Martin handed A2 win

Lee Martin has won A2 of 2WD at Euro Offroad Series, the Yokomo driver handed the lead after mistakes by both Top Qualifier & A1 winner Marc Rheinard and Neil Cragg.  Taking the win ahead of Xray’s Martin Wollanka and Cragg, the result means that the overall Round 3 winner will be decided in A3 with three drivers, Martin, Rheinard & Wollanka in contention.

‘Marc gave up the lead and Neil rolled over when I needed him too’, was how Martin summed up his move to the front for the win.  The reigning champion & current points leader, he said ‘after that I just cruised to the finish’.  Starting second on the grid, the British driver would fall to third behind compatriot Cragg after a mistake on the opening lap but within 4 laps had been gifted the race lead.  Making a front link change on his YZ-2 to get more steering, he said this made the car more reactive and it took most of the race to get used to it hence the reason why he didn’t try to better Rheinard’s A1 winning time.  Having lost out on the TQ in qualifying on the tie break he is hoping the A3 result wont require the fastest time to be factored in.

Rheinard, who would drop to 7th and recover to 4th, said ‘after Lee crashed I took it easy but it was too easy and I missed the landing at the big jump’.  Running a new set of the championship handout Schumacher tyres he said this made the bad landing worse and he rolled as a result of the extra traction.  Expecting the tyres, now that they are broken in, to be better for A3, he said following his mistake ‘it was too hard to come back’ and hoping for mistakes from Cragg and Wollanka they didn’t make any.

Qualifying 9th, Wollanka was clearly pleased to come out with a second.   Having struggled with his XB2 in qualifying, the Round 1 podium finisher said set-up changes for A2 had improved the car by half a second a lap.  Describing the car as now being ‘perfect’, he said while ‘it will be difficult’ he will be trying to repeat the result in the closing 2WD encounter.

‘First time all weekend two guys in front of me have made mistakes and I can’t capitalise’, was Cragg’s reaction after the race.  Having struggled in A1 after changes to his car’s front end and a motor change, the Team Associated driver said the car was better after reverting back to his qualifying set-up but added his B5M was ‘stilling missing something’. Commenting on crashing out of the lead which he held for 4-laps he said ‘I was not under real pressure from Lee and I still had a silly roll’.  Sandwiched in the battle for second he said with Rheinard so close behind him he ‘couldn’t have a real go at Wollanka’ adding ‘I’m annoyed at least not to get second’.  For A3 his plan is to try and get a podium which he added ‘would be a good start to the EOS for me’.

View complete event results here.

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Pit Focus – Lee Martin

Team: Yokomo
Neighbours: Marc Rheinard (left), Shin Adachi (Front)
Charger: Muchmore “Double Accel”
Tools: MIP/Yokomo
Setup Tools: Stickit1 Setup Board, LMR Ride Height Gauge
Car Stand: Muchmore
Lipo Bag: MR33
Transport Bag: OGIO
Features: Bee Pollen and Ginkgo Plus tablets, iPhone 6, Pro-Line Trucker Hat

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Rheinard takes easy A1 win

Marc Rheinard took an easy win in the opening 2WD A-Main at the Euro Offroad Seres in Germany. Having claimed his first TQ of the championships earlier in the morning, the Yokomo driver would take a tone to tone win over team-mate Lee Martin, a brushing with the piping on the first lap the German’s only blemish in an otherwise perfect race.  Behind the two Yokomo’s, Schumacher’s Michal Orlowski would benefit from crashes by Hupo Honigl and Neil Cragg to complete the Top 3 from fifth on the grid.

Commenting on his win, Rheinard said, ‘Lee had a rough lap at the beginning that let me pull out a gap.  After that I could drive a controlled the race’.  While Martin would make a late charge getting to within 9/10th by the finish, the 4-time onroad World Champion said ‘Lee was getting close at the end as he was pushing but he never got close even for me to need to take any risks so all was OK.’  Asked about his early moment he said, referring to the roller after the main straight, ‘that jump is scary. Its not straight so it tricky but I survived’.

Getting his RC Concept powered YZ-2 on two wheels on the second lap, Martin said he couldn’t do anything about his team-mate after that.  The British ace said ‘our cars are so evenly matched you can’t make back the time and we were just turning laps together’ his best lap a 19.234 compared to Rheinard’s 19.289.  With the jump that almost caught out Rheinard at the start, and which he himself had trouble with in qualifying, was the only place he said it was possible to make any time but even taking that risk ‘it still wasn’t enough’.

‘A good first final’ was how Orlowski summed up his 3rd place finish.  Starting behind Honigl, he said he knew he needed to get by the Austrian early if he was to stick with the leaders.  This was made all the easier when on lap 2 Honigl crashed on the corner table table.  Now chasing Cragg a mistake by the former World Champion on the next lap would promote the European Champion to 3rd. Next lap around however Orloski would made a mistake himself and while he didn’t lose position he said the time lost ended any chance of challenging Martin and he drove the rest of the race safe to maintain his third.

Behind Orlowski, 12-year-old Joona Haatanen would have a great race.  Starting 10th on the grid, Team Associated’s rising star would go on to finish 4th ahead of Honigl and Round 2 podium finisher Martin Wollanka.  For Haatanen’s senior team-mate Cragg it was a rough first EOS final as he finished 9th after starting 3rd.  Having motored up to a 6.5T motor, the former World Champion said the extra power made his B5M too aggressive in areas with the car also struggling for brakes.  Making front end set-up changes, he said that also didn’t work out and he will go back to his final qualifying set-up for A2.

View complete event results here.

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Rheinard claims first EOS TQ in Germany

Marc Rheinard has claimed his first Euro Offroad Series TQ, the Yokomo driver taking the final 2WD qualifier at Round 3 in Germany to become the third different pole sitter of Season #5.  Going into Q4 as the only driver capable of denying team-mate & reigning champion Lee Martin the overall TQ,  Rheinard’s quest was made easier following an early mistake by the overnight TQ holder.  Seeing off an early challenge from Neil Cragg, Rheinard would go on to set a new fastest TQ time by a 2.3-second margin over Cragg with former champion Joern Neumann completing the Top 3 for the round.  Ending the final qualifier 9th, Martin, who having topped Q1 & 3 lost out on the faster time tie breaker, will start 2nd a position which if he can maintain over the finals will see him successful defend his 2WD EOS title with one race remaining.

Becoming only the 8th different 2WD Top Qualifier over the 5 seasons of EOS, Rheinard was pleased to claim his first EOS pole position joking ’28 to 1′. Having endured a day of slagging yesterday over his embarrassing performance at the Reedy Race of Champions when he finished 28th out the 30 invite drivers, the touring car star added ‘I have redeemed my offroad career’. On his Q4 TQ, he said, ‘I have a near miss on the first lap when I got up on two wheels on the landing of the big jump but after that it was a good run. When Lee crashed I just had to keep Neil behind me with him close at the start after my slow first lap but I could seee the gap and could control things’.  Looking to the final, the former 4WD Offroad European Champion said ‘I will just try to keep it clean. I don’t want to mess up and hand Neil the win’.

Commenting on his error which came just after the minute and a half mark, Martin said, ‘I messed up at the same place my car is a bit shitty’. Getting the roller at the end of the straight wrong his YZ-2 bounced off the piping and needing to be marshalled he lost an unrecoverable 5-seconds.  Chasing a third consecutive win this weekend having won at the Nurburgring and the Hudy Arena, the British ace said starting behind his team-mate the plan for the finals is to ‘just drive in a line til something happens’.  One win away from sharing the honour of being the championship’s most winning 2WD driver with Joern Nuemann, he added ‘If we can gap the rest of the field then I can make an attack on Marc for the win’.

Lining up third for his EOS race debut, Cragg described his P2 run in the final qualifier as ‘pretty good’. While he didn’t have any errors over the qualifier he did have ‘two scrappy laps’.  Changing to a Pro-Line front wing on his B5M, the factory Team Associated driver said this was an improvement with ‘the car 99% there’.  Asked if he planned any changes to find the missing 1%, he replied ‘Craig (Drescher) has been telling me the car is not fast enough but I think its fine but as we are lacking a little time at the end we are going to motor up to a 6.5 for the finals’.  In terms of the racing he said ‘third is pretty much where I have been throughout but we’ll see what happens in the final’.

Securing his first 2WD A-Main appearance since Round 3 of the championship last year in Wels, Austria, just scraping in on that occasion with a 10th, Hupo Honigl’s Xray debut sees him line up an impressive 4th.  The Austrian summed up his return to form with ‘It feels good again’.  Still finding his way with his new team & cars, the former 2WD race winner said, ‘the 3 guys ahead are a little faster but we’ll see what happens’.  Two places behind, team-mate and Nurburgring Top Qualifier Bruno Coelho will start sixth with compatriot Martin Wollanka also putting his XB2 in the final with ninth on the grid.

Completing the top half of the grip, the final qualifier again containing ‘too many mistakes’, Michal Orlowski is targeting a podium finish.  Having been Martin’s main challenger in the opening two races of the season, the Schumacher driver has struggled with his driving this weekend.  Second in the standings coming into the weekend, the 14-year-old said he has the speed to run at the front as his KF2 is ‘very good’ but with ‘everyone on the same pace’ he expects it will be difficult to pass in the final so his plan is to stay with the lead group and wait for mistakes.  Elsewhere Neumann will take up his best starting position of the season with his Serpent lining up 7th ahead of American Carson Wernimont with Reedy Race Open Champion Joona Haatanen completing the grid in Muelheim-Kaerlich.

View complete event results here.

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Chassis Focus – Hupo Honigl

Chassis: Xray XB2 Carpet Edition
Motor: Tekin Gen3 6.5T
ESC: Tekin RSX
Batteries: Dual Sky 4600 mah
Radio/Servo: Futaba
Remarks – Making his EOS debut with a new car and new electrics, Hupo Honigl managed to get the fourth spot on the grid in 2wd driving a pretty basic version of the Xray XB2 Carpet Edition. The only options used by the Austrian are graphite suspension arms, a brass bulkhead and rear aluminium hubs.

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