May 18, 2019

Kobbevik & Haatanen complete the 2wd podium

With Michal Orlowski sitting out A3 having wrapped up the win in A2, it was Daniel Kobbevik who emerged as the winner in a final that none of the drivers seemed to want to win. With multiple drivers taking their turn to lead the race, Daniel was able to slowly pick off those ahead of him as they all made mistakes, the Norwegian also having some early incidents. Paul Crompton lead from the start and with track conditions providing much more traction than in previous races had a difficult time with his Yokomo, a number of mistakes meaning he fell back into the pack only to emerge as the leader a few laps later as those ahead of him also crashed. He would eventually bring his car home in 2nd after some more incidents. Joona Haatanen had worked his way to the lead early on only to have a particularly hard time on the landing of the backside double, which after a handful of crashes on the same point saw him drop back to 3rd by the finish. The Schumacher challenge for the podium from van Helmond and Neumann failed to materialise despite a good start from both, however a couple of comings together meant the team mates were left fighting for the mid pack spots by the end of the race, a result which meant that neither would join their team mate Orlowski on the podium.

Ultimately it was Orlowski who stamped his authority on the 2wd portion of the event early on and with his win today, his third of the season, also wraps up the 2018/19 2wd title a race early, his 3rd in succession. Behind the Polish driver, Daniel Kobbevik would take the runner up spot on tie break from Joona Haatanen, the Xray driver managing to improve his finishing position in each of the 3 mains showing a high level of maturity in the changing conditions. Joona would complete the podium, the Associated driver having the pace to win the final main in the drying conditions but ultimately luck was not on his side. Jorn Neumann would end the event in 4th, ahead of Crompton and van Helmond in 5th and 6th with Martin Bayer, a struggling Bruno Coelho, Hupo Honigl and the young Max Gotzl completing the final overall standings.

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May 18, 2019

Michal Orlowski dominates 2wd in Germany

Michal Orlowski continued his dominance of proceedings here at EOS Rd5 as the Polish driver lead home a Schumacher 1-2-3 in the 2nd A-main to seal the overall win here in Germany. Chased hard by Jorn Neumann who came through from 6th to finish the race less than 2 seconds behind his team mate, it was Wesley van Helmond who took 3rd just ahead of Daniel Kobbevik and Hupo Honigl, who completed the top half of the field. ‘We changed the car, which was a risky decision’ said Orlowski of his choice to switch to the Laydown car for the 2nd final. Using a different shock setup to team mate Neumann, the German clearly faster in the final part of the race, Orlwoski praised his team mate, saying ‘Jorn drove very well’. Declaring it a ‘perfect weekend in 2wd’ and wanting to thank his crew and sponsors for the win he said his focus is now on 4wd which gets underway directly after A3 of 2wd on what should be dry conditions.

In 2nd was Neumann, the former Champion happy with his race through the field but remarked that he had to ’start too far back’, the German only qualifying in 6th in the difficult conditions yesterday. Feeling he was slightly faster than Michal, Jorn setting the fastest lap of the weekend, by the time he got up to 2nd he had a straightaway deficit and despite his car being ‘super, very good’ it was a difficult task to try and catch, let alone pass, Orlowski. With the remaining places on the podium still up for grabs and with the traction now higher than it has been at any point of the weekend he will push hard to take the win in A3 to seal the runner up spot.

In his first 2wd A-main appearance at the EOS van Helmond had a much better A2 than in the opening leg where he ended up last of the 10 car field. Making a clean start this time, the Dutch man explained that he had also switched to the Laydown car and driven it for the very first time in A2, declaring the first 3 minutes of the run as a bit sketchy as he got used to the new car. Now with 5 minutes running time with the car he plans to make some set-up changes for the final A-main to try and lock down a podium spot.

Daniel Kobbevik was another to relish the higher traction conditions as the Xray driver had not brought his dirt car to the race and so had to run to this point with his high traction XB2. With the grip level improving, so too has his pace as the young Norwegian improved on his A1 finish of 5th to take 4th in the second main. With the ’car getting better’ for A3 he will simply ‘try to stay clean’ and go for another good result. Xray team mate Hupo Honigl would take 5th with Joona Haatanen in 6th while Bruno Coelho had a horrid race ending the 5 minute final in 10th and last after some costly mistakes.

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May 18, 2019

Orlowski masters difficult conditions to take A1

With the sun now shining and the track conditions improving slightly over yesterday, it was Michal Orlowski who won A1 of the Euro Offroad Series here at the Arena33, taking full advantage of his pole position to win by a large margin. Behind it was Joona Haatanen who came through from 5th on the grid to take the runner up spot with Bruno Coelho falling back to 3rd. Fourth place would go to former champion Jorn Neumann who had a nice battle with eventual 5th place finisher Daniel Kobbevik with Paul Crompton who had a terrible first lap, recovered to complete the top 6. Asked about his run Orlowski said ‘the track is developing some dry spots’ which the Polish teenager confirmed in marshalling following his main, using the opportunity to inspect the track surface. With the now drying track, the Schumacher driver will switch back to his Cougar Laydown for A2 ‘so there is lots of work to do’, ending by saying ‘I’m glad I got the win, it makes my life easier in the next one’.

Young Finnish star Haatanen put in a master class of steady driving as he took his Associated buggy through the carnage to take a well deserved 2nd place, albeit some 5 seconds back on Orlowski. Changing to a softer rear shock oil he said it felt better that run but they are still looking for some grip summing up his run by saying ‘finally I had some pace compared to Michal and Bruno’.

Bruno Coelho described his run as just ‘ok’ having benefitted from the crash at the start between van Helmond and Crompton. Directly after he was able to run with Michal but admitted that was only because he was making lots of small mistakes and once the Polish driver got his head down he was able to pull away. Running in 2nd for most of the race, a mistake on the right side of the track saw the Xray driver get caught on a pipe which allowed Haatanen through to 2nd. For A2 he will make some changes to the car to try to make more traction.

Taking 4th place, Schumacher driver Jorn Neumann said that his race had started very badly having crashed on the first lap, losing about 1.5 seconds. Recovering from that earlier problem and with the top 3 already so far ahead he was pleased to have a good fight with Xray driver Daniel Kobbevik in the latter stages, the young Norwegian even make a solid attempt on the last lap but the German was able to hold on for 4th, something Jorn said ‘was good considering the tough conditions’. With Kobbevik in 5th, Crompton took a disappointed 6th, with Xray trio of Martin Bayer, Hupo Honigl and Max Gotzl covering 7th to 9th while Wesley van Helmond brought up the rear of the field.

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