Coelho opens Day 3 of EOS Poland with TQ

It’s the 3rd and final day of racing at EOS Poland and Bruno Coelho has kicked things off by posting his second 4WD TQ run.  The Xray driver again had a distinct advantage topping the times by almost 4 and a half seconds from team-mate Ty Tessmann.  With Xray having filling the Top 3 in yesterday’s first two rounds of qualifying, that domination was finally broken as HB Racing’s David Ronnefalk took the third quickest time.  Having been part of the Xray Top 3s yesterday, taking the opening qualifier, Martin Bayer would have a messy run ending up P11.  Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski not impressed with the Czech’s driving, the Pole classified 32nd for the round after being hit in the rear by Bayer during the qualifier.

Winner of 2WD yesterday, commenting on Q3 Coelho said, ‘It was a very good qualifier, I don’t have much more to say’.  A slightly slower time than his Q2, the fastest of the three rounds with one remaining, he added, ‘the car is working really well as always’.

Trying a different electrics set-up, Team Orion backed Tessmann said, ‘I made some changes to my speed controller. I copied David’s (Ronnefalk) motor/speed controller settings.  I felt I had more power but I got used to it over the run and by the end I liked it’.  The Canadian said he also opted to run his first set of tyres for a third time as a tactical decision for the finals.  Describing the tyres as a ‘bit difficult’ to drive on, he said, ‘I am planning to run my second set in the last qualifier so they will be fresher for the main – A-Main drivers permitted an additional set of tyres for the finals.

With EOS Poland marking his return to the championship after more than a 2-year absence, Ronnefalk described his Q3 run as ‘not perfect but decent’.  The reigning 1:8 Offroad World Champion had a rear drive shaft snap in Q1.  Forced to start last as a result of his DNF, he said he went for a safe run to get points but lost further time as he had to open for the leading group who where fighting for the TQ.  Getting a P9 he was only 2/10ths off a Top 6 time.  In terms of his car, the Swede said, ‘today we changed the set-up a little bit and it felt good.  The car is stable but we still need to work on landings so we will change the shock package for the next one’.

Behind Ronnefalk, Norwegian Daniel Kobbevik would back up two P7 runs yesterday with the 4th fastest time. Running in the second fastest heat, the 12-year-old Xray driver said his ‘car is good’ and he has been running the ‘same set-up all weekend’.

Setting the fifth fastest time, Lee Martin said, ‘I just made too many small errors.  It was the first run of the morning and I think I needed coffee’.  Running Yokomo’s new YZ-4 SF, the former champion said, ‘the car is too soft for the landings and thats where the errors came so we’ll make it stiffer and I’ll go get a coffee’.  Behind Martin, Yokomo team-mate Marc Rheinard completed the Top 6.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Coelho heads another Xray 1,2,3 in Q2

Once again it was Xray that led the way at EOS Poland with Bruno Coelho making up for his Q1 errors to take the second 4WD qualifier. Having thrown away a TQ run in the opening qualifier with two mistakes, Coelho’s second attempt would be an error free run with him setting the fastest lap on his way to stopping the clock over 3-seconds quicker than Q1 pace setter Martin Bayer.  Making it another Xray 1,2,3, Ty Tessmann would bring Day 2 of the Warsaw event to a close with the third fastest time. In a slight change of order of best of the rest, Lee Martin would take his Yokomo to the fourth fastest time albeit it almost 8 seconds off Coelho’s TQ time.  Xray’s Kája Novotný was next up ahead of the Schumacher of Michal Orlowski who completed the Top 6.  With two of the four qualifier to count, Yokomo, Schumacher and Team Associated will be hoping they can up with something overnight to at least present a bigger challenge to Xray.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Bayer TQs opening 4WD qualifier at EOS Poland

Picking up where they left off last season, Xray have dominated the first round of 4WD qualifying at the season opener of the Euro Offroad Series in Poland. Fresh from their impressive 2WD podium sweep earlier in the day, it was Martin Bayer who topped the first of the four 4WD qualifiers followed by Ty Tessmann and Bruno Coelho who set the initial TQ pace before the first of two mistakes. As in 2WD, it was Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski who was best of the rest as he posted the fourth fastest with Team Associated’s Joona Haatanen and Yokomo’s Lee Martin completing the Top 6.

‘Again amazing’ was Bayer’s reaction to taking Q1.  Winner of the concluding round of the championship last season, the former European Champion continued, ‘I am not a big fan of the new tyres.  The combination of the new tyre and the (track) layout make it very hard to go 5-minutes without a mistake’.  Having improved his XB4 set-up over the four rounds of practice, ending controlled practice second fastest to Coelho, he said, ‘we now have found a good set-up and the car is very easy to drive and that is how it was possible to do Q1 with no mistake but we will look to make it a little more aggressive for Q2 but still keep it comfortable to 5-minutes’.

Tessmann said, ‘I was on new tyres so I knew it would be a little hard to drive so I just wanted to get a good clean first run. I had a couple of double steers over the run but otherwise it was clean’. Asked how he was finding 4WD compared to 2WD, he replied, ‘Usually 4WD is easier to drive on don’t but that’s not the case on carpet.  I don’t have a preference for one or the other yet’.  In terms of his XB4 set he plans to leave the car unchanged for Q2, the final run of the day, saying ‘it should be better now the tyres are broken in’.

‘The car is working well but I did make a mistake after the double in front of the driver stand and when I tried to come back I had another mistake’, was Coelho’s summary of Q1. The reigning champion added, ‘I will go for a clean round in the next one’.  Asked about the new handout tyre for this season, he said, ‘they have a lot more grip so we need more time to work on what to do with the front tyre. People are trying many different things so we need to work to see what is the best way’.

Orlowski called his Q1 performance ‘an ok run’ adding ‘it was nothing special’.  Winner of EOS Poland last season, he continued, ‘the car feels pretty good but I had a few bobbles. I was able to save it and keep it on four wheels’.  Looking to his next qualifier, the teenager said, ‘I think we will do some changes to the car and hopefully then we will be able to compete in the Top 3’.

‘I was thinking it was going to be very hard to drive with the new front tyre but it wasn’t’, was Haatanen’s thoughts on Q1.  The added, ‘In practice I was not that fast but now the car is easy to drive and pretty fast too’.  Echoing other drivers, he said, ‘we are still learning about the front tyres but it seems everyone is pretty close with what they are doing’.  Having run a centre diff in his B64 he will change to a slipper for Q2. While preferring the diff set-up, the landings are damaging the teeth and having already gone through two diffs they will go to the slipper to be safe.

Running Yokomo’s latest 4WD offering Martin said, ‘This is the first real test with the car.  It is easy to drive but we need to make it faster in the turns.  Overall it feels good but we still have to find more from the set-up.’  Asked about his thoughts on the tyres, the Season #4 champion said, ‘we are testing a few things with the tyre to make the car most settled and I see that’s what Bayer used to TQ so I’ll take credit for that’ – the popular choice being the removal of the centre pins from the front tyre.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Chassis Focus – Michal Orlowski

Chassis: Schumacher Cougar KC
Motor: LRP 6.5T
ESC: LRP FlowX
Batteries: LRP 3000mAh LCG
Radio/Servo: Sanwa
Tires: Schumacher (handout)
Body: Aerox Performance
Remarks – Reigning EOS 2WD Champion Michal Orlowski has been running a LRP powered Schumacher Cougar KF2 equipped with a number of option parts, such as aluminium uprights and hubs, a carbon chassis, rear roll bar and titanium turnbuckles. Michal is also using a brand new Aerox bodyshell, which sits lower on the car and is slightly lighter than the standard version.

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Chassis Focus – Bruno Coelho

Chassis: Xray XB2 ’18
Motor: Hobbywing 6.5T
ESC: Hobbywing Xerun XR10 Pro
Batteries: EZ 3500mAh Graphene
Radio/Servo: Sanwa/Savox
Tires: Schumacher (handout)
Body: Lightweight Xray body
Remarks – Winner of the opening round of the EOS 17/18 here in Warsaw, Xray factory driver Bruno Coelho has been running the latest ’18 edition of the Slovakian made XB2. His car is equipped with aluminium uprights, a 26 gram front brass bulkhead and a 50 gram under LiPo weight. The Portuguese driver is also using a new front wing mount, due to be released in the next weeks.

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