One a piece as Martin takes Q2 at EOS decider

With Bruno Coelho taking the opening round of 4WD qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series title decider last night, this morning his only title rival Lee Martin made it one a piece.  Lucky to even make the run, a servo change required before the start, Martin would take his Yokomo to the top of the times ahead of Martin Wollanka’s Xray after a late mistake dropped Coelho off the top spot.  Coming into the Nurburgring event as points leader, Coelho would complete the Top 3 ahead of Japanese driver Kaito Kodera.

‘Happy to get that run out of that situation’, was how Martin summed up Q2.   Suffering a servo failure just as the cars went to track, quick work from Yokomo designer Shin Adachi saw a replacement fitted but ‘a lot slower servo’, Martin said it ‘felt strange’ to drive and with only 1/4 of a lap warm-up as he drove out to the grid it took the first part of the qualifier to adjust to it.  Having felt he didn’t warm his diffs enough before the opening qualifier last night, he said he also had to deal with the diffs having had no warm-up time ahead of the second encounter.

Runner-up at the season opener at the Nurburgring last September, Wollanka described his P2 as a ‘good result’. Describing his XB4 as ‘very good’, the Austrian felt he could have driven it better.  With only his team-mate Coelho posting a faster lap, he said ‘my lines are not always correct’, feeling that if he can tidy this up there is better to come, with the deficit to Martin in Q2 1.7-seconds.

Topping Q1 ahead of Martin, Coelho would throw away the second qualifier with ‘a stupid mistake’.  The Portuguese driver who knocked 2/10th off his fastest lap of Q1, would lose almost 5-seconds when he made a ‘bad landing’ 3-laps from the finish.  Able to wrap up the title if he can take the overall TQ, the World Champion said ‘the car is working very well, I just need to keep out the mistakes’.

Having made no changes to his YZ-4 since the first practice, Kodera said the car has been really good and his focus has been on working on his driving.  Running the second fastest heat and only 11th in Q1, the 15-year-old said his second qualifier was ‘pretty good’ although the run did contain one rollover that cost him 2-seconds.  Putting the improvement down to his driving he plans to continue without making changes to his set-up.

‘A good clean run’ was how Yannic Prumper described his run to P5.  The VBC team driver who is running an Xray this weekend as his manufacturer works on creating a 4WD platform, said a rear toe change had reduced understeer.  Having only driven the car for the first time in Friday’s practice, he plans to leave it unchanged for the penultimate qualifier saying ‘the car is good’.

Completing the Top 6, Hupo Honigl said ‘I wasn’t really fast but I had no mistakes’.  With the competition ‘pretty tight’ the Austrian hopes that his second P6 run would be enough for a spot in this evening’s A-Main.  With his XB4 having ‘a lot of steering’, the former European Champion said ‘it is hard to drive’ and for the next one he will ‘try to calm it down so (he) can push harder’.

Having set the pace in practice, Marc Rheinard was able to improve somewhat on his poor opening qualifier with a P7.  The Yokomo driver was only 11th in Q1 and discovered afterwards a rear shock spring was jammed, which made the car difficult but a last lap mistake didn’t help either.  With a better car for Q2, the former European Champion said the problem this morning was ‘the driver failed’.

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Coelho opens title quest with TQ run

Bruno Coelho got his quest for a maiden Euro Offroad Series title off to the perfect start by TQ’ing opening round of 4WD qualifying at the Nurburgring.  The Xray driver , who can wrap up the title with the overall TQ in Germany, was fastest from his only remaining title rival Lee Martin who was 1.1 seconds off.  Following a full day of 2WD action, the first of the four 4WD qualifiers brought cold conditions with Michal Orlowski taking his Schumacher to third.  Having just achieved his best 2WD finish of the season with 4th, Serpent’s Joern Neumann would open 4WD qualifying in the same position.  Behind the former Champion Martin Wollanka and Hupo Hönigl completed the Top 6. Having set the pace in practice yesterday, Marc Rheinard’s would only manage the 13th fastest time with the Yokomo driver hoping tomorrow brings better form after enduring a disappointing 2WD qualifying and finishing 10th.

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Cavalieri gives B6 debut win at EOS Nurburgring

Ryan Cavalieri has claimed a debut victory for Team Associated’s new B6 on its competition debut as he took victory at the season finale of the Euro Offroad Series at the Nurburgring.  A race that was wide open going into the third A-Main,  Cavalieri would take his first EOS victory with a late second place behind back to back champion Lee Martin, the final winner having to be decided by the fastest race winning time which Cavalieri would have from his A2 win.  With Martin having to settle for second, the podium in Germany would be completed by young star of the future Joona Haatanen who before a clash with his team-mate Cavalieri would have taken the overall win.  For Top Qualifier Neil Cragg, things didn’t improve after the disaster that was A1 and 8th in A3, that is where he would finish up overall on a weekend that started out so well for the Team Associated driver.

Becoming the first American driver to claim a buggy win in the EOS, Cavalieri said, ‘The new car was good and consistent all the time and the only problems were a few errors on (his) part’.  ‘Happy to get the win’ on the car’s maiden event, the former World Champion said the ‘first race was a bad incident and I was upset with myself for what happened’.  Having ‘bounced back in A2’, which he won from Martin, the Californian driver said in A3 he got ‘super lucky’ when team-mate Cragg had an mistake on the opening lap before going to the front when Haatanen got the landing on the left side double wrong.  With his ‘car ‘clearly good’ he said it was all going good until a mistake ‘with a couple of laps to go’ which would hand Martin the lead and for a moment allow Haatanen through to second.  Commenting on the incident with Haatanen which drew some booing from onlookers, Cavalieri said ‘after my mistake the marshal was going to get my car but I managed to get back on track but then the marshal was blocking my view and I didn’t see what happened.

Having been listed for a time as the winner, the computer using the incorrect race time to determine the tie breaker, Martin said he was still pleased with second overall adding ‘4th to 2nd is good’.  Second in the opening two finals, the Yokomo driver described the start in A3 as something unpublishable and that it was this that cost him the overall win as he lost around 2 seconds which would have given him the faster winning time.  While losing out today to the new B6, the World Championship podium finisher said the arrival of the car forced them to push harder and look for an extra 1/10th they didn’t know they needed before because the car was slightly faster. Wishing to point out that there can only be one original he went on to highlight the new B6 is based the design concept of the YZ-2.   With it not until A2 until ‘that (they) got it right’, he continued ‘it is good for the future and particularly the opening round of next season’s EOS’ when his quest for 3 titles in a row begins.

A driver who continues his impressive rise up the sport marking himself out this weekend as a future champion, Haatanen was understandably upset to lose out on his first international success when it was within his grasp.  Only 12-years-old the Finn was unable to talk as he came to terms with A3 but the experience is sure to help with the development of this ultra cool operator who all weekend upheld Finland’s motorsport champions tradition of keeping any race comment short and to the point.

Achieving his best finish of the season with 4th, former champion Joern Neumann said ‘I knew I needed to win to get on the podium so I went for it’.  Admitting to be surprised by Cavalieri’ mistake saying he ‘normally makes no mistakes’ he said he pushed hard to catch Martin but ended up flipping and the challenge was over.  The German who has had struggled over the last season and a half continued, ‘it’s not a problem, at least the speed is there now and with some fine tuning we can fight for wins again next season’.

Summing up his weekend, Cragg said ‘qualifying was good, racing not so good’.  On the finals he continued, ‘they started out bad and just got worse’.  Still in with the chance of a podium finish going into A3, he said after his steering problems that forced him to retire from A2 he fitted a new servo but the car ‘just didn’t feel right’ and he ‘knew from the start he was up against it’.  Only his second EOS outing and his first weekend with the new B6, the British driver said ‘I’m really happy with the car and the TQ & win is a good start for the car’ adding ‘I’m looking to the new season of EOS’.

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Cavalieri wins A2

Having caused a pile up at the start of A1, Ryan Cavalieri had no such problems in A2 with the Associated driver taking victory over Lee Martin and Joern Neumann.  Starting second behind team-mate Neil Cragg, Cavalieri took advantage of a bobble by the Top Qualifier on the third lap to go to the front and despite a sterling effort by Lee Martin he held the lead to the finish for a comfortable win.  Unfortunately for Cragg his race would end prematurely as he encountered steering problems on lap 6 which left his car undriveable, it afterwards found that the splines on his servo had twisted.

Happy with his win, Cavalieri said the race started out good but ‘it seemed like the slipper got hot’ causing him to ‘start missing (his) lines’.  While ‘this allowed Lee to close up’, the American said he was able to ‘gather it back up and not make mistakes off that (problem)’.  Set to rebuild the slipper on his Orion powered B6 for the third & deciding A-Main, he said after his 9th in A1 the win ‘gives (him) a chance and (he) will ‘go for it in A3’.

With Martin looking like he was only biding his time once he caught Cavalieri, he said it took ‘just a small bobble on the jump’ to throw away the opportunity.  Continuing ‘I don’t normal make mistakes on jumps but twice here they have caught me out’.  Feeling they have now got good pace with the YZ-2, the British driver said ‘we just need to win the last one’.  Sitting with a pair of second place finishes,  he said ‘two 2s could turn out to be great or they could turn out to be shit’ and he ‘would be happier if (he) had a win’ to his credit going into the decider.

Switching to lower profile Orion battery in his prototype Serpent, which features the rear end of their new 4WD offering, Neumann said the change made the buggy ‘more responsive’.  Starting from seventh on the grid after losing out a good final qualifier when he crashed on the last lap,  the former multiple EOS champion said by the time he got into third Cavalieri and Martin were too far ahead although he was encouraged by the fact he could reduce what started out as a full straight length advantage to Martin down to just half the main straight.  Behind Neumann, A1 winner Joona Haatanen would finish fourth, the young Finn reporting a clean and uneventful race.

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