Cockerill takes Q2

Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill took the second round of qualifying at the EOS in Poland making amends for a late start in Q1 when he broke his prototype Cougar in the warm-up.  Running a new set of Proline controlled tyres, the British driver topped the round with a time that was fractionally quicker than Joern Neumann’s Q1 pace. Neumann would be 3rd quickest second time round behind Durango team-mate Hupo Honigl.

Commenting on his TQ run, Cockerill said ‘I just did what I should have done in the first one’.  Having broke his front shock tower in the first qualifier trying to do the high risk double he said he just singled it this time.  Having thought about trying it during Q2 he said once he saw both Honigl and Neumann make mistakes he knew by playing it safe he could take the round.  Planning to run his third & final set of allocated Proline tyres in Q3, he will leave his buggy set-up as is for now but having to run used tyres for the final qualifier he will have to adjust the set-up to suit.

Neumann said he struggled on used tyres leading to two mistakes that cost him over 6-seconds.  Team-mate Honigl, who set the fastest lap of the round said he was happy with his run on used tyres as he had improved on his Q1 time when he was also second.  Third in Q1 Benni Gröschel could only managed 13th saying he had a driver failure in Q2.

Backing up his surprise 4th fastest time in Q1, Danish Team C driver Patrick Hornum was again 4th knocking 3-seconds of his time.  Behind him last year’s podium finisher Michal Orlowski took his Durango to the 5th fastest time.  Behind the young Polish talent the next 5 drivers where all covered by just 6/10ths of a second with Dutch driver Bryan van Rijnberk sixth 12/1000ths ahead of Team Xray’s Renaud Savoya.

Having not been happy with his RB6 in Q1 when he posted the 5th fastest time, Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk had an even worse Q2.  Changing his set-up, the Swede said he changed it too much making the buggy worse to drive.  Planning to raise his shocks for Q3 along with adding more pack, the 1:8 Offroad European Champion is thinking also about changing from a geardiff to a ball diff to help with how the buggy reacts on the landings.

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2WD Buggy Q2 times

1. Tom Cockerill (GB) – Schumacher – 13/5:09.240
2. Hupo Hönigl (AT) – Team Durango – 13/5:09.781
3. Jörn Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – 13/5:12.481
4  Patrick Hornum (DK) – Team C – 13/5:19.211
5. Michal Orlowski (PL) – Team Durango – 13/5:20.088
6. Bryan van Bijnberk (NL) – Yokomo – 13/5:22.017
7. Reno Savoya (FR) – Xray – 13/5:22.039
8. Nicolas Risser (BE) – Team C – 13/5:22.167
9. David Poulter (GB) – TLR – 13/5:22.472
10.Torben Hojfeldt (DK) – Team C – 13/5:22.665

Neumann heads Durango 1,2,3 in Q1

Joern Neumann headed a Durango 1, 2, 3 in the first round of 2WD Qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series season opener in Poland this morning, the German topping the times ahead of team-mates Hupo Honigl and Benni Gröschel.  EOS debutant Patrick Hornum was best of the rest taking his Team C to a surprise 4th fastest ahead of the Kyosho of David Ronnefalk and Yokomo of Björn Prümper.

Taking the 5-minute qualifier by over 4-seconds, defending Champion Neumann said it was a clean run and he was happy to kick off the event with a TQ run.  Setting the fastest lap the German said he plans to leave everything as is for Q2.  Honigl said he took his normal approach of putting in a safe opening run but seeing that he was able to keep pace with his team-mate he started to push but this was ‘a mistake’. With three laps to go the Austrian crashed his DEX210 costing him 3-seconds.

Having last raced in March of this year, Gröschel said his opening qualifier was ‘a lot better than expected’.  Having broke his buggy a number of times in yesterday’s practice rounds the German, who finished on the 4WD podium here last year, said his buggy was much better today following a shock set-up change he made last night.  For Q2 he said he will leave his DEX210 as is and hope he can put in a repeat performance.

More used to racing electric touring car, Danish driver Hornum was happy with his qualifier but feels there is room for improvement. Having only raced offroad twice before, he said he went for a safe run making just two minor mistakes over the five minutes.  Planning another safety run in Q2, he plans to push a little harder in Q3 & 4 when he will also make some set-up changes on his TM2.  Team C lead driver Oliver Scholz took his example to the 7th fastest time while team-mate Tom Maquel finished the round 9th.

Ronnefalk said the ‘result (was) actually better than the driving’.  The Swede said he made too many mistakes reckoning he lost around 15-seconds in total due to poor driving. Apart from his driving he said his RB6 did not feel as good as yesterday with the buggy inparticular not jumping as good as it did in the practice rounds.

Elsewhere Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill would end the round 11th fastest.  Breaking a front shock tower in the warm-up which he changed with impressive speed, he just missed the starting clock and so the computer timed out before he completed what would have been a Top 6 run.  Breaking the shock tower at the double he said after ‘I told you it was Big Risk, Big Reward’.  Really happy with the performance of his car setting the second fastest lap of the round he joked ‘with a good driver the car can win’.

For Xray it was Czech driver Jiri Mara who was fastest in 10th.  His big name team-mates both crashed in their runs with Martin Bayer opting to pull up just after the 1-minute mark to save tries.  Renaud Savoya said he tried to drive a save run but ended up with three big mistakes leaving him well down the order.

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2WD Buggy Q1 times

1. Jörn Neumann (DE) – Team Durango – 13/5:09.882
2. Hupo Hönigl     (AT) – Team Durango – 13/5:13.958
3. Benni Gröschel (DE) – Team Durango – 13/5:19.926
4  Patrick Hornum (DK) – Team C – 13/5:22.036
5. David Ronnefalk  (SE) – Kyosho – 13/5:22.138
6. Björn Prümper (DE) – Yokomo – 13/5:23.698
7. Oliver Scholz (DE) – Team C – 13/5:23.859
8. David Poulter (GB) – TLR – 13/5:24.060
9. Tom Maquel (LU) – Team C – 13/5:24.257
10.Jiri Mara (CZ) – Xray – 13/5:24.997

Neumann also fastest in 4WD at EOS

Having set the pace in 2WD Buggy practice at the Euro Offroad Series earlier in the day, Joern Neumann repeated the feat in 4WD this evening in Poland.   Taking his Durango to the fastest 3-consecutive laps in the fourth & final practice, the German will be the top seed for qualifying ahead of Xray’s Martin Bayer.  Hupo Honigl posted the third fastest time while unable to improve on his P3 time Renaud Savoya end the day fourth ahead of Kyosho’s David Ronnefalk and Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill.

Neumann said driving his 4WD it didn’t feel like carpet racing but more like racing outdoor on dirt.  Describing his DEX410 as ‘loose’, the 4WD World Championship Top Qualifier said he has had to adapt his driving to the ‘weird feeling’.  While very different to what he is used to for carpet racing, he said overall its not a huge problem and for tomorrow he plans to just check over his buggy for the opening qualifier.

Bayer was happy with his XB4 describing it as ‘pretty good’.  Together with team-mate Renaud Savoya who set the fastest lap of practice, the Xray pairing were the only drivers to run 20-second laps of the track.  Looking for more steering in the slow corners the European Champion said they should be able to figure that out for the opening qualifier.  Savoya said for P4 he didn’t have a proper feeling with his XB4 after he tried running a shorter wheelbase.  The 3-time 1:8 Offroad European Champion, who is a relative newcomer to 1:10 electric offroad, said he will revert to his P3 set-up which should leave him good again for tomorrow.

Running Kyosho’s prototype 4WD chassis which made its debut at the Worlds in Chico last month, Ronnefalk said the buggy has the speed and he just needs to stay consistent without mistakes.  Fitting a new set of tyres for the final practice, the 17-year-old said the first few laps where difficult but once the tyre bedded in the rest of the run was ok, him running a number of laps alongside Bayer.

Completing the Top 6, Cockerill said he struggled to get a good tyre balance in the early practices with his CAT having loads of steering yet not grip rolling.  Feeling he improved his set-up in the first two runs, he said having used just the one set of tyres for the four rounds this left him with a lack of overall traction.  Looking forward to qualifying he said with a fresh set of tyres on his buggy he ‘hopes’ all should be fine.

Behind the British driver young Polish talent Michal Orlowski took his Durango to the seventh fastest time followed by Team C’s Oliver Scholz. Also driving a Durango, young Czech racer Kaja Novotny was ninth with British driver David Poulter completing the Top 10 to book his place in the top heat of qualifying.

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Video – 4wd Practice Rd2