Chassis Focus – Jesper Rasmussen
Chassis: Team Associated B6
Motor: Reedy Sonic 6.5T
ESC: Hobbywing Xerun V3.1
Batteries: Reedy 5300mAh
Radio/Servo: Sanwa/Reedy
Remarks – Having spent his 18th birthday at the track here in Warsaw yesterday, Danish talent Jesper Rasmussen celebrated today by putting his B6 into the A-Main qualifying 7th. His car sports a front brass bulkhead in addition to steel weight plates under the servo and the ESC. The Associated supported driver is also using hard wishbones, titanium turnbuckles and a rear aluminium suspension mount.
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Video – 2WD A-Main Leg 1
Orlowski cruises to A1 victory
Michal Orlowski has taken a dominant victory in the opening 2WD A-Main at the Euro Offroad Series in Poland. Starting from the pole, the Schumacher driver however would get the first jump slightly wrong with his error leading Lee Martin and Neil Cragg to tangle delaying the field and giving him an early break he would only go on to extend. With Hupo Honigl coming off best from hectic first lap to go from 6th to second, Cragg’s move into second short lived as he crashed at the quad, Orlowski was then able to extend his lead crossing the finish almost 6-seconds in front. Holding second for 4 minutes and 45 second, with Martin right on his rear wing, Honigl would make a mistake handing second to the reigning champion with a lap to go. Eventually finishing 5th as Cragg and Christopher Krapp also went through on the last lap to claim 3rd and 4th, the former race winner said afterwards, ‘I want to shoot myself, I don’t even know how I crashed’.
A very popular win in front of a huge crowd of visitors to the Warsaw Moto Show, Orlowski said, ‘I got a bit lucky at the start. I was worried about the first jump before the race and then got it a bit wrong but saved it from crashing’. He continued, ‘I got it a bit too short but Lee gave me space and that caused the crash behind. Once the race settled, the 15-year-old said, ‘I could see Hupo was defending in second so I just focused on doing my laps and making sure I didn’t make any more mistakes. Hopefully the next one I won’t have the same problem with the first jump’.
Giving his view on the start, Martin said, ‘Orlowski was a bit short and I was also a bit short. He bounced wide but I could see he was coming back in so I gave him space. Neil hit the the jump good and carrying speed he hit me. It was just a racing accident’. The Yokomo driver would set about a recover catching up to Honigl summing up the Austrian’s frustration with ‘Hupo was out front for 4:45. How unlucky’. Hoping for a better start in A2 to try and push the race decider into A3, the Brit said, ‘Michal is fast, he is comfortable and he’s driven well so far. I think it’s going to be hard to unsettle him but we’ll try’.
‘Third is a pretty good salvage’ was how a frustrated Cragg summed the opening A-Main. The Associated driver continued ‘I got unlucky at the start and climbed all over Lee’. I still managed to get away in second but then rolled on the same lap and had a few more uncomposed laps. I got a lucky third on the last lap’. Feeling he could have challenged Orlowski he said, ‘I would like to see him under pressure from the start but instead we gave it to him on the first lap’. Behind Cragg, Krapp who was involved in the early battle for second would also drop back after a mistake but recover to finish 4th, one place up on his starting position. Starting ahead of his fellow German, Joern Neumann’s return to the front of the EOS grid didn’t go well as the former champion came off worst of the first lap bunching up of the pack as he came out of it in last place to finish 8th behind EOS Round 1 winner Marc Rheinard.
View complete event results here.
View the event image gallery here.
Chassis Focus – Lee Martin
Chassis: Yokomo YZ-2 CA
Motor: RC Concept 6.0T
ESC: RC Concept SC120
Batteries: RC Concept Omega 4500mAh
Radio/Servo: Sanwa/Xpert
Remarks – Lee Martin is set to start second on the A-Main grid in Poland, having topped the last round of qualifying here at the Warsaw Moto Show. His Yokomo YZ-2 CA is equipped with the same prototype Yatabe springs used at the Nurburgring in the opening EOS round and features a rear brace that Lee’s engineer Shin Adachi cut to obtain more flex. To suit better the different characteristics of the tight Polish track, this time they opted for using the old version of the Japanese car’s rear hubs.
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Q4 Update – Martin takes 2WD final qualifier
Lee Martin has taken the final round of qualifying at Round 2 of the EOS in Poland. With the overall TQ being wrapped up by Michal Orlowski in the penultimate qualifier, Q4 was about deciding how the rest of the field would line up behind the Schumacher driver. Opting to run his most worn set of tyres in the final qualifier to save tyres for the final, Orlowski would find his KF2 SE very loose meaning he would have to settle for 3rd. Up front Martin, having DNF’d Q3, would set the pace by 1.6-seconds from Joern Neumann, a result that would secure the reigning champion second on the grid. For the much improved Neumann, the 2nd along with an earlier P3 will see the Serpent driver take up his best starting position since joining the team with 4th behind Neil Cragg, the Associated driver unable to improve on his two P2 runs with fifth for the round. Backing up his Q3 improvement with another P4, Schumacher’s Christopher Krapp completes the top half of the grid in front of the only Xray in the final, that of Hupo Honigl. For Marc Rheinard his chances of another win look slim with the Nurburgring winner set to start 7th.
View complete event results here.
View the event image gallery here.
