January 6, 2013

Neumann wins opening 4WD encounter

Joern Neumann has won the first leg of the 4WD Buggy A-Main at the Euro Offrad Series in Langenfeld, the expected challenge from Naoto Matsukura failing to materialise after a mistake by the 2WD Buggy class winner gave the Team Durango the break he needed to take control of the race.  In the end the German took the win by a comfortable margin ahead of the Yokomo driver with his own team-mate Hupo Honigl completing the Top 3.

Neumann, who has yet to be beaten in the EOS in 4WD Buggy, said in the end the race was easy but prior to Matsukura’s mistake the 6-time Japanese National champion had him under pressure so he is taking nothing for granted going into the second leg.

Having just scrapped into the A-Main, Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill driving the British company’s new Cat K1 put in a very strong race coming from ninth on the grid through to finish 4th.  Responsible for designing the buggy, Cockerill said it has been working well all weekend but this was the first time he managed to run 5-minutes without any major mistakes.

4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 1 Result
1.(1) Jörn Neumann (DE) – Durango – 16/5:20.673
2.(2) Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 15/5:07.159
3.(4) Hupo Honigl (AT) – Durango – 15/5:10.457
4.(9) Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 15/5:13.330
5.(3) Dustin Evans (US) – TLR – 15/5:16.236
6.(6) Martin Bayer (CZ) – Xray – 15/5:17.328
7.(7) Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR – 15/5:28.373
8.(5) Lee Martin (GB) – Tamiya – 14/5:04.172
9.(10)Oliver Speith (DE) – Durango – 4/1:32.097
10.(8)Michal Orlowski (PL) – Durango – 0:00.000

Complete event results can be found here.

View our event image gallery here.


January 6, 2013

Leg 3 win nets Evans runner-up spot

Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans cruised to victory in the final Leg of the 2WD A-Main at the second round of the TLR/Spektrum Euro Offroad Series to take the overall Runner-up spot at the German event behind Naoto Matsukura with defending champion Joern Neumann having to settle for the final step on the podium.

Starting behind Neumann, who was effectively on pole position as Matsukura having wrapped up victory in Leg 2 sat out the final, Evans took control of the race on lap 3 following the first of a serious of mistakes by the Team Durango driver.  Once in front the American’s Orion powered TLR22 was able to pull clear as the rest of the pack fought over second, his team-mate Darren Bloomfield coming out on top of that battle to claim a TLR 1-2 finish.  After the race Evans said he needs to find a way to get into the zone quicker on carpet as his final race is always his best.

Despite setting the fastest lap of the race a run of poor laps at the end of the 5-minute encounter dropped Neumann from second to sixth, Tamiya’s Lee Martin, Kyosho’s Christopher Krapp and his own team-mate Hupo Honigl the benefactors. In the championship standings the result sees Neumann’s advantage over Evans reduced by a point but with Matsukura set to contest the rest of the title fight looks set to really hot up.

Overall Result 2WD Buggy
1. Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 2 pts
2. Dustin Evans (US) – TLR – 4
3. Jörn Neumann (DE) – Durango – 4
4. Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR – 7
5. Lee Martin (GB) – Tamiya – 7
6. Oliver Scholz (DE) – Team C – 10
7. Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 10
8. Hupo Honigl (AT) – Durango –  11
9. Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 16
10.Otto Ausfelt (SE) – TLR – 16

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 3 Result
1.(3) Dustin Evans (US) – TLR – 15/5:17.640
2.(6) Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR – 14/5:01.291
3.(4) Lee Martin (GB) – Tamiya – 14/5:01.628
4.(8) Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 14/5:02.746
5.(5) Hupo Honigl (AT) – Durango – 14/5:04.810
6.(2) Jörn Neumann (DE) – Durango – 14/5:05.932
7.(7) Oliver Scholz (DE) – Team C – 14/5:08.352
8.(9) Otto Ausfelt (SE) – TLR – 14/5:09.297
9.(10)Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 14/5:15.781
10.(1)Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – DNS

Complete event results can be found here.

View our event image gallery here.


January 6, 2013

Matsukura wins 2WD Buggy on EOS debut

Making his debut in the ‘TLR/Spektrum Euro Offroad Series presented by Horizon Hobby’ Team Yokomo’s Naoto Matsukura has made an instant impact on the series with the Japanese ace backing up his Leg 1 win yesterday with another impressive win in Leg 2 this morning to wrap up the overall win in 2WD Buggy. Having TQ’d the biggest class of the EOS, 140 drivers contesting 2WD Buggy at the second round of the series in Langenfeld, Germany, the 4-time Japanese National Champion once again led the high quality international field from tone to tone even with a mistake on lap 13 of 15 which cost him around 2 seconds.  Such was his lead Matsukura still took the win by over a second from defending champion Joern Neumann for whom this is only his second ever defeat in the class, Tamiya’s Lee Martin the only other driver to beat the German which was incidentally also at the second round of the season.  Setting the fastest lap in Leg 2 Team Losi Racing’s Dustin Evans had to settle for third, a mistake on his final lap allowing championship standings leader Neumann back through to second.

Having never raced on a carpet offroad track Matsukura was delighted to take the win adding that it was the ‘perfect result’ for the new B-Max2 MR.  The 19-year-old said the second Leg was a lot more difficult than Leg 1 in which he put in a flawless drive admitting that his nerves got the better of him resulting in his crash three laps from the finish.  With one win out of the way the World Championship finalist said he now wants to go for the double, his B-Max4 lining up second behind Neumann for this afternoon’s 4WD Buggy A-Main finals. Team Yokomo’s first experience of the Euro Offroad Series and obviously encouraged by their pace especially considering how much more experience their rivals have with racing on European style Indoor offroad tracks team manager Robert Itoh said he hopes to be able to have Matsukura contest the rest of the series.

Set to go head to head with Evans in the third leg to decide who will get the overall runners-up spot, Neumann said his Durango was difficult to drive in Leg 2 but ultimately he just made too many mistakes.  Planning to run a harder rear shock set-up on his DEX210 the winner of the season opener said he hopes this will be enough to keep Evans, who set the fastest lap in Leg 2 and starts directly behind him, at bay.

Evans said his TLR22 is the best it has ever been on carpet but he just can’t seem to run a mistake free run on the high grip surface.  Following Matsukura’s mistake, the 2011 US National Champion who was running second at the time said he went all out for the win but over did it.  If he can eliminate the mistakes he said he knows he has the speed to beat Neumann.

2WD Buggy A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Naoto Matsukura (JP) – Yokomo – 15/5:19.430
2.(2) Jörn Neumann (DE) – Durango – 15/5:20.640
3.(3) Dustin Evans (US) – TLR – 14/5:00.960
4.(4) Lee Martin (GB) – Tamiya – 14/5:02.273
5.(6) Darren Bloomfield (GB) – TLR – 14/5:04.825
6.(8) Christopher Krapp (DE) – Kyosho – 14/5:08.745
7.(10)Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 14/5:13.602
8.(5) Hupo Honigl (AT) – Durango – 14/5:15.140
9.(7) Oliver Scholz (DE) – Team C – 13/5:01.414
10.(9)Otto Ausfelt (SE) – TLR – 12/4:23.604

Complete event results can be found here.

View our event image gallery here.


January 6, 2013

Chassis Focus – Oliver Scholz

Chassis Name – Team C TM2
Motor – Team Orion
ESC – Team Orion
Tires – dBoots (handout)
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/Thunder Tiger
Remarks – Scholz is running a prototype version of the recently released TM2 from Team C, which is essentially the same car as the production version with the exception of the rear top plate and the anodising. In only his second run with the new car the German National Champion has fitted his car with extra weight to the chassis including a self made aluminium plate on the bottom front of the car. Oliver’s car is also one of the few here in Germany running a front winglet, which seems to be working having taken the car to 3rd place in the first A-main.

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