behind, it was Martin Bayer who was closest to Orlowski improving from 5th fastest to 2nd overall between practice.  The Top 3 would be completed by Marc Rheinard ahead of Jörn Neumann and Round 1 podium finisher Daniel Kobbevik as Rheinard’s Yokomo team-mate Lee Martin could only manage the 9th quickest time.

Summing up practice Orlowski said, ‘we had some problems in the first practice.  Screws coming loose and parts coming out’.  The ETS Daun winner continued, ‘we are not there yet with the car set-up but in the last practice I was able to drive more consistent’.  Asked what needed improving in the car’s set-up he replied, ‘we need to more stability in the corner.  I looks like it is going to roll over’.

‘I finally had a better run than before’ was Bayer’s reaction to his P2 pace in the final practice.  Winner of the race last season, the Xray driver added, ‘It is a struggle with the front tyres and what is the best way to cut the pins. There are hundreds of options.  One will be good at the start and not good at the end (of the run) but for the last practice I found a good one.  Now we have the tyre cut the way I like we can start working on the car set-up’.

Having struggled in 2WD, finishing 9th overall, Rheinard said, ‘I was more comfortable with my 4WD already from the first practice’.  The German continued, ‘my pace is not bad but the car is still hard to drive with no mistake but for everyone it is the same problem’.  Asked about changes he made over the four practice runs he said, ‘the set-up is pretty much the same as we had in Daun and we haven’t really had to make any changes. For qualifying I will try to keep the car on the track and make some good runs’.

‘It’s going well, fourth is pretty good’, was how Neumann summed up practice.  The Schumacher driver continued, ‘of course 5-minute will be different but the car has the speed and it’s down to the driver now’.  Drivers will run two of the four scheduled qualifiers this evening.

View complete event results here.

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Chassis Focus – Lee Martin

Chassis: Yokomo YZ-2
Motor: Scorpion 5.5T
ESC: Scorpion Vanguard S3140
Batteries: Yokomo 5000 mAh
Radio/Servo: Sanwa/Xpert
Tires: Schumacher (handout)
Body/Wing: JConcepts S2 / LMR 27 wing
Remarks – British Team Yokomo driver Lee Martin is running a YZ-2CA equipped with a number of option parts, such as aluminium bulkhead mounts, vented slipper pad, steel front arm mounts and titanium screws. Coming from his own company LMR are motor screws and an under lipo 55g weight. Lee is also running pre-production wishbones on his car that sport a slightly different shape so as to reduce flex and are also realized in harder compound.

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