Cragg wins A1 with ease with rivals all crashing

Neil Cragg claimed an easy win in the opening A-Main of 2WD at the Euro Offroad Series this morning, the Team Associated driver having an easier than expected race from pole position as all his rivals made errors.  In the end the British driver finished almost 7-second clear of second place Daniel Kobbevik who put in a clean run to come through from 6th on the grid.  Having looked like he might mount a challenge on Cragg, two mistakes at the same spot on the track left Bruno Coelho to complete the Top 3 ahead of a recovering Michal Orlowski.  Starting second on the grid, the championship leader crashed just after the start over the double leaving him to complete lap 1 down in 8th.

‘If only life was always that easy’, was Cragg’s reaction to his win.  Finally claiming his maiden EOS victory this season at the second round in Germany, the former World Champion continued, ‘I’m super happy. I just let the guys crash behind me and drove easy’.  Running new tyres, he said, ‘hopefully the car will be super dialled again in the next’.  Asked about Coelho closing in on him in the middle part of the race, he joked, ‘He’s pretty fast I’ve heard’, continued, ‘I knew he has crashed a lot so I wasn’t that worried and that’s what happened’.

‘I’m very happy’, was how Kobbevik summed up his impressive drive, the up & coming 13-year-old having a train of offroad racing’s top drivers behind him.  The Xray driver said, ‘My approach to the race was to stay clean and make no mistakes.  The start was a bit messy and I dropped back a bit but I came back again and took advantage of everyone else’s mistakes’.  The Norwegian concluded, ‘I will try to do the same in the next one’.

Commenting on his race Coelho said, ‘I made a good start but then Orlowski had a mistake in the first corner. I didn’t know where his car was going to end up so I was careful passing him but Joona just went by full power.  I was behind him for a couple of laps but then he made a mistake so I was up to second.  I tried to catch Neil but made the same mistake twice in the same spot. I traction rolled at the single in the middle.  The car was perfect everywhere else’.  Another driver on a brand new set of the championship’s controlled Schumacher tyre, he said, ‘I hope it will be better there in the next one’.

Explaining his race, reigning champion Michal Orlowski said, ‘I over jumped the double at the start.  I was worried about doing it before the race’.  Dropping back to 8th he continued, ‘I somehow got back to fourth but I still have a new set of tyres so I think that will give me an advantage in the next one’.  Behind Orlowski, Yokomo’s Lee Martin completed the Top 5 ahead of Haatanen who was the only driver to post a 19-second lap time just before his earlier mistake.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Cragg is 2WD Top Qualifier in Austria

Neil Cragg is the 2WD Top Qualifier for the penultimate round of the Euro Offroad Series in Austria tomorrow.  The winner in Germany, the Associated driver went into the fourth & final qualifier as one of four drivers in contention for the overall TQ but in the dying seconds of the top heat the British driver managed to out pace Bruno Coelho for his second TQ of the day and his third EOS career TQ.  Behind, championship leader Michal Orlowski will line-up second, a mistake on the table top ending his quest for the bonus championship point while Coelho’s second in the final qualifier salvaged him 3rd on the starting grid ahead of Q3 pace setter Joona Haatanen.

‘I suppose the plan worked out’, was Cragg’s reaction after pipping Coelho by 2/10ths to secure pole for the A-Main.  The former 2WD World Champion said, ‘I saved tyres by doing 3 runs on my first set so I would have new for the final one. I was really pleased with my driving too.  The car was perfect and hope for the same again tomorrow in the finals’.  Asked about the finals and the track layout for racing he replied, ‘it might be sketchy starting into the double jump but I think it will make for good racing, its fast and flowing’.

Orlowski said, ‘I made a very costly mistake at the table top, another crash there but this time it was on the most important run of the day’.  The Schumacher driver, who went into the deciding qualifier with a faster TQ time than Cragg, added, ‘I was hoping Bruno stayed in front but unfortunately he didn’t I now I start second’.  On the finals, the reigning champion said, ‘ I don’t think the track is that difficult but I hear others saying it is.  There is lots of speed on the track so I think there will be lots of action’.

Coelho was pleased with his own performance in Q4 saying ‘it was a clean round for me with no mistakes but from the middle to the end I was dropping lap times. It was not me but something mechanical or electronic and I need to check for this.  It was really slow at the end. I was in front but I lose everything in the end.  3rd on the grid is good for all the mess I made in qualifying today but I expected more for sure’.  Giving his thoughts on the chance to race for position in the finals he replied, ‘I think the track is too difficult. It is going to be more about who makes the least mistakes and not about out and out racing’.

One of the contenders for the overall TQ, Haatanen could only manage 9th in Q4. The young Finn said, ‘too many mistakes. It was only my stupid mistakes because the car was super good. I was just trying too hard’.  The 14-year-old said, ‘I think I have good pace and I hope for better driving for the finals’.  Behind the Associated driver, Marc Rheinard will lead the Yokomo challenge from 5th as team-mate Lee Martin just scraped into the final in 9th behind Daniel Kobbevik, Jörn Neumann and Elias Johansson with Martin Bayer completing the 10-car grid.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Haatanen takes Q3 at EOS

Three qualifiers have been completed at the penultimate round of the Euro Offroad Series in Austria and it is Joona Haatanen who becomes the third different driver to post a TQ run.  Following on from the Team Associated 1-2 lead by Neil Cragg in Q2, Haatanen put in a blistering third round with his B6.1 to better the previous best time set by Michal Orlowski in the opening run by 2-seconds.  It was reigning champion Orlowski who would be closest to Haatanen, the difference 3-seconds, with Xray’s Daniel Kobbevik making it an all ‘Young Guns’ Top 3.  With early errors putting Bruno Coelho, now out of contention for the overall TQ, and Cragg out of the Q3 running, it was former multiple champion Joern Neumann would get fourth ahead of Martin Bayer and Marc Rheinard.

While having the benefit of new tyres, only Orlowski and Cragg running used tyres, Haatanen said the biggest difference this time round was he managed to eliminate his ‘own stupid mistakes’ which left him with a best of P6 from the opening qualifiers.  Top Qualifier in Germany last season, the teenager admitting to almost throwing it away on the final lap as he came up too short on the triple on the last lap but luckily it ‘cost almost nothing’ and he took a confidence boosting TQ.  Planning to run an unchanged car and the same set of tyres for the final qualifier, the Finn concluded, ‘Hopefully I can get a similar time’, the overall TQ now a battle between him, Orlowski, Cragg and Elias Johansson.

‘Actually I’m pretty pleased with 2nd as it was my 3rd run on the same tyres’, was Orlowski’s reaction after Q3 adding, ‘Only me and Neil were on used tyres’.  The Schumacher driver continued, ‘It was almost a clean run but Neil crashed on the first lap and I couldn’t see his car and crashed’.  Friends with Haatanen off the track, he admitted he was ‘quick on new tyres’ but looking to the final showdown in Q4 concluded, ‘I’m sure my car will be quick the next one and I just need to make sure I make no mistakes’.

Kobbevik said, ‘I was a bit unlucky in the first two but this one was better’.  The Norwegian added, ‘I had just one small mistake this time’ declaring himself ‘very happy’ with his car’s set-up which have remained ‘the same all day’.  The 13-year-old said his aim for the closing qualifier which will bring Day 1 of EOS Wels to a close is to, ‘try to drive clean with no mistakes’, many drivers falling foul of the challenging track.

Neumann was pleased with his performance after being left frustrated by a clash with Coelho in the previous qualifier.  In Q3, the Schumacher driver was on for a P2 but over jumped the triple causing his car to double bounce and run wide and as he tried to get back on line he touched the back wheel of Bayer’s Xray causing his Cougar KF to roll with the 3-seconds lost dropping him to 4th. Pleased with his car’s performance the German said, ‘I just need to get a clean run’.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.

Cragg leads AE 1-2 in Q2

Neil Cragg led a Team Associated 1-2 in the second round of 2WD qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series, the EOS Daun winner topping the times in Austria from young Swedish team-mate Elias Johansson.  Again the qualifier would see mistakes, or lack of mistakes, decide the result.  Having taken the opening qualifier, Michal Orlowski looked on target to repeat but working through traffic he had contact with Round 1 podium finisher Daniel Kobbevik.  Getting out of his rhythm as a result, on the next lap the Schumacher driver had a costly mistake eventually ending up 6th fastest for the round.  Another to challenge for the TQ, Bruno Coelho would collect Marc Rheinard who had put his Yokomo on its roof leaving the Top Seed with a tweaked car leading to a subsequent incident in which a mistake from the Xray driver ended up costing Joern Neumann around 5-seconds in the wall section.  At the end of the 5-minutes it was Coelho who recovered to complete the Top 3 ahead of Rheinard and Lee Martin.

‘Everyone is crashing a lot so I was just trying to keep going with no crashes’, was how Cragg summed up his TQ.  The former World Champion continued, ‘I made a couple of little mistakes, it was a little scrappy but overall the outcome was pretty good’.  He continued, ‘the car is good and I’m just going with the ‘nice & steady wins races’ approach’.

Having had his battery die in Q1, Johansson put his improved time simply down to changing to a ‘bigger one for the second one’.  One of the stars of this year’s DHI Cup, where he finished on the podium, the tall 13-year-old said his car ‘feels really good’ with him having to make no changes since first hitting the track which he declared is ‘great fun’ to drive.  Running in the second fastest heat having seeded 13th quickest, he plans to just try and repeat the run in Q3.

Ending up over 2-seconds down on Cragg but posting the fastest lap, Coelho said, ‘everything was good in the beginning but Marc had a mistake and I crashed into him hard’.  The Round 1 winner continued, ‘My car was not very good after that, it felt tweaked after the crash so to get 3rd even with the car like this is OK’.

Losing 4-seconds following the mistake, admitting Coelho had nowhere to go because his car was stranded in the racing line, Rheinard was overall pleased with 4th as it books his spot in the A-Main.  Still struggling with a lack of corner speed, the former race winner said after the crash, he did push a little harder than he had to in Q1 to get back some time but he was still driving safe and now that he had two good points, 2 of 4 to count, he will use the third qualifier to ‘see where the limit is’.  He concluded, ‘we are still missing something but we are still ok compared to the others except Bruno who is still the fastest out there’.

Improving 2 spots on his opening time, Lee Martin said, ‘I tried to drive fast but it just doesn’t have corner speed, the last two races were the same.  I’m not sure if my car is tweaked so Pumpi (Thomas Pumpler) is now putting exactly the same set-up as Marc on my car.  I know he can drive around pretty good’.  Yokomo’s lead offroad driver in the championship, he concluded, ‘at the moment I’m just trying to make the main’.

View complete event results here.

View the event image gallery here.