Wollanka takes opening qualifier at Nurburgring

Martin Wollanka has TQ’d the opening round of 2WD qualifying the Euro Offroad Series in Germany. Having topped seeding yesterday, the Xray driver took full advantage of leading away the field putting in a faultless 5-minute run to top the times ahead of reigning champion Lee Martin.  Martin would end up 3/10ths of a second down on Wollanka with his Yokomo team-mate Marc Rheinard completing the Top 3.  Top Qualifier on the last visit to the Nurburgring, Neil Cragg would mange only P7, the Team Associated driver afterward saying he didn’t drive well and admitting he struggled with the switch back to 2WD after last night’s 4WD practice.

Commenting on his TQ run, Wollanka said, ‘the car was really good’ but highlighted the key to the result was he ‘made no mistakes’.  With both Lee Martin and Rheinard posting faster lap times, the Austrian said, ‘I drove smooth at the start but Lee started to catch me so I had to push a bit more’.  With the morning sun causing some drivers issues as he came in through the large glass front of the Ring Boulevard, he said the Team Associated step-up step-down was ‘not easy’ as he couldn’t see the white boards due to the sun.  For Q2, last year’s Round 1 podium finisher plans to leave his XB2 unchanged.

‘It was OK for the first run of the morning’ was Martin’s reaction to the first of the four qualifiers adding ‘the sun was a pain’.  The British driver said the first few laps were not good as had a few bobbles, was missing his corners and had to save a few crashes but his driving improved as the run went on.  In terms of his RC Concept powered YZ-2, he said the shock oil was a bit hard as it was colder this morning which made the car feel lazy but expecting the temperature to rise for Q2 he will not make any changes.

While he would crash on his opening lap, Rheinard was overall content with his first qualifying attempt.  The German said, ‘the first lap was a pain in the ass as I lost 3-seconds but it was still a good run’.  He continued, ‘I didn’t have many mistakes but I still had one too much’.  In terms of his YZ2, he said ‘it was pretty good’ and he will leave it the same for the next one.

Posting the fourth fastest time Michal Orlowski said he ‘struggled with traction roll’.  The Schumacher driver was also quick to blame his own driving adding, ‘I also made some stupid mistakes on my side’.  Looking to make the car easier to drive for Q2, the 15-year-old said ‘we are thinking what changes to make so we can be faster for the next one’.

‘Not happy at all with my driving but very happy with the result’ was Hupo Honigl reaction to his P5 time.  The Xray driver said, ‘I was blind and guessing the way round not driving’.  The Austrian said the shadowing from the sun added to his problems and when asked how his XB2 was replied, ‘I think the car was OK as I was going fast but Im not really sure’.

Danish Team Yokomo driver Frederik Hovgaard would complete the Top 6.  Only 21st fastest in seeding practice, the 16-year-old was much happier with his YZ2 after fitting their new rear hub which he said made the car easier to drive and the ‘corner speed much better’.  While he would have a few bobbles including losing over a second on the table top, he was happy to start the day off with a strong first round and will try to build on that in Q2.

View complete event results here.

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Coelho extends advantage to top 4WD seeding at EOS

Bruno Coelho extended his advantage over his rivals in the final round of practice at the Nurburgring to secure the top seeding for 4WD at the Euro Offroad Series season opener.  Having set an impressive pace in CP1, topping that run from Michal Orlowski, the Xray driver would go over 2/10ths quicker extending his gap over the Schumacher driver, who didn’t improve, to over 6/10th over 3-laps.  Summing up his commanding start to the weekend, the reigning champion said ‘it’s all perfect’.  Behind Orlowski, Lee Martin would improve to the third quickest time ahead of Coelho’s team-mate Martin Wollanka with Marc Rheinard, another who failed to improve dropping from 3rd to 5th.

For Orlowski an early incident with a rolling car would prevent him from improving on his time.  In the impact the front rollbar carrier would break leaving it redundant.   Commenting on the run, the 15-year-old said, ‘I felt the car was not right but I was trying to get a better time but then I could see it was doing weird things so I pulled off and then we saw the problem.  It’s a pity as the car was working really good in the warm-up’.

Changing to a different front spring Martin said his improvement came from his Yokomo landing better.  The British driver added his ‘laps are ok given (he is) not pushing hard’ and ‘the important thing is the car is good for a 5-minute time’.

Having made an error in the first controlled practice resulting in him breaking a front drive shaft, Wollanka said changes to his XB4 had made it ‘better but still not perfect’.  The Austrian who finished third overall in last year’s championship said he still can’t push hard as when he gets on the throttle the car is rolling too much and lifting a front wheel.  For the opening qualifier which takes place tomorrow night after the completion of the 2WD finals, he said he will try a rear roll centre change.

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Chassis Focus – Bruno Coelho

Chassis: Xray XB4 2016
Motor: Hobbywing Xerun 5.5T
ESC: Hobbywing Xerun XR 10pro
Batteries: EZ Power 4600mAh Shorty
Radio/Servo: Sanwa
Remarks – Reigning EOS and World Champion, Bruno Coelho us running the 2016 version of the XB4 here in Germany. His car features a graphite stiffener applied on the rear chassis brace, and is also equipped with graphite arms and aluminium uprights as well as an aluminium ackermann plate. The Portuguese driver is also using steel differential gears and front ECS driveshafts.

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Coelho heads time in first 4WD practice

Bruno Coelho has topped the times for the first round of 4WD controlled practice at the Euro Offroad Series season opener.  Back at the Nurburgring where he made his EOS debut 12-months ago before going on to be champion, the Xray driver had almost a 4/10ths advantage over his rivals over the 3-consecutive lap times that will determine the seeding for qualifying.  Closest to the winner of the last three 4WD EOS encounters would be Michal Orlowski, the Schumacher driver the only one able to match Coelho’s 18-second fastest lap pace. A sizeable gap back, Yokomo’s Marc Rheinard would complete the Top 3 followed by team-mate Lee Martin and Xray’s Martin Bayer.

While Coelho said his car was ‘going very well’, he added ‘the track is super difficult’.  The World Champion is having issue with the Associated step-up step-down which he said you arrive into super fast and it leads to you breaking your rhythm.  In terms of his XB4 he said it was not as fast as they were expecting in the first practice and they have been making small changes each run to improve. Adding they are ‘now getting there’ he will rebuild his diffs for the final practice adding they still need to try to get the car more consistent.

Orlowski said he knew from the first practice they had good pace but they just needed to get 3-laps.  The former European Champion said they had too much rotation in the car but lowering the rear camber link by 1mm made the rear more stable.  The Polish teenager said while the track is more difficult that any of the tracks on last years calendar he thinks he’s strong in terms of putting in a 5-minute run saying the biggest issue of the stacked practices heats was not crashing himself but avoiding other cars.  Happy with how is car is working he plans to leave it unchanged for CP2 and instead plans to help the rest of the team with getting their cars better.

Describing his YZ4 as ‘actually pretty ok’, Rheinard said as in 2WD he was ‘still struggling with the step down landing’.  The German continued, ‘the car feels ok and its all going to come down to no mistakes’ adding ‘it is better to go a little slower and try for a safe run’.  In terms of changes to his car after free practice, he would change to gullwing front arms but also changing to a bigger Muchmore motor having lacked punch out of the corners he said while the car was better he wasn’t sure how much of that came from the arm change.

‘Not too bad, feels pretty easy to drive’ was Martin’s reaction when asked how his car was in CP1.  The former 4WD Champion said the suspension felt strange with the front of the car bouncing up on the landings so he didn’t have the confidence to push it.  As he stated during 2WD practice, he said “I’m not going for 3-laps and I think our 5-minute pace is OK’.  Doing the double at last year’s season opener he added, ‘We are a little lacking compared to Bruno and Orlowski is looking pretty good too but we’ll get there’.

Having moved more into his role as Xray’s Offroad team-manager and taken more of a back seat as a leading team driver, Bayer’s reaction to his P5 time was ‘I’m having fun’.  The former EOS race winner, who recently married long time partner Tereza, said a lack of time has meant that his XB4 is straight off the track from doing the Euros in Spain with only enough time to rebuild the diffs. Focused on supporting Xray drivers, the Czech driver said it was nice to still be able to put his car near the top the time sheets adding ‘myself and Hupo (Honigl) are having good fun battling each other to be faster but its starting to get serious now’.  Honigl would post the seventh fastest time, Xray’s Kaja Novotny separating the two experienced racers.

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Chassis Focus – Neil Cragg

Chassis: Team Associated B6
Motor: Reedy Sonic 6.5T
ESC: LRP Flow
Batteries: Reedy 3900mAh Shorty
Radio/Servo: KO Propo/Reedy
Remarks – British ace and current 2wd European Champion Neil Cragg is starting his 16/17 EOS campaign here at the Nurburgring with the Team Associated B6. His Reedy/LRP powered buggy is equipped with a number of aluminium parts, such as the front bulkhead, steering bell cranks and rear arms mounts and he is also using steel chassis weights.

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