Chassis: Schumacher Cougar KF2
Motor: Speed Passion
ESC: LRP
Batteries: LRP
Radio/Servo: Sanwa/Ko
Remarks – Winner of the last 2WD EOS encounter, Polish driver Michal Orlowski resumes business driving a standard version of the Schumacher Cougar KF2, only equipped with the rear mounted rear shocks conversion kit. Also, the rear arms are from the Cougar SV2 buggy.
Image Gallery
Having said the next one would be better after finishing P3 in the opening qualifier of the the new season of the Euro Offroad Series at the Nürburgring, Lee Martin did just that topping Q2. The only driver to run 17-laps, the Yokomo driver topped a trio of Xray’s headed by Martin Wollanka and Q1 pace setter Bruno Coelho. Only 9th in the first round, Martin Bayer would improve to post the 4th fastest time ahead of Carson Wernimont and young Team Associated charger Joakim Nicolaisen.
While improving the landing issues he had in Q1, Martin said changes to his YZ-2 turned the car from feeling lazy to nervous. With Yokomo designer running the reigning champions set-up on his own YZ-2 for his second qualifying run, the accomplished Japanese driver feels the set-up is not very good and will make tweaks to the Brits car for Q3.
Also making changes to his car including moving to a different front shock position and switching to a lighter 2900mAh LRP battery, Wollanka said these resulted in the big improvement from his XB2. With the car less edgy, for Q3 he will make further changes to his front shock and copy what Coelho has been running on his example of what is expected to be the upcoming 2016 kit release of the XB2.
Having impressed with his TQ run on his first every EOS qualifier thanks to an error free 5-minutes, Coelho would have two mistakes second time out. With the front wheel of his Xray catching the piping on the second lap causing the buggy to get stuck, costing him over 4-seconds, the Portuguese driver said his second mistake came about as he pushed too hard to make back up the time. A lap previous to his mid run error would be the fastest lap of the round, him being the only driver to break into the 17-seconds.
While his ORCA powered XB2 had a little push, Bayer said overall the new car is very good. Highlighting his team-mates performances, the Czech ace and Xray’s only 2WD race winner said they have made a lot of improvements to the XB2 over last season and this is reflected in the fact that all three of their drivers are fighting for the top spot. Having suffered mistakes in Q1, first traffic and then having to pull over to let the leaders by, Bayer said he had a much cleaner Q2 hence the improvement performance. Asked about changes for his next qualifier he said they would make a few small changes to their tyres.
Making an error at the very same corner he did in the first qualifier, Wernimont said ‘that corner is my nemesis’. Changing his set-up, while the car was faster it was now more on edge, he is planning to revert back to where it was more comfortable and then try a few other things.
Completing the Top 6, traffic issues and mistakes leaving him 13th in Q1, Nicolaisen said he was ‘pretty happy with his second qualifier. Running the light version of the B5M, the 19-year-old said the car overall is ‘pretty good’ although it pushes a little on throttle. Asked if he planned changes he said his priorty for now was to get another strong result in, two of the four rounds to count, and if he gets this in the next run he will then try some small set-up changes for the final round.
View complete event results here.
View our full event image gallery here.
Chassis: Associated B5M Light
Motor: Reedy
ESC: Reedy
Batteries: Reedy
Radio/Servo: Sanwa/XP
Remarks – Young Norwegian talent Joakim Nicolaisen is running a pretty stock B5M in the Light version, which features the 3-gear transmission. The car is equipped with titanium screws, a brass bulkhead, hard suspension arms and Ghea hinge pin inserts. Joakim also chose to use a Pro-Line wing and bodyshell.
Image Gallery
Having been the star of yesterday’s practice, Bruno Coelho has backed that up by opening his Euro Offroad Series debut with a TQ run. Making his debut at the Season #5 opener at the Nürburgring in Germany, the Xray driver convincingly topped the first of the four 2WD qualifiers by over 3.5 seconds from EOS race winner Michal Orwloski, the pair the only drivers to 17-lap runs. Behind them reigning champion Lee Martin would complete the Top 3 followed by Yokomo team-mate Carson Wernimont.
Establishing himself over the last 12-months as one of the stars of touring car racing and openly admitting 2WD buggy was a class he wasn’t particular keen on, Coelho’s TQ run marked the Portuguese ace as, as one industry onlooker put it, a ‘very special talent’. Commenting on the opening heat himself, Coelho described it as ‘really good’. Aiming for a Top 5 time, he said he took it super safe and seeing Orlowski, who start in front of him crash on the opening lap, that ensured that approach for him. Seeing Lee Martin also make a mistake he said he just kept it safe and in the end ‘all was ok’. Commenting on his XB2, which is fitted with some prototype parts, he said’ the new car is perfect’ and having not been fan of 2WD he is starting to come around to liking it.
Commenting on his P2 run, Orlowski said, ‘it was ok for a first run’. While his Cougar KF2 was ‘very good’ with the 14-year-old confident its got TQ pace, it was two mistakes that were the issue. The first of these came on the opening lap at the big jump and than a second in the mid section later in the 5-minutes, both resulted in 20-second lap times compared to the Q1 fastest lap of 18.058 which was set by the Polish ace.
‘Not too great’, was how Martin summed up his opening performance. The European Champion said their shock set up was ‘a bit too hard’ for the cooler temperature, conditions much colder this morning in the Ring Boulevard hall. As a result his YZ-2 didn’t want to land off the jumps. Asked about his own performance the Brit said he ‘didn’t drive very well but not bad’ continuing ‘next time should be better’.
Wernimont described P4 as ‘better than expected as I flew off the track pretty good’. On the landing on the single after coming off the main straight he flipped his Yokomo which ended up in under the drivers stand losing him over 3-seconds. While he said his car was ‘fairly easy to drive’, he Shared Martin’s views on set-up saying ‘we got caught off guard with the cold this morning and we need to make a shock adjustment for Q2’.
Posting the fifth fastest time Xray’s Martin Wollanka describing the heat as ‘ok’. Trying to save his XB2 from a flip he got out of shape and lost time as he had to turn the buggy back in the right direction. Looking for a smoother car for Q2 he will adjust the front flex, which should make it want to flip less. He will also rebuild his shocks just to refreshen them up.
Completing the Top 6 ahead of the Yokomo of Tom Cockerill, Joern Neumann was another to crash on the opening lap after he over jumped a single and trying to get turned in for he following corner flipped his Serpent. He would suffer a second mistake of his own and then lost further time on the last lap when he collected the out of shape Yokomo of Marc Rheinard. Aside from the mistakes, the German said ‘everything else was ok, the car is good’ and for the next one he just needs to cut out the driver errors.
View complete event results here.
View our full event image gallery here.
Making his Euro Offroad Series debut, Touring Car ace Bruno Coelho is proving the big surprise at the opening round of of Season #5 at the Nürburgring in Germany. Having impressed when he posted the 3rd quickest time in 2WD practice earlier in the day, he headed an Xray 1-2 in 4WD practice ahead of team-mate Martin Bayer. With Xray’s Martin Wollanka ending up 4th fastest it was a promising start to the event for the Slovakian manufacturer. Closest to the Xrays over 3-consecutive laps would be reigning Champion Lee Martin who despite having battery issues in the second of the two seeding runs would put his all new Yokomo 3rd on the time sheets.
Clearly pleased with his day’s performance, 1:10 Offroad being a class the Portuguese star has the least experience of, he said both his cars were really good and of the two it was the 2WD that was the easier to drive but ‘easier doesn’t mean faster’. Improving the soon to be released XB4 2016 ‘a lot’ having conducted 5-days of testing at the Hudy Racing Arena in the build up to the EOS opener, he said was able to run the car the same over all the practice rounds. Having had some issue with the track’s big jump in 2WD practice, he said that run time had allowed him master it for 4WD. Looking to Sunday’s 4WD action, 2WD making up tomorrow’s schedule, he commented ‘I hope that everything is in a good way for qualifying but its looks good right now’.
‘Super good’ that was Bayers reaction to his team’s performance. As Xray’s lead offroad driver and having played a key roll in the development of the new car he was ‘super happy’ getting the cars 1,2 & 4 in the seeding times. Winner of the Season #4 finale in 4WD, The Czech driver said considering how ‘fresh the car is’, them only getting a day & a half of testing with the 2016 model due to having to wait for the final examples to come of the production line, he said ‘the base set-up is really good and (he) didn’t change anything’ over the practice here. Wollanka said while his car is also very good, he feels there is more speed to be got from it. Playing with the gluing of his front tyre’s side walls he said he needs to find the balance between this and the actual steering set-up.
‘Car is getting better and better’, that was how Martin summed up the debut of Yokomo’s new 4WD buggy. He adding consider Xray managed ‘a lot of carpet time’ with their new XB4 he was encouraged by the pace of his Japanese team’s new car considering it has only run 5 battery packs. Setting his best time in the first of the timed runs, he said the time could have been better as he managed a few laps that were under the minimum lap time set on the timing system. In the final run of the day he said the car’s power ‘felt soft’ after his cells didn’t take a full charge. Looking to qualifying on Sunday he said overall the car already has a good 5-minute pace so its been a good start for the team.
Fifth fastest behind Wollanka, Yokomo’s Marc Rheinard said they were ‘still trying stuff’ but it felt ‘pretty good’. The problem for the German is he is not happy with how the car is landing and he is lacking confidence to go at them ‘full power’. Trying changes each of the runs to try cure the landing issues he said ‘its not really getting better’. Hopeful of improving the car for qualifying, he said his aim is no mistakes because everyone is crashing and a clean run is what will count.
Completing the Top 6, Yokomo’s newest addition to its bolstered World Championship line-up, Carson Wernimont, said he got ‘caught off guard by how much traction there was’. Having ‘changed a lot of stuff’ he is is having to learn what changes the prototype car likes. Having got more on pace over the practice sessions he said he still needs to get more out of it.
Setting the 7th fastest time Joern Neumann said he played around a lot with his tyre prep. Trying different options in terms of the number of pins removed and the level of gluing in the front tyre walls, the car too edgy without any glue, he felt he has found a good combination. Now the German, who also made shock set-up changes during the rounds, said he needs to find more speed from the set-up.
Another driver debuting a new car at the event, Michal Orlowski would put his Schumacher 8th fastest. The recently crowned European Champion, said the car started off feeling really good but changes to get more steering left him with less. The 14-year-old said this was part of racing with a new car and because of the lack of track time they dont yet really know what direction to take to improve the car.
Posting the 9th fastest time ahead of Yokomo designer Shin Adachi, HB’s David Ronnefalk said it was a busy day as they tested a lot of stuff on his D413 which features a new gearbox design and roll centre. The Swede said the ‘huge bite’ of the track caused them difficulty. With the car too edgy when you don’t remove any pins from the handout Schumacher Mini pin tyre, he said when you do it ends up being too slow. Happy that they learnt a lot over the practicce he is hopeful he can find something for Sunday.
View our full event image gallery here.
Chassis: Yokomo YZ-2
Motor: Muchmore
ESC: Muchmore
Batteries: Protek RC
Radio/Servo: Sanwa/Xpert Lee Martin Edition
Remarks – Reigning champion in both classes, Lee Martin proved himself ready to defend his 2WD title topping today’s practice with his Yokomo YZ-2. The car is equipped with a number of option parts, such as titanium screws and turnbuckles, black diamond shock shafts, a hard coated slipper plate and Yatabe shock springs. An Avior Wing and an under LiPo weight from LMR complete the package.
Image Gallery
