Orlowski sets pace at EOS season opener
Michal Orlowski has set the pace for the first controlled practice at the Euro Offroad Series season opener at the Nurburgring. With the track needing to be tweaked after each of the opening two free practice runs this morning, the Schumacher driver would lay down the fastest 3-consecutive lap time for the first of the two practice rounds that will determine the seeding of 2WD qualifying heats. Super close at the top of the time sheets, Orlowski would be just .0001 of a second faster than reigning Champion Lee Martin with Martin Wollanka completing the Top 3 ahead of Neil Cragg.
‘I’m surprised by my pace’ was Orlowski reaction to CP1. The championship runner-up for the past two seasons, the Polish driver continued, ‘I didn’t feel the car was very good as I was having problems with it traction rolling’. Describing the first run on the track as a ‘struggle’ he said after ‘a lot of changes’ to his car’s set-up the day had been getting better each run. To address the traction roll he is having to contend with he plans to go to a thicker shock oil in the front. As well as allowing him to ‘push harder’ he said he hopes it can help make the car more consistent. Asked about the track layout, he replied, ‘I don’t like the step up step down but it still fun to drive and I like the rest of the jumps’. He concluded ‘it’s a difficult track’.
Commenting on his run, Martin said, ‘the car feels good and its nice to drive’. The British driver continued, ‘it’s felt good since the first practice and other than trying some set-up ideas Shin (Adachi) has worked on at Yatabe I have only made a rear spring change’. Having not raced on carpet since last season’s EOS finale which was also run at the Nurburgring, he said he has just been getting his ‘confidence back on carpet’ adding it was ‘good to have an easy morning’. Having been involved with deciding the tweaks to be made to the track in free practice, he said ‘now the stuff is in the right place the track works pretty well’. He added, ‘the steps are still odd but the rest of it works alright. Describing it as a pretty short lap he feels ‘4WD will be fast and frantic’.
Describing the track layout as ‘different’, Wollanka added ‘it looks easy but its a bit tricky.’ The Austrian, who was a podium finisher here at last year’s season opener, said his Xray is ‘working really good’ contributing a new diff to his pace. Asked about the benefits of the new unit he replied it makes the car ‘corner to corner much faster’. In terms of the chassis set-up he said the biggest change he has had to make is to the rear roll centre for the ‘long corners’. For the final 2WD practice he plans to test a different weight oil in the diff.
‘Pretty good to be honest’ was how Cragg summed up practice so far. While 7/10th off the lead pace pace over his best 3-laps, the European Champion said his B6 is not far off and its ‘trying to get back into driving a 1:10 car’ that is his biggest issue describing himself as ‘driving like an animal’. With the 1:8 World Championships early next month in Las Vegas, he said driving 1:8 has been his big focus so he needs a few more runs to get back into his rhythm as his last carpet outing was here last season when he was the Top Qualifier. In terms of his B6 he said ‘if we can get a touch more steering we’ll be dialled’. While the car is ‘really comfortable’ he needs ‘1 or 2/10ths’ and he will try going down in the front oil & springs for the final practice.
Setting the fifth fastest time, when Hupo Honigl was asked if he had changed much on his Xray over the morning he replied ‘actually no’. The Austrian said his XB2 has been ‘pretty good’ from the first practice and he has just been working on his driving. One of the EOS’ longest serving drivers, the former race winner is a huge fan of this weekends track. ‘I love the track. It has a really nice flow, there is nothing crazy in it’. Looking to the final 2WD practice, before drivers switch over to 4WD for four rounds of practice, he said the car feels really good so I will just run new tyres, him having been on used tyres for the previous three practices.
Completing the Top 6 ahead of Marc Rheinard, Team Associated young gun Joona Haatanen described his car as ‘OK’ adding they have been ‘changing little things’ every run. Having problems with his motor temperature, the Finn plans to switch to a smaller pinion for the final practice. The 13-year-old said the consistency is there in the car but he needs to find a little more corner speed and so for the last run they will take weight off.
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Chassis Focus – Lee Martin
Chassis: Yokomo YZ-2 CA
Motor: RC Concept 6.0T
ESC: RC Concept
Batteries: RC Concept 4500mAh
Radio/Servo: Sanwa/Xpert
Remarks – Defending EOS Champion Lee Martin is starting a new season here at the Nurburgring behind the wheel of the Yokomo YZ-2 CA. His car is equipped with new prototype Yatabe springs, a pre-production front wing with a dedicated support and a new, thinner front anti roll bar with a diameter of .8mm. Looking for more torsional flex, Lee’s engineer Shin Adachi decided to cut the mid-rear bridge only leaving one of the three brackets.
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Track Focus – Nürburgring
Venue – Nürburgring
Race Hosts – ADAC
Country – Germany
Location – Nürburg (120 km northwest of Frankfurt)
Direction – Anti-Clockwise
Surface – Carpet
No. of EOS Races hosted – 2
The iconic Nurburgring racing circuit is the venue for the opening round of Season #6 of the Euro Offroad Series, the event marking an important milestone for the championship as this is it’s 20th race. While it is only a year since the EOS pulled off a major coup by securing the Ring Boulevard as the venue, this is actually the third time the championship used the location, it being a late replacement venue on the Season #5 calendar as host of the final round. Again running alongside the Simracing Expo, the weekend’s big draw is the final round of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup which is running on the grand prix track.
Having come in for some criticism over tracks lacking jumps and in particular suitable landers, this year the championship organisers have had the jumps redesigned by Gerd Strenge, who is better known for his efforts in car design rather than jump design a building. The layout of the Round 1 track is also Strenge’s work with input from Marc Rheinard and more recently 2WD Champion Lee Martin. After the first round of free practice on the original layout two jump sections were tweaked with Martin’s input with drivers of all levels enjoying the track much more during their second practice. In terms of the layout the biggest feature of the track is the Team Associated branded step-up step down corner in the front right corner of the track which covers an area of 34m wide by 23m deep.
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Coelho caps off EOS title with Nurburgring win
Having become the new 4WD Champion of the Euro Offroad Series this morning at the Nurburgring by claiming the TQ at the season finale, Bruno Coelho has capped of a successful rookie campaign with a third consecutive victory. Making his EOS debut at the iconic motor racing circuit back in September before going onto become World Champion, Coelho’s title marks the first for Xray who become only the third manufacturer to win Europe’s premiere championship. Behind Coelho the podium in Germany would be completed by outgoing Champion Lee Martin, winner of A3, and Martin Wollanka – this was also how they would finish up in the final Season #5 standings.
‘For the first time doing the EOS I can’t ask for more’, was Coelho’s reaction to his title victory. The Portuguese driver who is the only driver to take wins in the EOS, ETS and ENS, added, ‘I think three wins & TQs from four races is a very good first attempt’. Reluctant to accept that by becoming the Top Qualifier this morning that the title was his, after securing the Round 4 win with another convincing victory in A2 the 22-year-old said, ‘I am very happy to give Xray their first EOS title and I think the team’s result each race show that we have a car that is one step above our rivals’. With the weekend marking his first EOS outing with Hobbywing he said using their electrics was ‘very helpful’ in getting today’s win. Thanking Salton Dong for making the trip from China to support his title efforts, he said it was the ‘very smooth’ Hobbywing system that allowed him to dominate the finals. Looking to next season’s EOS, which will start out again at the Nurburgring in September, he said ‘we know we have the best 4WD so now we can work more on making our 2WD competitive’.
Reflecting on his performance at the season finale, Martin said, ‘Today we had a chance of winning the title if we took the TQ and win but unfortunately it didn’t happen’. The back to back 2WD Champion continued, ‘I’m still happy with second as I felt I drove a better campaign than last season’. Given the ‘quality of the drivers’ he raced against he added he was ‘proud of the fact we were never off the podium in either class’. Feeling they leave this weekend better placed than they came into it due to the fact they ‘don’t get a chance to test on this carpet’ he continued ‘we’ll come back fighting next year’.
A driver of few words, Wollanka described his 3rd today and in the overall championship as ‘OK’ adding ‘but I am still missing the win’. In with a chance of achieving a 1-2 on the Nurburgring podium for Xray, the Austrian said after a second mistake in A3 that left him last he knew 2nd was done and he pulled off. His third podium of the season, he said, ‘I look for the win next season’.
‘Pretty good’ was Michal Orlowski’s reaction to finishing fourth, his best 4WD result of the season. Describing the first two finals as ‘bad’, the 14-year-old said for A3 he ‘just wanted to put in a safe run’ to get 4th. Finishing the leg 2nd behind Martin, the 2WD Championship runner-up said this weekend they made good progress with the 4WD and he ‘can’t wait to carry that into next season’ and better his 5th in the championship.
Equalling his best result of the season with another 5th place finish was former Champion Joern Neumann, the Serpent driver showing plenty of renewed promise in both classes at the Nurburgring, in particular in 2WD. While buggy has been challenging for the German this season, he still ends another EOS season with a title to his name. Racing in the new for this season Stadium truck class, with Team Associated’s Ryan Cavalieri taking the win today, Neumann took the title, his 100% record of being a champion since the EOS was established in 2011.
View complete event results here.
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Chassis Focus – Joern Neumann
Chassis: Serpent SDX-4
Motor: Orion VST2 Pro 5.0T
ESC: Orion Vortex R10.1 Pro
Batteries: Orion 4500mAh
Radio/Servo: Futaba
Remarks – Former EOS Champion Joern Neumann debuted the new Serpent 4WD Buggy, called SDX-4, here at the Nurburgring. The completely new car, still in a pre-production 3-D printed version, features a shaft driven transmission and a very simple layout that makes it a versatile platform with different weight distribution options available. The suspension arms can accept carbon stiffeners for different flex options while the rear arms offer 8 different shock positions.
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