Haatanen Top Seed at EOS finale

Joona Haatanen will go into the 2WD qualifying at the season finale of the Euro Offroad Series as the top seed.  Unable to better his opening time in the second & final controlled practice in Austria, the Associated driver will lead away the first qualifier ahead of Lee Martin who also failed to better his opening time. Having failed to post a time in CP1, Neil Cragg would be the biggest improvement in CP2 with the Associated driver posting the 3rd fastest time. With Bruno Coelho unable to improve his time, this pushed the Xray driver back to fourth ahead of Marc Rheinard who was the only driver in the Top 5 after CP1 to improve on their time. Rheinard’s improvement moved him ahead of Yokomo team-mate Ryan Maifield.

‘Too aggressive out of the corner’ was how Haatanen described his B6 after the final controlled practice.  Having made changes to his car to try to get more steering, the Finnish talent said, ‘we will go back to what he had before for qualifying.  The car was easier to drive and the steering I was looking for is not a big issue to work around’.  Planning for a safe first qualifier if it goes well he said, then we will try something after Q1 (to improve the steering)’.

Setting the second fastest 3-consecutive laps of CP2 behind fellow countryman Cragg, Martin ‘tried a different steering arrangement and didn’t like it’. He added, ‘time wise it was not terrible but I’ll go back to what we had before’.  With the third fastest time of the final practice and sightly quicker than his own CP1 pace, Rheinard said his YZ2 was a little easier to drive after refreshing the diffs and shocks but felt the car had less forward bit.  Putting this down to his tyres being on their second run, he plans to leave the car unchanged for the first of the four qualifiers with his target ‘a clean run’.

Not even completing a lap in the first controlled practice, Cragg was pleased to put his B6 into the top heat.  Hitting the track’s unloved end of the straight bump on his opening lap, it ‘caught (him) out’ sending him flying off into the barriers and out on the spot with a broken car.   He said, ‘it put me under pressure for the last one but the car has been pretty good all day.  We found a good set-up at the last round and since I put it down on the track here it feels like I could drive this pace all day’.

8/100ths slower than his CP1 pace, Coelho said, ‘my car was a little better now’.  He added, ‘It was more consistent and easier to drive and we will see now over 5-minutes how it goes’.  Having reported a lack of speed in the 180 corners after the first controlled practice, he said it was now better but it wasn’t sure if that was all down to running new tyres, having run used in CP1, or due to changes to his set-up.  Set to run on a new set of the handout Schumacher tyres again in Q1, he said after that then they will then see what to do.

Summing up his final practice, Maifield said, ‘It was OK.  We tried to make it faster but it was slower’.  The US Offroad star added, ‘overall I had to drive too hard to go fast’.  He continued, ‘we have a new theory on what to do so we are going to go down that rabbit hole’.

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Haatanen tops first controlled practice at EOS

Joona Haatanen has set the early pace at the Euro Offroad Series season finale in Wels, Austria.  In the first of the controlled rounds of practice, the Team Associated driver set the fastest three consecutive laps by 0.029 of a second over Yokomo’s Lee Martin.  Taking his first 2WD win at the previous round in Germany,  Bruno Coelho would complete the Top 3.  Making his EOS debut Ryan Maifield set the 4th fastest time, with the Yokomo driver calling the carpet surface track ‘a lot of fun’.

Coming into the weekend on the back of his best EOS performance in which he claimed his first EOS career TQ, Haatanen summed up the first controlled practice as having gone ‘very good’.   Suffering from understeer in free practice, he said adding swaybars to his B6 had made it ‘better’.  Looking to find a little more steering, the Finn will change the steering block arms to give the car more ackermann. In terms the track, the 14-year-old said ‘I don’t like the jumps, they don’t flow like at Arena 33 but I will get used to it so then it wont be too bad’.

‘Not bad’ was how Martin summed up his performance.  Winner last time the EOS came to Wels, he said the track layout was one on which it was ‘going to be difficult to be ultimately faster than anyone else’ adding ‘the hardest part was the bump at the end of the straight’. Caused by a cable tunnel in the exhibition hall floor, it is right on the turning in point at the end of the main straight with most drivers reporting it as an annoyance. On the track, the former champion also said the grey carpet is ‘a little loose’ compared to the black but he ‘kind of like(s) it’ but added ‘you can forget there is a difference and then end up with the car coming around on you’.  Spending yesterday testing at an indoor track in Salzburg along with the rest of Yokomo team,  Martin joked for him the test ‘provided he can’t see very well in the dark’, the track lighting not very strong. Having just switched to new electronics sponsor Scorpion Power ahead of the race, he said the test was a good opportunity to get familiar with his new speedo, motors and batteries.

‘Very good but missing steering off power in the 180 corners’ was how Coelho described his CP1 performance. The back to back 4WD Champion continued, ‘the car is stable and easy to drive but its not fast in the 180 corners’. A driver who also highlighted the bump at the end of the straight as the biggest challenge of the track, when asked about changes to improve his XB2’s corner speed he replied, ‘all the team are trying different things in the next run so we should find a solution from that’.

Maifield was particularly surprised by his first experience on EOS carpet saying, ‘I have never run on the carpet before and its much better than the astro turf in Japan’.  His only previous experience on a non dirt based track being the 2015 1:10 World Championships at Yatabe Arena.  The American continued, ‘this is a lot more fun.  The car is predictable and you can feel set-up changes’.  In terms of his YZ-2, he said it was ‘missing a little steering but the comfort level is good’. Half a second off Haatanen’s pace, he said ‘I will go for a speed set-up for the next one and see what it does’.

Setting the 5th fastest time, Marc Rheinard summed up practice as ‘not too bad’ but the German added ‘for the controlled practice it felt like it pushed too much’. He continued ‘if we can find a little steering it should be OK’.  Apart from the ‘stupid bump’, the winner of the season opener said the track is ‘nice but the double double not easy’.  Behind Rheinard, Martin Bayer would complete the Top 6.

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Track Focus – ‘Modellbau Wels’

Name – Modellbau Wels
Host – EOS
Country – Austria
Location – Wels (200km West of Vienna)
Direction – Anti-clockwise
Surface – All carpet

Making its first appearance on the Euro Offroad Series calendar in 2014, this is third time the championship runs as part of the country’s biggest Hobby Exhibition ‘Modelbau Wels’, last year the ETS getting the chance to race in front of the show’s 30k plus visitors.  Situated in the small north Austrian city of Wels, this year the EOS track returns to same hall it took over on its first visit, that race also bringing a conclusion to the then third season.  While now situated more on the peripheral of the three day show compared to the vast hall it was located in in 2015, the event is still a good opportunity to highlight R/C Racing.  As a show, Modellbau Wels’ aim is to give people looking for a modelling based hobby a full spectrum of potential hobbies with everything from R/C construction models, boats, planes, drifting, trains and of course R/C racing covered.

In terms of the all carpet track, all the jumps having been covered with the exhibition hall’s own carpet tiles, the build was headed by Gerd Strenge.  Covering an area 30 X 20 metres, the track moves back to a more traditional layout than that used at the previous round at Arena 33. While utilising the same jumps, one alteration Gerd has made since the last outing is to the kicker which now has a reduced dig angle.  Key features of the track are the main jump in front of the drivers stand and the angled double double in the centre.

Giving his thoughts on the layout after free practice, Neil Cragg called its ‘pretty cool’.  He added, ‘Its quite flowing this time so it not too bad at all’.  Asked how it compared to the layout at Arena 33, the Associated driver replied, ‘that layout was a little too much and the step down was stupid, this is a nicer layout’.  One unintentional feature of the track that is causing the greatest difficult for the drivers is a bump at the end of the straight.  Caused by one of the cable tunnels in the floor of the exhibition hall, Cragg said, ‘it is right on the turning point which is a little annoying’.  In terms of a lap time for the track, in 2WD a quick laps is running in the late 18-seconds bracket.

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