Orlowski quickest in 4WD practice

Michal Orlowski was quickest over the three rounds of 4WD practice for the second round of the Euro Offroad Series in Germany.  Having posted the second fastest time in 2WD practice behind Neil Cragg, the Schumacher driver topped reigning champion Bruno Coelho over 2-consecutive laps in the final round.  Behind them, failing to better their times from the opening seeding round, David Ronnefalk and Lee Martin made it a similar story to 2WD with four different manufacturers at the top of times.  Making his EOS debut as a Schumacher driver, multiple former Champion Joern Neumann was 5th fastest.

Summing up his performance Orlowski said, ‘It didn’t start off well.  I broke in the first one on the first lap. I had no rear drive and stopped after a lap’.  He continued, ‘We made small changes to the car for the last practice.  We went to a shorter rear link for more rotation and it felt really good. I think we are looking good for qualifying’.

‘Very good I think’, was Coelho’s reply when asked how 4WD practice had gone.  Winner of 3 from 5 races en-route to last season’s 4WD title, he continued, ‘I had some mistakes in the last practice so didn’t get the 2-laps I wished for but the car is there. It’s very good’.  Asked about tyre wear, the Xray driver replied,  ‘that was the third round on the same set but now it’s time to change so the wear is normal’.

‘Coming here we didn’t know what to expect because I had moved to Spain and my car was the same as I raced at the DHI Cup’, was Ronnefalk’s reaction after practice.  The HB Racing driver continued, ‘at the DHI they had EOS carpet but here it feels different. The car works better here’.  Trying ‘stuff’ for the final practice, the Swede said, ‘It didn’t work out’ but overall the car is ‘pretty good but not fast enough to keep up with Bruno’ having run behind the Champion on track.  He concluded, ‘I want to do well but we are here to learn and test new things on the car’.

Pausing to give his response on how practice went Martin described it as ‘strange’.  He said, ‘the track is high speed and in the turns you are on throttle and our car is lifting.  We need to stop rear of car dumping down.  We need a couple more practice’.  The Yokomo drivers added, ‘I haven’t been on a track this fast before so it’s a new problem for this car.  It is an age old problem’.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Chassis Focus – Neil Cragg

Chassis: Team Associated RC10B6
Motor: Reedy Sonic 6.5T
ESC: LRP Flow X
Batteries: Reedy 3600mAh
Radio/Servo: KO/Reedy
Tires: Schumacher (handout)
Body: Pro-Line Elite
Remarks – Long time Team Associated driver Neil Cragg topped 2WD seeding here in Daun driving a B6 that sports a number of option parts. The front suspension arms are the flat one used on the B6D, while the rear ones are taken from the B64. Neil is also using chassis weights, a front brass bulkhead and a Pro-Line front wing. The shock pistons are made by TMG.

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Cragg tops 2WD practice at EOS

Neil Cragg has topped 2WD practice at Round 2 of the Euro Offroad Series in Daun, Germany.  A new venue on the Season #7 calendar, the Team Associated driver set the fastest two consecutive laps of the large track from reigning 2WD Champion Michal Orlowski with championship leader Bruno Coelho completing the Top 3 times in seeding.  Behind them Yokomo’s Lee Martin made it four different manufacturers at the top of the time sheets ahead of Cragg’s young team-mate Joona Haatanen.

Opening his weekend in the best way possible after a tough time at the season opener in Poland, Cragg put his improved performance down to a number of factors.  Now wearing glasses, the former World Champion is feeling more confident driving with them on.  The British driver is also a lot happier with his 2WD having gone in a different direction with set-up following a Team Associated open day run in the UK by CML.  With drivers getting to try each other’s cars and sharing information on set-up, Cragg made some interesting observations driving one car in particular that lead to him making ‘positive changes’ to his standard set-up.  Another contributing factor to his practice pace is parts he is using on the car with B6D arms and shock tower on the front and B64 arms on the rear.  He also running Pro-line’s Elite body liking how it makes the car a little more aggressive in the front.

Summing up his three practice runs, Orlowski said, ‘It went Ok. We didn’t change much’.  The Schumacher driver continued, ‘because the traction is very high we only adjusted the rear camber link by 1mm’.  Chasing his 4th EOS career win in 2WD in the hope of closing Coelho’s early lead in the standings, he added, ‘It’s not the fastest but I never want to TQ practice. Overall I’m pretty happy with the car’.

‘I had some mistakes but the feeling is good’, was Coelho’s reaction to setting the third fastest time.  The Xray driver said he ‘didn’t change anything on the car’ instead focusing on ‘getting more of a feeling for the track.  With drivers now to switch to 4WD practice before ending Day 1 of the event with the first 2WD qualifier, the Portuguese ace said, ‘It’s looking all good in 2WD’.

Reflecting on his morning at the controls of his 2WD, Martin said, ‘It started slow but got better towards the end’.  The reigning European Champion continued, ‘I feel I can go a bit faster because my perception at the back section of the track is still not perfect’.  Asked about the track layout, the British driver replied, ‘some bits are OK, some bits are awkward.  I like the fast sections in the front but the carpet is very rippled in sections which is causing the 2WD to pop wheelies.  Also they have taped the carpet in weird sections which can flip the car’. On his car he concluded, ‘we still need more corner speed but overall it’s not at a bad place’.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Track Focus – Daun

Venue – Sporthotel & Resort Grafenwald
Race Hosts – EOS
Country – Germany
Location – Daun (180km West of Frankfurt)
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Carpet
No. of EOS Races hosted – 0

Round 2 of the Euro Offroad Series takes place at an all new venue with the Sporthotel & Resort Grafenwald in Daun, Germany, experiencing an RC invasion for the next two weekends as after the EOS the best touring car drivers in the world will also descend on the same venue for their second round of the ETS.  A holiday resort in the German countryside, the race is taking place in the venue’s 2,600 square metre sports hall while racers stay in cabins at the resort.  In terms of the track, the build was completed by the same ATA crew that built the track in Poland for the Season #7 opener.  Covering an area of 830 square metres, they have been able to create a unique and rather long lap.  Featuring a 38 metre long straight, the track takes advantage of the hall’s courts layout with the centre of the track stretching to 30 metres wide in the centre section.  Also new is the use of red carpet for the jumps which makes them more clearly defined.

Heading both buggy championships after dominating the season opener, Bruno Coelho described the track as ‘very technical’ adding, ‘It is one of the most difficult tracks of the EOS’.  The Xray driver continued, ‘the car is not really important here it is more on the driver and making no mistakes because it’s such a big lap’.  One element challenging drivers are ripples in the carpet in a number of sections which ‘make it easy to flip’.  Asked his thoughts on the track, reigning 2WD champion Michal Orlowski replied, ‘It’s different, the shape is different and it’s pretty big’,  The Schumacher driver continued, ‘It is a very long lap which makes it hard to be consistent but the red jumps are much better. You can see them easier’.  Like Coelho, he said, ‘some parts of the carpet are not flat and the carpet is joined with tape so if you hit these wrong you flip’.

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