Coelho checks out in A1

Xray’s Bruno Coelho took an easy win the opening A-Main at the Euro Offroad Series third round in Slovakia, the Top Qualifier even having enough pace to fit in a rollover during the race.  It was to be advantage Coelho from the start as No.2 starter Martin Bayer got it wrong in the first run through the main double double section allowing a slightly slow starting Martin Wollanka to take up second followed by Joern Neumann which was how they would stay till the end. Dropping to 10th place, Bayer would never recover, eventually retiring when a wheel parted company with the car on his penultimate lap.

Having discovered his car had a bent chassis just before the final qualifier but only having enough time to change it after the completion of qualifying, Coelho said his Hobbywing powered XB4 was ‘much better’ and now ‘easier to drive’.  He continued, ‘Martin’s mistake on the first lap made it a lot easier, you can drive much better without pressure’.  Admitting he got lucky that his car landed on its wheels following his bad landing at the tabletop, he said the approach for A2 will be to ‘try to do the same the next time but without the mistake’.

Wollanka said while it was a good race he was ‘losing too much time at the start’.  Finishing just over 2-seconds behind his team-mate, the Austrian continued, ‘I was on new tyres and had to be careful for a few laps’.  Once they broke in he said he was happy he was able to match Coelho’s pace but the gap was too much’.  Set to use the same set for A2 he said now the plan is to ‘push harder from the start’.

Finishing almost 9-seconds back on Wollanka, Neumann said given he was on a 3rd run set of tyres the result was the maximum he could have got.  After making ‘a good start’ running directly behind Wollanka he said the Xray driver ‘seemed to be struggling but once he found his speed I couldn’t keep up and settled for third’.  With new tyres for A2, the German is confident of a good result saying ‘on new tyres is when the car is best’ and asked if he felt a podium was possible the former Champion replied ‘I drive for the win, we’ll see what happens’.  Behind Neumann, Hupo Honigl would finish fourth followed by Kája Novotný with Lee Martin completing the Top 6 after a number of errors.

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Advantage Coelho as Xray locked out front of grid in Slovakia

Bruno Coelho is the Top Qualifier at the third round of the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia, Xray locking out the Top 3 places on the grid at the Hudy Racing Arena. With the fourth & final qualifier set to decide between Coelho and Martin Bayer who would start on pole, the decision was made on the first laps as Bayer got the tabletop jump wrong needing to be marshalled but even with a better start it may have came to nothing as later in the run he would retire with radio issues.  While pushed by team-mate Martin Wollanka, who was to set the fastest lap of all four rounds of qualifying, Coelho could cruise to his third TQ knowing that Bayer’s error had secured him the overall TQ irrespective of his own result in Q4.  Despite his DNF, Bayer will start second ahead of Wollanka with Joern Neumann a surprise 4th after a strong P3 run in the final qualifier.  Another key retirement of the final qualifier was Lee Martin popped a drive shaft after a big off, the lack of a result dropping him to fifth on the grid.

Taking what is effectively a home race for the Portuguese driver, his offroad & onroad race programs meaning he spends a lot of his time at the Hudy Arena, Coelho was happy to TQ and even more so when it was discovered he had done so with a bent chassis. With Bayer discovering it before the final qualifier but with not enough time to change, Coelho, who had earlier reported he was struggling to get the feeling he wanted from his steering servo, was pleased that actually a problem had been found.  Commenting on the deciding qualifier the World Champion said, ‘the run was without mistake. I could drive easy after I saw Martin had flipped at the first jump’.  Aiming to make it back to back wins for Xray at their world class facility having won last year as Top Qualifier he set out his plan for the final saying, ‘the track is super difficult and I will just try to keep it safe’.

‘I made a mistake at the beginning and tried to get back the time but made another mistake’, was how Bayer summed up Q4. Asked about his retirement from the heat he said, ‘I lost the radio. I could feel it was not right the lap before it completely stopped. We will check off everything and change somethings to be sure its ok for the final’.  Winner of the event in 2014 and 2015, in terms of his XB4’s performance he said ‘the car is good’ adding ‘we’ll see how the race goes’.

Wollanka was pretty pleased with his run saying getting ‘offline a few times’ was what added to his 2-seconds deficit to Coelho.  Having gone back in the changes he made to front flex on his XB4 he said ‘the car was pretty good and the lap times were there now’.  Having pulled off the pass of last season at the Hudy Arena last year when he jumped over Coelho, the video of that race going viral and exposing RC Racing to millions of viewers, when reminded of it the Austrian laughed saying, ‘we’ll see what happens but on this track you need to wait’.

‘We improved the car every run’ was former Champion Neumann’s reaction to his P3 in the final qualifier.  Running in the second fastest heat after a not so good seeding practice, the Serpent driver and one time 4WD master of racing on carpet said, ‘under braking I spun out once which cost me around 1-second but other than that it was fine’.  The German plans to make further changes to his Orion powered SDX4 saying ‘we had too much steering before but now it understeers a little bit.  On new tyres it is fine but on used it understeers more’.  On his chances of breaking up an all Xray podium he said, ‘the three in front are a little bit faster but not always do the fastest win because they can also make mistakes’.

Lee Martin said, ‘we tried something different as it was make or break but it wasn’t good.  It was two steps forward one step back’.  Happy with certain characteristics of his RC Concept powered YZ-4, the 2WD Champion said, ‘its good through the corners so I’ll try to be there if the others blow out or panic’.  Behind Martin, Hupo Honigl with line up 6th ahead of Kája Novotný, yesterday’s 2WD winner Michal Orlowski, Nico Schmid and Marc Rheinard.

View complete event results here.

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Chassis Focus – Martin Bayer

Chassis: Xray XB4 ’17
Motor: Hobbywing Xerun 5-5T
ESC: Hobbywing Xerun XR10 Pro
Batteries: EZ Power 4600mah
Radio/Servo: Sanwa/Savox
Remarks – Having recently switched to Hobbywing electrics and EZ Power batteries, Martin Bayer is in attendance here at what is his home track driving the 2017 version of the XB4. His car features some option parts, such as aluminium uprights and steering rack, front double joint driveshafts, graphite arms and a carbon steering brace. He is also using steel gears inside his differentials.

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