Video – 2wd Qualifying Rd1

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQfvpDRzdr4[/youtube]

Matsukura takes Q1 at EOS in Slovakia

Team Yokomo driver Naoto Matsukura has taken the opening round of 2WD Buggy qualifying at Round 3 of the Euro Offroad Series.  A two time Top Qualifier and race winner, the Japanese driver topped Q1 at the Hudy Arena by 2-seconds over practice pace setting Martin Bayer. The round saw four drivers go top of the time screens over the 5-minutes but they would all make significant mistakes Hupo Honigl eventually claiming third and David Ronnefalk fourth as the only other drivers to run 13 laps of the tough track.  Having had a troubled practice, breaking on both his runs, defending champion Joern Neumann’s event didn’t improve as he retired with a broke rear stub axle 3-minutes into the qualifier.

Matsukura was pleased to take the opening qualifier but said it was not perfect.  Having predicted after practice that running 5-minutes without a mistake was going to be near impossible due to the tracks tough jumps, Matsukura was right as his run include three mistakes.  Pleased with his B-Max 2 set-up, he said he will leave it the same for Q2 and instead try to ‘reduce the number of errors’ adding reduce was the key word as a totally clean run was too tall an order.

Laying down the pace for the first 5-laps, Bayer said the run ‘started good’ but his Xray developed understeer which in turn led him to over drive and make mistakes. Struggling by the end of the 5-minutes, he said a set-up change after practice had for the opening laps given him the little steering he was lacking earlier but it was not consistent and by the end he was struggling with ‘push, push, push’. Despite this the Czech ace said second for the opening round was good to have.

Honigl was somewhat disappointed with 3rd saying it was ‘OK’ but the Austrian felt his driving was not good.  Running a fresh set of Pro-Line’s controlled Wedge-Squared front and Pin Point rear on his Team C, he said the buggy is better second time round on the tyres so he is looking forward to a better Q2 performance both from the car and the driver.

‘Good for a long while’ was how Ronnefalk summed up his 4th for the round the Swede having been on target for a TQ run until the last minute.  With his Orion powered Kyosho leading the way, the 1:8 Offroad European Champion said on hearing the 1-minute to go announcement he decided to ‘take it easy’ but this ‘was a bad idea’.   Casing a jump it resulted in a crash that cost him almost 3-seconds. Dropping to fourth he would lose a further 6 second with a last lap error.  Changing the ride height and droop on his RB6 after practice, the 17-year-old said his buggy was much better on the jumps and he will leave it the same for Q2.

Running 12-laps, Austrian Martin Wollanka was fifth fastest.  Running in the top heat, the Xray driver was pleased with his run but for Q2 plans to make some changes to his XB4-2.  Looking to make the buggy more stable he will change to a heavier front shock oil and to try and keep steering he will run the wheelbase shorter.

‘Just kept crashing’, that was the response of Lee Martin to how his run had gone.  The Vice-World Champion said dropping the front link on his Yokomo as well as fitting a front wing to the bodyshell had made little difference to the level of understeer he is suffering.  While the British ace said it wasn’t a huge issue he just cannot carry the same corner speed as the ‘front motored’ cars.  For Q2 he will discuss set-up options with Yokomo’s new head of offroad development Shin Adachi.  Racing himself in the event, his first time doing offroad on carpet, Adachi said the racing is a very different experience to anything he has done before.

Behind Martin with the 7th fastest time was former team-mate Marc Rheinard.  The Tamiya driver, who is running in the 3rd fastest heat,  said it was a steady run adding he just took a caustious approach to the table top.  Admitting he is nowhere near fast enough he said considering the car they have for 2WD and the fact that they only have the option of running a ball diff it was pretty ‘OK’.

Setting the eighth fastest time in the first of the four scheduled qualifiers was Team C’s Torben Hojifeldt, the Dane followed by the Yokomo’s of 1:8 World Champion Robert Batlle and Yannic Prumper. who completed the Top 10.

2WD Buggy Q1 times
1. Naoto Matsukura – Yokomo – 13/5:17.721
2. Martin Bayer – Xray – 13/5:19.766
3. Hupo Hönigl – Team C – 13/5:24.467
4. David Ronnefalk – Kyosho – 13/5:28.940
5. Martin Wollanka – Xray – 12/5:01.157
6. Lee Martin – Yokomo – 12/5:03.349
7. Marc Rheinard – Tamiya – 12/5:04.833
8. Torben Højfeldt – Team C – 12/5:05.489
9. Robert Battlle – Yokomo – 12/5:06.748
10.Yannic Prümper – Yokomo – 12/5:11.173

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Bayer tops 2WD practice at Hudy Arena

Martin Bayer is the top seed for 2WD qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series third round taking place at the Hudy Arena in Slovakia.  The Xray driver set the fastest 3-consecutive laps around a difficult track to outpace Round 2 winner Naoto Matsukura who in turn was quicker than Round 1 winner Hupo Honigl.  Breaking his buggy in each of the two timed practice runs, defending champion Joern Neumann posted the 5th fastest time.

Essentially the home event for Bayer, the Czech ace doing the vast majority of his EOS preparations at the Arena, he described both his practices as ‘solid runs’.  Making small adjustments to his XB4-2 each run he said his focus was on consistency over 5-minute rather than outright pace and so he was particularly happy to top the times.  Really confident for the event, he said the buggy is easy to drive and ‘pretty fast’ although it ‘pushes a little more than (he) wants’.  For Q1 he said the plan is to continue with just small adjustments to the set-up in the hope of gradually finding the little steering he is lacking.

Matsukura, who didn’t have the best start to the day when he got some superglue in his eye, described his practice run as ‘good’.   Pleased with the performance of his Yokomo he said ‘car is good, track is difficult’.  Planning to leave his set-up the same for Q1, only fitting a new set of the rear controlled Pro-Line Pin Point tyres, he said the biggest challenge for qualifying is going to be to avoid crashing, something he expects is going to be ‘hard’ to achieve.

Running his car ‘99% the same’ as he did in Berlin where he came so close to securing a second win of the season, Honigl described his TM2 V2 as ‘very good’.  In the second practice the Austrian broke just before 3-minutes when he pulled off a ball cup, but he is confident about his car’s pace going into the first qualifier.

Team C had a strong showing in practice with Oskar Levin posting the fourth fastest time and Torben Hojifeldt completing the Top 6.  Levin said he had nothing to complain about and he was just enjoying driving on what he described as a ‘fun track’.  The 19-year-old Swede  has done little by way of set-up change saying like team mate Honigl that his TM2 V2 is pretty much the same as he ran it in Berlin.

Hojifeldt said the biggest change he made in practice was motoring down from a 6.5 to 7.5 T motor.  The Danish driver said this made the buggy much smoother to drive and also reduced wheel spin.  Having ‘basically touched nothing else on the buggy’ and just focused on his driving he said he is ‘pretty comfortable’ with the track including the centre table top that is causing many drivers issues.

Breaking a C-Hub in the first timed practice and pulling a screw from his servo arm in the second, Nuemann said when his Durango was on the track it was ‘OK’.  Suffering ‘a little understeer’, the German said he would like to improve this for qualifying but with the steering at is maximum mechanically he isn’t sure what he can change but overall he said its not a major issue.

Posting the 7th fastest time Lee Martin also reported understeer but for the Yokomo driver its seems more of an issue.  Running an ‘almost same set-up’ as Matsukura, who is not experiencing the problem, the British driver said he doesnt have an specific cure for the lack of steering but has a few ideas he will try for Q1.  He added one of the main reasons for both drivers experiencing a different level of steering from the same set-up is mostly down to their driving style with him describing his Japanese team-mate as having a ‘harder driving style’.

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Track Focus – Hudy Racing Arena

Name – Hudy Racing Arena
Club – Private Track
Country – Slovakia
Location – Trencin (120 km North East of Bratislava)
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – Carpet
Previous key events hosted – 2013 Euro Touring Series Finale

With the Euro Touring Series having made a hugely successful trip to the Hudy Arena last July, this weekend the Euro Offroad Series make its first visit to what can unquestionably be described as the world’s greatest RC facility.  Like with the ETS, the massive 25,000 square metre facility, which also includes the factory of both Xray and Hudy, has exceeded the expectations of racers with ‘super impressive’ being a commonly used word to describe the place.  Having conducted a factory tour yesterday, Xray being one of the few true r/c car manufacturers in the world, defending EOS Champion Joern Neumann was more than impressed by the set-up, also getting a chance to see for the first time the part of the factory that produces full inhouse the FX Engines he is running in 1:8 Offroad this season.

Built over the Hudy Arena’s indoor asphalt track, the carpet track created just for the event is one of the Series’ toughest yet with Round 2 2WD winner Naoto Matsukura describing it as ‘super difficult’.  The key elements that are causing drivers difficulty are the centre table, it featuring a dip in the centre of the table, and the double in front of the drivers stand, the tapered jumps also proving tricky to master.  Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk said while the track is ‘prett hard’ it is really fun and the Swede is a particular fan of the curbing that dont normally feature on such an offroad track.  He also feel the track has some features that will seperate the drivers.  A driver who know ths place better than most, as he and team-mate Renaud Savoya spend much time here testing, Martin Bayer said the track is different and more offroad like compared to what racers ran on at Round 2 in Berlin.  With ‘way more jumps’ he said ‘it seems difficult but that’s the challenge of offroad.’

One driver that came to the Hudy Arena in advance of the EOS to test, Team C’s Hupo Honigl said that getting the timing of the jumps right is difficult.  Describing the track as about 20% different to that he tested on, he said in 2WD getting the balance in terms of power right is very important.  With only a set level of mechanical grip available from the handout Pro-Line front tyres he said the on power sweepers mean you have to reduce rear traction but that can then hamper you for the many jumps.  For 2WD lap times are expected to run at 24-second mark.

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‘From Race Control’ – Day 1 Practice/2WD Qualifiying

Although the majority of drivers took advantage of a day of open practice at the Hudy Arena yesterday, today is officially the first day of the third round of the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia.  The schedule will start off with 2WD with 1 round of free practice followed by 2 timed practices.  With the fastest 3 consecutive laps of each driver determining the seeding for the heats, it is then 2 of the 4 rounds of qualifying for 2WD.  After this is completed things will switch to 4WD, with again one free practice followed by 2 timed practice runs that will bring Day 1 to a close at 19:00 local time.