February 4, 2017

Coelho tops 4WD practice in Slovakia

With the action switching over to 4WD in Slovakia at the third round of the Euro Offroad Series following Michal Orlowski’s 2WD victory, Bruno Coelho showed beating Xray on home ground in the reigning champions class is going to be a challenge as he led a 1-2-3 in seeding practice.  Over the two rounds of practice at the Hudy Arena, Coelho would post the fastest 3-consecutive laps on the second run with Kája Novotný just 0.067 off and Hupo Honigl a similar margin off in third.  Best of the visiting teams would be Neil Cragg who laid down the fourth fastest time, Slovakia marking the Team Associated driver’s first 4WD outing of the season and the European debut of the B64D.  For Michal Orlowski the switch to 4WD would see the EOS Poland double winner set the 9th fastest time, an improvement on where 2WD had started out yesterday.

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February 4, 2017

Orlowski pulls off impressive Hudy Arena win to extend EOS lead

Michal Orlowski has pulled off an impressive 2WD victory at the Hudy Racing Arena in Slovakia to extend his lead in the Euro Offroad Series. Coming into the third round on the back of his EOS Poland and DHI Cup wins, the Schumacher driver’s weekend didn’t get off to the best of starts as he struggled in seeding ending up only 21st fastest. The opening round of qualifying didn’t bring much improvement either but from Q2 the Polish ace would turn things around eventually qualifying his LRP powered Cougar KC 3rd behind Top Qualifier Lee Martin and Bruno Coelho. With marshalling dramas writing off a good A1 result, Orlowski again put himself back in the game with an A2 win but he was to save his best for last. First making light work of Coelho and then capitalising on Martin running wide, the Yokomo driver coming back at him 2-laps later only for the pair to tangle, he would take A3 and with it his third 2WD EOS win at the very same venue where he took a breakthrough first international win 2-years ago. Winner of the event last year, reigning champion Martin would finish 3rd in the decider behind Neil Cragg to take 2nd overall, his season still void of a win. With his A3 challenge ending on the first proper run down the straight as he flew off the track, Coelho completed the podium In Slovakia, this weekend still ending up one the 4WD World Champion’s best 2WD performances.

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February 4, 2017

Orlowski moves into contention with A2 win

Michal Orlowski has put himself right back in contention to extend his championship lead of the Euro Offroad Series after the Schumacher driver won A2 of 2WD at the Hudy Racing Arena in Slovakia.  With the Pole void of any good luck in A1, losing 8-seconds due to poor marshalling, in A2 the teenager would call in his lucky stars twice as he took the win over Top Qualifier & A1 winner Lee Martin.  A bobble from Martin early in the first lap would bunch up the field with Orlowski finding a way passed both Martin and Bruno Coelho to go to the front where he would stay to the end but the EOS Poland winner almost threw it away on the last lap. Jumping the left side double double badly his Cougar KC went tumbling but somehow landed on its wheels allowing him to continue to finish ahead of Martin and Martin Bayer to set the stage for three way A3 shoot out that will decide the overall winner. For Coelho, while he would get by Martin’s Yokomo for a time, a mistake at the end of the straight that sent his Xray flying off the track would start a series of errors that would leave him to finish 4th but along with Martin and Orlowski he still has a chance at notching up his first outright EOS 2WD win in A3.

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February 4, 2017

Martin cruises to A1 win in Slovakia

Lee Martin cruised to victory this morning in the opening A-Main of the 2WD at the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia.  Top Qualifier at the third round of the championship, the Yokomo driver was handed a comfortable lead when his closest challenger Bruno Coelho made an error half way into the race that required him to be marshalled. With this setting up a battle for second between Michal Orlowski and Coelho, up front Martin had the track all to himself eventually crossing the line with a wining margin of almost 2.5-seconds.   Also benefiting from Coelho’s mistake, Orlowski looked on target for 2nd but with three laps to go he too would make a mistake only in his case poor marshalling meant he lost a massive 8-seconds. Allowing Martin Bayer to go by, Orlowski would try to salvage a Top 3 at the the last corner as he dived down the inside of Bayer but he would roll dropping a further place as Marc Rheinard got by for 4th.

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February 4, 2017

Lee Martin denies Coelho to TQ at Hudy Arena

Lee Martin has denied Bruno Coelho & Xray a home TQ at the Hudy Racing Arena, the Yokomo driver taking the final round of 2WD qualifying at the third round of the Euro Offroad Series to secure his first pole of the season. With Coelho looking on target for the overall TQ having taken Q1 & 3, it was all or nothing for Martin in the final round.  After an issue in the penultimate round, the reigning champion would deliver the perfect run to end the day, his cause boosted by an early mistake from Coelho that would leave him to post the 6th fastest time in the decider.  With two TQ’s a piece, it was Martin’s Q2 topping time that determined it would be Martin on pole with Coelho having to settle for second, albeit a much better starting position than his last EOS outing when he failed to make the A-Main.  While championship leader Michal Orlowski went into the final round looking for a TQ run hoping to secure second on the grid, the Schumacher driver couldn’t improve on his Top 2 times of the previous two qualifiers posting a P4 as his final attempt. None the less he was pleased to end up third given how is day started out.  Ending his day with his first 14 lap time to get a second for the round, Neil Cragg would make it four different manufacturers at the front of the grid with Team Associated lining up fourth ahead of former event winner Martin Bayer.

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February 3, 2017

Coelho on target for home TQ after taking Q3

Bruno Coelho is looking on target for a home TQ for Xray after he posted a second TQ run in the third round of qualifying at EOS Slovakia. After errors in Q2 left with him with a P3, the Portuguese ace put in a clean consistent Q3 to top the times despite Joern Neumann setting the pace for a time before crashing and eventually going out due to a broken C-hub.  Behind Coelho, Michal Orlowski would put in another strong result despite his heat, again tenths off the TQ pace. For Lee Martin an early crash put an end to any chance of him repeating his Q2 TQ as a rear spring got knocked out of his mounting, the compressed spring leaving the Yokomo a struggle to drive and he ended up 20th.  The penultimate qualifier would see a big improvement for Neil Cragg, the Team Associated driver completing the Top 3 thanks to a ‘steady round’.

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February 3, 2017

Martin comes good in Q2

Lee Martin came good on his practice topping form to TQ the second round of qualifying at the Euro Offroad Series in Slovakia.  Opening qualifying at the Hudy Arena with an almost immediate mistake and ending up with a P4 for Q1 behind an Xray 1-2, this time the Yokomo driver put in a strong drive with the heat containing nothing more than a few bobbles.  Behind the reigning champion, current championship leader Michal Orlowski turned around a terrible practice to post the 2nd fastest time despite having to run in the third fastest heat.  Having made it look like he might dominate qualifying with his drive through the field to TQ the first of the four qualifiers, Bruno Coelho would trip himself up with a number of mistakes including one like Martin in the previous round on the first lap.  He would manage to get 3rd for the round but the deficit to Martin’s TQ time, the faster of the two rounds, was almost 5-seconds.

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February 3, 2017

Coelho opens qualifying at EOS Slovakia with impressive TQ run

Bruno Coelho opened qualifying at EOS Slovakia with an impressive TQ run dealing a blow his rivals who in practice looked to have had the slight upper edge over the Xray’s on their home grounds.  Rolling off the start line 6th, Coelho would work his way through the field with apparent ease to head an Xray 1-2.  Surviving a significant late mistake, the Portuguese ace end up almost 4/10ths quicker than Martin Bayer with Serpent’s Joern Neumann completing the Top 3 some 2-seconds off.  Having set the pace in seeding practice Lee Martin could only manage fourth ahead of his impressive young Yokomo team-mate Daniel Kobbevik while Team Associated’s young star Joona Hataanen completed the Top 6.

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